We spent the first full day in the new marina by the pool - the skipper also took the opportunity to explore the town as an alternative to the water-y delights.
In the evening we took the train (which runs from the marina)into Barcelona. We walked down La Rambla and into Porto Vell where we enjoyed a very nice meal by the water.
Today (Friday) the crew turned out to thoroughly clean Annalee as a thank you for carrying us safely here. Will was in the dinghy washing the hull, Millie was in the deck and top sides while skipper and first mate were inside cleaning the galley, heads, polishing and packing. Afterwards we repaired to the beach and Will & Millie went on paddle boards for an hour. We ate the house special - chicken curry and gave the skipper a chance to finally win a family game by playing scrabble!

After a 50 hour sail, we have arrived safely to our new home in El Masnou - just N of Barcelona. The vital statistics - for those interested - are: total distance sailed 1,046 nautical miles; time actually sailing: 7 days & 15 hours.
The marina is pretty modern, but clean and has a number of restaurants as well as a train station! The trains are really quiet and we didn't really notice them until we were walking right by the tracks. Everyone seems really friendly and helpful too.
There is a sailing club next to the marina with outdoor and indoor swimming pools, gym (and bar)as well as access to a wide sandy beech complete with beech football, volleyball and boules. There are dinghies, paddle boards and kayaks to hire too.
We are ashore - having explored and tested the club's facilities - and as I write this before turning in for a well earned 8-hours sleep, I can see the city skyline of Barcelona in the distance away to the south of us.
More to follow later as the whole crew is pretty tired and ready to turn in.

We had a windy, bumpy and wet sail to the most northerly harbour in Sardinia - it was a pleasant spot with a nice Marina and a pool (for the crew to enjoy).
We walked into town in the evening for a meal.
After refuelling this morning we are setting off for Barcelona. There has been a storm out in the Western Mediterranean on our track - but it should have blown out by the time we get there. The legacy is some interestingly large waves - around 2m high.
Hopefully our next entry will be from Barcelona on Wednesday evening

We are anchored safely in our planned anchorage. The crew enjoyed a swim, followed by Captain Millie taking the crew on a tour of the bay in Tinker using the electric outboard.
Will and Millie planned and cooked dinner - a three course meal including a selection of bruschetta starters, Chicken Kebabs & Rice followed by chocolate muffins! We finished the evening with some cards and a sing-along before retiring for a well earned rest.

Just a short note to say we finally arrived safely in NE Sardinia after almost 3 days at sea. We have notched up our 700th mile underway - with 345 on this leg alone.
We started with a very hard slog through the straits of Messina into a F6 with reasonably big seas that saw the skipper in his foulies. Once through the straits - including a short refuelling stop, the wind dropped and we shaped course towards Sardinia via Stromboli. Millie, apparently has drafted a blog en-route -for you fans out there- but we will need to get somewhere with WIFI to upload it.
We had a pretty uneventful sail with little wind and calm seas - stopping yesterday for 45 minutes to allow the crew to swim off the boat in 3,000m of water.
We are now anchored in a pleasant little bay in NE Sardinia with plans to push north tomorrow - the goal is to round the 'top' of Sardinia before heading towards Barcelona early next week.
I have seen the comments about the album - I don't know what's happening - I can see it when I look st the site, but Mel confirmed that she also gets an error message - glad I spent all that time tagging and uploading the pics! I have set up a shared iCloud album and invited you to subscribe, so hopefully this will be more successful!

After a day's 'rest' in Taormina (which included a quick trip up mount Etna and a visit to the cliff-top walled town followed by provisioning for the week ahead) we are now underway for Sardinia by way of the Straits of Messina (between the toe of Italy and Sicily). We will pass Stromboli tonight and we hope to arrive in NE Sardinia on Friday evening. We will be offshore so may not get chance to update the blog. In the meantime we will try to load some more pics onto the gallery - in case you haven't looked, there are some pics there!
I think Millie is planning an account of our Etna adventures - for those who prefer her blog entries, rather than my boring ones.
Thanks to everyone for the comments - it's nice to read them.