The Embrace

Thank you for your kind comments about yesterday's image - it actually made the spotlight for a while, which has not happened recently for me. I also think I came across as being too negative about Spain - what I really meant to say is that this coast is not great for sailing, as there are no little bays to drop anchor and snorkel and swim which is the main attraction of a sailing holiday. However, there are some charming cities and towns here, especially Barcelona, which ranks as one of the best European cities - and today we discovered another little gem - Tarragona.

We had intentions of sailing south from Sant Carles this week but we were told that the next few ports along from here are not great. So today went north by car to Tarragona, as I particularly wanted to see the Roman viaduct known as Pont del Diable (devil's bridge). Tarragona has the best Roman ruins in this part of Europe, and the viaduct was certainly impressive. We then went into the town and visited the Roman amphitheatre and walked all over the old historic town to see the beautiful 12th century cathedral. It was so charming with narrow winding streets and the Catalonian flag flying all over the city. We visited the fish market and wandered around enjoying the sights - which is when I took this photo of this couple embracing in a quiet square. It is such a beautiful city, worth having a look at more photos here.

It was extremely humid today, and when we got back to the boat we had the most almighty storm with lightning and winds of 45 knots. It is a different experience being in a boat during a storm, with Thomas worrying that the tall mast was going to get struck by lightning! Gavin was anxiously watching the mooring ropes as the boat was moving quite a bit in the storm, but thankfully it passed after a while with no damage done.