Mayday call
16 October 2009 | Almerimar Marina, southern Spain
We're on a mission to get to Gibraltar before a big blow that's coming from the south-west next Wednesday so we are pressing on. We lifted the anchor around 7am and headed off again. Sam did school while I pottered with meals and tidying the boat and catching up on some emails. Around lunch time the alarm on the VHF radio sounded. This is a function on most VHF's that allows you to press a 'Distress' button on the radio and, if it's linked into your GPS, it sends your position out on the airways. Cabo de Gata radio responded immediately with a message to all ships to look out for a boat in distress. The position was a good 60 nautical miles away toward Gibraltar so it wasn't one we could do anything with but throughout the day the distress call sounded several more times. Cabo de Gata radio was on it and in touch with other boats somewhere in the vicinity but we didn't get any details of what was going on except that the vessel had 'problems on board' but they did have a vessel only 10 nautical miles away that was on standby to respond. Not sure what the outcome was which is a little frustrating. Anyway, around 4pm we pulled in to Almerimar Marina, a fairly new, huge and great looking marina. Our jaws nearly dropped when they said our price for the night would be only 18.51 euros including power and water. We tied up stern to the dock, got ourselves settled and then headed out for Peking Duck (yes...very Spanish).
PS. Now we're all sick with this sinus cold...Ray's been the last to succumb.