El Puerto de Santa Maria to meet Tintin and Others . .

We left Ayamonte on the Rio Guadiana at the unearthly hour of 0620!  It was still dark and noticeably chilly.  It required care and attention to the lights on exit as there were numerous fishing boats actively engaged in their tasks as we dodged through.  Within an hour the jib was out and not long after we were able to put up the main with one reef and stop the engine.  We sailed on for several hours, watching another glorious sunrise and welcoming the warmth it brought with it.  Gradually, however, the wind died and by lunchtime we were down to 3.3 knots and decided the engine would have to go back on.  For a while we kept the sails up in the vain hope that the wind might return but a 1400 gave up and took them in.  The lighthouse at Chipiona, one of the tallest in the world, began to appear in the haze over the land and at 1800 we were berthed up safely in Chipiona marina.  We crashed out, pretty tired after the 60-mile trip and explored a little the next day as well as catching up on some maintenance including an oil change for the engine.  Kasara arrived from Mazagon and so Anita, Paul, Chris and I met up in a bar in the marina for drinks that evening.

We left for El Puerto on Thursday, keen to arrive in time to find suitable accommodation for Chris’ mum and dad who were flying into Jerez airport on Saturday.  There was NIL wind the whole way and the only highlight of note was watching two warships leave Rota, an American base nearby.  We passed Puerto Sherry, a huge marina development, which has apparently gone bust before all the flats and hotel have been completed.  Exactly four hours after leaving the fuel berth in Chipiona we moored up at the Real Club Nautico de El Puerto de Santa Maria (a bit of a mouthful!) upriver of Zephyrus!  We had finally caught them up.

There was something about El Puerto that instantly appealed to us both.  The town is roughly organised in a grid pattern and it was always fairly straightforward to find your way back to the river and get your bearings.  We loved the narrow shady streets, crowded by the tall buildings with overhanging balconies and hidden marbled courtyards, the wider streets where the bodegas stood, with the aroma of Sherry wafting by and the open squares one of which was dominated by a privately owned castle.  The pace of life was distinctly laid back.  In the streets directly behind the yacht club people stood in doorways chatting, small shops (set literally in one case in the entrance hall of a house) providing forgotten groceries and another place to catch up with gossip.  We were certainly pleased that we liked it because our stop here was for over a week.

We found a suitable hotel only a few hundred yards from the yacht club and booked two nights for Mike and Jean.  If they liked it the idea was they could stay on, if not, find somewhere else.  We arranged to meet them there on Saturday evening and they arrived pretty much on time in a taxi from Jerez.  Their room was fine and they soon decided it would be good to stay on for the week!  Unfortunately, they brought some distinctly misty wet weather with them and the first few days of their stay were a bit chilly. (Or so Chris and I thought!)  We took them on a walking tour of El Puerto, taking in the castle, the bullring, bodegas and back streets as well as spotting storks on the roof of the church.  As one flew into its nest there was a great clattering of beaks as if he was being nagged…”Where have you been?  You’re late, and there’s another baby to deliver!”

Cadiz was a short ferry trip away and we popped across a couple of times, mainly because the first time we went it poured with rain and we didn’t fancy strolling along the streets.  Lunch was good though, Jean and I trying out the local speciality of prawn tortillas.  We thought they had brought the weather with them but it seems they left the truly bad stuff behind in Britain, where they were experiencing horrific gales!   Our second visit however, was warm and sunny, the highlight being a visit to the old watchtower, which not only affords spectacular views but is also home to Spain’s first Camera Obscura.  The guide demonstrated it in a very entertaining way, even appearing to lift people off the streets on a piece of paper as they walked by!  I was amused to think that she had been spying on us in earlier demonstrations that day.  Later, we stopped in a bar for Tapas, enjoying a traditional Spanish snack of cold meats and cheeses with our beer before returning to El Puerto on the ferry.

Being in this area of Spain we could not resist a visit to one of the sherry bodegas and after a short and cheap train ride to Jerez (sherry is the English corruption of the town’s Moorish name Xerez) we went to the Tio Pepe tour recommended at the tourist information office.  It cost twice as much as we expected but our guide kept us entertained for two hours!  He explained the various famous people who have dined in “La Concha” bodega designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1862, and then herded us into a Noddy train and proudly showed us the rows of signed barrels belonging to distinguished visitors.  I spotted Ayrton Senna, Fangio, Bobby Charlton, Roger Moore, Prince Phillip, and, perhaps appropriately, Keith Floyd.  We paused for a moment at one so that our guide could include a joke about Maggie Thatcher’s sherry barrel containing white wine vinegar!  We sat through a 15 minute film of the sherry making process and there was a tasting session at the end.  Compared to the trips in Porto, which were much shorter, but free, we thought Gonzalez Byass were a tad on the expensive side!

Chris took Mike out for a sail one afternoon whilst Jean and I tried out the freezing cold pool at the hotel!  They didn’t have much wind though and entertained themselves by watching a Spanish warship practice man overboard drill.  As they passed, Chris remembered his flag etiquette and dipped our ensign!  It didn’t catch them out though and after a short delay, the ship lowered her ensign in reply.  I hope I get to have a go when we leave here!  With all this gadding about we needed a restful day and visited the beach nearby one sunny afternoon, giving our weary legs a chance to recover and prepare for our city visit to Sevilla.