We have paid for a month here at Port Ginesta - which means we will be here over Christmas while Ian and Pamela visit. We did leave here after a week and try our luck further north. We had aimed to leave at about 7am to make the best of the wind for the day (which was forecast to be strongly against us in the afternoon). However, Ellen woke up at about 5.30 (wet bed) so we thought that we might as well set off then. It was absolutely freezing!!! Even with layers on the wind was very cold and once we had left the marina safely and John had got all his warm clothes on I went and snuggled up with Ellen and Anna in a very very bumpy forecabin! We arrived at Barcelonas marina Port Vell after crossing the very busy shipping lane into the commercial port and politely called them up on the VHF even though we could see places to tie up. They told us that there was no way they had space for a catamaran - even for one night, so we turned around and carried on to Port Olimpic. Here the marinero told us that there was no way we could stay, even for 10 minutes! When John pleaded with him, as there were high winds on their way he told us to try the next marina along - port forum - who could be contacted on VHF channel 73. I called them up as Double Helix was gracefully taken out of the marina by John and after being very chatty and asking us how big our boat was the woman from port forum disappeared! We decided to carry on up the coast to see if they did have space - by this time the wind had built and there were some very bumpy waves meeting us head on causing a kind of banging motion which was not nice at all. Ellen gave up on watching numberjacks and we made her a cosy be in the cockpit where she fell asleep. Anna tried coming out to play but it was too bumpy to get any good games going so she went back inside to watch the DVD (we have a DVD rule - there is only boat telly when we are moving the boat - this means that we can pretty much assume that we can keep Anna happy at sea!) Marina port forum was an incredibly grim looking place. It had some 'superboats' moored in huge pontoons and then a low bridge (too low for us) leading to an inner marina (where we could see a few masts). There was a very small pontoon for normal sized boats just before the bridge. After being ignored on the radio, we were graced with the presence of a marinero who said we could stop for 'maybe one night'. John began to manouver the boat stern to between two other boats when the starboard engine got stuck in reverse (putting it in forward and reverse provided a good strong kick of reverse!). It was a very small space for this to be happening and I have no idea how John managed to save us from crashing into concrete walls, other boats and the bridge. I shouted to the marinero that we had a problem with the engine and we would tie up where we could, to which he replied that we could not stay for a night after all and we could tie up for a few minutes - but he would not catch our lines for us! It took us seconds to decide that bad weather or not we would be better off with some sea room to play with while we dealt with out engine crisis and John manouvered us out of the tricky entrance on our one working engine and we managed to get the sails up and regain some control! It seemed that the problem was with the gear selection cable which John was able to fix while I sailed the boat. (As soon as we put up our sails the strong winds disappeared and we were left with .5 of a knot coming from a circular direction!) I put my foot down and decided that there were things about Port Ginesta that I liked; there was a lovely beach, the marina had wifi (if a bit moody) the bus to Barcelona was easy , it was surrounded by green hills and mountains (north of Barcelona the coast was very industrial), there was a possibility of some Spanish lessons, they had space, and were not too expensive! So we headed back down here, and as the wind picked up we had some fantastic sailing back to Port Ginesta. With the sails goosewinged we not only surfed down waves, but overtook them and surfed down the ones infront! I had a great lie on the trampolines while John helmed and watched the waves breaking as we rode down them.So back here for Christmas - the girls and I made decorations today and the boat is looking very christmassey. Ellen and Anna are both full of the cold still so we are trying to have a quiet week to give them a chance to recover for Christmas.If we don't post again before the 25th, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! x