The Spanish border with Portugal in Andalucia; is the River Guadiana, we saw it in the distance from sea. Another motoring day as there was no wind. We were heading to El Rompido, supposedly the nicest anchorage on the coast. It has a tricky entrance with very shallow waters, so we knew it would be a challenge. We were guided by two pilot books, probably the sandbanks had moved, that is the reason all the waypoints we had were wrong . The entrance marked in the books were nonexistent. We managed to find the leading buoys to the channel but when attempting it, we almost went aground with the waves pushing us ashore. The sun has set and it  was getting dark, so we headed to Mazagon, the nearest marina that we where able to enter, ten miles away.  The entrance was well marked and we had no trouble getting in the Marina, as we settled to a beer the security guard came along wanting to see papers and move us to a berth. By the time the boat was moored properly it was 11pm local time. The following day was working day, servicing the engine and doing some cosmetic work on Nomad Life. The previous night when we arrived, we scraped the side on a damaged part of the pontoon which had a piece of metal sticking out. We pointed it out to the Harbourmaster, Javier, who was very apologetic. But his friendliness won us over and later we swapped emails as he was interested in wildlife pictures for his project together with the Junta de Puertos de Andalucia for the preservation of dolphins and local fauna. When we mentioned that we are heading to Seville, as it is his birth town, he offered to send us a itinerary of touristy places to visit. 

River Guadalquivir and Seville

The journey to Seville ,up the river was again very hot, no wind and 50 miles to do. We were told the tide times by the marina in Chipiona but they were wrong by 2 hours. So we struggled for the first two hours with 3 knots against us. After 4 hours the tide had turned and we shot up the river riding a 3 knot current, making 8.5 knots over ground.  The mouth of the river is adjacent to the Coto Donana, a natural reserve full of different species of birds, further up the river the landscape becomes very arid and the air dry, desert like. The river is busy with commercial vessels, oil tankers, which made the trip exciting , as it is a narrow river and the wash from the boats can be quite violent. Trying to spot the buoys hidden behind the trees with a binocular was our main entertainment throughout the featureless journey, we even had a little competition  to see who spotted it first. Graham won (just to keep him happy). 

We arrived at the Marina de Gelves in the afternoon and anchored for the night outside  just pulling in the following day ,to save money. We didn't know that this would be our cheapest Marina ever during the whole trip, we ended up having a free stay! The marina office was shut at weekend and when enquired how we can pay the only staff around told us to pay next time when come to Seville!!! 

Despite the heat we made Sevilla by bus, it was a hard work to walk around the Santa Cruz quarter, Triana and the Cathedral. The buildings are superbly preserved and all the glory of the old days are still showing all around the city. Recommended by Javier, we hit Triana for Tapas, each one costing less than 2 euros! Sevilla was worthy another night stay to explore it better. Again the heat was unbearable so we took the bus back late afternoon for a walk around the town in the evening.

Cadiz Bay

From Chipiona we had, for a first time in a long time, good winds and could actually sail all the journey to Puerto Sherry. Nomad Life was hitting 8 knots. We found an anchorage late in the afternoon, just outside of the marina. The swells from the bay made the boat rock and we had three sleepless nights rolling in bed. Feeling tired we crossed the bay to the Marina Porto America. That was early morning alarm call, with winds hitting 30 knots and 2 metres waves. The marina is in the docks so the surroundings are not great but it is only 10 minutes walk from Cadiz. A very charming university city, with narrow streets opening into loads of squares. There is an 18th century wall that surrounds the old town, which looks quite Moorish. The cathedral is huge and worth a visit. The city was a  launching point for the journey to the newly discovered lands of America. Again we extended our stay as Cadiz was worth a second day visit. Cadiz at night is a different city all together, shops and buildings come in to life with night lights. The restaurants are either full of locals or tourists but they are side by side. 

Barbate

We left Cadiz and again admired the beautiful city this time from the sea. As we approached the Strait we  could see Morocco from distance. Spain is having huge problems with illegal immigrants from Africa , especially Morocco. Tarifa is the nearest point with Morocco just under 8 miles way. No surprise that the Guarda Costeira (Coast Guard) had a close look at our boat, probably checking for potential smuggling of illegal immigrants. They came very near but then departed. Approaching Barbate we were aware of the famous tunny nets, they are laid not far from the coast that stretches for miles in a funnel shape. Getting caught on one means serious damage. We saw one well marked just before Cabo Trafalgar, but nothing rounding the Cabo into Barbate.  Once we were happily moored a 43 ft yacht arrived next us, a charter full of 6 very drunk and extremely loud Spanish on a stag do and 1 poor skipper! Nice job!!!!!!