Alicante

August 22 -- We left Fuengirola around 10 am on August 20 sans Francois who'd left for France, and arrived Alicante a little before 9 am, August 22. Wind was on the nose, mostly 3 to 7 knots. We ran on engine all of the first day. Early in the afternoon, Ed, Colin, Richard went for a swim in the warm waters. The winds were no better in the night and the following day. By mid-afternoon, it had picked up to 10 knots. Sails were set, genoa, staysail, main and mizzen and Skylark was off under sail on several long tacks. As evening came, the winds died and we sailed back to the rhumb line and motored on, arriving at Alicante this morning. Colin and Robyn were good enough to spend most of the morning trying to set up the wi-fi signal booster but without success -- the equipment is on its way back to the vendor at Sim Lim Square, Singapore. Robyn and Colin are headed for Barcelona by car this evening to continue their extended vacation. For reasons of his own, Richard left Skylark this morning. Ed and I are looking forward to sailing her to Barcelona tomorrow. The weather forecast is for more of the same, light air and moderate seas. We have a marina berth reservation at Barcelona for two nights which will allow for onshore excursions and rest before pushing on to Hyeres, near Toulon in France. Ed is leaving on September 1 to return to Houston to tend to personal business while I will remain with Skylark at Hyeres. The Amel people at Hyeres will be tending to some minor maintenance and warranty items and installing a rear cockpit screen to protect the helm station from following seas during our trans-oceanic passages.

Pictures to follow in the next blog.