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

A Long Slog to Paradise

The start of our sailing season was not the smoothest.  On the 6^th of June (two months later than our first sail of the season last year), we finally left the marina in Cagliari to set sail for Teurreda, a beautiful little bay we visited last October.  The wind was on the nose so we were motoring.  About an hour or two into the passage we noticed the engine was overheating quite badly.  Weighing all the options we decided we would have to return to the marina.  Fortunately the wind was in our favour on the return trip and we could sail and let the engine cool.  

Leaving Cagliari the first time

The next day Antonello, the mechanic, came to check out the motor.  Bob had done several checks the night before when we returned and there was nothing obviously wrong.  Antonello removed the heat exchanger cover (radiator) and the little tubes were filled with marine life.  They cleaned that up but when they checked the engine again it was still overheating.  Break for lunch then back at 5pm to test the thermostat.  The thermostat was fine.  After lots of head scratching, they decided to test the temperature sensor reading against the actual temperature of the coolant.  Problem identified.  The sensor was faulty and the engine was running fine all along.  This is an easy and relatively inexpensive fix.  We could pick up a new sensor at the Yanmar dealer in Menorca.

Bob was much relieved.  He brought out cold beers for everyone to celebrate and we chatted and joked using Google translate as the mechanics did not speak English and our Italian is limited to a few polite phases.  Antonello reminded us of Alfredo, the cinema owner, from the film Cinema Paradiso so we started calling him Antonello/Alfredo.  Antonello totally under charged for all his time and hard work so Bob gave him a bit extra and told him teasingly to use it for some hair restorer which brought on a big laugh.  It was a nice way to end our time in Cagliari.

The second departure - I thought I saw a puddy tat!

The next day, Saturday, we were up bright and early to head southwest to Teurreda Beach – once more with feeling.  We got there mid-afternoon, put down the anchor and I got on my wet suit for a swim.  Finally the first swim of the season.  The water was still chilly (at least for me) but fine with my shorty wet suit.  It was heaven to be swimming again in the crystal clear water.

Teurreda Beach

Sunset on a lovely day

However, by nightfall the blissfulness of being at the beach changed.  A big wind blew up.  We let out more chain.  I knew the anchor was well set as I always swim over it to check, but the 20-25 knot winds gusting to 30kts made Bob quite anxious.  We ended up spending most of the night in the cockpit doing anchor watch.  We have a GPS anchor alarm but Bob wanted to be on hand to react immediately if the anchor dragged.  Finally at about 4 am we went to bed for a few hours sleep. 

In the morning the wind was still strong but it looked a lot less malevolent in the daylight compared to the moonless dark night.  The wind eased a bit by mid-morning so we decided to sail on.  It was a rocky rolly trip under reefed sail but nothing worse than we have experienced before, but certainly not pleasant.  We arrived at Carloforte on the little island of San Pietro on the west coast of Sardinia.  We were there last October and found the place utterly charming and it did not lose any of its charm the second time around. 

 

The pretty back streets of Carloforte

We were planning to stay just one night in Carloforte and head out in the evening for our 200 nm, two nights and 1 1/2 day sail to Mahon, Menorca in the Balearic Islands.  However the winds looked slightly better to leave Tuesday.  It didn't take much convincing to have an extra day in Carloforte.

We left Carloforte at about 6pm on Tuesday the 11th for the 38 hour passage to Mahon, Menorca. 

The first night was fine but quite cold.  The winds were good and we could sail.  We do shifts with the watches.  I tend to go to bed around 10pm then get up around 2pm for my night watch until around 6 am.  Then Bob takes over while I get a few more hours of sleep then Bob will take an afternoon nap and so it goes.  

Rough sea state rounding the top of Carloforte

The sea state was quite rocky rolly on this passage and I couldn't sleep very well.  With the boat rocking and rolling there isn't much to do other than hold on and pass the time as best one can.  We have a bluetooth speaker for the cockpit and listen to music or talking books or read but sometimes reading can make me a bit queasy if the seas are too rough.  This passage was a bit of a test of endurance.  We arrived in Mahon about 8 am on the 13th.  We moored up on a floating pontoon in the harbour and got a few hours sleep.

Sunset on the first night

Frozen by morning

Entrance to Mahon harbour

We went ashore for an hour or so in the evening for a quick look around and were looking forward to exploring the town the next day.  However Mother Nature had other ideas.  A big wind blew up in the morning and we could not go ashore.  By the late afternoon the winds had calmed enough so we could go ashore.  However our explorations of the town were postponed as the priority was to get a part for the motor at the Yanmar dealer which was a taxi ride of several kilometres from the waterfront.  Once this task was completed we decided to walk back through some of the old town.  

We came across this parade on a small side street - Boy scouts? children group of some sort?

Mahon harbour

Mahon is a lovely town.  In typical Spanish custom the town comes alive between 6-9pm.  It is a great time to sit at an outdoor cafe having a drink and tapas.  We did this at a little cafe opposite a square filled with families enjoying the evening.  Then we moved on and found an even nicer street corner near a beautiful old church and had another tapas and drink while people watching.  Then 200 metres further on we came across an old converted fish market which had the most amazing tapas.  We couldn't resist and had a third tapas.  It was a great way to finish our short visit of Mahon.  We wish we could have stayed longer in Mahon but then we would have turned into one enormous tapas!

 

 

 

 

Who could resist?

The next day we left very early for an 11 hour passage to the nice harbour of Porto Colom in Mallorca.  After the big wind the day before the seas were really rough and the wind was right on the nose so we had to motor.  We were making very little head way bashing into the waves.  Waves were breaking over the bow and washing down the deck. If we couldn't make up time we would arrive at Porto Colom after dark - something we never want to do is arrive in a strange harbour in the dark.  We were checking wind predictions and other harbours we could go to, if needed.  We had to decide at some point whether or not to turn back.  Fortunately the winds eased by 2pm and we decided to continue on but the seas were still pretty rough.   

 

 

 

Bashing through the waves with the wind on the nose

We managed to make Porto Colom by about 6.30 pm - several hours before dark.  We moored up to a buoy, lowered the dinghy and went straight into town to the supermarket as we needed supplies for our 4 days at Cabrera national park.

The calm of Porto Colom at moonrise

On the next day, Sunday the 20^th, we left mid-morning for the little island cluster of Cabrera just south of Mallorca.  This was made into a marine park in the 1990’s and it is necessary to book ahead for permission to stay there.  There is no anchoring and all boats must be on designated buoys. 

In contrast to the previous two passages, we had one of our best sails ever from Porto Colom to Cabrera.  It was delightful.  The winds were just right and the seas moderate.

What a difference a day makes - perfect sailing

So for four days we swung on a buoy in a beautiful harbour of crystal clear water looking up to a 14th Century castle amongst rugged hills.  Paradise at last.

The anchorage at Cabrera (Songster is the blue boat on the top right)