Gelves to Chipona - 49 Miles

MONDAY 21 APRIL 2008

Flamingoes flying past Susannah

The last two or three weeks’ discussion amongst the visiting yachts in Gelves has been about when everyone is leaving. April is here and the yachties are keen to migrate, some to the north, some to the south. A couple of boats left a week or so ago; one for the Baltic and the other for the Rio Guadiana. Carol and John on Taio left last week bound for Tangiers, Pauline and Andy on Odile and Duncan and Rachel were due to leave today with us. Linda and John will have to stay another week or two as Linda needs dental work.

The weather has been unsettled with rain and strong winds on and off for the past two weeks, but is set to improve from today. In fact, yesterday was so windy, our pants and socks which were drying on a whirly gig, disappeared and must have blown off into the river. It could be called an exposed anchorage!

We left just after high tide (having slept through the alarm!) at 8.15 with a cool wind blowing. We were worried about getting under the Electricity Pylon, particularly as the river is about a meter higher than Mean High Water Springs because of all the recent rain. Another worrying factor was that another boat had caught it’s mast in the pylon a couple of weeks ago!

We made good progress, going about 8.5 with the tide, slowing to about 3.5 for the last hour or so when the tide was against us. There was a cool Force 5 wind most of the way. We saw some wonderful birdlife. The Rio Guadalquivir borders the enormous Parque Nacional de Donana, and has some of the most important natural ecosystems in Europe. Having visited the Parque with Chris and Jane in a 4 x 4 trip, we were able to identify more birds this time. The highlight was a flock of flamingos that passed very close to the boat. We also saw Bee-eaters, Spoonbills, Purple Herons, Egrets, Black Kite and White Storks.

We arrived in Chipiona about 3.30 p.m. and checked in with the Marina. They asked us to go back to the office later as they didn’t think we had paid all of our marina fees from last November when we had stayed for four nights. When we went back, it turns out that they knew we had paid for the four nights, but the Marinero had said we had also stayed on 23 November. I had the bill which proved we were in Gelves on that night, so the matter was resolved!

We wanted to go to Pacos, the Restaurant by the Marina for a meal, because it was closed the whole of November when we were here last. We now found out it also closes on Mondays! Chipiona seems half deserted, but we used the GPS map on my phone and eventually found a bar/restaurant that was open.

Marina: 13.29 euros, no WiFi. Andalucia has a chain of government run Marinas which all charge the same price and are extremely reasonable.

Wildlife: Flamingos, Bee-eaters, Spoonbills, Purple Herons, Egrets, Black Kite and White Storks.