It's a steep learning curve this sailing malarky. Reading GRIB files for weather looks straight forward enough but we have subsequently learnt that on a weather report, red arrows are not good. In fact they are positively bad. Apparently, they mean strong winds. We knew that of course, but we didn't think they would be THAT strong. And relentless. For 11 hours. Then the winds died down to a respectable 20 (even that's quite strong) and we could put up a bit of sail and enjoy the rest of the sail to Ibiza. Mark and I were exhausted. When we asked the kids what they thought of the trip, they replied "great Mum" so clearly, they didn't experience any of the feelings I had had. But then they had been cosy inside, watching star wars and didn't see the ropes securing the dinghy snap and have to recover it, like we did! It was interesting to note that the power of communication was completely lost to me as I tried to tell him what had happened. "THE.......THE.......THE.........THE.........DINGHY" was about all I could manage. Anyway, we still have the dinghy, so it was all alright after all. But we did learn that we don't like red arrows.
Luckily the wind died down in time for us to pick up a buoy and the sun was only just setting, so that was uneventful, and we are parked just next to a large black boat with a helicopter and speed boat on top of it. Ibiza seems to be made of money. There are lots of expensive looking clothes boutiques in the marina, but no one sells cooking gas. And there are no big dogs, only little lap dogs. But it's a pretty town, although a LONG walk from where we are moored.
We are waiting for less strong winds so we can head onto Spain. In the meantime, we have had fun exploring caves, playing on the beach, and learning Spanish, so Adios for now xx