Gibraltar to Palma, Mallorca – now resting up in Palma Mallorca at the Real Club Nautica de Palma – The King of Spain’s yacht club so as you would expect it is wonderful. Lovely bar, restaurants, great showers and toilets, lovely swimming pool, even a great gym – wish we could stay for a month or two! Need a bit of a rest as it’s been a long trip from Lagos where we set off from on 21st August after our return from our summer break in the Alps. In the 19 days since then we’ve sailed nearly 800 miles – firstly with Michelle along the SW Spanish coast to Gibraltar where Helen and Michelle flew back to the UK and Roy, Douglas and Edward joined and we sailed from Gib on Sunday 29th August along the E coast to Aguadulce and Cartagena then across to Ibiza. We refuelled in Gib where thankfully the fuel is a bit cheaper – but to get to the fuel dock we had to sail alongside the airport runway – just before an Easyjet flight landed! If there is a flight due before you pass the end of the runway you have to wait (lights flash!) until the flight has passed! Also passengers walk across the runway on their way to/from terminal! Gib is a strange place we thought – worth seeing but a day or two is sufficient. We sailed out of the bay around noon on the Sunday and had a glorious view of the Rock as we sailed towards Spain.

We hadn’t intended to stop at Aguadulce (about 180M from Gib) but on Monday night the weather was deteriorating as we approached Cabo de Gata on SE tip of Spain and around the cape the seas were quite rough so we decided it would be better to turn for port rather than struggle through a rough unpleasant night – I think everyone on board was quite pleased to head for port and we got in around 11pm for a well earned rest. Aguadulce doesn’t have much to recommend it but we enjoyed a relaxing day, a great lunch and a good night’s sleep! Next stop at Cartagena (125M from Aguadulce) was much more interesting. We arrived just before first light and we moored up and asleep by 7am! After a couple of hours sleep we explored the lovely town centre and visited the wonderful Roman theatre and museum and then after some shopping set off again at 1.30pm Thurs for Ibiza.