It was time for a weekend break … we had found an amazing company who would deliver a hire car to us. Alvaro duly arrived at our boat on Saturday morning, apologising for being early with our car. A ridiculously small amount of paperwork later and we had the keys.

We drove to the beach resort of La Herradura for breakfast, stopping to admire the views along the way.

We stocked up on essentials before heading back to the marina (via the scenic route if course). As we arrived back at the resort we got stuck in a traffic jam. A bus had got stuck at the bottom of the hill so it just stopped short and started dropping off all it’s passengers. One of them was then dispatched to come and walk along the traffic queue telling us we’d all have to reverse as the bus had to reverse back up the hill !! It was a nightmare but luckily we were only second in line and we managed to get out of it’s way fairly easily. I must say though, reversing up a steep hill in a hired Fiat Panda with a coach hot on your heels is quite an experience.

We spent the afternoon relaxing before the next day when we were super excited to visit our lovely friends at their new villa.

Their place sits high on a hilltop above Competa and it is stunning. But more stunning was the fact that we got to spend time with Poppy and Judith. We had lots to catch up on and we spent a wonderful day relaxing together.

After our afternoon swim we went off exploring the land, trying to identify the myriad of fruit trees that they have. We found an apricot tree laden with fruit and ate them straight off the tree, delicious – time to find apricot recipes methinks 😉

As the day turned to evening we enjoyed a celebratory drink (or two) and a lovely meal.

Tines had great fun trying to catch gekkos

All too soon it was time to say goodbye – or hasta luego since I know we’ll be back.

We drove back down the hill on Monday morning and took the coastal motorway back to the marina.

We handed back the keys to the hire car and paid the bill – then headed off towards Motril – the conditions were forecast to be around 1m – 1.5m swell with 10-15 knots pushing us along our way.

When we actually got out of the marina once again we found the sea to be a bit choppier than anticipated !! So virtually no photos were taken, I was on the helm all morning trying to stave off slight seasickness !

To be honest that soon subsided as the sea picked up to 3m plus on the swelly side!!!! Luckily Motril is not far as the wind picked up again to 25 knots. Skipper Nigel did another excellent job of getting us on berth in extremely gusty conditions and we could relax….

We went to the club náutico for a delicious lunch and fell asleep ridiculously early after an absolutely wonderful weekend.

We set out from Fuengirola with the plan of sailing to Cáleta de Vélez for a weekend break but as they say, the best laid plans…..

There was no wind at the start of the journey and once again we were motoring along on really calm seas.

We called ahead to book the marina only to find it was full !! All weekend !! This kind of scuppered the plans we’d made on the way out, I’d sorted out where we could hire a car as we were planning to visit friends …. I am not ashamed to say there were a few tears before re-grouping and re-planning.

The next marina along the coast from Cáleta happens to be Skipper Nigel’s favourite, Marina del Este so we gave them a call. No problem, of course we have space, yes you can arrive late afternoon. PHEW !! Panic Over.

In the meantime the wind had picked up and we were sailing along on our new heading in brilliant conditions. It was fabulous and the boat was set so well that we were really relaxed.

It seemed like no sooner had we got ourselves settled than boom ! The conditions changed again (that’s med sailing for you). We were suddenly in 20 knot changing winds and a 2-3 meter swell. We had to act quickly after the boat became more difficult to manage with the swell and under full sail. Tines was put down below and we ended up pulling the sails in as even with a reef it was really bumpy. The good news was that we were being pushed along by the current and making 6 knots with our engine almost on idle. It was certainly different. Thanks to these conditions I didn’t take any photos most of the day :-(. Til we approached punta de la mona.

We were very happy to arrive at the marina although even that was fun since Skipper Nigel had to “come in hot” onto the berth due to 22 knot+ winds. I was freaked out at the speed we had to approach and Nigel and the marinero were having a good giggle at me shouting “slow down” at the top of my voice as we hurtled towards the pontoon!! Ten seconds later we were safely on berth and we could relax after another mammoth day at the helm. I think a couple of days rest are in order……

And finally the sail day we’d been waiting for. The conditions just as forecast and in our favour.

We left Ceuta in beautiful early morning sunshine and said goodbye (for this time) to the other Hercules as we left the harbour.

We motored out into the edge of the straits, watching the traffic like queue of huge ships passing through and onwards towards the Atlantic.

The conditions were lovely and as soon as we’re were round Ceuta point we put the sails up and turned the engine off. We’re were sailing….and making amazing speeds too (up to 8 knots once or twice)

We spent a wonderful day and the conditions continued until about 15 nautical miles from our destination Fuengirola.

The last couple of hours we were motoring along and just looking forward to getting into the marina. The day had other ideas for us though, just as we were approaching the headland near the port a massive motor boat sped towards us from the distance. Skipper Nigel started moaning about “smokers” and how they always have to come too close. Til we realized it was the Guardia Civil and we were being approached!! Gulp! There followed a few minutes of them circling us, binoculars out, looking on our deck, waving at us, then shouting (yes they were close enough to shout!!) “Channel 72” We duly switched our radio onto said Channel and were asked where we had come from. Ceuta seemed to be an acceptable answer since they then thanked us and sped off into the distance to approach another unsuspecting yacht on the horizon.

After that episode all that remained was for us to navigate our way through loads of fishing nets and pots into the harbour. We finally arrived 12 hours after we’d left and got ourselves into berth since there was no marinero in sight! Luckily Barry the lovely American was back on his neighbouring boat and he jumped off and came to give us a hand. Phew, what a day!!

We woke up to this stunning view of Ceuta town…..

We had booked into marina Hercules for two nights so we could explore a little. By strange coincidence (and actually not for the first time, it happened before in Ibiza) we bumped into our sailing instructor Walter. His boat Costa Blanca Sailing was moored 7 spaces away from us ! We compared notes on our sail over and our next plans. Interestingly he was heading to Seville up the river, through locks and under bridges with his crew, what a fabulous adventure! We watched them set sail that morning.

We wandered out of the port to have a coffee and meet Hercules. Legend has it that he was the one who created the straits between Ceuta point and Europa point (Gibraltar).

Ceuta seems much more Spanish than we imagined, I guess a bit like Gibraltar is extremely British, Ceuta is super Spanish. Everyone here speaks Spanish and all the restaurants and shops are pretty much what you’d find in any high street on mainland Spain. It does have some interesting buildings….

…and fabulous beaches which look out to Morocco. It was too windy for us to be sailing and also too windy for a beach day which was a shame.

The thing that struck me was how un-touristy it is, given that a ferry seems to arrive every couple of hours. We didn’t see any postcards or t-shirts for sale. We didn’t see any “local goods” either. We weren’t even approached by anyone selling African novelties like we had been in Fuengirola. Perhaps we needed to wander a bit further afield from the port, or perhaps the number of local police, army police and Guardia Civil prevents this (we saw more security here than in any port we have ever visited) We’ll just have to come back and find out ….. I would recommend a visit here to anyone. I think we only just scratched the surface in our limited time here.

Today was the day !! We had studied the weather forecast and studied it again. We were on !! We had decided to make the crossing to the continent of Africa (to Spanish Ceuta to be exact).

I headed to the office as soon as it opened to hand back our electricity converter plug and shower block key which were on deposit. This is something we do most days but this day I took Tines – she waited outside whilst I got our deposit back.

As we walked back past the boatyard we saw a boat named “Dorothy” being cleaned, since this was Grandma’s name I felt a smile come over my face, today will be a good day.

We headed out towards Gibraltar in calm conditions but we knew the wind was likely to pick up as we went out into the straits between Gibraltar and Ceuta.

We had fabulous views of Gibraltar rock as we motor sailed past.

We also got great views across to Africa which was surrounded in haze. It would have been nice to see it clearly but we could see the mountain tops clearly, rising out of the mist which seemed so close and yet so far away.

So, on this journey obviously we were crossing a major shipping lane. Which is always interesting.

As we were crossing we found the weather picking up. The swell was more or less as forecast and it was choppy rather than uncomfortable. Every so often a larger wave came upon us crashing against the bow (which Tines hates) in fact we ended up popping her down below as the wind picked up, and up !! Soon we were well over 20 knots and having to motor sail to crash through the chop. It was quite a challenge!

You can’t see 34 knots on a photo, in fact looking back at the shots we took it looks relatively calm but trust me it was a real adventure.

As we reached Ceuta we ended up slightly off the entrance to the marina – and unfortunately due to the tidal conditions it took us an hour longer to get in (but it felt like 3). It was quite a battle against the conditions but we made it to Africa – covered in salt but very happy

Wohooooo we finally got some wind !! Well not at the start or end of the day but in the middle which was good enough for us!

As we departed Fuengirola we saw more dolphins, absolutely stunning. Again they came right up to the boat, it’s like they want to check you out. We had to be really vigilant because there were a lot of fishing pots in the area but luckily it was really calm so they were relatively easy to spot. The dolphins were probably seeking out escapees from the fishing activities. We also had to watch out for the odd small boat fishing too.

and of course a motor boat heading to Marbella too….

Once the wind picked up we were flying along at 5-6 knots speed (which is fast for us) The wind direction took us towards Sotogrande and Marina de Duquesa more than Estepona which we were planning so we went with it. It was great fun. We even had to re-secure the ensign which came loose 😉

As soon as it started the wind dropped, at that point we decided to call it a day and headed for Marina de Duquesa which we hadn’t visited before.

We found a lovely little marina, once again mooring on a “waiting quay” before heading into a berth. We were a little lonely here, not next to any other boats which ironically makes it slightly more difficult to moor up. Skipper Nigel did an excellent job however and we were quickly ready to relax. Not before I’d taken Tines on our evening walk of course.

The next morning we were quite tired so we took a couple of hours rest while it was super calm. We watched a huge motor boat being lifted out of the water – it seemed like it was probably about the maximum size the crane at the boatyard could lift!!

We decided on a very short hop the next day, hoping to do some sailing without worrying too much about our destination but to be honest there wasn’t enough wind so we just hopped an hour along the coat to Sotogrande where we were treated to views of Gibraltar from our mooring space (once again in a largely empty marina).

It was another case of tying up to the waiting quay to check in, this time like a mini castle.

This is a fairly modern marina once again with lots of palm trees and many different “canals” between apartment blocks.

We had a nice evening relaxing and enjoying watching other boats coming and going, we also did a bit of planning for the next day (watch this space)…….

As usual Tines woke us up at half past 6 in the morning I took her for a walk only to find the sea was quite rough. we had a beautiful sunrise walk along the Promenade and then we walked over to the breakwater. We saw that there was quite a swell but this often happens around the entrance to a marina. Here there is also a lovely statue to look over us sailors.

The forecast told us to expect swell and wind so we duly set off thoroughly enjoying the motor out of the marina. We cut round the breakwater and headed out to sea, hoping we’d get out of the swell once out at sea or at least it would be in a favourable direction for us, unfortunately that didn’t quite happen. Once again we were stuck with swelly seas and light winds. We knew we had a fall back position to turn back, which we debated for a while but there was also the option to push on 5 nautical miles to Fuengirola. We had been here before but that time we arrived in the dark and left at dawn the next day. We arrived a couple of hours later and moored up on the waiting quay before heading into the office with the paperwork. Once we had our space we manouvered round to berth 196 happily located between a charter yacht (skippered by Barry the lovely American) and S/Y Bifrost (skippered by the equally lovely Kild family who had sailed here from Denmark.)

Not a lot of photos taken that day but the next morning I was back in action on my sunrise walk with Tines.

What to make of Fuengirola. It’s got lots and lots of high rise hotels and apartments. It’s got a huge number of British bars and eateries. It’s not got much Spanish feeling about it, well at least not the parts I managed to explore. Admittedly, go one street back from the beachfront and it’s possible to find a Spanish bar/café frequented by locals. We actually had a fabulous rest day here, we stayed around the boat, we went for a big cooked breakfast followed by a trip to the chandler’s.

Skipper Nigel did boat jobs while I went to the supermarket and I found out where all the Spaniards were…..

We had a siesta and watched the comings and goings of the Fuengirola boat businesses, all in all a lovely day.