Windy at Garrucha

When I woke this morning the sun was already up and even up here in the mountains it was hot.

We had a leisurely breakfast served up by Laura.
It was lovely and I could have easily stayed another day with Paul and Laura being the perfect hosts but we had to keep going otherwise Maeve would be left sitting in Faro wondering where her boat and husband were.
So far I had been able to stick to my schedule, being in the right place at the right time to drop off and pick up my crew. It would never do to have my wife the first casualty of a delay

Paul brought us the scenic route back to Garrucha, showing us various places along the way.
We dropped off the Mary’s at a supermarket just outside the town to provision, while Paul brought Dave and I back to Eureka so the we could get her ready for departure as we were a little bit behind time.
I was planning to sail overnight and hopefully make our next stop somewhere near Malaga and then onto Gibraltar.

Paul went back and collected the girls but when they arrived back the wind was after rising and was blowing a good twenty knots, a fresh to strong breeze.
By the time the food was stored and Paul had left to go home, I had decided to stay put until the it died down a bit. Unfortunally the forecast was a bit uncertain so I didn't know if the wind was going to increase more or not.

It was blowing from the south east which meant that we would be on a beat for the first few hours as we headed south before a change of course at the next headland would allow us to bear away a bit and have it easier as we began to head south west.
The name of that headland is ‘Punta de Los Muertos’ which in English means ‘Point of the Dead’. There usually is a good reason for the names given to such places and this one didn't sound too friendly. It would have also been a lee shore and I wasn’t about to put myself, the crew or the boat to the test again when it could be avoided by staying put for a few hours longer.

I decided to wait till I could see what the forecast was going to do. The crew were left free to roam and we'd meet back at the marina at 17.00 and see what the story was at that stage.

Dave and myself did a few small jobs on the boat, the biggest being Dave going up the mast to repair the lazy jacks which had broken off Sardinia.
Later both of us went up the town where he was able to get his glasses fixed by a friendly optician who refused to accept payment.

We had a good walk around Garrucha which included enough coffee to keep us awake for at least the next 24 hours before ending up at a bar near the marina to get Wi-Fi for an accurate forecast where we were found by the two Mary's.

We were able to give them the good news that the weather was looking good for tomorrow and that I planned to leave at dawn to try to make up a bit of ground.
After a drink or two at the marina bar we headed back to Eureka where the two Mary’s produced a lovely meal and with full bellies we headed to bed looking forward to tomorrow.Read more