Spain

Cartagena, Spain

The sail from Saidia, Morocco to Cartagena, Spain took 30 hours – we were fortunate enough to sail when the moon was at it's closest to earth (apogee) for the year making our overnight passage bright.   The swell was on the beam which caused the boat to do figure 8’s the entire way – Don got to do the galley duties.

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 ??