Med sailing as the charter firms would have you believe. Cruising chute up just off Sitges, 6 knots of wind, flat seas, blazing skies reflected in blue water, hardly any other boats about. Fantastic.
We bombed along at 4 knots plus (very fast for us with a hull covered in seaweed and fully laden, in such a light breeze) for a couple of hours. Then we reached the edge of Barcelona airport, which was a serious problem for a light sail. The planes are continuous, taking off two to three minutes apart. Each one creates massive air and water disturbance, rendering the cruising chute useless. We put it away, got past the airport, got it out again to find the wind had backed and now was too far forward of the beam. We heeled hugely for a bit, doing well over 5 knots before hoiking it in and putting out the genoa. This carried us to the extremely busy shipping lane into Barcelona harbour.
The entrance is pretty straightforward, at least in daylight. (In the dark it must be a nightmare as the lights of the city are so bright and there are flashing red and greens and yellows everywhere.) The pilot books all go on about the 'new entrance', which is north of the old one. Never having been here by sail before, it's not 'new' to us; our Imray chart (bought in Gib) and our seapro livecharts both show the 'new configuration', but older charts will not.
The 'new' yacht entrance is about 2 miles north of the old one. Coming from the south, you cross the main harbour entrance, which is very busy with large container ships and cruise liners. Their lane is marked by red and green buoys and is not very wide, but you wouldn't want to hang about in it; get the engine on before hand if the wind is at all unreliable. The yacht entrance is shared with the fast ferries to Port Olimpic, the Balearics and Italy, and with the fishing fleet. There is a traffic separation scheme just east of it, which is not an issue if coastal sailing.
Inside, you keep left of the entrance to the fishing harbour, and then, if going to Port Vell (where we are), you keep to the right. The marina will open up in front of you, leaving the huge IMAX cinema to port. (Beyond it is the marina of the two Real Clubs; we gather one takes visitors but have not investigated. You go through a lifting bridge to get to that side.)
The Port Vell marina building, a spectacular glass sliver, is to starboard. This is the first marina in Spain where we got them on the radio (ch 68) in advance and were assigned a berth. And finger pontoons! First since Portimao, and only the second this season. We'd nearly forgotten how to use them.
We're only going to stay till Monday or Tuesday, as we plan to be here for a full month next summer. We will meander up the coast, hoping to meet up with our old Brighton friends Glynn and Lionel, who have a house about 50 miles north of us. (They're in Verona this week.) A couple of easy day sails will get us to Cadaques on Cape Creus, our jumping off point for Sete in Southern France. It's only 60nm but the Golfe de Leon is a notoriously tricky place for wind, so we are being very cautious,
In the meantime, there's Barcelona to look at. Pip has never been here before, and Sarah only twice (in 1984 and 1998), so there's lots to see. The picture is of Montjuic, seen from the cockpit. You cross under the cable car to get in here. We are less than 10 minutes from the bottom of La Rambla. Very cool.