Pelagia cruise 2017 part five. Alicante to Malaga

  Our friend Catherine arrived in Alicante on 29 th July and we set off the next day heading south west to our next port of Torrevieja. After an initial hour of motoring, the  wind came up and we had a splendid sail on a broad reach the rest of the way to Torrevieja, a sail of 32 miles. We berthed on the waiting pontoon whilst checking in and were told that for the one night we could stay alongside it which was ok except being rocked by all the boats in and out of the marina on a busy Sunday night. There was a lot of noise from a stage set up on the harbour side opposite to us but we later found out that we were excellently positioned to hear the concert later that evening which was Earth, Wind and Fire! All for free! The next day was on to Tomas Maestre marina a distance of 28 miles and we had to access it via a bridge that opened every two hours. We aimed to ensure we made the 1600 bridge but we had such a good wind of force 4 that we got there in time for the 1400 bridge. Again we tied up on the waiting pier but were unable to raise anyone on the radio and could not get inside the marina fence to access the office. Pat managed to hail a Marinero working on the inside and he let me in to go to the office and we eventually got a berth. Unfortunately they did not give us a key to get to the toilets or out of the gate so another long hot walk to the office round the marina to get one. The coastline in this part of Spain is totally full of unattractive tower block apartments and hotels for mile after mile. This marina borders on an inland sea and we had an evening drink overlooking the enclosed waters which was pleasant. However, the sand spit of land between lake and sea is totally crowded with buildings and the sand covered in sunbathing people by the hundred.

     We escaped the marina by the 1000 bridge and set sail for Cartagena some 17 miles south around Cabo de Palos. Again the wind came up and we had a downwind sail in force five winds to the huge harbour where we had already booked a space for the night. Since we arrived relatively early we were able to explore the town which is truly beautiful with many spectacular Roman remains and exquisite buildings. A lot of restoration had been done since we last came five years ago which was good to see. It is a good job we did our sight seeing that day as a huge P and O cruise ship slipped in over night with thousands of tourists the next day. All we had to do that morning was some shopping before we set off for a short sail of 17 miles to Mazarron. There were two harbours at Mazarron and the pilot book suggested the most westerly of the two. Having had another splendid sail down and arrived in the now force five wind we found that harbour full. The anchorage off the beach was not an attractive option in the rough sea but a local Spanish boat suggested we try the other harbour which was the main fishing harbour but with some yacht berths. It was only a mile around the point but being upwind we bounced our way round in the choppy sea. We saw the end of a pontoon empty and went for it, hoping that it was not a berth for a trip boat or something. It turned out to be perfectly ok and once the harbour master came back on duty at five we were able to pay our dues. The only downside was the noise from adjacent bars which started at about 2200 hrs and finished about 0700 the next morning. I was by this time sleeping on deck as the temperatures in Spain were soaring in August and the humidity was so high, but I still managed some sleep in the noise. We also managed to get a swim in the sea as the beach was close by even though it was virtually impossible to find a space between the bodies on the beach or in the sea! 

     We left early for the nearly 40 mile sail to Garrucha the next day . We started sailing well on a beam reach but the wind died in the middle of the day. It recovered later more from ahead of us and we sailed close hauled to the harbour on a very hot sticky day. Once moored alongside in  the harbour we melted in the stifling heat and retired to a bar to sip beer to cool down and get Wi Fi . Another uninspiring town which we were not upset to leave early the next morning. The next leg to Almeria was some 50 miles as we had been unable to secure a berth at the intermediate port of San Jose. Initially the coast was full of buildings as we had come to expect, but as we rounded Cabo de Gata the scenery changed to one of mountains and empty coastline. One notable headland before Almeria was called Black Head and it had a striking white rock inclusion at its base which stood out stark against the black rock. 

It was a hot windless day and we had to motor the whole way 51 miles, but at least moving along kept us a bit cooler. Approaching the harbour the town looked sad and neglected, but the yacht club harbour and facilities were very good indeed. How wrong we were and we soon saw a beautifully kept interesting town with wide tree lined boulevards with some wonderful fountains and statues. 

We decided to stay two days and explore the castle and town as well as spending some hours in the air conditioned club bar and restaurant. Although the castle involved a hot walk up it was worth the effort and inside the moorish style building there were many cool gardens and water features where one could stop and rest and admire the views over the town. 

Much money had been spent in protecting and restoring the heritage industries of the town such as the old railway which brought minerals to the harbour and was now a feature over the main tree lined plaza. There was a Thomson cruise ship in the harbour so clearly it is an up coming tourist destination and we enjoyed our stay.

   From Almeria we sailed to the new harbour development of Almerimar where we had reserved a berth. The coast was again what we called the Costa Concrete and we had a mixture of sailing and motoring for the 18 miles to Almerimar. The harbour was pleasant enough but very purpose built and our berth was amongst buildings that had not been sold or let out and were slowly deteriorating. The good side was that we could again walk to a beach and cool off in the sea having picked our way through the throngs again. We were not sorry to leave Almerimar for the 45 mile leg to Marina Del Este, however we had tried to reserve a berth there only to be told they do not take bookings but you have to ring at 0900 hrs on the day. Since we left Almerimar before 0900 hrs it was difficult as we would have no alternative option once there. I rang at 0900, 0930, 1000, and 1100 only to get a Spanish answer phone upon which I eventually left a message. We arrived early at 1400 hrs after 49 miles . I asked for a berth for two nights as it was our wedding anniversary the next day and they said did you ring for a reservation that morning. Of course I said yes I did several times and we got our berth! It is a beautiful small marina tastefully built with many nice restaurants around it. 

We were able to swim from the small beach , not quite as crowded as other places, and we chose a lovely restaurant looking over the harbour and sea for our anniversary meal the next day. Together with Catherine we all had a fabulous meal watching the moon set through the palm trees on a magical night.

     After Marina Del Este we set course for Caleta de Velez a sail of 21 miles. There was little wind but a huge swell coming from wind further away up the Mediterranean. We rolled our way there and got a berth in the yacht club moorings . The harbour was a large fishing harbour and full of rubbish which all seemed to be driven by the wind down to our end. However, a lot of work was going on to improve the town and harbour and no doubt it will get better. Walking along the beach front later in the day we discovered it was a clean tidy beach, well maintained and backed by a row of very well built expensive houses and apartments. Clearly it was a sought after resort for holidays. Our final leg with Catherine was across the bay of Malaga some 25 miles to the large harbour of Benalmadena where I had tried to reserve a berth. 

I was not sure if I had been successful but on arrival I boldly said yes I have a reservation and was allocated a berth in the very full harbour. The berth we were given turned out not to have a lazy line as it was broken and after tying temporarily to two other boats the side of us we went and pleaded for another space. Luckily another boat had left and we actually got a better berth this time well away from the crowded area and noise. We chose Benalmadena because of its proximity to Malaga airport for Catherine to leave but the marina is a massive conglomeration of weird style apartment blocks surrounded by bars and retail outlets around which the boats are moored. It is rough, noisy and pretty unpleasant so we kept away from it all as much as possible except for food shopping.

     This leg from Alicante was another 302 nautical miles over the two weeks making a total this year logged of 1786 so far. Pat and I now have to make our way the remaining distance to Gibraltar and there await a suitable window of wind and weather to exit through the straights back into the Atlantic and on towards Portugal. Going west out of the straights is not easy because there is always a flow of water into the Mediterranean of up to two knots so even with a fair tide you may be  fighting against it. In addition the winds are more normally westerly and you may have to wait for favourable east winds which sadly build up choppy seas against the incoming current. Ah well it is all in the life of the cruising sailor!

     

Chris 

Pelagia cruise 2017 final part, Malaga to Lagos

 After three nights in Benalmadena and Catherine had left us to fly home, Pat and I set off for Estepona, a sail of about 35 miles. There was still a large swell left over from previous winds but the winds were light and we were now experiencing a little tidal flow in our favour as we neared this end of the Mediterranean. So we logged 32 miles and berthed up safely in the now brisk afternoon breeze. Estepona was heaving with holiday makers and the walk along the promenade was crowded as in all other Costa Del Sol resorts. There was a local food fare on the front selling cured ham but in the heat of the day it did not seem appetising. The weather patterns looked right for a passage through the Gibraltar straights in the next couple of days, as were the tides, so the next day we set off to round the Gibraltar rock and berth at La Linea for the night. As we left, a brisk  east wind came up and we sailed fast on a broad reach towards the rock. From 25 miles away we could see the rock was covered in a thick black cloud that was crawling over the crest and down the west side. 

We had a fast sail up to the Gibraltar rock in the now force five wind and gybed the sail as we rounded the south end at Europa point to head more north up into the bay. It is interesting to note that the Europa point lighthouse is the only one outside the UK which is managed by Trinity House.The seas were large and confused as we rounded the point. We were sailing well up the west side into Gibraltar bay through the dozens of anchored ships when vicious gusts of wind in excess of 30 knots peeling off the top of the rock hit us side on. The humid air from Morocco was driven west by the wind over the rock causing cloud to form on the top and violent gusts to cascade down the west side across the bay. We still had our largest Genoa jib set and  I had to run off downwind sharply to avoid being laid over. As we tried to reef the Genoa it got fouled with the spinnaker halyard at the mast top and refused to roll!  We flew westward, luckily with still enough sea room in the bay, until I got the tangle sorted and we could safely reef the Genoa. The sky was black and foreboding as we headed for La Linea marina in the Spanish area just north of Gibraltar airport. There is a sandy bay at La Linea and rather than try and enter an unknown marina in these conditions, I anchored off the shore hoping things would calm down. The wind still varied in strength and direction from 10 to 30 knots and it was uncomfortable in the bay even though it was out of the biggest of the seas so we decided to go for the marina for a night. We had logged 24 miles.

    La Linea was an uninspiring town of blocks of flats as far as the eye could see and bordering the Gibraltar airport runway. The marina was ok for a night but their Wi Fi was not working so we decided to go anyway the next morning without an up to date forecast. That morning the cloud was still over the rock and it was grey but with lighter winds. The predicted favourable tide did not start until 11.00  so we set off about 10.30 and headed across the bay towards Algeciras to go into the straights . Many ferries operate between Algeciras and Ceuta in Morocco and we stayed on engine negotiating the anchored ships and ferries until we had cleared the bay. One high speed ferry coming from Ceuta direction appeared to be heading to pass us astern as we had right of way and I could see there were no anchored ships that would cause him to deviate so was confident of our safety. He continued on course to pass astern until some 100 feet away when he turned to his port side deliberately towards us. For a few seconds I thought he would turn back then when collision looked likely I turned sharply to starboard away from his path only feet away. As he passed us I had to continue my turn a full 360 degrees so that my bow faced the wash as I did not want the massive wave to come over the stern. As it was the wave washed right over our deck and up the windscreen as he receded into the distance at about 30 knots. I have no doubt that he was laughing as we shouted obscenities at him unheard of course. He then turned back to his original course to starboard that he would have been on had he not aimed at us. I believe there is a lot going on around Gibraltar between the British and the Spanish which causes such dangerous and unnecessary behaviour on the shared water between them.

    Once out of the bay we set course for Tarifa some 15 miles away and with the now easterly wind we made good progress sailing west as the tide started to run in our favour. Tarifa is almost at the narrowest part of the straights and making seven knots over the ground we got there at about 13.30 and turned north west to head for Barbate . 

We could see that the sea further out in  the straights was covered in white crests as was the sea ahead and it looked like wind over tide effects but that should not be with the tide with us. We were soon to find that we had at least one knot of tide against us caused by the enormous amount of Atlantic water feeding  into the Mediterranean at this time of year to replace evaporated water. The tide remained stubbornly against us all the way to Barbate but the wind strengthened to force five to six behind us and we had a superb sail all the way for a logged 40 miles as the blue water changed to the green Atlantic waters. All day we had heard on the radio distress messages about missing boats with maybe 30 people aboard. The narrow straights has become one of the favoured routes for refugees from Africa to Europe and we hoped not to see any. One ship, the Zenith Spirit, picked up a life raft just 15 miles from us with five survivors in it. They claimed to have come from Morocco and had been adrift for five days with no water food or engine! A Moroccan war ship made course for the rescuing ship and said they would take the survivors back to Morocco to who knows what fate. Poor souls had endured all that time for nothing but at least they were alive as they could have drifted well out into the Atlantic with the easterly wind and never been seen again. Our port of Barbate was a well sheltered transit port where we rested for the night before moving on to Cadiz.

   Cadiz was about 35 miles northwest around Cape Trafalgar. This Cape, so famous in our history, is treacherous as the cliffs and lighthouse of the Cape look so easy to pass but beneath the surface shallows and rocks abound making it necessary to stay well offshore. 

How Nelson and his ships navigated safely around here is a miracle. The wind was very light and we motored nearly all the way to Cadiz bay still experiencing the tidal stream effect of the day before with a tide of one to one and a half knots against us. Approaching the entrance channel to Cadiz we saw what appeared to be a block of flats being towed in front of us. We still have no idea what it was but something that big was very daunting in front of you. We rounded the buoys and entered Cadiz harbour late afternoon after a logged 48 miles of very tedious motoring. 

  It was time for a couple of days rest after our exit from the Med. The old city of Cadiz was only a short walk away from our harbour and we set off in early morning mist over the sea which cleared by the time we reached the old city walls. The old city dates back to 16 th century although much was rebuilt in the 18 th century. We managed to walk all around the walls in  the morning by which time it was getting very hot and we ducked into the Cathedral for a tour in the cool. 

The Cathedral is huge but quite plain and uninspiring inside and much of the sandstone roof is starting to crumble. The notable features are the fine carvings, statues and paintings by many famous Spanish artists over the centuries. Walking then through the middle of the town you wind through narrow streets lined with fine houses and an assortment of interesting small shops beneath them. A huge market building occupies a central square and it is filled with fish sellers exhibiting a massive range of Atlantic fish. Many plazas were planted with trees and flowers creating shady walks through the town

We looked for a decent restaurant but many seemed very touristic with  fast food but we did spot one near the town main beach which was small, clean and seemed well presented. After looking in amazement at the numbers of people on the beach squeezed onto a small patch of sand we retired to the restaurant for a late lunch. It was a good choice and we enjoyed a superb meal with a grilled tuna steak for main course. Our desert of course had to be accompanied by local sweet sherry which was fabulous. Cadiz was said by Lord Byron to be one of the most beautiful cities in the World. What it was like in his day I do not know but now it is certainly well worth a visit.

    After three days rest in Cadiz it was time to move on to what would be our last Spanish port of this year. The town of Chipiona at the entrance to the river that goes up to Seville was about 20 miles north and said to be a pleasant holiday town. Light westerly winds gave us reasonable sailing speed until later when a foul tide set against us again and we motored into the shallow estuary. We berthed in the marina which seemed well maintained but later we found it was not all as clean and good as we thought. We had logged 22 miles. The town was packed with Spanish tourists spread across the beaches but the town itself was scruffy and full of litter. The interesting features of the town were the lighthouse built in1862 which is surprisingly very tall considering the land here is totally flat. I guess it acts as a guiding light from far out to sea towards the river estuary for the many ships passing up to Seville. 

At low tide you can see areas off the beaches that are enclosed by rock walls that are ancient fish traps. Some are believed to be from Roman times or earlier and are now preserved as part of the ancient history of the area. Fish would come into the area at high water and could not escape as the tide went down although the water would slowly recede through small gaps in the walls leaving only small pools where the fish could be collected. We felt extremely hot in this town as the strong breeze over the land was about 37 degrees and it was like being in a fan oven on slow roast.

  We had reached the last leg of this year, a straightforward sail of 110miles direct to Lagos in Portugal. A simple overnight sail due west along the Algarve and we had a good forecast for weather, wind and swell. We left mid morning from Chipiona because we did not wish to arrive too early at Lagos in the dark. We started with a wind astern of force four to five and were skipping along with only a slight swell. The winds decreased during the day as forecast and we had a mixture of sailing and motoring as the evening came on. Nearing the coast at Faro at dusk the wind died and we motored through a smooth though undulating sea. We had not seen much shipping traffic apart from some anchored off the Spanish port of Huelva but more fishing vessels appeared off Faro and we were kept occupied trying to work out what each craft was doing and how to safely pass them. We were ahead of plan on time and so we were going slowly as we watched many aircraft coming into Faro to land against the backdrop of lights on a very clear starlit night. Suddenly I saw across our path a row of plastic buoys that could only be floats for a net. They were totally unlit and only showed up in the glare from our navigation lights. As they noisily hit the bow causing much alarm to Pat, I hit the stop lever for the engine dreading a net entanglement on the propeller. Pelagia continued to drift forward amongst a gathering of the buoys on either side and we both thought we would be caught ourselves in the dark 5 miles off shore of Faro at about 11.00 p.m. We let the boat drift on and gradually the net and floats drifted away to our stern. It was some time later and with baited breath that I started the engine and found it ran sweetly. We had indeed had a lucky escape. The ships log however was not reading anymore and later I found the impeller underneath the bow was smashed beyond repair by the ropes of the net. This was a small price to pay for what would have been a long hard job to extricate ourselves. Unmarked nets are a curse on the Portuguese coasts and we certainly cursed them that night.

   Very sensitive to fishing boats , the next hour was spent avoiding many as much as we could until their numbers diminished and we relaxed a little and had a cup of tea. Pat suddenly spotted a black cloud approaching and before she could ask what it was we were enveloped in thick damp fog unable even to see the end of the yacht. We resorted to radar and AIS to see if anything was around us and proceeded slowly into the disorientating gloom. Luckily there was not much shipping but one small fishing vessel passed very close after we saw him on radar and this misty apparition of lights glided down our starboard side only yards away. The fog came down at just after midnight and we had 30 miles to go to Lagos so we were both stressed out for the next six hours. None of the coastal lighthouses were visible and no shore lights until very nearly at Lagos when a mile away the town lights showed hazily through the gloom. A group of dolphins decided to accompany us on the last stretch and they were blowing and diving in the gloom right the side of Pelagia, as if to say we will guide you safely in. Relying on chart plotter and radar we steered for the harbour entrance encountering numerous small fishing boats on route. We saw at least two fishing floats pass a foot or so past our stern and we could do nothing to avoid them but trust to luck. Entering the harbour channel we slid slowly up channel in the dark to the waiting pontoon for the marina which was almost full but luckily we found just enough room on one end to tie up at 0600 hours Spanish time or 0500 Portuguese time after six hours of strain in the damp cockpit. We dropped into  our bunks after a heavily whisky laced drink of tea and slept for a few hours.

   That was not the ideal ending to our 2017 cruise but we and Pelagia had arrived safely after another leg of 276 miles making a total of 2062 miles for the season. We will now give her some well deserved attention before flying home and leaving her in Lagos until next season.

   

Chris