OUR BLOG
"There's always a plan, but unexpected things happen and we just go with the flow. Though I do believe that fate and destiny often play their part"
sailing blog
The city of Cartagena has been our home for over a week now. The place is perfect for an extended stopover if you like grand marbled boulevards, authentic Spanish architecture, great bars round every corner, not to mention a huge fresh fish market. Rick Stein would go into raptures if he saw it!. Oh, and the fashion shops are a bit tasty too, says Nicki ! There's fascinating history all around you as you wander through the city.....as I do most days. Cartagena has been a major port and trading centre since Phoenician times. It was also an important Roman city, as evidenced by the many archeological sites still being excavated. The spectacular Roman theatre below is a particularly good example of how they entertained themselves. Then you get all the military history going back to the times of Spanish galleons doing battle with such dignitaries as Sir Francis Drake and Lord Nelson. Indeed, Drake rocked up here one day and stole the entire arsenal of guns and shipped them all off to Jamaica, which more than miffed the local top brass. The old Arsenal buildings are still here, but today they are part of the huge modern naval complex just over the bay. You can see warships, submarines and all manner of naval hardware coming and going on a daily basis. Is there a war on nearby that I don't know about? In more recent times Cartagena was a major stronghold of resistance against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He bombed the place to buggary, but the locals waived two fingers at him by building a giant air raid shelter that housed thousands of people. It's yet another site that's been preserved for all to see. Finally, you've got a whole selection of different museums to choose from. So far, I've done the Ancient Maritime Museum (preserved parts of Phoenician/Roman ships, urns galore, coins, artefacts etc.), the Military Museum (guns, tanks, missiles, uniforms, strategic maps etc.) and the Naval Museum (models of every spanish ship ever built from way back, more guns, more bits of ships, more uniforms etc.). The weather forecast is telling us that next week could be rather windy, meaning there's every chance we'll stay a while longer. It would be impossible to get bored in a place like this, so we're not at all anxious to move on. We really love the vibrant atmosphere of the city and the marina is very pleasant. I've circled our mooring in the pic below - it's the shortest walk into town and very near the showers. As I write, the Spanish National Dinghy and Windsurfing Championships are being held here, so the place is full of young surf dudes looking very cool. Cartagena is definitely a velcro port and a good deal of will power will be needed to tear ourselves away. However, we have an important date with Mark and Angie (Cygnus III) in Puerto Denia in two weeks time. We plan to sail the not inconsiderable distance to Ibiza in convoy with them.......safety in numbers and all that !
0 Comments
It's been a while since we had access to decent wifi hence the lack of recent updates. So, where have we been ? We arrived in Puerto de Motril on 5th June and what a jolly nice place it was I must say. On entering the large commercial port the industrial landscape looked extremely uninviting but right in the top right hand corner was a little oasis called The Club Nautico Marina. With it's manicured gardens, swaying palm trees and stewards in white coats tendering to your every need, what more could you ask for. This was a posh private members club but they made us so very welcome, even though we wore shorts and flip flops in the rather austere dinning room (for a glass of wine and some free tapas - not a gourmet meal I hasten to add). Everyone else was in "proper" attire but unfortunately I didn't pack a shirt and tie!. Next morning we set off for Almerimar. What a shock we had when we saw snow on the mountains en-route. A bit bizarre really to be sailing along in scorching heat, on a deep blue Mediterranean sea, with snow in the background. Rather awesome though don't you think? Almerimar proved to be a great stopover for five days, especially as we hooked up with Mark and Angie again. They introduced us to whole new circle of people making the stay even more social. For the record, Almerimar is a large man made town centred around a huge marina complex full of livaboards from every country you can think of. It's a sort of staging post for yachts bound for the four corners of the globe but many just tie up and never leave. On 11th June we did manage to pull ourselves away and in convoy with Mark and Angie we slipped our lines for the seven hour sail to an anchorage around the other side of Cabo de Gato. This cape divides the Costa del Sol from the Costa Blanca We arrived at the anchorage, a small sandy bay in the middle of nowhere, early evening feeling tired and hungry. Just as I was about to drop the hook a speedboat raced up to us. The guy said they were making part of an action movie overnight with helicopters, searchlights and fast powerboats. Very apologetically he advised us to move on because the chances of getting a wink of sleep were nil. So, we dutifully secured the anchor again and headed on into the sunset. Another two hours later we dropped anchor in another bay in front of a small village called Las Negras. Exhausted, we had a quick bite and retired to our cabin. Sadly, the swell persisted all night making it difficult to sleep with the constant rolling action of the boat. One good thing about being kept awake is you get to take a half decent picture of sunrise. Next morning we set sail again on the eight hour journey to Aguilas. Here we stayed overnight in a very pleasant little marina so it was refreshing to get a hot shower and some extra supplies from the local shops. On the 13th June we got underway again for another seven hour sail to Cartagena. All the way we had more spectacular mountains to gaze at - plus a bit of snow here and there.
Today is the 14th June and, after a peaceful night, I've already set about exploring this ancient city. The marina is situated right in the heart of the place, which makes it feel a bit like being in Amsterdam. More news and pics to follow shortly. Meanwhile, we're temporary members of another posh sailing club with excellent wifi, a swimming pool and sun terraces overlooking the harbour. We both feel a few days of relaxation will be most welcome after munching so many miles over the past couple of weeks. We'd like to get to Almerimar quite quickly now for three reasons. Firstly, friends Mark and Angie are still there on Cygnus III, but probably not for much longer. A reunion over a few beers would be fun. Secondly, the summer marina prices have kicked in and where we are now is very expensive. And lastly, we're keen to then go on further to round Capo de Gata (a ruddy big cape) so we can head up the Costa Blanca to the beautiful inland sea at Mar Menor, where I expect we'll purposefully get stuck for a week or two given the number of picturesque marinas and anchorages there. So, with all this in mind, we left Fuengirola on Monday for Puerto Caleta de Valez, just east of Malaga. This is really a busy little fishing harbour with a tiny marina attached as an afterthought. It's devoid of any attractions to yotties, other than a place to kip down for the night amongst all the seagull poo on the pontoon...YUK. Then on Tuesday we sailed to Marina del Este, which is where I'm writing from now with the benefit of free wifi. Mind you, at 41 euros a night I'd expect a free laptop to go with it, although they did give us a bottle of Rioja to say welcome. This place is stunning though. The marina is carved out of dramatic cliffs on three sides with amazing villas and apartments all around perched precariously on the slopes. The views from them must be breathtaking as we're surrounded by mountains and crystal seas. Talking of which, once we passed Malaga there was a very distinctive change in the water. It went deep blue as you would expect from the Med whereas before it was still tinged with a bit of green. In this marina the water is completely clear and on the nearby beach (very exclusive I might add) it's a beautiful turquoise colour. As we got within a couple of miles of here we saw dolphins following a fishing boat, presumably feeding off the fish that were falling out of the nets, sail fish with their distinctive black fins sticking up in the air and, for the first time, flying fish. I know this sounds stupid but they really do fly quite far. It's a slightly weird sight to see fish up in the air flapping their wings and soaring along past the boat at great speed. Maybe that's why they're called flying fish!!! Today the plan is to head to Puerto de Motril, a couple of hours away along this mountainous coastline. This will then put us within seven hours of Almerimer. The weather over the past week has been really hot and sunny with not much wind but I'm not sure there isn't a change on it's way. Therefore, my next job is to study the forecasts carefully as we don't want to get caught out on the long haul to Almerimer do we? |
A FEW PICS OF COMINO Click a photo to enlarge and use side arrows to scroll through. COMINO IS CURRENTLY HEREDID SOMEONE SAY SEAFOODOn our journey from Portugal to Greece we enjoyed amazing seafood almost everywhere we stopped. Finding the local fish market was always a priority because seafood was so plentiful and so reasonably priced. And, the displays were a feast for your eyes.
Locating a market sometimes meant pounding the pavements in searing heat, but if you kept your eyes peeled, you often came across a little clue. The pic below was a rather less than subtle advert for a fish market - it was eight feet tall.
Freshly cooked onboard, a plateful of giant prawns, baked in wine and garlic, washed down with a few glasses of local vino, was like heaven. Watching the sunset on the boat eating a meal like that was the epitome of "living the dream".
Now we're in Greece we've another favourite to savour. I'm talking about fried Calamari. It's usually good, but every now and then it's off-the-scale fantastic. At Natalie's Taverna on Kontokali Beach in Corfu, it was nothing short of epic.
We're based in Lefkas now and It's been a bit of a mission to find somewhere just as good. And we have. Rakias is a mere ten minute walk from the marina and this little fish market, with its very own taverna attached, is quite sensational.
Oh...and it's also worth mentioning that, on occasions, a bit of barbequed Octopus is on the menu at some of the tavernas we frequent. Can I resist....no. SUNSETS AND DRAMATIC SKIESNo filters, or any other monkey business, have been used to enhance these images.
OUR ADVENTURES FROM THE BEGINNING CATEGORIES
|