Up to date on 5th June

Who noticed I had my son's birthday wrong??  It's now been amended.... [by me, I mean, not him]

Presentation of a shell by grandson Arthur to Mike, or "Tidy" as that generation calls himLumps in the throat as we waved goodbye to the family at Culatra, but on the 28th, Rory joined us for the day sail to Ayamonte.  Sadly there was little wind but it was great to have him on board.  We landed him on the Portuguese side of the river to catch a train back to his family - an official came and questioned him, but I think the sprint up the pontoons was just for comic effect!

We then went into Ayamonte marina on the Spanish side.  

(Sailors should note that the depths are considerably less than advertised and we were certainly sitting on the bottom at low water.  When we left we certainly waited until at least half tide.  BELA LUNA, who draws 2.1 meters also touched the bottom.  The staff were quite honest about this, saying that they were waiting for a dredger.  Once again we found them friendly and helpful.  The showers are a little eccentric but there's a good laundry which isn't mentioned in the Imray pilot)

Meyrick and Jane took us out for a delicious dinner before departing on the 29th

- by ferry back over the river and then by train to a fancy hotel near Albuferia where, rumour has it, Jane spent the first day in the shower!!  [Having coped in the quirky showers ashore and the good but very quick ones on board....]  It was lovely seeing them both.

The town has nearly everything you might wish, shady squares with tiled seats, hardware stores, a great chandlery run by a Dutch couple, a sensational produce market and two reasonable supermarkets.

 

 

Having stocked up well, we departed for our destination up the River, under the suspension bridge - Stravaigin clears 19.5 m from the water line and the bridge has 20m at high water.  Somewhat important to get the tides right.....

We could practically count how many babies the swallows had!

Phew!

To quote from an email entitled "Sailing for Cissies" to my three non-sailing brothers in law:

Five miles up the Guadiana yesterday doing 4 knots over the ground in complete calm, just a yankee up at the front. No noise except birdsong .  Have seen black winged stilts,egrets and red rumped swallows (catching tiny spiders whose webs are all over our rigging!).

Today we sailed for two hours x then had to motor for an hour.  Then the tide turned so we anchored about 20m from the Spanish shore x had lunch.  Mike is now snoozing in his hammock and I have the side awning up in the cockpit.  Tomorrow we will catch the flood again and make the 3 miles to Alcoutim.

Extraordinary being in a yacht which draws 2.4m on a river about as wide as the Tay at Perth.

Lots of people fishing from the bank, but this is NOT wader territory"

We arrived at the same time as the annual hatch of thousands and thousands of spiders.  For two days our rigging was covered in webs - see below - and whenever you went on deck they were wrapped round your face.  The spiders got everywhere and the skipper, who normally supports the arachnid [not the biggest ones, obviously] spent much time wiping and sweeping them off the boat!  It only lasted a couple of days, but all the swallows, in multi storey nests on the buildings, had an absolute bonanza to feed their young.  Presumably they know this and breed accordingly.

Having worked out the tides carefully for our voyage down the river, we leave tomorrow evening, drift on the ebb [should be a good 3 knots] even if we can't sail, until hungry or the tide turns - whichever happens first.  Anchor, have supper, and continue on Friday.  We're picking up Simon Sands, who's sailing with us to Gib, on Saturday.  Getting there in time for that wonderful market!