Friday 18^th April – Barbate

36:11.039N 5:56.018W

We had a sleepless night last night with the wind howling overhead.  Somewhere in the middle of the night, a new creaking noise developed which warranted investigation.  It turned out to be the fenders being squeezed to within an inch of their lives against the pontoon, despite us being in an incredibly well sheltered position behind a concrete wall in the marina – something to do with the 47+ knots of wind we were in.  Fortunately (?) the rain then started, dampening down the creaking and the wind then eased to just gale force.

After more rain this morning the skies have cleared giving us sun most of the day with heavy cloud scudding by both inland and offshore; however, the wind has continued to blow quite strongly around F5-7.  Even the fishing boats are moored up today, and one large ship which has been outside for the last few days has come in and anchored right in the harbour mouth for some shelter from the swell.

Amazingly an English boat which came in last night has headed out again this morning to go to Gib – must be something about steel boats.

We have had a quiet day catching up on some rest after last night and a few jobs.  The forecast for tonight is for the same again L