The Voyages of Disco Volante: Malaga to Rio Guadiana

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In April we had had lots of lovely guests aboard Disco Volante. Needless to say this has directly impacted both our livers and our waistlines! I also managed to fit in a hen do to Amsterdam. I have really enjoyed this leg of the trip, visiting some old favourites, but also getting to see some new places too.



9^th-12^th April – Sarah in Amsterdam, Mike sailing from Malaga to Gibraltar via Puerto Banus

Distance: 25nm + 35nm = 60nm in total

Sarah: After the French air strike and getting my Thursday flight cancelled, I finally made it to Amsterdam by lunchtime on the Friday. I dubiously checked into my hostel (a day late) and into my 20 bed dorm room. Immediately realised that my dorm room sleeping days are over, what had I been thinking?? Unfortunately I hadn’t had the budget to stay in the main hen hotel, I’d made my bed, now I had to lie in it... Then I actually did have to make my bed... ..no really! Including waterproof pillow and mattress. I quickly locked away my possessions in the luggage locker and fled. Now just to find my way to the hen party via what felt like a millions canals, after 4hrs sleep, how hard could it be???

Finally my first beer, followed by a gallon of prosecco on the bike tour (check out the pics!!). Luckily our 12 seater bike had an engine – after five minutes we all lost the will to cycle and our poor driver had to take over. . ..and that was before the jagerbombs!!

A lovely dinner with cocktails from outer space (again see pics!), then off I went alone to re-find my hostel and get ready for a nights clubbing. Clearly I am better at directions when drunk! Arrive at hostel to find all the ‘young pups’ in my dorm already asleep – at 11pm for crisakes!! Sneak around trying to be quiet, which clearly never works!

I manage to negotiate my way back to the group, via the red light district. Get to the club – it’s fun, but a little try-hard, after a few hours (and several 10 euro drinks, ouch!) we head out into the night to find some more fun. Spot a little club called ‘Nasty’, looks like our kinda place!! Much nicer crowd, a bit cheesy, stay until 4am. Stagger back to hostel, again trying not to make noise. Go to bathroom to brush teeth and find a group of teenagers playing music in the there – the only place safe to make noise after 10:30pm. One 17 year old vomiting while a likely lad holds her hair. Decide right away to leave the next day. Life’s is too short for hostels full of boring teenagers. A pile of pillows on the floor sounds much preferable.

Decision fully justified, when said boring teenagers wake me up at 7am talking in the dorm. One accuses me of nicking her swipe card. I tell them to shut up, some of us old’ens are trying to sleep!

The next day we all take part in an epic treasure hunt – two teams – I am on Alison ‘Competitive’ Mulrooney’s team. We spend two hours running around Amsterdam taking ridiculous photos, finding clues and generally having a ball. Bec pops up just as we are about to announce the winning team. She is given the honour of announcing the winner. It’s US, we’ve won!!!!! ..um no we haven’t, Becs announced it wrong – well you can imagine the look on Alison’s face.. And we only lost by half a point!

The evenings festivities start with drinks in ‘our’ hotel room (yes I moved in – thanks Vicky, Rach & Christine for having me!) The Mr & Mrs quiz was brilliant!!! Of course Alison disputed all of Neil’s answers, but took her shot punishments like a man! Then it was on to the Legendary Amsterdam Supper club for a night of amazing food and drinks. What an fantastic experience it was, including the entertainer dressed as a bull, who crawled and rubbed his horns all over us! Once the night started to die down, we headed on to club #2, called Air! The night finished with drinks in the foyer of the hotel (whether the receptionist liked it or not). Top top night and hen do, with some AWESOME ladies. Roll on the wedding!

I flew back to Malaga on Sunday 12^th, meeting Gemma for a girlie catch-up. Unfortunately my flight was once again delayed, so I only arrived at the hotel around 10pm. Fortunately Sunday nights out in Spain are lively until late, so after a quick turnaround at the lovely hotel Gemma had booked for us, we headed out for some tapas. Malaga seems to be quite studenty, ended up in a karaoke bar, where we were accosted by some kind of Russian Oligarch who proceeded to suck Gemma’s finger when she wasn’t looking. Quick exit needed!!

The next day we got the coach to Linea De Conception, and then walked across the border to Gibraltar – Gemma made the mistake of saying Hola to the British customs man – he replied ‘Good Afternoon Madam’... hee hee. I would definitely recommend walking across the border to Gibraltar. As soon as you arrive it feels weirdly English, red post boxes, Winston Churchill Avenue and UK style police uniforms .

Mike: Gemma & Simon flew into Malaga to meet Mike late on Friday night. They all sailed to Puerto Banus together, where Gemma wisely jumped ship and the boys had a night out. I am still piecing together there night, but it involved gate-crashing an Asian stag do for a guy called Kesh (Who didn’t turn up to their booth in Linnekar’s Bar, so Simon & Mike stepped in – Despite there being a photo of him in his corner shop on the flat screen TV in the booth, and Si & Mike being quite clearly NOT Asian). The night ended with some of the hen dos at Linnekars giving them pity pole dances. They certainly enjoyed there night out in Puerto Banus! Though all the boozing and kebabs, didn’t help Simon’s sea sickness the next day..



12^th to 16^th April – Gibraltar

Distance: 0nm

Once we got to Gibraltar, Gem & I met up with the boys and had a nice lunch and what I termed as the ‘endless gin and tonic’ as it took me about two hours to drink it! Decided to save the sightseeing for the next day, but managed to summon enough energy to pop to Morrisons to pick up some cheese & meats for dinner. I think I was in bed by 10pm that night! Broken.

Revitalised after a good nights sleep and lack of alcohol the day before, we headed back to Bianca’s for their mammoth English brekkie in the front in the Marina. Then we walked up Main Street to the bottom of the cable car, ready to go up the rock. Poor Simon was a bit worried about going up in the cable car. I was nervous too, but have done it before, so knew what to expect. (Also know letting Mike know you are scared only encourages him to wind you up – duh!) It’s a lovely way to get up the rock, amazing views of the harbour, runway and marinas. You really get a sense of scale, Gibraltar is really quite tiny, with very little land outside the rock, which is why most of the marina development is reclaimed land.

Once at the top we checked out the fab views (shame it was a bit cloudy). Saw the very wily apes stealing packed lunches from the children – boy are they good at opening packets. They sit on railings with sheer drops below, like they are sitting on a park bench. Makes you feel vertigo-like just looking at them.

The boys had got themselves all excited about visiting the siege tunnels at the top of the rock. After a lovely sunny nature walk around the top of the rock (watching the gymnastics of baby apes), we checked out the tunnels/museum, which are well worth a visit. Miles of tunnels where dug out by hand by British miners. Quite a feat.

(The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British. France and Spain sought to secure Gibraltar, which was a key link in Britain's control of the Mediterranean Sea, and expected its capture to be relatively quick—a precursor to a Franco-Spanish invasion of Great Britain. At three years and seven months, it is the longest siege endured by the British Armed Forces. When the Rock was first besieged, the British garrison consisted of 5,382 troops. Spanish ground forces were composed of about 13,000 in all. A fleet of eleven ships and two frigates were placed in the Gulf of Cadiz to block the passage of British reinforcements. They didn’t succeed ;-))

As interesting as the museum and tunnels were, Gem and I were in dire need of some ‘refreshments’, so abandoned the boys and fled back down the rock to Casemate Square for a pint and some fish and chips!

We rendezvoused back on the boat. Time to get our glad rags on for a night on the town. We started off at a 5*boat hotel called ‘Sunborn’ which is moored in the marina pretty much right next to Disco Volante. It’s very swanky with great views. We had lovely cocktails in plush surroundings, great way to start the night out. Then we tried out a favourite ex-pat haunt called ‘Charlies Bar’. Lots of yacht crews in there – the waterproof count was high. Ended up playing pool with some locals which was fun. Then moved on to Brunos which is the liveliest bar later on. Met some more locals, who were heading to the casino, so we joined them. Must have been a bit tipsy as decided to be brave and have a go at Blackjack. And I came out up – it pays to tip the croupier! Then it was back to the boat for a little impromptu party until 3am. Fun fun fun.

Sadly Gem and Simon had to go the next day. Despite hangovers the boys managed to get up and go to the WW2 tunnels which they had missed the day before. Gem and I had a long lay-in, followed by cheese feast in their absence! Walked Gem & Si the 10mins it takes to get to the airport on foot. Then we sat on deck as we watched their plane take off metres from the boat – DON’T GO!!!!!!!!

We had just a day to fully re-provision the boat with all the British goodies we had been missing, before setting off once again, ready to meet up with Phil & Emily in Cadiz. Supermarket sweep here we come.



Fri 17^th April – Gibraltar to Bolonia anchorage

Distance: 27nm

Time to say a sad goodbye to the Med. Its been a mixed bag... Wonderful weather, no tides to worry about (just 30cms), Mediterranean style mooring (won’t miss that), weeks of un-sailable still winds resulting in more motoring that we anticipated, lobster pots (yuck), but warm welcomes, great food, calm turquoise seas. So with heavy hearts we set off from Gibraltar, down the strait, which can be a bit nasty with high winds and strong tidal streams. Luckily it was very calm, light winds and we ended up mainly motoring all the way. It’s quite spectacular with Europe on one side and the mountains of Africa seemingly just a few miles away. We weaved between plenty of anchored ships and avoided some tankers, listening intently to the radio and our last English port voices for a while. Autopilot on, we head to the front deck to watch the sunset and have a cool beer. Would have been quite a special moment, if we hadn’t have been attached by hundreds of wasps and horse flies, that started dive bombing the boat for about 3hrs. What a shame! I think they could hear my screams in Africa for sure! Arrived at one of our favourite anchorages just as the sun set. Luckily our new ‘friends’ disappeared once the sun went down.



Sat 18^th April – Bolonia anchorage to Cadiz

Distance: 47nm

Not a great days sailing from Bolonia to Cadiz. We set off just after 9am, but had 10kts of wind on our nose for most of the sail, which made for an uncomfortable ride. Made it into Marina Puerto America by 4:30pm. Just 14euros a night and had a warm welcome. Marina a bit far from town, but walkable. Decided to have night on board, ready for exploring the next day.



18^th – 22^nd April – Moored in Cadiz

Distance: 0nm

We were a little bit ahead of schedule, so had a few days to kill before Emily & Phil arrived to join us. Did some exploring around Cadiz, which is a lovely little town. Lots of tapas, pretty squares and a couple of nice urban beaches. We were feeling unhealthy, so decided it was wise to go for a 6k run in the middle of the days sun!! Pretty chuffed we actually made it, with a stop in the middle to catch our breath.

The highlight of these few days was a trip by ferry to El Puerto De Santa Maria, which is one of the towns in the so called ‘Sherry triangle’. Where all ‘real’ sherry grapes are grown and matured, before being bottled! What a cute little place. We booked a tour at the Osbornes sherry Bodega. IT was a gorgeous little spot and the tour was just plain fabulous. Really informative. Especially when they explain how they keep the cellars at the ideal temperature throughout the baking Andalusian summers, by opening and closing windows and spraying the cobble with water three times a day. The smell in the cellar was amazing!

At the end we were given an extremely generous tasting, we were left with 4 bottles of Sherry between eight of us. I thought I would prefer the dry ‘Fino’ sherry, but we actually both liked the sweet sherry in the end, which tastes just like bottled raisins. Yummy over ice-cream!

Rather tipsy we found a lovely seafront seafood restaurant for lunch and some super chilled white wine. Then it was time to get the ferry back to Cadiz. By this time the sea was getting very choppy and we had a big giggle as all the less in-the-know passengers sat in the perfect spot for a soaking as we laughed on in our dry seats!

Phil & Emily arrived early on the Wednesday morning after pulling an allnighter at Stanstead airport. These young pups have stamina I can tell you! We met them in the main square for a nice menu del dias lunch. We had a nice wonder around the town and went up the The Torre de Tavira (tower) which has amazing views of the city and has a camera obscura at the top, which was really fun.. ..well for everyone apart from Emily, who had an adverse reaction to the effect of the camera and keeled over!!! So we did the only sensible thing and dragged a dizzy Emily off for some sangria and tapas in a fab little restaurant near the seafront. Fab day.



Thurs 23^rd – Cadiz to Bonanza anchorage via Chipiona

Distance: 25nm

Time for Disco Volante to set sail again. We had planned to go as far as the marina in Chipiona where we could do some shopping more easily that in Cadiz, before our trip up the river to Seville, but when we arrived at the marina they informed us that we would have to wait about 4hrs until the tide came in to get the boat over the sand bank into the marina, which was shoal at low tide. We decided to anchor off the marina and dinghy in to do some shopping and then maybe anchor out that night. (After so long without tides being a problem, it really messes with your mind & plans). I volunteered to stay on board as the holding was a bit poor for the anchor over rocks. I was glad I did as almost as soon as they shore team left I heard a grating sound as the anchor started to drag very slowly into the beach. Luckily it was dragging anywhere fast, so I sat up on deck eagerly awaiting the return of the crew. Ended up having a very fruitfully spent time as I realised that there was a sweet anchorage around the first bend of the river in Seville and tides where right for us to get there that evening as long as the team where back by 6pm! Luckily they were back by 5:30pm and we put the shopping way, pulled up the anchor and headed around to the mouth of the river. A LOT of shipping goes up the river to Seville, including some very large tankers, so we saw lots traffic as we followed the buoyed channel into the river. Including lots of fisherman, seemingly heading home in a hurry, presumably in time for tea.. The anchorage at Bonanza was great, loads of room and very calm as the boat is held into the flow of the water by the current, only turning as the tide does. Its quite trippy when you know you are moving, but the speedo shows 2-3kts as the water flows past the log!



Fri 24^th April – Bonanza to Gelves Marina, Seville

Distance: 47nm

Headed off at lunchtime as we were again at the mercy of strong river tides. Its a very long strongly tidal river and unfortunately I think we got the tides a bit wrong as we had tide against us for most of the journey meaning 2-4kts against us at times. There also isn’t much to see along the river, unlike the infinitely prettier Rio Guadiana. We had to hand steer most of the way, taking 30min slots, constantly adjusting course around river bends which went down to 2m. Phil and Emily cooked a lovely curry as we went along and a few hours before arriving into the marina we had hundreds of fish jumping out of the water into our wake, which was a welcome sight!

Much diesel later we arrived in the marina, no one was there as it was so late, but we jumped on a finger pontoon and hoped the depth was deep enough for our draught! Eventually a Marinero turned up and we managed to work out the depth was OK for us and that we could pay at the office on Monday morning.



Sat 25^th – Mon 27^th April – Seville (Feria De Seville)

Distance: 0nm

It was great to wake up in Seville. We were excited about checking out the fair, which by complete fluke happened to be happening when we were there. I had been years before when my Brother Tim lived in Seville, so I knew what it was all about! We took the bus into the centre of Seville. We had tickets to visit the Cathedral. Emily had booked us a group advance ticket, which ended up being genius as we got to use the group entrance, which had no queue, compared to the main entrance that had a massive queue. It’s a really stunning cathedral. The interior is quite plain by Spanish cathedral standards, but at the same time it is gigantic in side, with extremely high ceilings and beautiful for its simplicity. The cathedral also houses the supposed tomb of Christopher Columbus. It is still debated whether, some, none or all of his skeleton actually made it back from the Dominican Republic where he was originally buried. Non the less, his tomb is very beautiful and it is indeed his final resting place, he’ll be pretty chuffed! Some of the cathedral was part of an 11^th century moorish palace and retains its courtyard filled with Orange trees. Very pretty. The bell tower called The Giralda is still standing (With modifications) and is well worth the crowded climb. From above you really get a feel for the layout of the grand cathedral.

After a quick tapas lunch, we headed across the river to the site of the Feria. We had already started to see people dressed up in Flamenco dresses and riding horse drawn carriages, some with six horses pulling them. Its an atmospheric walk and before you know it you arrive at the painted archway of the fair. We had a walk around all the streets which are erected each year and contain ‘casetas’ or wooden marquees – all decked out with lace and lanterns and brightly painted. Most are owned by families and businesses, which have had them for years and years. Most of these you can only go into by invitation, but the government also puts up large public Casetas, which is where we could go for drinks and tapas. (I’d been lucky enough to get invited into a family caseta when I visited Tim, so knew the rules) The casetas open up around 10am and finally close around 5am. People drink day and night for 5 days, tapas much needed to soak up the alcohol! We did as the locals and drank jugs of rebujito (a mix of dry sherry and 7up). It’s pretty potent stuff, no wonder the flamenco dancing is so wild!!!!!! Just wondering around is lovely. A real fashion parade. From lunchtime until 5pm, families arrive by carriage and parade around the streets in all there finery. Quite a sight!!! Crossing the road after a few sherries is a bit challenging to say the least!

What should you do after imbibing way too much sherry – well scary fairground ride of course. So off we go to the rollercoaster and pirate ships of the aptly named ‘Hell street’. Managed to keep down the sherry, but screamed myself hoarse. Best bit definitely when we took Phil into the haunted house, OMG he s@#t his pants. At one point using Emily as a human shield. Who’d have guessed Phil is scared of ghosts!?!

We left the Feria about 11pm and managed to find some late night tapas – this is Spain after all. Then we checked out some bars close to the Bullring, which has daily bull fights over the Feria weekend. A lot of the bars showed bullfighting on the TV, it is pretty horrific, I certainly had no plans to EVER attend one!!!!

He next day we had a slow start, with rather nasty sherry hangovers. We headed back into town for some tapas and to see the midnight firework display that marks the end of the Feria. Emily had been surviving on Spanish Omelette and mushrooms for far too long, so we managed to find a Moroccan style tapas restaurant which had tons of veggie choices. My guidebooks helpful advice to vegetarians in Spain is this – Say you are a Vegetarian, explain you don’t eat meat OR fish. Then add that you also don’t eat HAM either, as it would appear that Spaniards do not consider ham as meat and frequently add this to vegetarian food to give it some flavour – OH DEAR! It ended up being one of our favourite meals, amazing food! With rather full tummies (We ordered so much, they pulled over an extra table to load the food onto, whoops), we waddled over to the riverside to watch the fireworks from the feria. Lovely evening, with quite incredible fireworks.. ..and all for free!!

Monday was our last day in Seville, and after an abortive attempt to find an outdoor pool or beach bar type place, we had a picnic in Plaza Espana, a quite stunning Square (surprisingly recently built – 1928). It’s almost completely tiled and has a little benched a for each province of Spain. We decided to have lunch in ‘Toledo’, which proved to be a rather popular province and we had to keep moving out of our seats while presumably Spanish tourists took pictures. Afterwards we hired a rowing boat and the boys rowed the girls around a semi-circular moat, very Venice like, while we swigged prosecco from plastic champagne flutes.. We then took a pleasant walk through the city and various parks, heading to the Corte Ingles department store, which has a nice roof terrace with great views of the city. Cocktail o’clock!!!! We had some lovely drinks and food on the roof and then Mike had a hankering for Jazz, so found a sweet little jazz bar around the corner with wine for 1.50 euros. The music and atmosphere was great. Brilliant end to our mini-break with Phil & Emily.



Tue 28^th April – Gelves Marina to Bonanza

Distance: 47nm

Time to head back down the river. This time we got the tides pretty spot on and got down the river in 7hrs, which was better than the 10hrs it took to get upriver. We anchored in the same spot, which was even less busy this time. Settling down for a night of DVDs we heard a few big ships go past, then one suddenly got very close. Mike popped his head up, only to see a massive coast guard ship pulling up alongside. Quick dash to get dressed and we were boarded by two very rugged looking customs officers. They took all our info and did a very quick search of the boat. It was all very amicable, but still a bit of a shocker! ..and for some reason they filmed the whole thing. Watch out, we may be on Spanish TV some time soon!



Wed 29^th April – Bonanza to Mazagon

Distance: 35nm

Another days motor-sailing into headwinds. Yuck. Very happy to arrive into Mazagon. On arrival we tied up to the waiting pontoon, while the marina office was on siesta. Met some crazy singing Russians on a catamaran who invited us board, but we said no.. Probably wise.

Quiet night in pretty marina.



Thu 30^th April – Mazagon to Vila Real de Santo Antonio (VRSA)

Distance: 35nm

Mixed bag of sailing today – sails up, motor-sailing, motoring, repeat. Nightmarish amount of lobster pots to avoid on the sail, goodness knows how you would do this coastline by night!!! Lots of swerving to avoid trios of pots!!!! Arrived pretty much on time into the mouth of the Rio Guadiana and the marina for the night. Needed to enter on slack water as the there is no wall protecting the marina from the river tides and this marina is very tightly packed with boats, leaving little room for manoeuvre or mistakes. The marinero directed onto the end of a pontoon, then insisted in turning our boat on ropes, shouting orders at us in Portuguese that we didn’t really understand. We only got what he meant half was through. Not the greatest of entries to a new country/marina. Drink needed – so we headed into the pretty little town for a much needed G&T and some food.



Fri 1^st – Mon 4^th May – Up & down the Rio Guadiana

Distance: 19nm + 19nm = 38nm

My Auntie Rona & Uncle David joined us for a long weekend on the Rio Guadiana. (One of our favourite stops on the way out) They flew in super early to Faro and drove to meet us at the marina. We had to rush to leave when they arrived as we need to catch the tide, so a quick hello and beer and we were off upriver! The Rio Guadiana is very beautiful, with mudflats and all the bird life that attracts. It’s very green and unspoilt, with just the odd yacht or tiny white house dotting the landscape. It is part of the natural border between Spain and Portugal and as Portugal is on UK time, it makes for interesting timings when you dinghy from one side of the river to the other – no passports needed! We made it up to our anchorage for the night in about three hours, so made really good time. Friday was a public holiday in Portugal and we could hear quite a party going on on the Portuguese side of the river! The guy playing the accordion, was playing for his life, but quite ruining our peaceful night on the river. After a lovely BBQ we decided if you can’t beat them, then join them and dingyed over to Portugal for a quick drink. Just as we arrived the music stopped, so we had a peaceful G&T looking out on the river.

We woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of David pointing out rather a lot of debris hanging off Disco Volantes anchor chain. Mike shot up on deck to find what can only be described as a storks nest of bamboo, twigs and logs firmly wedged around the chain. Cue much poking with sticks as we all hung over the side of the boat trying to remove them! Then to add to the excitement, Mike had to be winched up the mast as the anchor light had stopped working – thankfully it was just a loose bulb, but it was a great excuse for some photos from on top of the mast.

It was turning into an absolutely boiling day, so we all headed over to the river beach bar (complete with artificial beach) for a swim and a cool beer. Feeling a bit peckish we looked for somewhere for lunch, but nothing in Portugal appealed, so we dingued over to Spain, only to find everything shut! Back to the boat it was for a nice smorgasbord of cheese and meats. Then a chilled evening of fillet steak, dominoes and wine!

After a quick Portuguese breakfast it was time to sail back down the river, sad times. We had a bit of wind though – so got our crew working the ropes of the genoa, to give us some speed getting down the river. Rona & David were naturals! We got back into the marina with ease. Mike was able to reverse in and avoid the rather stressful boat turning incident of last time!!! SKILLS!!

Time for some farewell din dins to celebrate a wonderful weekend! David was determined to find some yummy clams he had had in Portugal before, trouble was our Portuguese was collectively and despite much googling we couldn’t work out the right word for clam in Portuguese. We finally found a place – that must be the word for Clams right??? Clams ordered.. ..oh dear, they aren’t clams, they are actually baby cuttlefish, in ink. Very fishy. Very chewy. Pretty damn disgusting now you mention it. But it was the only food we had ordered, we couldn’t claim we were full. Air play to the boys, they manned right up and took those cuttlefish by the proverbial horns (or tenticles as it happened). They chewed at least half of those clams up, before it all became too much for Rona & I. We started to laugh, then couldn’t stop.. It wasn’t helping the situation. We got told to stop laughing, which of course makes you laugh more!! In fact I was long overdue a good laugh like that, we laughed until we felt sick. In fact David and Mike did feel sick. And started doing cuttlefish burps. Time to escape. Literally. I quickly wrapped the remaining cuttlefish in a napkin, put it in my pocket, a feast for the seagulls later!

Now time to find some proper dinner. Rona and I quick tiddly by now. We all just need to eat, especially the boys who need to urgently remove the cuttlefish taste from their mouths. Find a restaurant with very keen waiter trying to get us in – we should have smelled a rat at this point, but we were just so hungry! In we went innocently, to what was quite clearly ‘Marcos’ Mums restaurant.

Let the comedy night continue!! Bless Marco and his enthusiasm. He delightedly explained the menu. The chips were a speciality, home made no less. Nothing frozen here, everything fresh. Regaled us with stories of him one being very fat, but now he had lost weight. I was pretty sure we were being secretly followed by a Portuguese film crew, this place was unreal. Mike’s steak arrived completely buried under a pile of chips - well why not, those chips were a speciality after all, why not showcase them??? Sod the steak. Rona ordered the speciality chips, but got something else entirely. The giggles started again. Swift exit made. Found goodbyes to Marco, bless him.

Off we went to a bar, for a gin and tonic. Nothing could go wrong with that could it. Simples. Alas I ordered the most expensive gin none to man. 14euros for Monkey 47 gin and tonic, with annoying pieces of grated orange peel that got in your teeth and ruined what would otherwise be a sublime gin. Oopsy – Sorry David. You can dine out on that one for a few weeks!

To add insult to injury, guess what we found on sale outside the entrance of Lidls the next day, only a guy selling the ‘infamous’ clams out of a bucket.. ;-)



As you can see we had a fab month, with lovely friends and family to keep us company. I desperately need to catch up on my blog for May now, so expect another beast in the next few days.

I am having a lovely time sipping a large G&T in the rather lovely yacht club we are going to be stranded in for a week, whilst finishing this. I declined Mike’s offer to climb up a large hill in lieu of catching up on the blog, what a shame. .



Lots of love



Sarah & Mike xxx



p.s. Apologies for any spelling mistakes, Mike is up a hill and unable to do his normal reviewing before I post this.

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Photos

View from the roof terrace of Gemma & I's hotel in Malaga
Lovely girlie time - even if we did have to escape some unwanted male attention on our night out!

Roof top pool in Malaga
Shame there was no time for a dip!

Boys eating ice-cream Bianca's restaurant, Gibraltar
They had clearly spent to much time together!

We were moored right next to the monster
Just 750k a week to hire. Blocked our view!

Sarah chilling on deck through the straights of Gibraltar
Just before the bugs attacked!

Very generous sherry tasting @ Osbornes!
We tried and failed to finish it all between 8 of us!