Calais

Hello Everyone,

Since leaving Lisbon, we have been slowly making our way down the Portuguese coast, stopping at anchor or in marinas on the way. We are enjoying the little medieval streets and castles in the old parts of the town, eating our fill of Portuguese food and pasteis de nata (Portuguese tarts) and generally just having a good time with Jan and Nick. We rented a car for two days and went inland to some little towns and villages. We saw some storks in one of them. They were nesting on street lamps, palm trees etc. Some had babies in their nests. We are now in Spain, the little town of Rota having been our first stop. It is in the northern part of the Bay of Calais and we spent a night there. The marina was right at the old town so we wandered around and took some lovely photos. The influence of the Moors is very strong there, with little roads with arches over them, lots of tiles as in Portugal and lovely wrought iron work. The houses all seem to have an external door and a courtyard within. It is quite a good idea in such a populated area, for quietness, privacy and as we are discovering, to get out of the cold wind. Yes, it has been quite cold and the night we spent at sea between Vilamoura in Portugal and Rota in Calais Bay was the coldest we have had at sea, including when we left Sydney in the middle of winter! We are now in Calais, a lovely city with quite a large medieval old town. Again, the old town has narrow roads, lots of little piazzas, beautiful tiles, churches, wrought iron. The maps have tourist walking routes on them so it makes it easy to see all the sights. Depending on the weather, we will go through the Straits of Gibraltar tomorrow. It is a little like the Cape of Good Hope. There is a 2-3m difference between the Atlantic and the Med., the winds can get to 40kn. and is above 30kn. 300 days of the year around Tarifa, there is a strong current so we have to time it and lots of shipping. All being well, we will leave at 6am and should be in Gibraltar by 2pm. 

That's all for now folks.
Arti and Dimitri