15th to 17th June - Those ominous words

The decision to go to Motril was a last minute change as the marina there would confirm a reservation, so I could arrange to have a GPS antenna for the AIS to be sent out to us from the UK.  No-one had heard of Motril before, it is the capital of the equally unfamiliar Costa Tropical, but the small marina is ranked number one in Andalusia.

While we have some long passages ahead, this one would be our last overnight passage until the Bay of Biscay.  It started well with our first opportunity to have a decent sail.  In 12 knots of wind and with all three sails up, we managed 8 knots of boat speed.

A decent sail at last

All three sails up

Unfortunately, some tensions resurfaced on this leg as one unnamed crew member who had initially shown promise, relapsed into his former behaviour of showing little inclination to participate in domestic chores, such as cooking, unless pushed. So, we were forced to introduce a cooking and clearing-up rota.   This immediately yielded positive results when, for dinner, said individual transformed a couple of basic frozen pizzas into gourmet masterpieces with leftovers from the fridge.

This passage’s disaster struck shortly before dusk on the second night when Greg headed to the loo pronouncing “I may be some time.”  Emma and I looked at each other in concern and sure enough, a short while later, Greg emerged and uttered those ominous words “I think we have a problem.”  I shall spare you the graphic details, but Emma and Richard took refuge at the front of the boat where some dolphins entertained them, while Greg undertook the unpleasant task.  Unfortunately, it was not until the morning that all returned to normal when the blockage miraculously cleared itself.

We arrived in Marina de Motril late morning and immediately discovered why the marina is rated No.1.  The location is nothing special but Roberto, the very jolly owner, came out to meet us while we were refuelling and proceeded to tell is all the things we could do during our visit.  He recommended a restaurant for lunch and even called to book a table and pre-order a paella.  We were then directed to moor on a hammerhead which would make our early morning departure easier.  We were even given the luxury of steps to get on and off the boat.

Luxury of boarding steps


There were a couple of hours before lunch and so I retrieved the GPS antenna which, having been successfully installed, means that we will now get decent reception without having to remove the sofa.  Then it was off to lunch which was excellent, at a proper local restaurant rather than the tourist restaurants of Ibiza.  A starter of tomato and avocados  was simple but delicious, followed by seafood paella and then a local dessert.  A toast to Emms’s dad who would have been 90 today and very much enjoyed the paella we cooked whenever he came to France.

Sleep deprived nights and two bottles of wine take their toll


After two sleep deprived days, two bottles of wine and several beers we all returned to the boat for a very, very long siesta.    

Comments

  1. Anonymous20 June 2023 at 03:27

    I have heard of and been to Motril. A lovely town/City and port.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tony20 June 2023 at 08:29

      Enjoying following your journey. Must have been nice to switch the engine off at last. Hope you get more fair wind

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5th June - Safety Briefing

Image
  Last night the crew arrived, worryingly in a manner that may be a portent of things to come.   Both Greg and Richard decided to come by train (in Greg’s case from Palermo and Richard from Naples) their journeys initially seemed to be well planned but it turned out that neither had allowed for the fact that the marina is 5km from the railway station and they were arriving on a Sunday night when most decent Sicilian taxi drivers are enjoying the tail-end of a good family Sunday lunch.   Greg was fortunate in that after numerous frantic phone calls he finally managed to find someone sufficiently awake and sober to bring him to the boat.   Unfortunately for Richard, his second-hand, steam powered mobile phone had given up the ghost a couple of days earlier and he was forced to walk the 5km carrying his sailing gear and six weeks of luggage.   Luckily, they both arrived in good spirits and after a glass of Messina beer they seemed raring to go.   The crew ar...
Read more

13th to 14th June - The Ibiza Rally

Image
Emma and I, and for some of the time Richard, had explored Majorca and Menorca when Bai Hai was based in Leucate, unfortunately we did not make it as far South as Ibiza and so we were very happy to stop there on this trip.   We decided to hire a car to explore.   Before Covid, Greg and Richard had signed up to do the Mongol Rally together (driving a 20 year old car, costing £800, the 12,000 miles across Eurasia from UK to Mongolia).   However, to date they had not actually spent any time in the same vehicle together, so we thought it would be a good idea for one of them to be the driver and the other navigator.   It proved to be an enlightening experience. Greg "Colin Macrae" and navigator Children in the back Putting two fairly strongly opinionated people in charge of navigating and driving through an unknown territory is not perhaps ideal.   Emma and I sat in the back like children watching their parents bickering, as we circumnavigated roundabouts...
Read more

6th - 8th June Capo d'Orlando, Sicily to Cagliari, Sardinia

Image
After a short delay while the crew, marina office and boatyard staff searched for our spare set of keys (which it turned out were actually resting quite happily in the boat’s key drawer) we left Sicily for the final time.   Ready to depart The journey was scheduled to last just under two days and would include two overnight passages, which meant that we needed a watch system to allow crew to get some rest while others keep lookout and monitored progress en-route.   I opted for an overlapping 4-hour watch system which meant that there would be two people on watch at all times.   The disadvantage of this system is that you can an only get a maximum of 4 hours sleep at a time and, while the scientists say that this should be sufficient, it is not necessarily the case for those for whom bed is their natural habitat.   However, when you have certain crew members asking “what’s that country down there (short pause) – oh its Africa” and “I didn’t know that Sardinia was in I...
Read more