36:11.03N 05:55.98W

 

Had to wait for the office to open at 10.00 am before checking out, which meant leaving at the very lowest point of the spring low tide. Very pleased to have the forward facing sonar working today and so we crept carefully out of the entrance and set a course for the first headland, which was the city of Cadiz.

 

Not a breath of wind today and so we motored the entire way which was very dull) (not even a single dophin. Also not a cloud in the sky (again) and so we were reduced to sunbathing and watch keeping as we made good  progress against a slight counter current.

 

Rounded Cape Trafalgar, minding all the outlying rocks and shoals and headed for Barbate. Now this is not a harbour for the faint hearted! When we rang a few days earlier about a berth, they said they were full, so yesterday (because we were for far offshore) we got my sister to phone from Seville to reserve us a place. She at least speaks Spanish (well, she has picked up quite a bit after living here for the best part of 40 years) and she did a bit better, in that they said that they were full, but we could turn up if we had to and they would try to fit us in. Then there are the largely uncharted, seasonal tunny (tuna) nets which extend from just off the harbour entrance to around 3 miles offshore. These are buoyed and have some cardinal marks, but the whole thing seems very haphazard and they are a very real danger to visiting yachts. A night approach would be out of the question!

 

As it turned out we skirted the nets with a very circuitous route and entered the harbour. The marina entrance has a reception pontoon, but this was occupied by a rescue boat of some sort which showed no signs of moving or accomodating us. Sarah then had an interesting conversation with the lady in the marina office over the VHF, where all the bits that we did not understand were repeated at an ever increasing volume. The one bit we did understand was that there were no moorings for a 14 metre boat such as Serafina, but we could go into a 16 metre berth and pay the full rate! Finally bless her, the lady came dashing out of her office and physically directed us to a vacant berth. Interestingly there were loads of empty 16 metre berths and a whole raft of other empty berths, so we assume that there is a bit of a scam in play here.

 

We have not managed to visit the town just yet, but the outer harbour is actually deceptively large with a substantial commercial fishing fleet. The marina pontoon that we are moored on is also home to loads of large modern sports fishing boats that run fishing trips.

 

Finally we think that we have mananged to identify the sea birds that have been all around us for the past few days. They look like Cory's Sheerwaters (according to Sarah's bird book) and they are very graceful as they swoop and glide below the wave crests, vanishing in the troughs. We had started trolling yesterday, which is fishing, by way of towing artificial bait close to the surface, about 100 metres behind the boat. This is supposed to attract game fish and tuna, but in the end we had to give up as the Sheerwaters were convinced this was one very stupid (and very fast) squid as it occasionally broke the surface of the big waves behind us. First just two, but finally up to 15 of them where wheeling and diving and trying to grab the lure and its very large hook. Fearful that we were about to catch one in error, we reeled the lure in and gave up.

 

As it was only mid-afternoon when we arrived in Barbate, we gave Serafina a really good wash down and thorough clean (probably almost good enough to pass an inspection by Robert and Joyce). It is amazing how fast the salt builds up on the decks and fittings, so this was well overdue. My sister is coming to meet us tomorrow and even though I doubt that she will notice all our hard work. it was a job well done.