The Levanter just kept blowing! After 40 knot Easterly winds for well over a week, it turned and a weather window of 2 days opened up to allow us to leave Cadiz, before another Levanter came in. We broke the trip into 2 parts - around Cape Trafalgar (another infamous cape) to Barbate where we waited for 8 hours before leaving at 4am to catch a favourable tide (it runs upto 4 knots) for the Strait of Gibraltar.
 

We are still in Cadiz waiting for the Levanter (strong easterly wind which blows through the Strait of Gibraltar) to die down and the wind to go westerly, which is not forecast until at least next Monday. With over 40 knots of head wind and the resulting sea state, the Levanter makes it too dangerous to round Cape Trafalgar and too difficult to make passage through the Straits, but with a city that's steeped in history on our doorstep there's plenty to see and do.
 

After a great sail from Rota, we are now in the Historic City of Cadiz - which we find to be a fantastic city. As well as visiting the many historical sights and museums, we've also been lucky enough to arrive during the 500 year anniversery of the death of Christopher Columbus and had chance to view some of the commemorative processions in the streets leading to the Cathedral. (note: Angie isn't in any of the pic's as she seems to take the best ones!)
 

With an early start, we caught the bus from Chipiona to Sevilla; a journey of two and a half hours. Andalucia's capital city was hot, hot, hot at about 40°C. We enjoyed a visit to the Cathedral, which is the largest in the World, where we had chance to view the tomb of Christopher Columbus and climb the Giralda Tower. The Moorish Giralda Tower is said to be one of the most important Islamic buildings in the World. The Alcazar was closed so we wandered the famous streets of Santa Cruz, went down to the Bullring to see the statue of Carmen (of the Opera fame) and then along the river to the impressive Plaza de Espana.
 

We have finally left Lagos (aka. Port Velco). We headed out on 10th May and made a 22 hour, 113nM passage across the Bay of Cadiz to land at Chipiona in Spain. We had a horrible short sea to endure, little wind for most of it and a hell of a lot of fishing boats! Arrived safe and well - just a little tired. Plan to see Sevilla from here and then sail onto Rota.
 

The work continues in Lagos as we have our first 'foreign' haul out. Hitrapia has had a fresh application of antifoul paint (we decided to revert back to her original black), a full polish and wax and even a new silver coveline. The new cockpit table is complete and our new electronic autohelm installed. After 3 weeks on the hard, we will soon be ready to get moving along the coast and into the Med.