Sailing into Santander

Sailing was not without its traumas. When we got on board the keycards for our cabins wouldn't work. Eventually staff got a technician who changed the locks and when the cards still didn't perform, happily banged on the locks with his hammer. Cards worked for a while but by the time we were going to bed, had stopped again. Man at info said not to worry, the technician would come in the morning and change the locks again. Meantime, he assured us, we could get out from the inside. Steve was perfectly happy with this and demonstrated countless times that the door would open from in the cabin. Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm fairly claustrophobic and when the children were little I used to take the window smashing hammer from the car onto the boat. So I was not terribly reassured and Steve managed to get us the only other cabin left - inside bunks - when we had had a 4 berth outside cabin. But I was delighted and slept like a log!

We eventually reached Pau this evening about 8 p.m. and decided to try to find the Ibis. The French are great at advertising hotels on the way into places and then forgetting to give further directions. However we got a room and then tried to find somewhere open on a Monday where we could eat. It wasn't easy and the first two of the three couldn't seat us. I was really beginning to panic, feeling very far away and hungry in a strange town. However a Mexican restaurant finally relented and let us have some wine and food.

Just off to bed and heading for Argeles sur Mer tomorrow.