La Romaria

The sky was an unblemished blue, the hills still green, as we let go the mooring where the Anna M had turned peacefully to the tide for the last six months.The nightingales were still singing away, though perhaps with a tad less urgency. Their singing would soon be giving way to the hard work of rearing young, while the sun, becoming fierce, will burn up the sweet green grasses and those so touching, delicate flowers.

The people of Sanlucar were doing some singing too. It was the weekend of the Romeria, when after Mass each family piles heaps of chairs and tables and goodies onto decorated carts, and dressed in their gorgeous flamenco gear, the fellas on their horses, they set off for a field half way to El Ganado, the next village up the road, to have a hooley with the folk from there.

Abe's photo, and he was too shy to get a good photo of the girls!

English Protestants are inclined to be snooty about the way these Catholics muddle up sex with religion, though D.H. Lawrence, no less, commented somewhere that ‘the Pope knows more about sex than an army of sex therapists’! That ‘old celibate in the Vatican’ scores because he sees sex in its spiritual context, or if you must merely think of it so, in its psycho-social context, instead of just focussing on individuals. The nightingales have no need of sex therapists!

Staying on the psycho-social level, as I recall from Somerset there would be ructions and fights when lads from Holcombe or Leigh-on-Mendip came ‘poaching our girls’ in Stoke St Michael. The Andalucians, aware of the danger of in-breeding in a small community, seem to take the opposite approach. As for the Pope, there is a feast of wisdom available on such matters in his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia - The Joy of Love. My top quote (on this wave-length) is ‘Communication is an art learned in moments of peace in order to be practised in moments of difficulty.’

Yet it remains the spiritual context that gives such statements their force. 'The family is the image of God, who is a communion of persons’, says the Pope, and it is the risen Christ who sustains our joy. Meanwhile the stretching of life to the dimensions of God is our difficult and never-ending project. Whatever about one village and another, I’m still working on this Gannetsway from the Guadiana to Sherkin Island….

The beginning of May is a good time to head north, with the days getting long and even warm there, and before that Nortada gets too established on the west coast of the Iberian peninsula. Right now a Levanter was forecast - the hasky easterly blasting through the Straights. Soon enough my crew, Abraham, a nephew by Fiona’s brother Anthony, would have his sea-legs tested. The east wind sprang up as we lay at anchor in Tavira, after a first cushy day sailing down the river. Abe’s sea-legs proved good as we had two lively day sails, to Culatra and then on to Portimao, where we went up-river to the pontoons just below the bridge. It is an excellent place for supplies, the cost of berthing is very reasonable, diesel is available and Pingo Doce and many shops nearby.

Going ashore in Culatra....

Abe swimming,

and a peaceful night.

Alongside in Portimao.

On the evening of its third day we still carried the easterly on round the Cabo de Sao Vicente, and headed north with that rare luxury, a gentle easterly breeze. It took us as far as Cabo Espichel before it finally expired, then a light northwesterly sprang up and we were just able to lay Cascais, where I’m writing this. Now the north-west wind is fresh, but it’s supposed to go south-west tomorrow, and we’ll be on our way again first thing in the morning. This anchorage will be untenable with the south or south-east gale that's forecast, but let's see how far it will take us!

Good job Fiona is off grannying!