billy no mates... times are hard in Spain

We're back in Ayamonte, Spain on the Andalucian coast in a marina run by Agencia Publica de Puertos de Andalucia (formerly the Junta de Puertos de Andalucia). They run several yacht harbours to the west of Gibraltar as well as in the Med. Prices are standard throughout so great for budgeting purposes. No WIFI though and our Portuguese Vodafone 3G barely works here so we're going to have to purchase a Spanish SIM very, very soon!

The Portuguese courtesy flag has been replaced with the Spanish and clocks have been moved forward one hour which is a blessing in disguise as we now have longer evenings - it's not dark until after 9pm.

Now we're in a marina we're finding the heat a little overwhelming, something that we didn't notice whilst at anchor so like the Spanish we are hiding from the sun in the afternoons and venturing back out during early evening however we haven't yet got to grips with having an afternoon siesta.

Despite the heat we've still managed one or two visits to our favourite chandlers Ayamar where we have purchased and fitted a couple more solar panels at a reasonable price (because of the great exchange rate). Our new solar capacity is now a whopping 250 watts - loads of wiggly amps! (We'll be catching you up soon Bob! ;-)) Earlier in the year we installed 100 watts but we found it wasn't sufficient for all our needs. No doubt Bruce will follow up with a blog on this subject... with a yawn rating of 5 - LOL. Interestingly we've now noticed that most cruisers have about 200 watts to be self-sufficient.


beer o'clock at Carolina's!

Whilst waiting for the panels to arrive we did the usual touristy things, walked around the narrow streets, stopped at one or two of the many bars for beverages, visited the summer market and the local zoo 'Parque Municipal Prudencio Navarro'. The zoo was literally five minutes' walk from the marina, not very well advertised but worth a visit especially given that it's free.


summer market


there's a lion, tiger, baboons and bears...

Not forgetting that we're now in Spain so tapas beckoned. Typically the Spanish don't come out to eat until very late and it's common place for all the bars and restaurants to be open until 3am! We went out at 10pm which was late enough for us and dined on six dishes varying from plain tortilla to spicy meats - all very delicious and less than €10 each including drinks.

When we weren't exploring we spent some time socialising with Peter from 'Salara' who was moored next to us and meeting new friends, Chris and Carolyn owners of 'Splice', a Broadblue catamaran who are also going into the Med. Coincidentally, 'Salara' and 'Splice' both maintain sailblogs which you can read here:

'Singlehanded aboard Salara' - www.sailblogs.com/member/singlehanded/
'Splice Catamaran cruising' - www.sailblogs.com/member/splice/