Hello blog readers. This is an update to give you an idea of how life is here in the marina in southern Spain. The weather is still bright and sunny every day, but getting gradually cooler - max 20's. Still in shorts and tee shirts during the day but cool in the evening & need a jacket when going out at night.

We had dinner aboard Anori (friends from Switzerland) late last week because Maja was returning to Switzerland for 5 months to work & save money for their further cruising; so it was a farewell dinner for her. Hajot baked us a Swiss bread (see pic taken by Maja). Hajot also showed me the latest song from his son Lucas's band, The Souls - check it out - I like it. Lucas is the one on the right of the lead singer (on the left side of the singer from his view) playing lead guitar (taking a bow at the very end of the video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQc2_ccPDFM

Wednesday night is quiz night in one bar, but don't often go often. I went to the one for music quiz and did very well in that one. The regular quiz is on Saturday night which has great tapas (we make that our dinner), however, our team never wins largely because its very UK-oriented. And I used to think I was good at trivia!

Sunday morning early a car drove off the end of the pontoon near us with two women aboard! Probably drunk or using the phones or both. The car was on the sea bed 7 m down and a diver was there. I believe it has been pulled up now though I didn't see the crane lift it out. Both women managed to escape as they were both there watching the diver. Another woman driver didn't do a good job parking just near us and almost went off the edge - I did get a pic of that one.

Every Sunday I go hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We do about 12 Km ch week. see pix.

Still doing a few small boat jobs during the day, though nothing major right now. I went to the top of the mast to replace the mooring light recently; that was adventurous!

I didn't realise how big halloween is in Spain. I thought it was a US thing, but is really is big here. Nov 1 is a public holiday after the halloween celebrations. They put up a marquee in the small town square near our boat and had a kids party there. In the marquee they had some sort of "ghost train" experience. The kids were queued up outside to go in with their parents. Mostly the whole family were dressed up in the costumes. They had a dance floor set up for the kids and competitions, dancing and prizes for best costume etc.

We had two Spanish galleons arrive and stayed for the week. The smaller one, Nao Victoria, was a replica of one the 5 ships that Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with, and the only one to return having done the first circumnavigation of the world, Magellan never made it of course being killed in the Philippines by the natives. The bigger one, El Galeon, is a replica of one of the ships that plied the Spain-Caribbean route plundering gold & silver (The Spanish call it "trading" 😟). Both replica's have completed a circumnavigation, and are now on goodwill visits to ports etc. and are now used as training vessels. The tour, was excellent. - see pic.
This is their website: https://www.fundacionnaovictoria.org/el-galeon/

We have an open mike session every Thursday night in the Irish bar. There are several of us with guitars, one bass, girl with ukulele etc - usually about 6 in all. I usually do a set of 6 songs, but I have now lost my lead guitarist who has gone skiing in France. (See pic)

If you are interested, look at about my last 3 posts and that will give you an idea of life here. Best wishes to all.

To view the pix, just click on Gallery above and double click on them to scroll through.