36:21.31N 05:13.76W

Monday 23^rd, Tuesday 24^th, Wednesday 25^th and Thursday 26^th August.

On Monday morning Steve and I went to the local boatyard in the marina complex at Almerimar to see about getting a few of our outstanding jobs done here.

We have a leaking rudder post and this requires the lip seal to be changed which is not a big job, but I had rather assumed that the boat needed to be craned out for the work to be done. The catch here was that they would not know if they had a replacement seal in stock until they took out the old one and then we might be stuck here (out of the water) for a week whilst they tried to order one. So we called the job off and have since discovered that we can get the seal ourselves and that the job does not require the boat to be taken out of the water after all!

We did however discover the local marine electrical engineer ‘Marco’ who has done some very good work for both us and Scott Free, so our visit here was not totally wasted.

Almerimar must have been a very exciting marina project when it was first built, with many mooring basins all surrounded by blocks of accommodation, retail units and restaurants. Sadly it never took off and large sections are empty and others rather run down. The basins are not full of boats either and a good many of the ones here have seen better days. Very helpful people though and I must say a particular thanks to Mary McKnight who is the Cruising association’s HLR and who went out of her way to help us with information and advice.

On Wednesday we bid farewell and around midday set off on the 120 mile trip heading for La Duquesa which is very close to Gibraltar, where we are meeting up with some old friends Leigh and Gillian who just happen to be out here on holiday this week. We left with a good wind blowing the right way and a very promising forecast and were soon slipping along at 5 to 6 knots. Sadly this was not to continue and within two hours the wind had died and we were reduced to motoring again – the whole way which was just short of 24 hours!

The sea at least remained flat and we enjoyed a very bright well lit night with a full moon high in the sky all night long. There was a strong counter current running for most of the time, but we were in no hurry having timed the trip so that we would arrive late morning at La Duquesa.

Sarah had a very eventful evening watch leading up to 11.00 pm as we were visited by up to 12 dolphins who played alongside Serafina for nearly 40 minutes. She did however miss the a great photo opportunity as she had just finished photographing the setting sun and put the lens cap back on the camera, when a dolphin leapt majestically into the air with the sunset as the near perfect backdrop. (Sounds a bit like the fish that got away...)

The night air was very cold and damp and we both had to wrap a bit for our watches and even made ourselves mugs of hot chocolate! But following a patch of fog, the morning dawned clear and hot and the day went on to be very hot and still.

La Duquesa is a nice little marina, but it has a VERY shallow entrance. We had called ahead to confirm that we would be OK drawing 2.2 metres and were assured that the sand bar across the entrance was 3 metres at least. Well that might well be the case, however this close to Gibraltar we are back in a tidal situation, along with very high pressure and a full moon all of which combined to lower the water level by around a metre meaning that we scraped over the bottom with 0 showing on our depth gauge. Once inside the mole, all was well and we found that the place was far from full and that we were probably the largest yacht here – no surprise there now!

The marina is also surrounded by developments here, but at least the place is buzzing but rather more along the lines of Bognor Regis and Margate than we had hoped. Plethora of ‘English’ pubs and bars and more Chinese restaurants than Spanish ones. Good facilities and excellent WiFi are definite bonuses, so our two night stay here should be OK.