Several days ago, you may have noticed on our blog site, a comment from Paco Martin, in Spanish, the gist of which was that he will be in Benalmadena and would like to meet with us and see our boat when we arrive at the marina. Ken emailed him back and told him we would be very happy to get in touch with him. Why not?

When we arrived at the marina, Ken and Guillermo went into the reception office to register. The staff knew his name was Ken, that he was on Moonbeam, and that he was circumnavigating the world. That did seem a little strange. Usually, being a relatively large transient boat, we are assigned a berth in Timbuktu and have a long walk out of the marina into town. Not that I mind....it puts steps on my Fitbit. Today, we were assigned berth #3, right near the reception office. Nice...particularly since my Fitbit is broken 😡 and I'm no longer tracking steps.

Several hours later, it all became clear. Paco came over to Moonbeam, handed us a bottle of the local Cava sparkling wine, and we all sat around in the cockpit drinking wine, eating tapas, and catching up. It turns out Paco has been following our blog. He saw Guillermo's posting of the blog site on FB. When he read on the blog that we were coming to this marina in Benalmadena, he was excited because he is well connected here.He seems to be the de facto mayor of Benalmadena. He had already told the mayor of Benalmadena about us, and I think we may be meeting with the mayor while we are here. Uh-oh....me and my two-months of grown-out hair. Is there a hairdresser in the house? Paco is a most delightful, interesting person, and it was a wonderful welcome here...my last point of arrival before leaving for home.