Our stay with David was great. Sunday was spent on a tram ride to Bennidorm, where we went to Dave's favourite restaurant which serve the mother of all cooked English breakfasts for just 2.50 Euros!!
The idea had been to people watch, having finally sat at the terrace table (having moved 3 times)we began to watch people on the beach. The sky turned dark and gradually blacker and we watched as it began to rain at the other end of the beach. The rain made its way along the beach and people began to scatter.
By the time it reached us it was torrential, as if someone turned on a hose pipe. There was no hope of escape for those sunning themselves on the beach. Rain began to seep into the restaurant and we ended up having to slide the window closed to shelter. Pavements turned to streams then to rivers. The drains quickly blocked and the wide walkway outside the restaurant became one big muddy puddle. The down pour lasted about 30 minutes then stopped as quickly as it had come. Drenched tourists walked along the front looking sorry for themselves, however some enjoyed it and small children used the opportunity to puddle jump, making parents even wetter.
Having had a very leisurely lunch we decided to go on our way. We wandered through the streets selling the usual tourist tat... Jackie was in heaven!! Then as we reached the bottom of a fairly steep street the heavens opened again. Initially we took shelter under an awning but the torrent that was pouring down the hill pushed us into a bar (well that's our excuse), here we had another derink... Too much more rain and we would be unable to walk!
As we sat the little bar filled with people sheltering. We watched as the drains filled until a manhole in the road erupted like a volcano.
An hour later it reduced to a fine drizzle and we made our way back to the tram then home. A lazy evening saw us eating dinner at 10pm (we have started to follow Spanish time).

Monday... We decided to go and collect the dinghy from the depot as they had tried to deliver Friday before we had got back. Pete & Dave set off at 0830 leaving Jackie to wait in 'in case'. One hour later Pete rang Jackie to say 'dinghy on its way NOW in a van'!!!!

Paranoid that she would miss the call bell Jackie sat outside waiting and worrying that she speaks no Spanish to explain this is the right address as David was not home. She need not have worried. Pete and Dave arrived back and at 1300 the delivery FINALLY arrived.
Dinghy delivered we did a quick top up food shop and Dave took us by car back to Argonauta.
We decided one more night as it was a bit late to start off now, (by the way it was mega expensive here, will take about 10 days at anchor to make up our overspent budget).

Tuesday was hot and sunny. After a walk into town to find a post office to send the claim re cancelled flights to Cyprus, we returned back to the boat. As usual time had slipped away and we had about 30 minutes before the fuel berth closed for 4 hours, so we slipped lines and left the ster too mooring in textbook style !!!!
Fuel on board, depth sounder re calibrated (it decided to record nothing at the point of very shallow water at the fuel berth) we left Campello along the coast to our turn point and off towards Ibiza.

The coastal scenery here was beautiful, beaches, coves and mountains mingled together. We decided it should be called the land of sleeping giants as several mountains had profiles of faces that gradually changed as we went past. Stunning.

We then turned towards Ibiza. The wind which had been light for most of the day, picked up and we were able to turn off the engine and sail properly. We sailed through the night taking turns with 4 hours on 4 hours off watches. Just as Pete was due up at the end of the 0400-0800 shift the wind dropped and Jackie found herself fighting sails, auto steering that due to lack of speed stopped and a wind shift!!! A yell for help brought Pete on deck and having got back on track we motored towards the promise of sunrise over Ibiza.
We reached the shores of Ibiza as the dawn broke and were greeted with huge cliffs and tiny coves. We chose to aim for Tarida, a small cove that the guidebook said had shelter, sand and weed seabed which we hoped would be easy to anchor in. Well it was!
Anchor down we retired to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

We rose to a hot and sunny day. The scenery is beautiful and the water so clear we could see the anchor 6 metres below whilst standing on deck.

We have spent 3 days relaxing, swimming, snorkelling watching the shoals of fish that seek shelter in the shadow of Argonauta.
This is definitely what we came away for and we would love friends to share this little piece of perfection with us.

Where too next? Not sure but will post as soon as we can.

Jackie