A Tapas Temperament

Puerto Gelves, Spain

Itinerary Seville, Spain: 15-18 October 2012.  Doing flamenco and munching tapas in famous tascas (whilst drinking fresh orange juice of course!). To get close to Seville, we cruise up the Guadalquivir River and anchor near Gelves.

Day 1: How Not to Tour Seville

First, Bruce had a wonky engine.  Would we make it across a ferocious current to the marina pontoon?  Wonky engine + brutal tide = crossed fingers, toes, legs, arms…..

Just a little further Bruce, keep going...

Then our bus, #140 to Seville, looped.  We didn’t know we’d arrived in the city centre until we were well on our way back to Puerto Gelves.  Doh!  Value for ticket bus ride though!  Still, we caught a taxi back into town and our driver deposited us outside a breath-taking Seville Cathedral. Queues into the Cathedral and Palace were huge, so we stopped at Starbucks (for the worst coffee we’d had in Gibraltar, Spain or Morocco) before finding a big red bus.

Words just cannot describe Seville's Cathedral...it's amazing!

We’ve taken quite a liking to big red buses.  They offer comprehensive tours and we noted highlights to visit later.  Theme park, Isla Magica, was as firmly closed as were the swimming pools in Ceuta (thankfully) and Silicon Valley Spanish style was a little technical for us.  So, hop on, hop off the bus to do lunch!  Ham & cheese, bull’s tail and Spanish omelette tapas were served on a tourist area sidewalk by a disinterested waiter.  He’d cooked his goose though - we left no tip!   

The only way to keep kids busy - get them busking!

We had to get back to Gelves to see the engine mechanic.  His lunch hour was from 2 till 4, as all good mechanics must.  We hoped Bruce’s engine was not too sick.  However we still had time to see the Cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece, whose architects must have thrown away all the rule books except reach for the stars…  Those stained glass windows are magnificent, religious statuary gilded and heavily ornate, Columbus’s Tomb a testimony to his achievements and from the 90m high Giralda (1184; once a mosque minaret), a perfect vista over this wonderful city.

Columbus's Tomb
(he's buried elswhere - Dominican Republic perhaps?)

Then it was back to our helpful Tourismo lady to find the bus stop we had missed in the morning.  No drama getting back home, except our outboard was not ready until after 6pm. What to do?  Well, a beer and wine or two (with platters of olives) at the local Marina bar helped pass the time of course!

Gliding up the Guadalquivir.  Looks nice enough for a swim?
Perhaps not if the Cap'n has his jumper on!

Finally, the Motley Crew had a chance to practice their man overboard drill when our Cap'n took an unexpected dip in the fast flowing Guadalquivir.  GS was blamed for pitching him out of the dinghy, but she managed to save the day by securing Bruce (with a very pale looking BCK) to WJ3 and putting down the swim ladder for his lordship. We all needed a stiff drink - but only after we'd finished sniggering... 

From: Cadiz, Spain  Lat/Long: 36:32.544N  06:17.042W   Date/Time: 14/10/12: 1045

To: Puerto Gelves, Spain  Lat/Long: 37:20.505N  06:01.364W   Date/Time: 14/10/12: 2145
Time Taken: 79.5nm (11hrs)  Distance (this year): 414.5nm (66hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 10651.5nm   Weather: Sunny day; enough wind to turn off engine & sail.  

Fastest Speed: Short run from Cadiz to mouth of Rio Guadalquivir; managed an incoming tide with 2 kts extra for very fast ride upriver to Gelves (outside Seville)

Seville - the last word in Cathedrals, inside & out