Boat Repairs and a Beautiful Wedding and Family Reunion

The wedding party

Our two weeks at Almerimar before leaving for London were busy getting the boat repairs and upgrades done that we could not get done in Sardinia.  What a contrast!  The marina, services and chandleries in Almerimar were professional and efficient.  We were lifted out the morning after our evening arrival and all settled in our stands within a half hour.  This process took over 4 days in Cagliari.  

The view from the hard

Shored up.  Going up and down the ladder certainly made us limber.

By our second day at Almerimar we had all our work organised, parts ordered and on the way.  We set ourselves up getting use to life ‘on the hard’.  Although the Almerimar boat yard was infinitely better than the one in Cagliari, boat yards are generally very basic, dusty environments and require a bit of roughing it.  Bob made himself a workbench out of scrap wood around the boat yard and set up some pallets for a washing up stand.

Bob's workbench

Washing up area

The major job was lifting the engine so we could remove the prop shaft.  We did this job ourselves with a block and chain borrowed from Chris at Almerimar Marine Services.  It was a surprisingly easy and straight forward job to lift the 200+ kg engine and then bring the prop shaft through the salon to remove it.  For most boats the prop shaft can be easily removed aft (from the back of the boat for landlubbers) but we have a skeg-hung rudder that blocks the aft removal.  A new prop shaft with the correct taper (see previous blog about the propeller saga) was ordered and arrived in a few days.  We lifted the engine again, inserted the shaft, cut to size and all ready for the new Flexofold propeller. 

Lifting the engine with a block and chain

New propeller shaft waiting for installation

Cutting the prop shaft to size

Next we ordered a bank of new batteries.  Those batteries were heavy!  Lifting them up onto the boat was a bit of a challenge but nothing a bit of cranking with a winch couldn’t handle.

Batteries delivered

and lifting them onto the boat

We had been having a bit of back filling in the forward head (that’s a toilet landlubbers) so Bob decided to change some of the piping and install a better siphon breaker.

Working on the plumbing from the forward head - tight spaces on a boat

So with all the major jobs done, and much too much spent at the chandleries getting all the required extra safety equipment for the ARC+, we were ready to put on our glad rags and head to London for Pam’s wedding.

We were so protective of the new propeller that we wrapped it up while we were away in London and we forgot to take a picture of it before launching!

Patrick and Peter were coming in from Australia for the wedding.  This was the first time we have all been together since March 2015.  It was a very special time.  The wedding was beautiful and the reunion wonderful.  I must admit that I tended to spent most of the time being very sentimental, fighting off tears and giving silly mother hugs to our now adult children.  We are so proud of you, Pam and Nicole, a beautiful, happy couple. We feel very fortunate to have such amazing children and privileged to add another marvellous family to our relations.

Here come the brides

The happy couple

Nicole and Pam with their attendants, Emily and Patrick

The new brothers and sisters

Bob, Nicole, Pam and Eileen

The united families

Hopping Along the Spanish Coast

After the delightful few days in Cabrera, it was time to start heading west toward the boat yard in Almerimar where we hoped to finally get the work done on the boat that was not able to be done in Sardinia.  

Amazing sand castle on the beach of Colonia de Sant Jordi

 We had a lovely gentle 11 nm sail to pretty anchorage at Colonia de Sant Jordi on the south coast of Mallorca.  Most people come to Mallorca for fun, sun and sea.  We came to do our laundry.  Never mind, it was a pleasant stop.

Great laundromat only a few blocks from the mooring field

The next day an overnight, 85 nm, passage took us to Ibiza.  We did not want to go to the Sodom and Gomorrah of Ibiza Town and instead found a lovely mooring site at Salinas on the south coast.  This was touted as the place to go to get away from the wilds of Ibiza Town.  It was still a full on beach holiday site with a beach lined with bars and cabanas but lovely all the same, as it all calmed down in the evening.  There was a wrecked boat on the beach which had broken its mooring lines about 10 days previously during some high winds - a very sobering sight.  We checked our mooring lines several times.

Beached boat - sad and sobering

Holiday makers in Ibiza

The 'Holy Rock'

Weather beaten tree along the beach

Two days later we had an early morning start for the 11 hour passage to mainland Spain.  We landed at Calpe, known for its mini rock of Gibraltar.  It was just a short overnight visit at Calpe, a rather overdeveloped holiday town.

The Rock near Calpe

We were on our way the next morning for a rather boring motor (despite winds predicted to be perfect for a sail) to Alicante.  This area of Costa Blanca in Spain is endless high rise holiday resorts – not the prettiest sights to sail past.

Coastal high rise development

But city of Alicante was a total delight.  The marina was excellent with very friendly and helpful staff and a wonderful club house.  The town had beautiful old buildings with ornate cupolas and embellishments along palm tree lined esplanades that the Spanish do so well.

Esplande in Alicante

Entrance to the marina

View of the marina

That night we were treated to a great fireworks display as part of a weeklong celebration in Alicante.  The next day we explored the castle, Castello de Santa Bárbara, overlooking the town.  The castle dates from the 9^th Century in the time of the Moors but was taken over by the Spanish (Castilians and Aragonese) in the 13^th Century.

Fighting knights

View of the beach from the castle

After two nights in Alicante with fireworks every night starting at midnight, we were up early for the sail to Tomas Maestra.  Sadly, once again the predicted winds did not materialise and it was another boring motor.  Tomas Maestra was fun as it required entrance through a lifting bridge.  

Bridge opening into the marina and lake

The marina sits between a sand barrier and a lake and the area seems to be almost exclusively a boating place.  After dinner we took a walk along the waterfront and came across celebrations for gay pride.  It was great to see such a small place taking part in the celebrations with great gusto.

Gay Pride in Tomas Maestra

Sunset over the lake

The next day we dropped the mooring lines in time to catch the 10 am bridge opening.

Leaving the next morning

Cartagena was our next destination.  We arrived mid afternoon and after we moored on the pontoon we saw another Oyster 39 docked nearby.  There are not many of our boat around so it was exciting to see another.  We had a nice chat with the owners of Interval and arranged to have a look see the next morning.  It is great to compare boats.

We went into town that evening for tapas and there was a huge gay pride parade.  The whole community got into it and there were some fantastic costumes and floats.

Lots of noise and great drumming

The unions had a group join the parade

Fantastic costumes

Everyone having a great time

After two pleasant nights in Cartagena, making new sailing friends, we did a shortish hop to Garrucha.  Garrucha marina has lovely pontoons but sadly is right near a dock which is continuously loading gypsum onto cargo ships.  It is a fairly noisy business and extremely dusty.  After just one night the boat was filthy.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next day to make our last sail of the spring season to Almerimar, Songster’s home for the next six weeks.  So that was our rather short spring sailing season.  We did 14 passages over 3½ weeks covering 738 nautical miles.

From Cagliari, Sardinia to Alimerimar, Spain

Beautiful Cabrera National Marine Park

The four days at Cabrera Marine Park were a total tonic after a rather bumpy (literally) start to the sailing season.  This group of tiny islands just south of Mallorca was made into a National Marine Park in 1991.  We had one of our best sails ever coming to this beautiful location.  Then upon rounding the headland we were greeted with one of the prettiest harbours.

Entrance to the harbour

Songster is the blue boat on the top right

The harbour entrance and castle

 

As in all the places in the Med, these islands have been occupied by a succession of powers.  First by a community of monks during the 5^th to 8^th Centuries, then the Moors controlled this part of the world for several centuries.  In the 14^th Century a castle was built on the headland to defend against the Berber pirates.

The 14th Century Castle

Byzantium necropolis

Then in 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars, the island was used to intern 9,000 French prisoners of whom only about one third survived.  The area continued to be a military zone until 1980’s.  Thankfully today it is a well-protected marine environment.  Small tripper boats come every day from Mallorca with school children and visitors who come for a few hours to clamber over the castle then swim in the crystal clear water.  At night it was just the yachties swinging on moorings under a moonlit sky.

Due to its isolation this group of islands have several unique species of flora and fauna and vast marine meadows of Posidonia sea grass, which in the Mediterranean are like coral reefs for their importance to biodiversity.  One of the unique land species that are everywhere is the Lilford's wall lizard.  These friendly little lizards seem to have so much personality that I kept imagining them in a Disney animation.

 

 

 

Nibbling lettuce from my finger

There is no fishing around the islands and a real sanctuary for fish in the over-fished Mediterranean.  In our 5 years snorkelling around in the Med, I have never seen such plentiful waters.  The Sea Bream were nearly double the size I have seen anywhere else.  I even saw a barracuda – very exciting.  The fish seem to have no fear of humans.  Schools followed me to the boat, hoping for a feed or wanting to bite my toes?  One Salema even bit Bob on the finger.

Pretty Rainbow wrasse

Large Sea Bream

Bitey Salema

View of the fish from Songster's deck

 So we spent our days swimming, snorkelling, taking long walks and socialising with some of the other boats moored in the bay.  It was a thoroughly delightful time.

Mallorca in the distance