Pescado... it's 'fish' in Spanish (South to Almerimar)

 

I’m writing this 4 metres above the ground, on the hard, in a dry and dusty boatyard in Almerimar.. but I’m getting ahead of myself, the trip to get down here being noteworthy.

We had some long day sails, sun up to sundown that were genuinely lovely. Occasionally having the engine on to help us along here and there we mainly glided under the force of the wind down the South Eastern coast of Spain. Bit of swell in the evenings, but not too bad that you couldn’t sleep, you’d just be woken now and again if the roll got out of hand for a moment or two.

We met our first Spanish dolphins, they seem as delightfully playful as their Greek counterparts

We’re also seeing an increased number of flying fish, somewhere between the size of your finger and a sausage - with a silvery flash they zip across the surface seemingly defying gravity for long distances - up to 10 metres or so.

...but the fish news doesn’t end there!

Having purchased a shiny new rod and lure in Cartagena, I tried it out: The first excitement inducing squeal from the reel turned out to be a saturated tree branch that I’d snagged as it floated along under the surface. Branches aren’t good eating, so I returned it to the water.

At the end of one of those long day sails I mentioned, I began reeling in my line the as we neared our anchorage. As the lure skipped out of the water for a second it must have been spotted, and a dinner for two sized tuna took the bait. So with the rod doing it’s second squeal of the day, I managed to land my first tuna without too much rod bending difficulty.

Now it wasn’t going to break any records in a Japanese fish market - but I was happy.

The 3 year long fishing drought has definitely ended: I caught another 3 the following morning. Returning 2 to the water and retaining one for dinner, which I filleted rubbed in lemon zest and juice, salt, pepper, and fried in butter - delishious (yes.. with an 'h'!).

Chez, not a fan of killing animals or having lots of blood on the deck for that matter, took a slightly less excitable view of the proceedings.

So that was the journey here.

Almerimar is a sprawling low rise marina town that I’d describe architecturally as a cross between a golf resort, The Truman show, and a previously clean and sculptured time share complex that's gone slightly to seed.

There seems to be a large expat Brit community here, mainly locals I suspect mixed in with the last remnants of this seasons holiday makers enjoying the still warm late Summer sun. The marina staff have been efficient, but generally not overly talkative, not so the locals in the boatyard who’ve been all smiles and story sharing. Chez having to save me at one point - I;m trying to paint, and one of the boatyard locals realised that although he’d been here for 30 years, I hadn’t, and was kindly proceeding to fill me in on everything I’d missed!

Spent the first two days out of the water cleaning, sanding and antifoul painting the hull, the next two on rudder, plumbing and electrics.. and now I'm taking it easy for the weekend.