River Guadiana to Cadiz, Spain

On 4th July we managed to get the hook out of the Guadiana glue and coast hopped down to Cadiz. We made a short stop at Isla Christina to get a new furling line at the Fishermans Harbour (VAT free). Not a particularly interesting town but made the most of it.

We then sailed down the coast accompanied by dolphins to El Rompido and a really lovely anchorage. We managed to anchor first off just off the seaward side of the river - it being the weekend it was somewhat busy, but they all go home at the end of the day.

We spend a couple of days there and then moved up the river some 3 miles and managed to anchor just east of the fuel dock opposite the small town. Great little resort town, with a couple of small supermarkets and a slightly larger one located in the resort near the lighthouse.

Were able to dinghy across to the ferry landing stage and take the boardwalk across to the sea beach. Spent a wonderful few days just chilling out and walking on the beach.

11th July and it is time to head for Cadiz. After a smashing sail we managed to anchor round on the inland side of Cadiz just next to where they are building a new bridge. Great shelter from the SE through to the NW. There is a small sport fisher marina ashore where you can leave your dinghy securely - they made us very welcome. The old Town is within walking distance and after a day sightseeing we caught the No. 5 bus back to the anchorage.

There is also a very large Department store/Supermarket within a 5-minute walk so provisioning was a doddle.

We were able to take the bikes ashore - Cadiz is very bike friendly and we were able to leave them locked in the marina for the duration of our stay there, which was very handy. We also tamed up with another British couple and enjoyed a few evenings ashore in the Tapas bars.  You can pick up a Tapas Passport from the TIC - you have to visit 6 Tapas Bars and enjoy Tapas and a glass of wine and  get the passport stamped, you then go to the TIC where they validate your passport and hand over 3 bottles of wine per person.  The Tapas cost us 2 a total of 36euro - the 6 bottles of wine are selling for 3.45euro a bottle, and it is good wine :) 

When the wind swung around to the east we up anchored and sailed across the bay to Puerto Sherry which has an anchorage behind the training wall opposite the Marine. This anchorage is only really open to the South, so we made good use of both anchorages sailing back and forth as wind dictated.

We caught the bus (3.5 Euro each) to visit Jarez so that I could see the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art performance, something that I had wanted to do for many years. Unfortunately you were unable to take photos during the show but when the Tall ships visited Cadiz - an unexpected added bonus, as part of the event the School put on a performance each night and I was able to take photos then - magic.

30^th July and we have booked our flights home for 10^th October and booked the mooring in Faro for the month (120 euro) for S’Ours so we are now making plans to move on and are looking at sailing across to Tanger in Morocco and maybe Rabat if we have the time - watch this space.