41°46'42.3"N 3°02'05.3"E Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain

Today was a great day on the sea. I started off sleepy. I intended to do a workout early and instead went back to sleep. The forecast was for calm weather all day so there was no hurry to push off. We set off about 10am and made it to a pretty anchorage at Cala Futadera by midday for lunch. Everyone else had the same idea and it was as busy as the marina!

Cala Futadera

After food and a swim we set off along the coast towards Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Captain and I have been to Sant Feliu before. We did our Practical Training Week here for our RYA Day Skipper Certificates. If you are keen to learn and feel more confident about boats, water safety and skills then these courses are second to none and they cater to all skill levels. We were a few days into our week long Practical training when, as we were having breakfast on deck, Alex Thompson Racing cruised past us into port. A couple minutes later Alex and the crew came over to see if we may be able to lend a hand '90 degree testing the boat'. I don't know that means but hell to the yeah we can help!

As we say in NZ 'Its a good job I had my Weetabix' because 90 degree testing is as literal as it sounds. The next thing we know the halyards are winched and levered and we are pulling, hard, really hard, playing tug of war with a 60ft racing yacht! Slowly but surely down she comes, over onto her side defying the laws of physics and allowing the engineers to do their tests.

First and only time we'll ever mast walk! Alex's Mast Walk is a tiny bit more impressive...

On we sailed towards Mataro, it was flat calm which made it easy to spot the disturbance in the water ahead of us. A school of fish were scuttling on the surface, making a rumbling noise on the top of the sea, and within seconds a huge Tuna leapt high above the water, then another, and another. Really difficult to catch on camera but really exciting to watch.

We walked Mataro that evening under a full moon and the curtains of Catalonian flags hanging patriotically above the streets.

As we near Barcelona and the city comes into view get excited, we can feel Barcelona is going to be good to us and we are looking forward to spending some time here.

There are some very posh marinas here catering to some very large yachts. As we enter port we pass M/Y Eclipse, belonging to Roman Abramovich she is the worlds second largest super yacht at 533ft and thus, despite the gorgeous big marinas available, she just doesn't fit and sits like a floating hotel on the cruise ship berths. For the princely sum of €340 million you can bling up your boat with two helicopter pads, 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools, several hot tubs, and a disco hall. It is also equipped with three launch boats and a mini-submarine. 70 crew members are needed to operate the yacht and serve the guests. For security, Eclipse is fitted with a missile detection system.

Eclipses' fuel tanks take 1,000,000 litres. There was a queue of oil tankers all waiting in a row. I'l let you do the math. Casual.