Marina del Este, and celebrating a year aboard.

Our pilot book was published in 1998 and in three years it seems so out of date with information on suitable marinas and prices. Despite warning of extremely high prices Chris and I decided we would like to spend a night or two in Marina del Este, some 20 miles east of Caleta de Velez. With a southwest wind forecast we edged out of our berth and out into the bay once more. It was about a force 4 although our wind indictor does not seem to be registering quite correctly at the moment, but it was a good wind for sailing and within half an hour we had the main up and the jib poled out, goose wing style.

It was a little overcast but warm. Thursday Island had also departed but were heading further a field to Motril. We tried to catch them and then realised they were cheating with their motor on! They motor-sailed off into the distance and we settled down into enjoying a proper sail at last. At 1300 we turned at Pta de Torrox, the sun came out and the wind picked up a little more. The wind continued to build and for the last hour we sailed under jib alone. By now it was about a force 5 with intervals of 6 and we were making about 5 knots with just a little bit of canvas out. Marina del Este is on the eastern side of a high narrow promontory. Often when passing headlands such as this the wind will build markedly as it prefers to rush around than over! The wind built and the swell built and we rocked and rolled. No sooner had we rounded the point and turned left into the shelter of the bay and the wind vanished and the sea flattened. Aaaaah! It was tranquil inside the harbour and it was siesta time. The office was closed until 1600 so we had an hour and a half to relax in the sunshine and let Giblet explore ashore. The fuel attendant's dog had other ideas and chased her back onto the boat! Eventually the harbour master returned and checked us in. It was not at all expensive, and we felt happy to be in a pretty place at last.

Este is basically a promontory with a small island to one side that some imaginative person decided would form a beautifully sheltered marina by joining it up with a sort of breakwater. One or two restaurants were open, even though it is still very early in the season, and we realised that it was our 1st anniversary for living aboard the boat, so we went out for a celebratory dinner! (That's our excuse, anyway.) It was a lovely meal, heaps of mussels for starters and I had a delicious seafood kebab for my main course. Prices were more like English restaurants, but since it is catering for mainly English and German ex-pats (the menu was in about 4 different languages) it is not so surprising.

We enjoyed wandering to the deserted beach nearby and watching a lone fisherman in his small wooden boat. Thinking that we might be running low on gas we enquired at the chandlery in the marina, the proprietor said they did not sell it and suggested we go up the rock and down the other side to the nearest small town! Chris mimed flying and he laughed. We decided to eek out our gas supply until Motril.