Monday 14th July & Tuesday 15th July

Firstly an apology as we are not in Almeria as stated in Sundays log, but Almerimar which is very close in more ways than one!

Strange place in many ways. It is all fairly new, but half the retail units are closed up and everything is very quiet. The marina is a popular wintering hole for livaboards and judging from the state of many of the boats, they don't get much (if any) real use. We gather from at least one shopkeeper that this something of a resort for the Spanish, rather than Brits, but there seems no shortage of English being spoken on the streets.

Fair old gale blowing outside with forecasts of gusts of 50+ knots over the next few days. Lots of conflicting information about what is expected over the rest of the week, but we are not in any rush, so along with several other boats, we are happy to sit it out.

Never seems to be any shortage of things to do on board, so in a way these days ashore are more industrious than the passage making trips. Quite a bit of rain today which left the boat very dirty to add to the duties!

Very upset yesterday as having filled up with water and left the hose unattended for a few minutes after we had finished, we came back out to find that some kind person had relieved us of the tap fitting that we had brought from UK. They are an essential item and clearly not everyone is prepared to buy one! Made a mental note to be a good deal more careful from here on. This is the second item 'removed' from the boat. At some point since we crossed Biscay we had an emergency light that is attached to a lifebuoy on the stern of Serafina stolen. It did not just fall off, unless of course it untied itself from the life buoy and pulled the release pin at the same time.

Walking tour of this end of the town was fairly dull and inconclusive, although we did find a chandlers and a fishing shop where I managed to buy some smaller lures etc. for another attempt at catching supper. Very helpful shopkeeper, but he had less English than I had Spanish, so with some help from a mate of his who had a bit of English and a pen and paper, we managed to resolve our problem and he made a very small sale. Now do I get the gas BBQ out of the locker ready for the fresh fish..... Sarah thinks not!

Latest plan is to wait here until Thursday late afternoon and then set out overnight on a 111 mile trip to Cartagena which by all accounts is a place well worth spending a couple of days.