We have been able to be a bit more relaxed this week as we work through the final details to ‘winterise’ Splice and her equipment. The sails have been taken away to be cleaned, not so much getting the dirt off as washing out the salt crystals that accumulate over time and eventually wear away at the fabric. We have serviced the outboard, changing the oil, the lubricant and the spark plug (it took a while to find the Spanish translation of that in the ‘engine shop’) and surprisingly the outboard still ran after our efforts!
We have found a local British guy who has a boat in the marina and has kindly offered to run up Splice’s engines and keep an eye on her... Thanks George! (It’s good for a marine diesel to be run up to temperature and the oil circulated around every few weeks rather than leaving them all winter)
We have visited two more museums out of our five tickets. The museum of the Spanish Civil War was interesting, not so much for its exhibits but the stuff we didn’t know about it. Did you know that Germany and Italy bombed the Republican areas of Spain (including Cartagena) on behalf of Franco? The museum is housed in the tunnels that were dug as air raid shelters which, together with the film archive, gives you a feel of the time.
We also visited the ‘House of Fortune’ so named because of a mosaic in the floor of this Roman Town House which can still be seen in the passage to the back door wishing visitors good fortune. This is well worth a visit as there are very well preserved mosaics and even paintings on the original wall plaster. It is very well set out, at one point you walk out of the front door and find yourself on an original Roman stone street with much of the walls and street stones still existing and enhanced by a photographic background to extend the ‘view’. We really enjoyed the visit.
On Thursday evening we invited some neighbours from the Marina for drinks on board - Steve and Chrissie from ‘Mabs’, Peter and Stephanie from ‘Jade’ and Sue from ‘2-Blue’. Jade and 2 Blue are both Prout ‘ Snow-goose’ catamarans and we have discovered that they were both in Royal Clarence Marina in Gosport with us before we all set of south. Jade was even bought via the same broker, Ken Walker (who has accepted via Facebook that our lifestyles are probably all his fault!!). We didn’t get to meet then, but it shows sailing is quite a small world! The evening went well and 18.30hr drinks stretched until around 22.00hr - we had a good time.

The photo shows the Roman street in the House of Fortune.