Yesterday we spent most of the day cleaning Paw Paw, inside and out, while making use of the access to freshwater from the dock. As usual, in this part of the world, she was covered in red desert sand. It was close to 1600 by the time we finished, stopping only for a short coffee break around midday, but skipping lunch. Based on all the baked delights we’ve consumed during our sail through the Mediterranean, skipping a meal was more beneficial than not. However, when we got back to Paw Paw afterwards, some time was required to readjust the Med mooring lines and the various docklines, since the wind had started to pick up. This was the weather we’d left the Balearics for, concluding that we would be better off in a marina on the Spanish mainland than in a marginal anchorage off one of the islands. Based on what transpired overnight last night, this turned out to be a sound decision. Adjusting the docklines, however, was not an easy task, given that the wind was blowing Paw Paw sideways, causing the starboard sugar scoop to be too close to the dock. With help from a floating neighbour, for which we were very grateful, we managed to tightened everything so she was sitting more or less straight, albeit a little compensated towards the port side to negate the effects of the wind blowing from the northeast.

Once all that was out of the way, Roy took a walk to the nearest supermarket to purchase some meat for our barbecue dinner and chatted to Keenan, while Elaine chatted to her sister, Dianne. It was well after 1900 before our day slowed down and we could wind down until bedtime.

The brunt of the winds arrived overnight, hitting 28 Kts in the protected marina and causing our wind alarm to sound; something that woke Roy up, but Elaine slept through it all, only surfacing around 0600 and then going back to sleep until her alarm woke her at 0830; she’d slept so soundly she didn’t even hear Roy wandering around on deck during the night to make sure everything was in order. We could only imagine what the winds would have been like in the less than ideal anchorage we would have ended up in on Ibiza Island; an overnight sail to get to a marina that could accommodate us, was a small price to pay for safety.

After bacon butties for breakfast, we walked the short distance back to the supermarket Roy had visited yesterday and topped up on our fresh produce, then returned to Choco & Latte Puerto for coffee and a baked delight, this time choosing their chocolate and hazelnut croissant, which definitely gave new meaning to a chocolate overdose. Yummy!

Back onboard and after a chat to the floating neighbour, who had helped us yesterday, Elaine sanitised and stowed our purchases, while Roy enjoyed a late morning nap.

This afternoon we revisited our itinerary, reset dates and listed possible stops along the Spanish coast to Gibraltar. Unfortunately this is not a well protected coastline in most instances, compounded by the recent orca attacks south of Malaga, which is definitely increasing the complexity of the logistics involved. All we can do, however, is take each day as it comes; for every nautical mile sailed, it’s one nautical mile closer to our destination.

Deciding to follow a recommendation from a floating neighbour, we walked to the non-touristy area of the town for dinner. After finding the restaurant and waiting for them to open, we had a little snoop around and also found the town square, where people were out enjoying their evening. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, Sapori D’ Italia, just for a change.

Returning to Paw Paw we spent some time chatting to neighbours on the dock before calling it a day and heading to bed. We had another early start in the morning to continue down the Spanish coastline.