Starting the 2019 Big Adventure

Starting the 2019 Big Adventure

Tuesday 2nd April…. Finally the wind has changed and this morning we were able to say goodbye to Almerimar. We left the marina at 10am, just in time to catch this morning’s VHF net and say cheerio to everyone. It was a very calm sunny day and so we motorsailed the 40 miles to Puerto Genoves, which is just past Cabo de Gata. This point was another milestone in our adventures because from here we leave the south coast of Spain and start heading northwards. Everything on Thésée seems to be working well after his winter lay-up and recent lift-out. Even the mainsail went up without any hiccups. Saffy was happy and so were we.

After 5 hours or so we arrived at the anchorage. It’s a beautiful setting in the Cabo de Gata National Park. If you remember we came here by car a few weeks ago to check the place out. We dropped anchor (the new SPADE anchor, and chain!) and it dug in real well. There was some swell rolling in but it wasn’t too uncomfortable and we decided we were happy to overnight here. After getting the dinghy blown up etc we took Saffy ashore, managing to find a spot that was fairly wave-less. It was the first time we’ve used the outboard engine with dinghy fins (that we bought last year in Ayamonte), and the dinghy handled exceptionally well.  So after a nice little run about along the beach we headed back to Thésée for our din-dins. Almerimar already seems like a distant dream. 

Time for fun on the beach

A mini ramble

Thésée in the bay at anchor tonight

Wednesday 3rd April…. By this morning it was very calm here in the bay. The sunrise on the surrounding hills was spectacular and we went for a short walk with Saffy a little way up onto the headland. The unusual plants and pointed peaks made us feel like we were in St Lucia or Thailand, not that we’ve ever been to either! On the way back to Thésée in the dinghy the water was so calm and clear that we decided to search to see if we could spot the anchor in 4 metres of water on the bottom. Bingo! We found it, as plain as day. It wasn’t completely dug into the sand but we would say about ¾ of it was. 

Gorgeous morning walk to start the day

Can you spot Thesee through the exotic plantation?

After we departed at 9.30am our plan A was to head to Garrucha about 40 miles north. The wind was behind us and we were sailing with just the genoa, making an average of 5.5 knots. We were really pleased with the way it was going. Our new Ensign is so big that it looked like a sail in itself, helping us along. 

Our new big bright 2 yard Ensign

The ride got a little lumpy after lunch with a rising wind, waves, and a course change. On reaching the marina at Garrucha we had about 22 knots of wind blowing straight into the marina and it was real uncomfortable, nevertheless our arrival went to plan with no problems berthing. The wind blew a hoolie through here for the next four hours. Dean’s shiny cleaned fenders are now filthy having Thesee squash them against the pontoon all afternoon. 

We’re happy with the progress over the last two days. It looks like a nice town and we’ve paid for two nights so we can have a look around and work out our next steps. We’re still ahead of the UK time by one hour and so it didn’t get dark until around 8.45pm. 

Thursday 4th April….  Quite cloudy this morning for Saffy’s run along the promenade. We found out there was a Lidl in town so took a walk late morning to buy a few bits and pieces. On the way Dean was on the look-out for a cycle shop to buy some puncture sealant for the innertubes on the dinghy wheels (as we noticed they were both flat the other day on the beach). Well would you believe it, in the back streets we came across a tatty old motorbike workshop and they had just the thing he wanted.  Later on Dean cleaned the fenders after yesterday big windy rub on the pontoon. Think we’ll be on the move tomorrow.

First job of the day, a visit to Lidl

Fish in the marina, Wow!!

Dean comes home with Ben Bracken Single Malt

 10 Euros. Wow again!

About to fix the dingy tyres

Nearly done, refitting the innertubes

Friday 5th April….  Up before the crack of dawn today, 5.30am precisely. We like to give ourselves approx 2 hours before a departure to get ourselves fed, watered, dressed, walked, boat ready, and gate keys returned. So at 7.40am it was just getting light as we left Garrucha. There was a reason behind this, of course the ‘weather’.  There was quite a big south westerly blow due for a couple of hours this afternoon. We had to make sure that our next destination was sheltered from it as best possible. Of course we could have stayed at Garrucha but it blew straight in the marina the other day and it was quite uncomfortable and bouncy. It kind of reminded us of way back in bouncy A Coruna. 

....and we're off

The sun peeping over the horizon

Unusual peaks along the shoreline

Anyway we were on the move, heading for Aguilas area, needing to be there before midday (hence the early start). There were a couple of choices and as we neared the area we decided to anchor behind the headland at Cabo Cope in a place called Ensenada de la Fuerte. By this time the swell had started to build but as we approached the anchorage it was more sheltered than expected, so we felt we had made a good choice. 

Dean multi-tasking, can talk and sunbathe at the same time

Lovely setting

Spectacular Cabo Cope

Everything was pretty good until the wind arrived at 2pm, the 30 knot gusts sending shudders through the boat. After a couple of hours it had calmed somewhat and we were able to get Saffy ashore after dinner. Not sure what our next step will be from here, or when. 

Our messy anchorage track on the chartplotter

This evening's cloud formation at sunset

Saturday 6th April…. Decision made, we were up at 5am checking the forecasted 6 hour break in the weather. Good to go, and off we did, anchor raised in the dark and well on our way by 7am.  Destination Cartagena!!  The sky was full of bright stars shining down on us. About a 30 mile journey, roughly 6 hours, so we had to be there by noon before the regular afternoon blow started, and it was forecast strong gusts again. 

The trip across the Golfo de Mazarron worked well, about a metre swell rolling vaguely in our direction. We tried to ignore the clouds and lightening happening far out to sea, it was a beautiful clear sky where we were.  A bit chilly so we kept busy by helming ourselves instead of letting the hydrovane do the work. We were crossing a submarine exercise area but we didn’t see any…… obviously. At one point our GPS fix disappeared on the Chartplotter. This has never happened to us before, but we knew exactly where we were and where we were going. Dean had to do a reset before it would come back on. It was odd because today was the day that Raymarine (the manufacturer) had forecast a possible glitch with older Chartplotter models. Anyway, all seems to be fine now.  

So we arrived about 11.45am, and were given a difficult berth which we couldn’t seem to get into with the wind picking up, and not much room to manoeuvre. When Thesee is in reverse we get propwalk to the left so it sometimes makes reversing into a finger berth difficult. Then we were directed to a different berth which was alongside a pontoon and we made that OK, with just a little shouting going on. The problem is when the Harbourmaster changes his mind for where he wants you to go, you more or less have to change all the lines and fenders around to suit, and it gets a little stressful. You never really know what you will be given, a finger berth, alongside berth, or stern to with lazy lines. Nevertheless we’re here now and are feeling accomplished. 

Thésée at Yacht Port Cartagena

Sunday 7th April….  Slept really well last night, albeit sounds of ropes stretching. Must be some tide running in here as we started squeaking last night but not so bad this morning.  Surprise of the morning on opening the curtains, there was a cruise ship berthed on the outside of the marina pontoon. It was Fred Olson’s ‘Balmoral’. 

Here's the daytrippers

I went along to Yoga with Tina and Eva, in the nearby park. There were lots of people around, enjoying the fine weather. I actually wore my shorts! Meanwhile Dean washed the boat down. It had been covered in a fine layer of gypsum from the other day in Garrucha.

This afternoon we went along to the Liveaboards Sunday BBQ in the marina, and had a very enjoyable time. It was a ‘bring your own food and drink’, kind of like a picnic really.  So we took a bottle of Rose, a nice change from the Vino Tinto. Saffy feasted on chicken and fell asleep when we got back, still asleep now. 

Monday 8th April….  Not very much happening today really. We had a walk about town with Saffy and Dean treated us to an ice cream. We’ve seen everything here and are ready to move on. Oh, there was some excitement earlier. A ‘Salvamento Maritimo’ (Search & Rescue) helicopter roared across the marina and subsequently seemed to carry out a training exercise lowering people onto a lifeboat in the harbour. I’ve just looked this up, and their Facebook page gives more info about this exercise here 

https://www.facebook.com/salvamentomaritimo.es/

Also we noticed a funny smell coming from the galley sink, probably just the pipes so we put some cleaner through it. And later on I made a chicken & leek pie. I’m hoping it will last us a couple of days as we plan to do a little anchoring this week on the way up to Torrevieja. Saffy wasn’t impressed with Sardines for dinner, so I had to find a bit of chicken for her. Now she is happy again. Here's some pictures from around town....

Monumento a los Héroes de Cavite

 Palacio Consistorial

Flower displays in the Plaza Ayuntamiento

Monumento- Patrulla Águila

An historical decorative facade is all that's left of this building

Now held up by scaffolding

Casa Maestre

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Maestre

Tuesday 9th April….  Thesee’s on the seas again, and we left Yacht Port Cartagena this morning with a text book departure. Outside the harbour it was a bit lumpy, the swell seemed to be going in two directions, almost back on itself. A short while after we made a heading for 90 degrees and rolled the genoa out. We seemed to be on a beam reach, and wished we’d hoisted the main sail first, so we rolled the genoa away, put the mainsail up, then rolled the genoa out again. It was going to be a day of sail changes it seemed. When we raise the mainsail we have to go head to wind. Sometimes it’s tricky if there is a fair amount of swell, but today we managed it without too much trouble. So we were on our way towards the Mar Menor area.

A couple of hours into the journey we heard a tremendous noise. Well it was only the Spanish version of the Red Arrows…. and they were giving us our own personal airshow right above our heads…. WOW!!  They must have flown over about 10 times, each time practising different manoeuvres including loop the loop. We tried to take photos but we couldn’t keep the camera on them long enough to take a photo.

OK, so Dean got a photo on his phone, clever

Our route was to take us around Cabo de Palos where there is a huge marine reserve stretching from the coast out to sea. Our Chartplotter said that the area was prohibited, but we had thought it was ok to sail through, but not anchor, fish, or dive without permission. So we debated what to do, in the end we decided to sail around it. This must have added at least two hours onto our journey. We’re a bit mad with ourselves because we later saw a boat sail through it and anchor in our Plan A anchorage. Anyway, after our long detour we decided to head for our Plan B anchorage. This was in a bay just outside of the Mar Menor. It’s called  Ensenada del Esparto, just off the Playa del Pudrimel beach. To anchor Thesee in a good spot we are about 1km from the beach.  When the wind calmed about 7.30pm we managed to get ashore in the dinghy for a quick walk. Oh my, now we know we are really on the Costa Blanca, what a fabulous white sandy beach….. at last!  

We are here

Glorious sand for mile and miles

 ....and a lovely view out to sea

By the time we headed back the sea was perfectly calm and clear and we could see the sandy bottom all the way back to the boat. I even saw a huge flat fish swim under the dinghy. Dean took the GoPro waterproof video camera and got some film of Thesee’s anchor dug well into the sand. 

Moon's out, clear skies, wonderful

Wednesday 10th April….  After a lovely walkabout ashore this morning, we set sail for Torrevieja. We had both sails up but it got quite windy along the way. It was fairly chilly being on a close hauled point of sail. The wind didn’t let up at all for the whole way, which was just over 2 hours. We had already planned to anchor outside the harbour, which is what we did. Trouble is we can’t get ashore for Saffy tonight because it’s a bit rolly and we had some very dark grey clouds bringing windy gusts. Here's today's photos.. 

Up early this morning to see the cloud formations

 The moment before sunrise

Here it comes 

On our walkies near Thomas Maestre marina

In Torrevieja watching some action

This cloud just passed overhead

Yikes! Looking southwards 

Thursday 11th April….  Surprisingly we both had a fairly decent night’s sleep last night and managed to get ashore this morning. Saffy takes all this rocking and rolling at anchor in her stride these days. She's come a long way since our very first overnighter at Osborne Bay, Isle of Wight four years ago when she was up all night. Anyway, it was a shame on re-launching the dinghy, Saffy & I ended up getting a mini -splashing when a small wave decided to break at the wrong moment. 

 Thesee in Torrevieja anchorage this morning

After we’d sorted ourselves out on Thesee, we raised the anchor and half the seabed came up with it!  A big muddy clump.

....See what i mean

Before setting out to sea we poked our noses into the harbour and nearby marina. We wanted to berth Thesee here next week but there is a lot of refurbishment work going on in the marina and they aren’t taking any visitors at the moment.  

So onwards we went up the coast. Destination….. PIRATE ISLAND!!  Otherwise known as Isla Tabarca. It’s just a couple of miles off the mainland at Santa Pola and Dean was itching to come and have a look. There is a marine reserve here and we couldn’t really anchor as close in as we wanted to. However, the position isn’t too bad, but again it’s still rolly at times. We did go ashore earlier this evening when all the daytrippers had been ferried back to the mainland. It’s quite a unique little place, and the small harbour is truly delightful and pretty. 

 Can't see any Pirates yet

Just got ashore at Isla Tabarca.... lovely

No-one around at this time in the evening

A few steps away we can see the south shore

A flowery view this time

Lots of paper fishes to welcome you into the village

Now outside the old Church

....and the museum

If the weather is kind and stable we may be able to have a bigger walkabout tomorrow.


Friday 12th April…. I woke at 4am and was up checking the weather forecast. The wind had turned and picked up and was now making sleeping near impossible. Soon after Dean was up checking lines etc and then went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep and stayed up on the sofa…. until he woke me at 8.15am!  I always seem to be talking about weather on the blog, but I suppose it’s a big part of Thesee’s adventures. 

We weren’t happy to try getting ashore so we both decided we should head back to the mainland where there may be some shelter from the north westerlies.  It was only about a 40 minute journey and when we got outside of Santa Pola harbour it was amazingly calm and we dropped anchor in 3m of water, took Saffy ashore, and  decided upon our next move. Well it was so nice we debated whether to stay the night or go into the marina a day earlier than planned. Not long after this a working rib came nearby with a load of large yellow buoys and started laying them across the bay. This was obviously to cordon off the summer season’s swimming area, and yes….we were right inside the line of newly laid buoys. It was such a lovely spot and the sun was blazing, but in the end after a lot of umming and aaarring  we decided to move into the marina. This is where Dean will be staying whilst I pop back the UK next week. 

Today's beautiful lunchtime anchorage spot outside Santa Pola

Dropping this years yellow buoys

Only passing waves from local boats to contend with

The beach is wonderfully gorgeous proper toe-sinking white sand

In the marina Dean did well berthing stern to with a bit of wind blowing. We have already made a new Swedish friend on a neighbouring boat. The marina staff are very friendly and helpful,  and we’ve had a little walk about the bars and restaurants along the promenade. We even have Wifi!!! Blimey.  It looks a very nice place so far.  

Thesee's lovely surroundings in the marina

We really enjoyed our Thésée Friday (Rum & Coke) after our no alcohol anchoring ban we abide by (almost) for the last three days. Later on our new Swedish friend came over for a beer and a chat. Feeling tired now, early night... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On watch!

Saturday 13th April…. What a lovely day we had today with our very special guests the one and only Aunty Von & Uncle Jim! They have so kindly loaned us their car for the week so that we can get around and I can get to the airport and back. So this morning Dean got busy washing the boat down, making sure Thésée was looking spic and span . Then at 1pm Aunty Von & Uncle Jim arrived and we had a really good catch-up before going off for lunch at one of the bars on the quayside. It was so lovely to see them again and the time went so quickly and before we knew it, it was 6pm. Time to get back on board for a couple of beers and more talking, lol.  Wish every day was like today 💖 💖

The VIP's

 A glorious day for a family get-together

Paella sharing

Sunday 14th April…. This morning we decided to have a little stroll into the town and we came across the main plaza and castle where there were Palm Sunday celebrations going on. Quite a few Spaniards in their Sunday best and lots of people carrying palms. We sat and watched the goings on for a while but it was a hot morning and so we had to move on after a while. 

Inside the castle walls

 Jesus and his donkey waiting for the procession to start

 All the locals with their palms aloft in the plaza

There he goes

Today was about 26 degrees so not good to sit out in the sun for too long. We had a busy day because after lunch we took four empty fuel cans to the local pump and filled them up with diesel and petrol. The cashpoint payment was slightly confusing but we got there in the end. The cashpoint takes a certain amount from your debit card then gives you a refund if you don’t spend that much. We’re still waiting to see the refund amount appear on the bank statement.  

3 of the 5 cans we filled

 

Getting it into the fuel tank

Later on we went out in the car to familiarise ourselves with it and the local area. We drove about 15 miles to Guardamar where there is another marina and we had a look around. It was OK but we are happy that we chose Santa Pola instead. 

Near the dunes at Marina de la Dunas

A lot of windsurfing going on

This anchor chain is even bigger than Thesee's 12mm

From there it was back to Thesee, eat food, then onto a neighbouring boat for a drink. I’ve only just done my suitcase packing and have to be up early in the morning for my flight home at 8.30am.  So the 2019 Big Adventure is well under way, the next blog will be updated by Dean and Saffy dog until I return next weekend.

So this is the last blog post entitled 'Starting the 2019 Big Adventure'

The next post will be called 'Hanging around the Costa Blanca'