Arriving back from Seville Splice looked a different colour. There had been strong winds from the south east and a lot of rain bringing sand from somewhere in Africa and everywhere had a pinky brown tinge. We only just made the walk from the bus station in time as big drops hit us as we climbed aboard. It was a real mess. Carolyn hosed down the cockpit so she could do some washing and Chris did the rest of the boat when it got cooler. That only got the top layer off, it sticks to everything and the whole boat had to be scrubbed by hand. We spent the whole of Monday cleaning having originally intended to sail on to Rota that afternoon. In the end Splice looked somewhat back to her normal self but we keep finding areas we missed and up the mast is still a grubby mess.
As we stayed on in Chipiona we invited Bruce and Caroline from ‘Flirtie’ and Phil from ‘Blue Hound’ for drinks that evening and had an enjoyable time. A combination of beer for the men and wine for the ladies topped off with ‘boat pizza’ meant the ‘Flirties’ didn’t leave until around midnight (Phil having departed earlier).
The tides were only suitable for an afternoon departure the next day (probably just as well) and we slipped lines at about 2.00pm. The weird tidal movement inside Chipiona Marina causing us some surprises as the boat went off in the other direction to the skippers intention but we coped and motored the first few miles against the wind until we could turn and cut the engines. We had a little difficulty raising the Main as the tension in the halyard got too great as the sail reached toward the mast top. Despite investigations we couldn’t see why in the choppy waters so settled for running with one reef in, which as the winds were 16-17 knots versus the forecast 10 knots, was not a problem. An easy two hour sail down the coast brought us to Rota which has a slightly tricky entrance but once in is spacious enough and we secured to our berth with no issues. Bread and ham and cheese followed by chilli and brown rice helped to finish off some of the bits in the fridge and we went for a stroll around the town.
Rota’s old town clearly grew around the harbour and the buildings in the area near the marina are very attractive with nice squares and many bars and tapas places. We had a short wander around, read for a while and then slept well – Carolyn woke with a mosie bite on her finger, Chris found it and killed the beast but she wasn’t impressed – pointing out it was too late by that point – Anti -histamine to the rescue!
Today we have explored the town and bought a few bits from Carrefour (French flour is better than most we find). It’s a very pleasant place with many restaurants and bars in shady streets, we could spend a few evenings relaxing here but having food on board will try and resist and use that up first.

We also tried to find the problem with the mainsail. We’ve worked all the lines through, hoisted the mainsail top mast-car up the mast by itself to check it runs smoothly, checked the bearings in the other cars and found not one reason why it would stick! Other than hoping that the wind will drop and we can hoist the main in harbour here to check it there’s not much more we can do until we go out again – here’s hoping it was just a hidden jam that has cleared itself.
Tomorrow (3rd September) we plan to catch a ferry across to Cadiz and explore the town. We may decide to take Splice over to one of the marinas there in a few more days or just move on down the coast. It’s our 27th Wedding Anniversary so maybe we will find somewhere to have a special meal.

Photo: The old and new lighthouses in Rota. We had been told that the town is less touristy than most – to the left one of three ‘Guinness Bars/Irish Pubs’ we saw on our walk, though one did look very closed!