We shifted a few miles to the anchorage outside Porto Sherry Marina, opposite a long beach on one side and the long wall protecting the channel to Santa Maria on the other. It is exposed to the south west but otherwise it’s a wide space and apart from one other boat, empty as we arrived. We spent three nights here, relaxing , making a dinghy trip up to Santa Maria Club Naval (they wanted E86 for a night – no thanks!) and a bit of shopping in the town itself as there were steps where you could leave the dinghy. A couple of other boats came and went from the bay whilst we were there but it was very quiet. The last evening we dinghied into Porto Sherry Marina, they let us moor on the back of the arrivals pontoon for free and we had a stroll around. A big development with the framework of many properties unfinished, another victim of Spain’s financial crisis. There were a few bars and restaurants open and we had a good basic meal (burger and ham/egg/chips) at a bar on the coast road looking out across the sea towards Cadiz.
Not a lot to do here but a good place for a rest. We have heard the swell can be bad but it was fine whilst we were anchored. The water also looked clean and as the temperature was around 24 on our sensor Chris did take the first swim of the year. The water has always looked a bit poor in our anchorages before but this was fine and he had a quick dip. Very refreshing on a warm day.
We went to leave about 9.45 the next morning only to find our anchor chain was stuck. We couldn’t even raise it enough to take off our bridle (the rope that spreads the load across both bows). We rotated the boat to her original anchoring position without success so Chris had to get in the water for the second time in two days. Wet suit and snorkel gear this time and a combination of the change in position and Chris diving to move the chain about cleared the issue. The visibility in the water that morning was poor and the tide high so we never saw the problem though suspect it was a rock that the chain had caught around as the boat swung. It did remind us that carrying scuba gear would have been useful – another potential purchase.

Photo taken from the restaurant above Porto Sherry Marina