Almost three weeks after the yacht came to grief against the rocks at the eastern end of La Herradura Bay, the mast has been removed.

This 22-metre long, mast of reinforced aluminium had been left up against the road embankment where it meets the beach known as the Playa del La Rijana – there was hope that it could be salvaged and sold.

The trouble was that, given its length it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to get it out by road. The cost of recovering it by sea was far to costly, so any hope of salvaging it were dashed.

Instead the owner opted to have it literally chopped up into short lengths in order to load it up on a lorry and remove it.

Not even the task of cutting the mast up was easy. Work started at daybreak yesterday so as not to bother beachgoers. But first the beach area had to be cordoned off so that nobody wandered into where they were working in search of a good spot to lay their towel and plant a beach umbrella.

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: JM de Haro, Diario Sexitano)