Seville

When you look at the map of Kincsem's locations, you will notice a strange detour inland. Normally, cruisers like Kincsem don't go to Seville, which is some 50 miles inland. But in 2017, we were berthed in Alicante at the Club Nautico there and our neighbor was a 20 m Jongert ketch owned by a local doctor, Jose Manuel. Jose Manuel talked enthusiastically about the journey up the river with the impossible name, the Guadalquevir, the Club Nautico de Sevilla and Seville itself. So I decided to visit Seville this year.

The only way to get a berth at the Club was through a member, and Jose Manuel was happy to help. The Club is located on a canal which can only be accessed through a huge lock and after the lock, there is a lifting bridge that has to be opened to get to the club. Opening times for both lock and bridge can only be arranged through the club. We started our trip up the river by anchoring overnight at Bonanza at the mouth of the river, opposite the Parque National de Donana. Interesting sitting in 2 knots of current but the real problem were the mosquitoes ..... The next day we motored up the river with the incoming tide. An easy exercise under autopilot - way point to way point.

At anchor near Bonanza in the Guadalquevir river

Mosquito central - anchored off the Parque National de Donana on the right bank of the river

Fishing in the river - just anchor the boat and lower the nets!!

The flood current runs quite strongly the entire way to Seville so that even at only 5 knots through the water, we got to Seville in the late afternoon and had some four hours to kill before the lock would open at 9pm as arranged by the Club. We anchored in a side arm of the river out of the way of the big ships passing through the lock and got ready for a relaxing sundowner and dinner when we noticed that the big Swiss trawler yacht anchored some way down river from us suddenly started dragging anchor and come towards us. Kincsem's anchor was up in a heartbeat and we re-anchored a bit down river from the Swiss guy to prevent a recurrence of that episode. But now we noticed a 100 m plus long dredging vessel slowly come toward us from the lock, hugging the river bank. When he was some 100 m away, I hailed him on VHF that we were anchored and he had to keep clear. No response but he stopped advancing toward us.

But when we sat down for dinner, he started coming again. Further hails and unfriendly gestures to the people on the bridge did not stop him - we had to get out of the way and pull up anchor one more time! It was quite a relief when our waiting time ended, the lock finally opened and turned out to be easy to negotiate!

In the Seville lock - almost up to the top already

But it was all worth it. Seville is a fabulous city and the club was friendly and helpful. I had a few days to explore Seville in between working off points on the never-ending to do list of Kincsem. Good times!