The journey to Rota, in Cadiz Bay, via Mazagon took the next two days with an overnight stop at Mazagon, an unimpressive place with expensive marina fees and no wi-fi. We only stayed there overnight as we were keen to make our way to Rota.
Rota is opposite Cadiz and is easily accessible across the bay by ferry from the marina. Rota has its own character with a lovely beach and lots of good, cheap restaurants. We used it as a base for a week to visit other parts of Andalusia – Cadiz, Alhambra, Seville and Jerez.
Cadiz is a beautiful city with around 130,000 inhabitants with a beautiful cathedral, squares and restaurants. In particular, the old town was full of spectacular buildings and exotic gardens. There were reasonable restaurants in the many squares providing good value tapas.
Jerez is renowned for its sherry but unfortunately, the sherry tasting tours were closed when we visited there but we managed to find somewhere to have a meal and our own sherry tasting!
After Jerez, we sailed south via Barbate to pass Cap Trafalgar on our way to the Straits of Gibraltar. Rota is only 80nm from Gibraltar but you need to ensure that the currents and winds are with you. The winds tend to blow either from the East or West through the Straits for several days at a time so it is important to grab the weather window when you can.
We were in Gibraltar for a week getting various repairs completed and waiting for crew to help us on our next leg, 400nm to the Balearics. We arrived after 3.5 days at Formentera where the sand was an amazing white, the water turquoise and the sky a glorious blue. 
The temperatures were now in the 30’s. Pictures below of our anchorage in Formentera. We had, however, entered the world of the mega yacht. Every cala seemed to have at least one very large yacht in it and in some, nothing – apart from us!
After a short overnight respite, and trying the local beach bars, we moved onto Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca.
Nimrod Oceanlord 