Heading down to La Rochelle we had another great sail, but only for the first four hours then the wind swung round and was on the nose . After that it seemed like a very long day. We were stopped again by French customs just doing their job. They checked us out on their computers and then were satisfied and let us go on our merry way, not before informing us that the marina was closed after the storm they had earlier in the year. We decided to see for ourselves as the marina wasn't responding to their VHF radio. It didn't look closed as a race was happening just inside the entrance to the harbour. A one night stay saw us staying for four more nights as it was such a lovely old town with lots of restaurants and plenty of atmosphere. There was a water bus leaving from the marina directly to the town centre every half hour during summertime. The marina was massive with 3000 berths. We were using a local person's berth while they were away, which causes a few problems when they return earlier than expected. We had taken the ferry into town one night and on our return our boat was gone. Surprise! The owner wanted his berth back so the marina staff promptly towed Alexes around the corner. They did try to contact us, but the mobile was left on the boat. The following afternoon they informed us they needed to move us again, this time four berths down. Our intentions were to leave the following morning anyway but this pushed us into fuelling up first then moving .As it turned out, we left at 6pm that night to get a head start. Two rough nights across the Biscay (not much wind but a big cross swell and lumpy seas) saw us head into the Port of Santander very early in the morning. We had to hard steer as the fluxgate compass was behaving very erratically with the heading data going crazy every ten minutes or so.
We dropped the anchor in the bay and went to sleep peacefully for the next four hours. On waking we saw every possible water craft go by. What a beautiful spot, and the sun the beautiful warm Spanish sun after 12 months in Northern Europe. Shit it's hot.