The Catamaran Adventures of Noel and Ceu

Guadalquivir River to Bonanza

Current Location: Almonte, Andalucía, Spain
Current Position: 36 48.47 N 006 20.62 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 36 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

We just left Sevilla 2 days ago. We had a great trip back down the River again. First day made it to about half way, and the next morning we weighed anchor and set off at flood time. It was a lot more traffic around this time, ships, motor boats, maybe because it was weekend?? Even a couple of guys crossing the River on their paddle, surf boards carrying goods: boxes and a big tin.

We were sure coming down fast with such strong current, till the wind picks up to 20 kts against us, about then, tide was turning too. Timing was good at least….we were just about arriving at our planed stop for the night at Bonanza. It was a beautiful sunset and we anchored just before dark. That was last night.

That was the night, we had our first winter storm. And no! Noel is not going to write about it, because the title would be THE STORM…and my kids at home get very worried! (I just prefer not give it away in the title, prefer a smoother approach!) Noel would also tell you though, it was fun. About midnight the winds had picked up and lots of rain too. The river was not smooth either, there were big waves and noisy anchor chain with all the current rushing by. This morning was dark till almost 9am. Although we enjoyed our lazy morning in bed, we got up and checked the wind, it was up to 39kts. Still raining too, but it didn’t stop Noel from walking in the rain all around the boat and enjoying it. We had not seen rain for months and temperatures have always been 30 and over, up until Sevilla.

After lunch the rain had stopped and the sun was out. We crossed the River into the town of Bonanza in search of internet, or most importantly to recharge our data Vodafone stick. After many stops, which they all seemed to be Movistar, Noel practices little but real Spanish, and I practice lots of my Portinhol. Sometimes they understand me, sometimes they don’t. But that’s only because they’re not speaking the right Spanish which I was just speaking in the last city, the language seems to change as we move along! Seriously, today I asked for matches “fosforos” at the store, she didn’t understand me, I even confirmed on my dictionary before I went out. She called them something else. And sure enough it’s even written fosforos in the box!

Still hunting along for internet. They all tell us to go ‘recto’ ‘deretcho’ (straight on) …we finally get to a Vodafone place. Only to find the doors closed! They had just closed for lunch. But not just for lunch. They close at 1,30 and reopen at 6pm. That’s a nice long siesta!

We bought the stick in Sevilla, paid 30 euros . They told us it was good for 3 months, or 1gb. Thanks to the beautiful work Noel does here with the blogging…..it also lasted only 2days, and we are still now searching for a place to recharge our stick. After not having success with that, all we wanted to check was the weather as we plan to leave tomorrow am.

Finally we found an internet café. Great! Not so great. We were not allowed to plug in our laptop. Noel has all his grib files on there.

We kept walking and Noel turned on cell phone and checking for some wifi in the area. Sure enough, we had some connection. But don’t bother looking for any comfy seat or a park bench. As you walk there, or even few feet forward, or backwards, you lose it and there goes the weather! Just sit down now, right here in the side walk. It was quite funny! It worked well. Did some grocery shopping and came home.

We are now checking tides for when to leave in the morning. We have a short trip to Cadiz. But Noel is busy also getting lots of info about sailing the tricky Gibraltar straits, that’s where we are going in a few days.

Looking forward to visiting Cadiz.

Will get back to you when we find a Vodafone store. If you can read this, congratulations to us! Only then, this blog post will be uploaded.

Update: just arrived at the marina in Cadiz.

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