We arrived back in Spain to warm weather, but with a humid atmosphere heavy with the threat of thunder. The weather forecast for the week ahead was not very comforting; storms in the Gulf of Leon were sending wind and rain down to the Balearics in waves. On the boat front, the engineers had not managed to change the fuel filters as arranged in June. The marina had not let them aboard, because they had been unable to contact John for permission to do so. This means they had left the job till today when John had turned his mobile off because we had been in the air. No mention was made of the past two months when John had been contactable most hours of the day. A man would come first thing in the morning. It all brought back memories of our frustrations in the spring.

Our current plans are to sail to Ibiza, to where the girls and Johnsey are flying out next Monday. Ibiza is at least two days sail from here given the current daylight hours, When we planned the holiday a week seemed plenty of time to allow for the crossing. We would not have wanted to set off in the morning even if the filters had been ready, as the weather was forecast to be windy, but Thursday offered a window between storms before the sea conditions became dire on Friday. Friday looked to be a day we would not choose to be out. Saturday and Sunday were better and Monday looked good, but this was rather far off to pin too many hopes on the forecast being accurate. We considered the options of ferries, the kids coming to us or us going to them and booking other accommodation, but Ibiza is definitely a better holiday prospect. We decided to go down to Burriananova on Thursday, where we would be only one days crossing from San Antoni, and wait there for a window to cross at the weekend. That decided we threw ourselves into cleaning, charging batteries and ticking off John’s list of checks before availing ourselves of the restaurant and bar here, where we were welcomed back with open arms once again. The steak, chips and egg combo was as good as we remembered and the calamari even better.