Five o'clock somewhere
01 April 2013 | Ayamonte, Spain
Five O'Clock Somewhere
The grand plan for Sunday was to cut the corner and make a run across the bay and do the 15 hour passage from Rota to Vilamoura in one hit. Failing that, if the wind didn't back as forecast or we couldn't lay the point we would bear off for Ayamonte, on the River Guadiano that separates Spain from Portugal.
There's a sand bar at the mouth of the Guadiano so we had to arrive after half tide.
So, an early night was in order and the alarm set for 05:00.
At 04:00 the alarm went off, or was it 05:00? Did the clocks in Spain spring forward or was it just the UK? Further, if you go up the river on the Spanish side rather than the Portugal side is the tide one hour out? Ohhhh the complexities!
Anyway, off we went into the dark and still lumpy sea, motor sailing for an hour to clear the banks off Cadiz. A wet and windy number of hours later we had to face facts and bear off for Ayamonte and ironically, having got up just after going to bed we had to shorten sail to slow down so we didn't arrive at the sand bar too early.
Anyway! We made it in and have been around the town in the sunshine. Bilin' today!
Heading for 08:00 tide tomorrow and an 8 hour sail to Vilamoura.
S &A