Valencia

Above -- pictures from Barcelona,  Christopher Columbus pole-sitting at La Rambla, the Gaudi cathedral (Sagreda Familia), shop on La Rambla with familiar name, street performers at Port Vell (dog performs too...)

October 24 -- Left Barcelona at 2 pm.  After turning the corner from the harbor, wind was from the South at 8 - 10 knots.  Good motor sailing conditions on low engine revs, able to sustain 7+ knots over the ground.  Night conditions were good with more ship traffic than we'd seen in a while. Both Barcelona and Valencia are major commercial ports.  The AIS transceiver was handy especially in the dark. At around 3 am october 25, we were on a head on course with a cargo ship about 6 miles away.  The ship was making 15 knots and we were going at 7.5 knots.  We turned 2 degrees to starboard.  After a couple of minutes, the other ship apparently observing our course change on their AIS, turned about 2 degrees to their starboard and we passed nicely port-to-port without making any radio contact. We are true believers in this technology.
October 25, 0900 hrs, 39 degrees 37.99 minutes North, 0 degrees 4.7 minutes West -- the exact spot where Francois caught a small tuna (30 - 35 cm) which was promptly gutted and put into the fridge.

Skylark arrived at Valencia's America's Cup Marina around noon.  It is a big, modern marina with wide berths and the Valencia F-1 circuit running around it. It has also been home to the America's Cup races since Allighi won the cup.  Ed executed the stern to docking with little trouble. It has been decided that from time to time, the crew are going to practice berthing the boat to ensure all on board develop some level of comfort manipulating the big boat at the marinas we will be visiting.

After formalities at the marina office, we ate our tuna sashimi style and as a Tahitian dish prepared by Francois, withe the aid of a French cookbook.  Both tasted wonderful. The afternoon was spent with the usual maintenance and cleaning chores.  The marina has a good wi-fi signal that is stable onboard.  So,here we are, making posts to the blog in the relative luxury of Skylark's nav station rather than a seedy internet cafe populated by tatoo'd youths intent on some gaming contest with unseen opponents.