We have spent a couple of days in Rosas (expensive berthing) sheltering from the strong winds that have been blowing through, but the forecast for today was fine with only 8/9 kts of wind from the north, then decreasing and veering round to the east…..looked like being another motorsailing day down to Palamos.

When we left Rosas we were sailing along with maybe a bit more wind than the forecast – can’t be sure of exactly what the wind speed was as the bloody wind instrument has now given up the ghost completely – but still it was lovely to be gently moving again under sail.

This didn’t last too long, as the wind just kept increasing and the sea just kept rising, in one of the gusts coupled with a largish wave Sun Dog tried to slip her lead, and just as I headed out to reduce the headsail we were registering 8kts+ (speed through the water), when we were hit by this sizeable wave (sic) Sara who had been lying down below feeling a bit poorly, shot horizontally off the settee, with her progress across the boat being stopped only by the saloon table.

On Sun Dog 8kts speed through the water, (and in these conditions) is a wee bit beyond the boats hull speed and indeed as it takes a fair blow before she will do this kind of speed – so it was a bit of a relief to get the sails shortened, and also a relief when Sara picked herself up off the floor…..as James Bond would say “shaken but not stirred”, and a real shame especially with her feeling so poorly.

The strong winds stayed with us all the way down, and I was so pleased that they were constantly from the North because I would not have enjoyed hours of bashing into these waves………..

On the way down the coast we passed LlaFranc where Sara and I stayed around 20 years ago when going around Europe on the motorbike, and I was taken aback at the sheer volume of boats on swinging moorings within the bay.

It was also around here that the waves started to subside and the winds eased off a fair amount to around F6, then decreasing again to F4/5 as we were getting more shelter from the land.

All we had left to do was go between a rocky group of islands called Islas Hormigas and the mainland

and then a straightforward run down and into the marina.

We called them on the way down and were told to go to the fuel pontoon and we would then be told which berth would be allocated. We reiterated that we had pre-booked by e-mail some time ago hoping they would just allocate a berth number over the phone – but fuel berth it had to be!

We were duly met and told to go into D14 and this was down a really narrow alley, when I say narrow I mean narrow, Sun Dog would be too long to fit across between the parked boats. I got the boat parked and started breathing again, and with her all nicely secured I went down to the Office to do all the paperwork. During our conversation in the office, it transpired that we had been allocated the wrong berth and they asked us to move to A14 – hard to believe but things happen!

Back onboard I explained this to Sara, who unfortunately has been feeling pretty grim this afternoon and had been a bit ickky…..I said we could just leave things till later, but o’ no, she wanted to help get us to the correct berth, so that we could get totally settled.

Now all those that have manoeuvred boats, will understand that sometimes it’s easier getting into a berth, and quite another getting back out especially in strongish winds. This coupled with the narrowness of the alley, and Sun Dog being a long keeler, had me a wee bit thoughtful about getting out. The only way it could be done was to reverse out the berth, and reverse back down the alley (absolutely no room to turn) this coupled with the wind, was doing it’s best to help get the insurance documents ready for a claim ! 🙂

We made it safely back out into the main body of the marina, at which point I started breathing again, and parked up easily in A14 as there was more room. When I say more room it’s all relative because back home if boats were parked this close there would be a hue and cry. However we were happy to finally tie the boat up, especially with Sara feeling so miserable – so we are not going anywhere today.