We are in Tomas Maestre Marina at the entrance to Spain's Mar Menor, a curious inland lake/sea 12 miles long by about six miles wide, entered from the Med through a short canal and a lifting bridge. We arrived on Friday, and on Saturday we went for a fun sail round the lake. It is really lovely to sail in, with depths of 5 to 6 metres everywhere, and no swell. The sun shone and we had a lovely day.

Sunday morning dawned in the throes of a huge thunderstorm, right over the boat, with accompanying crashes and bangs from on deck. When we eventually got up, our passerelle (the gangplank) had disappeared down into the water, and was on the bottom! Dave and Ju got it back up again, but it must have been a fearsome gust of wind from astern that stretched all four of our mooring ropes so much that the end perched on the dock simply rolled over about nine inches into the water.

We are now making preparations for a 48-hour sail down the coast from here to Gibraltar, hoping to arrive sometime on Tuesday. It looks from the weather prediction sites that most of our journey will be in full wet-weather gear, just like Scottish sailing, only warmer!

More when we get there.

Photo is of the crew in Ibiza.