Atun Amigos Delfin in Calpe

Our sail was a nine and a half hour trip to Calpe on the Costa del Brava to meet up with Michael and Liz Singer. Our trips seem to have become long now, averaging between 9 and 12 hours. Frustratingly we were getting little sailing in as the wind was either non-existant or in the wrong direction. It was to be one of those days again. Wrong direction and little of it! But the forecast promised light winds in the afternoon and aft which meant we were dead keen to get our parasailor up as we hadn’t used it since taking ownership in Gibraltar.

Thomas Wibberenz who had given us our tuition had strongly advised we start in very light winds and slowly work up. The light winds arrived and we readied ourselves, determined if not a little nervous. But up she went, and we got to sail her for a good half hour before the winds dropped to nothing. While the time was short we loved it, she looks good and we can now sail downwind at wind speeds we previously couldn’t. We texted Liz and Michael to look out for us with our spinnaker proudly flying high only to get a reply they were on another beach! With an hour to our destination we packed the parasailor away only for the promised winds to return 10 minutes later. Rats! Too late, too long to set it all up again.

Calpe is in a lovely setting with a large prominent headland and a lovely marina. At 8pm Liz and Michael arrived for sundowners and dinner onboard. Liz and Susie are best of best friends so this was a visit that Susie was extra excited about. And we think we took up half of their luggage with supplies from the motherland! A good catch up lasted well into the night and we made arrangements to meet up to travel overland to see Alicante the next day. We do enjoy seeing the interior so any friends with car hire are seized on!

Wondering the streets of old Alicante the next day we came upon a square where a lady who owned a coffee shopped highlighted the castle high on top of a hill. This wasn’t on our schedule but before we knew it we were being seated with drinks and being briefed on climbing up it. All done ever so nicely – even a plate of dates to give us energy! Climbing up hills in the midday sun – must be done! A good climb, spectacular views and a car of sleeping people on the return to Calpe.

While Tom has been making efforts to learn Spanish, Liz is fluent, Susie is pretty good and Michael has done a course and is well on his way to becoming fluent too. In fact he adopts the local name of Miguel and brilliantly tries to make up some of his own Spanish sayings including the wonderful “Is your tuna dolphin friendly?” being “Atun Amigos Delfin?”

In the evening Liz and Michael treated us to a seafood dinner complete with a very cheeky bottle of Moscatel that was a favourite of theirs. While we had a planned 4:30am wake-up we didn’t care too much and it was a nice long evening. It meant a lot for Susie to have Liz see Adina so she was very pleased and I was left with a home-sick girlfriend. But Ibiza beckoned and was bound to blow away the blues!