36:45.8N 02:06.1W

Its been some time  since my last despatch and i understand a bit what writers block is. It’s not having nothing to say its just inertia. Kinda like cleaning out the fridge instead of doing revision. Anyhow i am now back in full flow. We have been a few places in the past month, Gibraltar, Almerimar and now San Jose. The first two places were planned. Gibraltar we loved, they had a Morrison’s, the boat is lower in the water due to us cleaning them out of Heinz baked beans, bacon rashers and Cadburys.  It was a joy of joy to be in a food shop and not have to do chicken impressions to get some chicken (chicken breast was difficult) Everyone in Gib is very English very polite and very conservative (both kinds) The marina was next to the Manchester united supporters club building. Other premiership clubs just met in pubs. We went bowling and got the cable car to the top of the rock which was spectacular.

The monkeys/apes are something else. On the plus side as a father i have always had in the back of the mind the knowledge that someday i am going to have to have a heart to heart talk with my son re self love. Thanks to a rather sleazy Barbary ape who decided to please himself right in front of us this is no longer necessary.

A two day sail to Almerimar brought us back to Spain after about 4 months. It was a big marina development and nothing that interesting happened. We then set sail for Cartagena about a two day sail, the winds as we left were promising about 15 knots on the beam from about 4 in the afternoon until 8 in the evening, we were tootaling along at 5 knots thinking this is the life, then the wind dropped completely and for 5 hours there was no wind whatsoever, we left the mainsail up (we usually take it down at night as it is the only sail that is not controlled from the cockpit and requires going on deck). I was on watch and it was dispiriting seeing the sails not even flapping and going nowhere. Then at 12,as Dawn gets up to take over, from nowhere we were in a fully blown gale. From the wind being at zero to gusting up to 50 knots was about 20 minutes. The boat was careening along at 8 knots with a full set of sails. Dawn and i got on the deck and reefed the mainsail and reefed the genoa (front sail). Anyhow for the next 4 hours we battled with awful gusts when at about 5 in the morning our very expensive pro furl furling equipment bust meaning that we couldn’t take down the Genoa. In this situation you have to go in circles to wrap the sail around the forestay. This took forever. Checking the gps we found a small port ten miles away called San Jose, we motored in a bit shaken and completely exhausted.

We have now been here 2 days it is a beautiful tiny marina in a cove surrounded by peaks. Tomorrow is Monday and we will find out whether our sail is repairable. However it’s lovely here and I love it all. adam