It was 5 o'clock in the morning and we were two hours out from Barcelona. Since leaving Port Soller earlier the previous afternoon we had had a mixed bag of sailing, at first we had to motor but soon a south westerly force 4 enabled us to broad reach at more than 7 knots until gone midnight. We passed the time eating chocolate studying the stars with the binoculars and righting the problems of the world. The hours slipped away and with it the wind, soon we were back to the cast-iron donk.

But now the weather couldn't have been more different, the wind had backed to the north west and we were beating into strong rising wind and driving rain. I called Chantal from her slumber to come on deck, "they have started a firework display to welcome us" I shouted. " I wonder how they knew we were coming?" "don't be silly" she shouted over the driving rain, "its thunder and lighting". It was still dark making the fork lightning striking all around us more dramatic. The thunder claps above our heads were deafening.

Our faster than estimated passage had meant that we were arriving one hour before schedule and in the dark, something I am not too happy with in an unknown port.

We were heading towards a waypoint I had marked on the electronic chart, a few hundred yards from the entrance of the port. The sea was becoming very rough, peering through the binoculars I could see very little, do we stand off until day break or trust the waypoint and go straight in? Just as I was considering my options the darkness started to give way, another look through the binoculars and I could just make out the green starboard flashing entry light. All knowing Chantal said we weren't heading in the correct direction and that the light wasn't in the position indicated on the chart. "don't be daft" I said but after a while as we got nearer I realised she was right. A quick study of the pilotage book and another look around confirmed we were in the right place. I then remembered something I had read about the seawall having been extended and the marina enlarged, it then dawned on me that my chart must be out of date, I had entered a waypoint on top of the new seawall.

Praising my wisdom for ordering our boat with in mast furling we quickly furled away the main sail (a bit like closing a roller-blind but a bit more strenuous) started the motor turned off the chart-plotter (to confusing) and eye balled Castor in towards the green starboard light, as we approached I could make out breaking waves close to the beach and a very tight turn with the red port light now visible. I decided to go for it, increasing my speed to maintain good steerage through the rough sea we turned passed the green and ran parallel to the beach our depth sounder alarm was ringing out continually indicating less than 3 meters of water, in fact it went down to 2.6 meters on one occasion, Castor draws about 2 meters. We safely entered the calm of the port and moored up against the fuel pontoon opposite the marina office it was 06:45 still pouring of rain and not a soul insight, we changed out of our wet Mustos and had breakfast. I couldn't rest or sleep as the adrenaline was still high so I went for a walk in the rain!