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Location
Almerimar is a 'man made' (not a natural harbour) complex built to moor over 1,000 yachts of various sizes. When we arrived we tied up alongside the hard quay where the Control Tower is located. Before I headed into the office to check in, we saw a large catamaran coming alongside too just astern of Kiah. We went to take the lines of the catamaran Mambo and this is when we first met the owners Max and Janet. Having checked in we went on to our winter berths (Mambo out on one of the peers and us on the bend of darsena II).

Mooring/Berthing
This was an excellent winter berth and our neighbours turned out to be very friendly people of all nationalities. Our port side neighbours were French whilst on the starboard side we had Spanish. The aerial shot from Google Maps shows the layout of the marina and surrounding areas. There are three 'main' darsenas (1 2 and 3). Darsena 1 on the left of the picture is the straight Darsena directly above of the Control Tower. This Darsena had many Cafes, Bars and various shops and was a frequently visited part of the marina throughout the whole of the winter of 2004.

The social life consisted of musical gigs (there were many talented musicians on the yachts), drinks nights, dinners and some really great dinner dances (Chris of Dryka creating the music tapes, he did a great job). We also got together for a Burns Night dinner complete with the customary 'haggis' and bottles of 'whiskey' on each table. Ian and his wife Mary were in the full rig, kilts and all, and Ian carried in the 'haggis' and read the traditional Robbie Burns poem. A wonderful night was had by all. The stay in Almerimar was a great introduction to our cruising life.

Darsena II is the long, narrow, dog legged darsena in the middle. We were berthed on the tiny dog leg just by the Restaurant Solie

Almerimar was a relatively new complex with surrounding Hotels, Golf Courses and of course the normal Supermarkets and Restaurants/Cafes. The marina is made up of three 'darsenas' (see the plan in picture 3).