Gibraltar

February 25th.

Seville was great with all its beautiful buildings and the third biggest cathedral in the world. We spent 5 days here with our Swiss friends whom we toured, had dinners and drank some nice Spanish wine. We left on Wednesday evening as that is the only time the bridge will open to let us out. It only opens three days a week and twice on weekends. After exiting the harbour at the club nautico we had to wait for the lock to open. This meant we did not get back into the river until 18.15. We motored until just before dark and anchored for the night. This is a little awkward as there is freighter traffic all day and night so we needed to be out of the main channel but the shore line is very shallow and comes up very quickly. It was a beautiful day of touring some more of Seville and playing with the boat.

The next morning we woke to rain and wind so had to power all the way down the Guadalquivir. We had plans to go back to Cadiz for the night but the winds at the mouth were up to 35-40 knots so we spent the night at Chippiona.

We left at 08.00 for Barbate about 50 miles down the coast. We sailed most of the way and went past Trafalgar which is just before Barbate. Again a showery day with squalls passing us by every couple of hours.

Off before 08.00 in clear skies and a wonderful sunrise over Spain. We only had 35 miles to go today and had the current which flows always into the Med at 1-3 knots. We set the sails in the Strait of Gibraltar and had our first views of Africa on the right and Europe on the left. There is a huge amount of commercial traffic here with freighters everywhere. We docked in Queensway Marina which is right below the Rock and in the middle of town. We were most excited as this is our entrance to a new ocean, the Mediterranean, and the views of Gibraltar are just like a post card picture. We docked around 14.00 and took the cable car to the top of the Rock and then walked down. Much easier except for the knees! There are monkeys all over the place and will steal anything you are holding onto.

We will be here for the next few days then off to Alicante, another 300 miles up the coast of Spain.

Seville

February 18th.

I'll try to catch up with this blog. We are so busy that we keep forgetting to do it. It is amazing how much work this travelling around is!!

Well to bring you up to date we left Lagos, which we spent two weeks in. We enjoyed the town and all the ex pats that were tied up there. The internet was up in a bar, so at happy hour there are a lot of cruisers tapping away. We left on the 31st of January and sailed to Vilamoura, a resort town with lots of big power boats and high end restaurants and shops. We enjoyed the walks along the beach and cliffs which are a red and brown mix and with the green background and the spring flowers make a pretty site.

Next we sailed to Ayamonte which is on the Portugese and Spanish border and is in Spain. It is a small fishing village which has a new marina and we spent three days waiting for the weather so we could sail for Santa Maria which is in the bay of Cadiz. On leaving the passage over the bar at the entrance of Ayamonte was tough as there had been some big winds the day before and the swell was still large and the water shallow. Once outside things settled down.

We arrived in Santa Maria after an 11 hour day. The town is very nice and is where they bring the sherry down the river from Jarez. So the bodegas are all about and the smell is intoxicating.
We took the train up to Jarez and did a tour of the Tio Pepe bodega and as we were the only English speaking people we had a tour guide and golf cart to ourselves. We are learning a lot about the wine and sherry business. Jerez is a beautiful town with Seville orange trees lining the streets full of oranges. Marian couldn't resist and picked some, brought them back to the boat and made marmalade which is terrific.

Four miles across the bay and we were in Cadiz the oldest city in Europe with small streets all lit up for Carnival this week. Lots of archaeological work going on as one city was built on another from as far back as 1200 BC. We enjoyed three days here and are now off to Chipiona for a night.

We spent the night here and left before sunrise to sail up the Guadalquivir river 55miles to Seville. The river is a chocolate brown and can run at 3k plus so it is important to have the tides right. The day was very windy with winds of 45k plus on our stern all the way up so we managed to sail most of the way. Strange site to see a sail boat sailing in the middle of the land. We had one lock and a bridge opening to negotiate. The bridge only opens four times a week.
Yesterday we got our bearings here and today are going out to see some of the sights.

Will try to do better job of updating the blog.