Ryan
We left the boat tied up today.
That was the plan from the start. Cádiz felt like a place worth walking properly instead of rushing through between sailing legs.
The marina sits right beside the old city walls, so within about five minutes you’re already in narrow streets that look like they’ve been there for centuries.
The buildings are tall and a bit faded, balconies everywhere, laundry hanging out over the street like it’s part of the architecture.
It doesn’t feel touristy.
It just feels like a city that happens to have been around for a very long time.
Liam
Breakfast happened almost immediately.
There’s a café a few streets back from the harbour where the man behind the counter clearly deals with sailors all the time. He didn’t even blink when two sunburned lads walked in looking half awake.
Coffee.
Toast with tomato and olive oil.
That alone already beat the emergency biscuits we’d been living on during the last leg.
Ryan
One thing about Cádiz is how often you run back into the sea.
You’ll walk down a street thinking you’re heading inland and suddenly it opens up and there’s water again.
Big stone walls, waves rolling in, wind coming straight off the Atlantic.
You can see why this place became a port. Everything about it points back to the ocean.
Liam
At one point we wandered out near the city walls where the swell hits the rocks.
You could hear it properly there.
Boom.
Pause.
Boom again.
After being offshore it felt familiar, like the ocean reminding us it’s still just outside the harbour.
Ryan
We also found a small chandlery tucked down one of the side streets.
Didn’t need anything.
Went in anyway.
That’s just how sailors operate.
Walked out with two hose clips and a roll of tape we absolutely didn’t need.
Boat shops have always had that effect on us. The first time it happened was earlier in the trip when we stopped along the Spanish coast and somehow came back to the boat with a bag of parts we never planned to buy. OceanBois https://www.oceanbois.com/15-important-spanish-words-for-sailing-around-spain/
Liam
Back at the marina in the afternoon the boat looked exactly how we left it.
Still a strange feeling after being offshore.
A couple of new boats had arrived during the day. Mostly cruisers heading east like us.
One crew looked absolutely wrecked, salt everywhere on the deck.
We recognised the look straight away.
Ryan
Late afternoon we sat in the cockpit watching the harbour traffic.
Fishing boats heading out.
Cargo ships slowly moving across the bay.
Cádiz feels busy without feeling chaotic.
Which probably explains why ships have been coming here for a very long time.
Liam
The gull from yesterday is still around.
He landed on the guardrail this morning and stared straight into the cabin like he was checking if breakfast was ready.
Ryan thinks we should stop feeding him.
I’m fairly sure he’s already made that decision for us.
