On Monday the 19 th we take off to Seville to spend the night and next day.
Portugal never looked as well farmed as Spain. The Algarve, where we have stayed is a quiet golf and beach resort area. We enjoyed our R and R here but are not happy to have another 600km road trip. GED enjoys our tour of Seville and I remember my and Janet's stay there earlier in the year, walking around familiar streets in the old town.
The next day after lunch we head off to Granada then Cartagena. We don't stop this time in Granada but view the snow capped mountains of the 'Sierra Nevada'. The landscape is now mountainous, the contrasts make Spain a great place to travel.
We arrive in Cartagena in the dark.
Black Pearl is situated in this incredible shipyard which has a similar feeling to Plymouth England, as it is the headquarters of the Spanish Navy. There are war ships, submarines and old sailing ships.
It is great to see our crew again. Paul gives us the good news and the bad. They have found the spare part in New Zealand, but don't know how long it will take to get here. The next day we learn that John Vitali has agreed to fly over the next day with the part, which means we can be on our way by the weekend. While we wait we have our daily swim and Yoga. We then head off to play golf at 'La Manga', with Paul. It is a very hilly well designed course with great greens.
There are lots of very good golf courses here. We have a great day and finish with a tapas dinner in town. The next day we organise a walking tour of the city. This city is a real surprise, it's history is powerful, starting with the Carthaginians in 250 BCE , then the Romans. It was the major port for the Iberian Peninsula reaching it's height during the 1st Century AD during Augustus.
Since 1982 the city has uncovered the Roman theatre and built an excellent museum next to this, including a video presentation of the history hand a reconstruction of this old part of the city. Our guide 'Pedro' takes us to other archaeological sites and explains that since 2000 they have reclaimed and reconstructed the whole waterfront thanks to EU funding. There are very good tapas bars and we experience some great new dishes.
Back at the shipyard 'Navantia', the boys have fitted the new parts and reinstalled the propeller shaft. They only have to anti-foul the propeller and put the Pearl back in the water. We have lost two weeks of our timing and this has been a very expensive saga.
The next day early they are ready to refloat. This is an amazing process. We are on a large pontoon with railway tracks, the pontoon then sinks into the water. Paul does the tests on the new parts then a sea trial. All is well and we are off to Gibraltar. The weather is great.
Mick