We went from Valencia to Denia with a short stop at Cabo Cullera to exchange the impeller (see previous post). We spent the night at anchor sheltered by the harbour entrance of Denia. The next day we took a long leg to the island of Tabarca which we like very much and where we spent an extra day schnorkling and enjoying excellent Spanish sea food. (see video: Tabarca ). From there we did an equally long leg directly to Cartagena, a lively and lovely town. This was followed by very long leg to the Natural Reserve of Cabo de Gata which we explored during the next two days. The first stop was La Isleta del Moro with very difficult anchoring conditions (protected Posidonia sea grass) and all buoys marked private as we were told in a somewhat unfriendly way by the locals. Apparently they do not like sailing yachts in their little paradise. We therefore went further North to the Playa de las Negras where we found good anchor ground and a good fish restaurant on the beach.
After a nice lunch break we went to San Jose to spend the night at anchor before heading to Malaga. However, due to increasing head winds and about 2m waves pusheding us back, we decided to shelter in the port of Almerimar. The town is a bit touristic but offers good restaurants and bars. We had to stay 3 nights because of unfavourable wind and sea conditions. We then used a weather window offered by decreasing westerly wind, changing to light to moderate easterly winds before reaching storm force (Levante). The idea was to cover the 125 nm in one go, using the engine for the first day and hopefully being able to sail the last part with the increasing Levante and arriving in Gibraltar before it gets too strong. However, during the second day at sea I realized that the gasoline was getting short as a current of about 3 kn pushed us back. As I did not want to run out of gas in the middle of hundereds of cargo ships around Gibraltar we decided to make a detour to Fuengirola, just to bunker diesel and continued heading further to Gibraltar. On this leg we saw a jumping sword fish and plenty of dophins, more than I ever saw in the Med. Several schools of dolphins welcomed us just in front of Point Europe in Gibraltar which we still reached before the evening.
In total we made 436 nm since Valencia and since leaving Castelsardo in Sardegna, a total of 1281 nm.
We arrived in Gibraltar just a couple of days before the Queens's funeral. Belonging to the British empire, the day of the funeral was also a public holiday in Gibraltar with only some bars open showing the ceremony on big TV screens.
I will stay a couple of days relaxing, doing the laundry and preparing the transfer to Madeira which currently is questionable as my sailing partner became sick and had to cancel his trip to Gibraltar. I will look for alternatives and keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment