Today is May Day and Spain looks much greener than when we left it. Clean new leaves are budding from the trees and small mauve convolvulus pepper the verges. In St Carles the mix of old and young folk enjoying the café culture suggests this is a holiday. We had arrived back late yesterday afternoon and devoured the onboard supplies of breadsticks and nuts, so were short on vittles for breakfast. I had smuggled out emergency stores of Marmite in cute, heart shape sachets, courtesy of my friend Phil, but we lacked anything to spread it on. This proved to be of academic note, as the skipper decided we should move to our new berth before eating, given the lack of wind.

We had only to go two berths closer in, but moving is a process fraught with possible dangers, especially after six months shore leave. Mindful of our previous years deliberate mistake of leaving the windscreen cover in place until John was about to set off, he took down the cockpit tent and covers before starting the engine. We settled on which ropes to untie in what order, repositioned the fenders and disconnected the shore power. Then we discovered the numbering of the berths was not as we expected, so in fact the fenders needed to stay as they had been. Back they all went, off came the ropes and John reversed out into open water. It is always a disconcerting moment, watching him go. Then I stepped smartly along the jetty and up to the tip of the new pontoon in anticipation of him coming back in. It is even more disconcerting watching the approach, knowing what is to come. I have to reach for the ropes one at a time and tie each to the appropriate cleat, without knocking any into the water, speed being of the essence. That said, it all went like clockwork and I managed to tie the all right ropes in the right order, in good time. John came off and helped tidy it all up and in no time the power was back on and our lines set. We must be getting better at this sailing lark. I expect the decision to tackle the job in zero wind had something to do with our success, so it had been worthwhile delaying breakfast.

Off we toddled to the bakery in the square to reward ourselves. Café con leches all round and shared pastries. John chose, a seeded croissant wrapped round a frankfurter rolled in processed cheese, (which tasted a lot better than it sounds), and a divine apple and custard tart. Replete we made our way to the supermarket to restock with perishable essentials like cheese. We Harnetts love cheese. The fridge now boasts a robust supply of it in assorted colours and textures, gleaned from a range of animals. We also bought salad and fruit, so were able to offset our wicked breakfast with a healthy lunch. The captain is now augmenting his exercise program by washing the boat, while I shelter below in the dry.