The sun shade was a success after more assistance from the crew of ‘Flirtie’ who lent us more tools to complete the punching of holes and installation of rivet-rings for the tie points. The kit we had bought locally was just not strong enough for the job. Now we can hide from the afternoon sun.
We left Ayamonte at 8.00am, just sneaking out with less than a metre under the keel, hoisted the Main and motored out of the river in just a breath of wind. Outside we found ourselves in the greatest concentration of ‘pots’ that we have seen so far, every few metres there were clusters of them. This continued at high volumes for the whole of the time we were in less than 20 metres and was a pain, even in deeper water, for all but the last hour or so of the trip – not a place to relax. Other than that we had a great sail as the wind came up to around 8/9 knots from the starboard quarter and Splice was romping along at 6-7 knots as the apparent wind brought this forward into a ‘beam reach’ (wind directly across the side of the boat) - her preferred point of sail. The wind was cold if you were in shadow but we enjoyed the trip though one of us was always at the helm manoeuvring around the pots! Chris managed to hook two fish, but was only able to land one mackerel, the other was much stronger and managed to break the line and get away and take our second lure with it! Once Chris had retrieved our mackerel he poured our cheap vodka into its gills (to drown it... what a way to go!), sliced it behind its gills to kill it and filleted it on the back of the boat as we went along.
We arrived at Chipiona around 5.30pm but as the harbour team did not speak English we had to go in and moor, walk to the office and register and then move again into the allocated berth. As often happens the wind later in the day strengthens just as all this tight manoeuvring has to happen, so it was 6.30pm before we were settled and Splice was put to bed (sail covers on, all warps set properly, shore power on, all instruments covered up, all loose equipment put away, locks on lockers and life raft etc – lots to do to prepare and enter port).
We were tired by now so walked into town and found a nice square with a tapas bar and ate there-
Dishes: cold prawns, battered fried Anchovies (really nice and not salty at all), pork and potatoes in ‘Carnary Sauce’(sweet tomato?), mushroom balls with blue cheese (didn’t taste of much) with a bottle of house Rioja which all came to E26.

Chipiona seems to be a relaxed town and has a nice atmosphere, it’s a good walk from the marina into the old town. We spent yesterday morning wandering around, found a couple of supermarkets and walked up to the lighthouse at the far end of the town. It was pretty hot so the afternoon was spent on the boat. As it cooled we walked to the bus station and confirmed that there were regular buses to Seville. We fried off the mackerel filets as a starter, very nice just with a little lemon juice, the Spanish sausages and rice that followed were OK, probably won’t buy them again! Just as light faded we saw ‘Flirtie’ make it into the marina having completed the sail from Ayamonte a day later than us.
Today we have booked an hotel in Seville from tomorrow for three nights (thanks BA airmiles!). We will leave Splice in the marina and catch the bus tomorrow morning. It takes 2hrs 20 mins but should show us some of the countryside. A short walk this morning found a few bits of fruit to keep us going and some new lures for the fishing line – now we have had some success we are getting serious!! Just going to relax and pack a few things for the trip today, it’s getting hot out there again.
One thing that has been a nuisance here is the lack of wifi. There is none in the marina, one cafe nearby has a poor connection but as you walk around town, the cafes don’t do it and we have struggled to find anywhere that we can log on. Given our newly acquired 3G connection decided it didn’t like us for the first 24 hours here that was a problem. Carolyn solved the mystery by suggesting deleting various bits in settings and we are now on line again with the iPad but will still have to find somewhere to log the laptop on to post this!
Mystery number 2 is the scratching/nibbling noises on the outside of the hull all the time in this marina. When this is heard it’s usually krill or other sea-life eating the growth on the hull, here its continual...........those krill must be hungry!

Photo: The square in Chipiona where we ate at a table outside Bar la Tasca. Shot in the quiet of the morning, it’s busier at night!