We agreed that The Bull Fight was a bit of Spanish culture we just had to experience and so we went to a big end of season event at Sanlucar de Barrameda. It certainly was a breath-taking spectacle- but probably one we won´t have the stomach to repeat again!! 

We had a fantastic time last week when son Rob and partner Nadine came for a visit. We packed in a lot of sight-seeing, sailing, swimming and sunbathing and even a trip to the Bull Fight!

We´ve made many friends here in Rota. Here we are having coffee with fellow sailing nomads. Norman (on the right) has gone back to uk for winter, Christian (second left) has set off for Brazil and Tim and Caroline have gone South. We wish them all well in their travels.

We´re in the Bay of Cadiz and we`ve experienced our first rain for seven and a half weeks - eat your heart out in UK!! We had exciting thunderstoms whilst at anchor and the winds reached nearly 40 knots but we were quite safe on Fiona. We are currently treating ouselves to a few nights in Rota marina - the only nights in a marina for nealy a month. The city is very beautiful with tiny narrow streets with covered moorish arches. We`re only 60 miles from Africa here so we´re really feeling the heat! As its only 4 miles from Cadiz, we can visit the city by fast catamaran in a few minutes. There are also good beaches and anchorages and the area has plenty of interesting towns such as Jerez and Seville within easy reach so we´re tempted to stay here for a while - maybe for winter? It`s a good place for people to come out and see us - any offers?

We had a fantastic time in the Rias but it seems so far away, as we´re in Faro in Sothern Portugal now.

We are now in the lovely town of Baiona at the southern tip of the Spanish Rias. We’ve had a wonderful month exploring the Rias in mostly great weather. It’s perfect for sailing with predominately northerly winds which have blown us steadily south. We’ve been taking our time as there is so much to see and so many anchorages! Since leaving A Coruna we’ve only had 2 nights in a marina. However here in Baiona we intend to spend a few days in the marina before setting sail for Portugal.

We’ve met plenty of other cruisers since arriving in Spain – we’re actually berthed next to a couple from Cork here! Everyone from Northern Europe seem to be sailing south and you can’t blame them as the sun is shining and its around 25 degrees every day. It’s so cheap here too and the tapas and wine are wonderful. The people of Spain are fairly friendly but rather reserved. Our Spanish is improving but communication is still a little difficult and we’re finding it not quite like the friendly welcome we received in Ireland.

A Coruna in the sunshine!     
Dave at the beach
Sue ready for going out on the town - vino and tapas!

Had  a great trip to Spain on northeasterly winds - it was a bit of a rollercoaster especially the last night when we had a easterly gale force 7 which  sent us off course and occasionally filled the cockpit with water! It took 4 days and Fiona loved it. We had huge pods of dolphins all the way and some strange looking sunfish. A Coruna is warm sunny and we are enjoying the vino and tapas. We´ll keep in touch and will post some photos soon.

Basking Shark!!

Dave and Commander Eugene Ryan - founder members of the Colvic-Victory Cruising Club!