Rota, Bahia da Cadiz
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Fri 9 Jan 2015 21:57
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36:36.925N 006:21.157W Rota We left Mazagon aiming for Cadiz and realised we had lost one hour as we converted to Spanish time. The journey of 44 miles began well and TC munched up the miles with a wonderful wind on our beam, TC was going surprisingly well considering she hasn't had her hull scrubbed since mid November in Sines (no weed grew in the fresh water of the Guadiana). Gannets were fishing all around us, it is such a dramatic sight to see them hovering over their prey, then they tuck in their wings and literally dive bomb into the water from about 100ft up. Despite all the evidence of fish about, none of them took our lure :( As we passed the entrance to the River Guadalquivir which leads to Seville we noticed the water going from green to blue! By 4pm, Cadiz was visible in the distance about 10 miles away when the wind dropped, then grew to an unpleasant steady 25 knots from the SE, exactly where we wanted to go. We tried to plod on but by 6pm the sun was due to set shortly and we realised we were still 2 hours away at our poor pace, or 10 minutes to run down wind to here, Rota, which is where we ended up, on the N coast of the Bay. Checking in was highly comical now that we are back to Spanish, fortunately the night watch chaps were patient, friendly and in good humour. They confirmed the nasty wind was actually a levanter, the local short sharp SE Force 7 wind that will hopefully be gone by tomorrow. The children were very patient again today as TC was thrown about quite a lot and it was difficult to do much other than hold on tight! Thanks goodness for audio books. |