Rota

We say farewell to our friends from Yacht Luna. They are taking part in the Atlantic rally for Cruisers so unfortunately our paths will no longer be crisscrossing. We move to an anchorage near the entrance of the lagoon. We have a long trip ahead of us so we have to wake early the next morning to leave at first light so we arrive to Rota before dark.
Ronan and I have happy memories of a holiday we had in Rota on Donal and Margaret’s boat when I was pregnant with Ruby. It is a quiet beach town across the bay from Cadiz.
We leave lovely Culatra at dawn and with a swirl of tide we are spat out of the Lagoon at 9.5 knots.
We have wind and with two reefs in the main we turn off the engine and have a glorious but unfortunately short- lived sail. The engine is turned back on as the wind moves around to our bow. When we are an hour away from Rota the clouds change and the wind strengthens to 25 knots- It’s the Levant wind blowing up from Gibraltar.
We spend several days in Rota and get to grips with the new reality of home schooling. We would all much prefer to be at the beach. We get there in the afternoons and have great watching helicopters go back and forth from the nearby Spain and American Naval bases.
Ruby and Colm discover their new favourite chain store; Ale-Hop -it’s even better than flying tiger.
We are delighted to meet Steve and Helen from Yacht Allegrini and discover they plan on wintering in Cartagena like us. They have the same boat as Mags and Liam Drennan and we find out they already know each other! It’s a small world.Läs mer