Cartagena, Spain
We stopped
at the marina in the centre of Cartagena.
You couldn’t get a better locality – museums, shops and galleries right
on our door step. We are yet to get used
to the prices of marinas, fuel and food in the Med – a 2 night stay was enough
for us. 
Valencia
Our next
stopover was Valencia – a beautiful city once again. Don and I always head to the “old town”
finding the architecture, history and narrow cobble stone streets
fascinating. At one time a river ran
through the city – after it was diverted a park was made along the riverbed
offering a beautiful cool setting amidst the city mayhem. Valencia is also well known for its (diverse/strange/modern
??).
Balearic Islands
We had been
warned that the worst time to visit the Balearic Islands were during the
Spanish holiday season when everyone and their dog is visiting, crowded anchorages,
party music and nudists crowding the beaches were the norm. That description was correct, the many
beautiful remote anchorages were either full of bouys and/or boats, I am sure
the islands would be a wonderful place to explore out of season but for us it
was simply too crowded. We stopped at a
few anchorages on Mallorca, made our way down to Formentera which is known as
the Caribbean Island of the Balearics – pristine clear aqua water, white sandy
beaches – that may be true but there were so many people and boats that we
couldn’t see either. All the toys were
out – jetskis which are called “water bikes” here, kayaks, and the strangest
contraption that is placed on your feet as shoes, a large vaccum cleaner hose
is attached to the “shoes” with the other end to a jetski – water is propelled
through the tube allowing the wearer to rise above the water and if practiced
enough can go metres in the air then arc gently as if a dolphin time and time
again – amazing!!
We found a
beautiful anchorage on the island of Menorca – I am not sure if the end of
August therefore end of “peak season” made the difference or the fact that the
island is further north so many boats do not venture that far but Fornells on Menorca
was beautiful. We had a hard time
getting there, 3 metre swell on the beam meant a very interesting trip, with
the wind coming from the north and the cala entrance the same direction we were
worried the swell would enter the anchorage making it very uncomfortable. After negotiating the narrow rocky entrance
covered in white water we were amazed to find a calm protected anchorage. We spent a few days swimming, exploring and
recovering from the horrible trip.
After watching the winds and deciding that there was not going to be a
“perfect” sailing wind in the near future we did the next best thing and left
for the overnight trip to Sardinia. Not
having a lot of fuel and it being extremely expensive in the Med we sailed when
possible which meant our trip took a lot longer than usual but the water was
calm and moving along at 3 knts without swell was peaceful and allowed us to
catch up on some reading and eating – after all what else is there to do ??
