After Roy enjoyed an early morning exercise walk, while Elaine rested, we dinghied ashore for a coffee at Les Monges; not the best choice due to the noise and the crowds, but worth a try. We definitely prefer the little hideaway cafés on the backstreets.

Back onboard, we spent the afternoon sorting out an itinerary for the rest of our stay in Spain before we head to Gibraltar and, in lieu of an evening walk, we chatted to Keenan and the twins, who were very excited to tell us all about their holiday to San Diego, California, where they saw dolphins and whales.

The only excitement of the day for us, however, was the firefighting aeroplane that came in to do a water landing so close to Paw Paw that we had visions of how on earth we were going to explain an insurance claim; an aeroplane crashed into us. Thankfully that wasn’t necessary, but the pilot couldn’t have got any closer if he’d tried.

Today we were both woken up at around 0330 with the arrival of the high winds that were forecast, reaching 32 Kts and sending a few yachts dragging through the anchorage. Fortunately there was nothing untoward near us, but we, nonetheless, stayed up until everything settled again before returning to our beds at daybreak. We were pleased to know that our anchor had held, though, because the bottom is a mixture of sand and weed and hitting a sandy spot when we dropped the hook was more a matter of saying a Hail Mary than anything else.

In calmer and cooler conditions, we dinghied ashore after breakfast to do our provisioning, which resulted in us purchasing far more than we thought we needed; the downside of having a little bit of variety again, or indeed, finding items we haven’t been able to get for months. We definitely didn’t appreciate opening some packaging, though, to find a quarter of the contents missing; the joys of the so called “first world”, where consumers are constantly ripped off at every turn and, sadly, not the first time we’ve experienced this kind of deceit as we’ve travelled through the Mediterranean; a complete contrast to our experiences elsewhere during our circumnavigation. If this is a taste of things to come, settling back into the western culture is going to be very, very difficult indeed!

On our return to Paw Paw, Elaine received the unpleasant news that her Dad had been admitted to hospital and had been moved to the cardiac ward; he clearly wasn’t going home today.

With nothing else to do, but wait on a further update, Roy did two diesel runs in the dinghy to top up the tanks, while Elaine went back to bed, having woken up this morning feeling a little off. The news of her Dad hadn’t helped matters.

As evening approached, we opted for dinner with a view at Dakota Tex Mex, followed by another evening stroll, which took us along the Pine Walk, a very picturesque route, where we enjoyed a rest on one of the many benches to savour the seascape and view the interesting private homes on the northern end of the anchorage, stopping for a gelato on our return.

A chat to Elaine’s sister, Dianne, to get an update on her Dad, brought the day to a close.