We arrived in Estepona around 1500hrs but it took a couple of hours to register, move from the reception berth (normal side to mooring) and complete our first Med style mooring – stern too with ’lazy lines’ and finally get ashore. We accomplished our first Med Mooring on Splice with no real problem, the winds were light and the marinieros were there to assist. You reverse the boat up to the very solid concrete quay and throw a stern line to the mariniero and then pick up the line he hands you with your boat hook. This line is then worked to the front of the boat and pulled in until the main mooring line (attached to a block on the seafloor in front of the boat) comes to the surface and you can secure this to your bows. Chris steered the boat and Carolyn worked the lines, our only real problems were that the line was filthy and smelly mud dropped all over the sides of the boat and when she got to the bows the line was so heavy (it was mostly chain) Carolyn couldn’t pull it in so we had to swap roles. You do the same for each side of a cat – two dirty sides! For a first try we were happy with the result. To get ashore you then have to use the ‘passerelle’, like a plank, to get to the quay. We had bought this second hand in Povoa de Varzim earlier in the year but this was the first time we had rigged it up. The boat end goes into a pivot on the stern and you then lower it with the supporting ropes to bridge the gap to the shore. Sounds easy but it was inches too short, well we thought ,if we get ropes tied to the shore it would be stable, but how to get them there. Carolyn suggested Chris crawl out along it, he decided to sit on the passerelle and inch out. He’d got most of the way when the boat swayed in a wake, the balance changed and the passerelle swung wildly to port. Chris didn’t! Our first man overboard, hopefully the last. Chris had to swim to recover his Croc shoe that decided to drift off but other than that both boat and Chris were unharmed. He did have a suspicion that Carolyn was more concerned about damage to Splice than him splashing in the water, she said not but the way she was caressing the edges that might have been bashed......? Chris also managed to have his wallet in his pocket so rinsing and drying of cash, cards clothes and wallet commenced. Our mistake was not to move the boat back those few inches, which we then did, and the passerelle became much more stable when resting on a solid surface. Lesson learned!
Estepona is pleasant enough, the marina were friendly and even conceded a 5% Cruising Association discount after initially saying no. Cost for the night E43 including water, electricity and wifi.
We walked into town and finally got our Orange SIM card recharged. You are supposed to be able to do this in kiosks and supermarkets but each time the staff said not possible so we ended up paying extra to do so at Orange itself. Odd really, it costs more to recharge at an Orange shop (E15) than elsewhere E(10)? We ate at an Italian place on the marina where the food was OK but the service was terrible – they didn’t get a tip.
On Tuesday we had a work day. The port side of the dinghy had deflated the previous evening so it took an hour or so with soapy water to find the split seam. We visited the small SuperCore supermarket by the marina which was good if a little more expensive. Chris washed Splice whilst Carolyn got her mini twin tub out and did the laundry. When the evening cooled down (it had been 42 deg most of the day – sorry for those back in the UK!) we glued the dinghy seam back together. Carolyn’s homemade burgers with salad and potatoes in mayonnaise went down well that evening. We were moored on a quiet pontoon with a few empty motor boats and a guy working on a 1930’s concrete hull fishing boat to convert it to a pleasure craft. He had a job on but was sanguine about it.
We left around 1100hrs the next morning.

Photo shows our aperitif’s on the foredeck that evening