We decided to take a trip to visit Bayti, during the kids winter break in December. We eagerly arrived at the marina, in a village 70kms by car from Barcelona. The marina is relatively small, but the people are warm and helpful, we definitely feel like we’ve left our boat in safe hands when we’re not here.
We spent our time there between boat duties and visiting new places. We wanted to make sure the boat was clean and any repairs needed were done while we were there. We cleaned some of the rust that had formed on the hooks holding the trampoline, we also changed the mooring ropes holding the boat to the pier as the old ones had chaffed over time.
We took the chance to get to know the town better by taking long walks where we discovered old Arabesque-designed homes with lots of arches, fountains and Islamic scriptures on doors. We found bushes of lavender to my delight which I picked up to attempt to make lavender oil to diffuse at home. We visited Tarragona, Sitges and Barcelona, enjoying their picturesque alleys, colourful homes with their balconies that were adorned with ceramic pots and plants, even the tiniest balconies were filled with flowers.
The highlight of our stay was a delicious paella, cooked by our new friend Carlos and his wife Sandra. A delightful couple, who came out with us when we sailed out to practise opening our spinnaker (a huge, light sail used for light wind conditions). The spinnaker is a long story (which we’ll tell you about it in a separate blog ) was ripped while sailing Bayti from France and we took it for repairs in Mallorca. It had been packed since then and never used so we didn’t really know what the repairs looked like. It was a successful albeit nerve-wrecking experience of hoisting the spinnaker and then taking it down. (A spinnaker can easily get tangled or ripped if you’re not at the right angle to the wind). On our return to port, Carlos generously invited us to a yummy paella. Tamara, who’s not prone to eating unfamiliar food, was having seconds until our host jokingly said that he’d cooked the paella using water from the marina. Tamara only figured that he was joking a day later when she candidly asked me, ‘why would he use dirty marina water for cooking?’ lol
