Almeria to Denia

Monday 26th October Almeria

We got up and decided to have a big school session whilst Ali went off to try and find some camping gas as we were running precariously low. The school session usually consists of Alisha learning a new letter or sound and writing it then doing some reading practice. After that we try and do something interesting but educational as her concentration is gone by that point. She is really starting to enjoy it now that she knows quite a few letters and sounds it is beginning to ‘click’ which is a mercy because I thought at one point we may have to come home and put her to school!

We went for a walk into town after what we deemed to be ‘siesta’ time to try and find a laundry as we had a fair sized bagful not having done any since Barbate. The town of Almeria has a really big promenade up the main street paved with Marble and lined with statues, trees, fountains and…..play parks! The girls had a lot of fun playing whilst we waited for the laundry to open at 5.30 - some siesta. We decided to eat out as Ali hadn’t found a gas shop earlier and it would be awful to run out half way through cooking. It’s not as if we have a microwave or oven for back up like at home. We had forgotten what time the Spanish eat at as we walked down the road to a restaurant we had seen on the way up and it was hand with the marina, it didn’t open until 8 so we went to a bar, no food until 8, Chinese, etc etc. We ended up somewhere we haven’t been since we were dragged by Ali’s first family when they were younger - Burger King! Ali hates all that kind of stuff I think it is actually quite good once in a while and unfortunately the girls thought it was the best meal they have had in ages especially as it came with a little toy. In the other places we have been since they have noticed the Burger Kings and have started asking to go in, what have we started!

Tuesday 27th October Almeria

We didn’t do too much this day except for wander around the town and get some supplies from the shops for sailing to Cartagena the next day. There was a Danish boat next to ours at the marina with a nice couple on board and a toddler they have been cruising the med for a year and were now on their way to the Canaries except she is pregnant and they are going home for a scan and their friends were taking the boat there for them. The girls liked their little girl Savannah, Alisha couldn’t get Savannah’s name right and kept calling her ’little Sultana.’ Ali finally found gas a long cycle for him, he said that the town was quite deceiving as the centre is quite opulent looking but just a few blocks back everything changed and it was quite obvious the people who lived there were much poorer than the smartly dressed people sitting in the cafes. We bought Kaylee a new pair of trainers as we had to throw her other pair out as they were so smelly we were astounded feet so small could make such a bad smell! Kaylee knows how to get what she wants, she had spied a pink pair with sparkles on but they were more expensive than the ones we gave her to try on. She made a big show of how the first two pairs hurt her feet and were just awful until she got to try on the pair she wanted and without even setting her feet on the ground they were ‘perfect.’ How has she learned the art of manipulation so well at such a young age?

Wednesday 28th October Leaving Almeria

Ali took the girls on a big cycle run in the morning to retrieve our washing which was finally ready whilst I got the boat all cleaned up for going to sea. Ali went up to the marina office to settle the bill and say we were leaving (take note of this). We set off at about lunch time to do an overnighter to Cartagena or so we thought.

The first funny thing that happened was a speed boat came chasing us out of the harbour. We thought this was very strange, the man signalled to us to listen and said we had not paid our electricity bill and it was 20 Euros! Ali said he had been to pay but the guy said no electricity is extra (nobody told us and why did they not say when Ali paid up?) Then Ali said well twenty Euros cant be right as we were only there for two days but the man was insistent so we thought we cant really argue and gave him twenty Euros, lucky we had it on us! Now we ask at each marina if electricity is included or not and check the meter if it isn’t! Another lesson learned.

The forecast had been for variable light to moderate winds and we thought we would be able to sail once we got around the headland Cabo de Gato 20 miles off. The wind was not favourable for crossing out of the bay but we managed to sail that part. As we approached the southern tip of the headland the wind increased from exactly the direction we wanted to go. The sea also rose quickly and so we ended up tacking back and forth in very bouncy seas. The girls weren’t very happy as we just haven’t been used to this at all. I was a bit upset, I seem to have lost some of my sailing nerve and was all for heading back to Almeria. The progress we were making was terrible and at about 6 o’clock Ali decided we should go to San Hose instead a small Port at the North end of the headland. IT was still 6 miles to go and it took us until nine o’clock at night to get in. Overall we had travelled 20 miles and it took 8 hours, less than three miles per hour! We let the girls stay up and watch a DVD as a treat for a rough day and then we all went to bed to get some sleep for leaving in the morning.

Thursday 29th San Hose to Cartagena

The wind died overnight so we waited for the harbour master to come on duty and continued on our way. We got the sails up as soon as we left the harbour in the light Westerly winds.

Ali decided to try a spot of fishing which was as usual unsuccessful. The line was trailing out behind the boat as we sailed when we spotted a pod of dolphins heading towards it we were scared they were heading for the hooks so Ali got them hauled in as quickly as he could, thankfully with no dolphins attached.

We were using the gennaker and the main sailing down wind at about 4 knots but not quite in the right direction until we decided to ‘goose wing’ Goose winging (for the non sailors) is when you get the sails pointing out both sides of the boat - see video at the bottom. This increased the speed by two knots at the least and we could now head directly for Cartagena. The wind increased a bit to the point where it was getting a little uncomfortable but we decided it was still OK to goose wing and were sometimes making 8 knots. It was a nice sail for a few hours until the wind died at just before sunset. The sea was a bit rolly but that also died down as the night went on. We motored the last few hours and came into Cartagena at about 1am. We got tied up and went to sleep or so we thought then the nightclub on the pier started - yes started! - at 2am and continued to pump out loud thumping music until about 6am. It was quite a warm night so there were lots of revellers out on the pier jumping down onto the town pontoons it didn’t make for a good nights sleep although it did sound like a lot of fun was being had and the music wasn’t bad either!

Friday 30th Cartagena

We were woken up by a very loud noise in the harbour and went on deck to find a couple of tugs manoeuvring a submarine out of the harbour. The girls were very excited not having seen one before but were a little concerned for the men standing on the deck of the submarine wondering what they would do when it went underwater. We explained that they would probably have gotten inside by that point. It reminded me of taking them to Up Helly Aa in Lerwick two years ago when Alisha had been very concerned for her little pal Jacob whom she had spotted inside the galley in the procession. That time we explained that the kids and the Jarl do actually get out before the guisers start throwing in the burning torches!

We met a nice English couple Colin and Julie who were staying for the winter and went for a coffee onboard their ‘Oyster’ (apparently a very good make of yacht?!) It turned out they were staying put because their teenage son had broken his leg whilst our walking their dog along the promenade, here’s the spooky bit, exactly ten years to the day he had broken the same leg before! He says in ten years time he is definitely not going out on that day, I don’t blame him! The dog was a funny little thing too it ran down the gangway to greet us, went straight to the next boat (thankfully not us) and peed on their gangway. The French owner wasn’t too impressed! We discovered from them how cheap it was to over winter in Cartagena and this set us thinking a bit as we had decided on Barcelona a few weeks ago. We went for a wander into town to get our bearings and have lunch. Cartagena as it turns out is the town of many play parks. There must be at least ten within five minutes of the boat - that has to be one big plus for the place as far as we are concerned. There are military museums as Cartagena has been a key naval port since the times of the Roman Empire and the old city walls remain in very good condition.

The wind had picked up by the time we got back to the boat and we could see why someone had warned us before about the swell in the harbour it was a little bouncy to say the least. Colin came over for a dram at night we had decided to have a drink as we would be able to sleep through the night club noise better, well that’s our excuse anyway! If I counted my alcohol free days starting at the Saturday before this was nearly the end of number seven so I thought that was allowable. We had a good old chat with Colin it turned out he used to work on Submarine tugs and had a lot of interesting, funny stories to tell.

Saturday 31st October Cartagena

We decided to stay a few days longer and moved around to the other marina as it was slightly cheaper and had internet access. I spent the morning helping the girls make scary masks for Halloween whilst Ali went off to the shops and to get a pumpkin to carve. Here we had messed up a little as in the last town we had told them that we would wait until Cartagena to get a pumpkin….. They weren’t too impressed when Ali turned up back at the boat having failed to find a pumpkin with two sweet potatoes instead! They had set their heart on going trick or treating so they finally stopped grumping and helped Ali ‘carve out’ the yams. It was about eight when they had finished and we had stew with sweet potatoes for dinner. Then we came across another hurdle, no little candles. It was too late to go and get some so we ended up using glow sticks that a man we met in France had given us. The results are below.










We only trick or treated one boat Shirlee and John an American couple we had seen before a couple of times in Portugal who are over wintering in Cartagena. They hadn’t expected any little ghouls along so there was no candy but the girls did get a glass of fizzy orange each and I didn’t have loads of sweets to try and stop the girls getting into all at once! We also had a good chat and a glass of wine so it turned out to be a great Halloween.

Sunday 1st November

We had a lazy enough day I sat the whole morning posting the blog until the marina internet system crashed just as I was loading in the last few pictures, very annoying. In the afternoon we went for a walk around town with the thought of going to some of the museums but they are closed on Sunday and Monday so we would miss them as we had planned to leave on Tuesday. We went to a café and had banana splits - thankfully a lot cheaper than the ones we had in Lisbon! Then just meandered around town seeing what there was to see.

Monday2nd November

The marina wifi was back up and running so I did that and school in the morning, Ali went off to the big supermarket on his bike. The girls and I went over to Shirlee’s boat for a short while so she could give me some computing tips as she is a computer ‘tech writer’ and very obviously knows a lot more about them than I do! It was very helpful so thanks Shirlee! Ali spent the rest of the afternoon washing the boat down until it gleamed, the girls and I cycled to the play park on the pier.

John and Shirlee came over for a drink at night since we were leaving the next morning. They have sailed here all the way from the West Coast of America! Wow! I would love to sail in and around their home town of San Francisco but I am not so keen on sailing to there! It was a fine night with lots of stories to share.

During the night I had been kept awake but seagulls and wondered where they all were.

Tuesday 3rd November Leaving Cartagena



John & Shirlee






We discovered where the seagulls had been all night, directly above our boat! The building site next to the marina has a tower crane which rather disconcertingly they positioned above our boat each night. This was OK the first two night as there had been a little wind but the last night was calm and the seagulls had been sitting up there all night keeping me awake but even worse, pooping all over Ali’s nice clean boat! He was not impressed.

We went off to the big supermarket to get some supplies, said our goodbyes to John ad Shirlee and set off at lunch time. The sail from Cartagena was great all the way around to the Mar Menor and right up until night time. I let Ali sleep so he would have the midnight shift. We had been sailing downwind the whole day and with only the mainsail reefed and were doing about seven knots making good progress but the wind died at about eleven so I took the mainsail down and started the engine. Half an hour later the wind picked up but from the North, a little un expected so Ali got up to help me hoist the main again just in time for the wind to pick up more. Ali decided just to stay up so I went off to bed.

I woke up about an hour later with the noise of the gennaker having unfurled itself and flapping wildly in the wind. The wind had seriously picked up as had the seas so I got my life jacket on over my pyjamas to help Ali get the sail recovered. It took two attempts as the wind whipped it back out the first time. The second time Ali had to go up forward and tie it together, no mean feet in those conditions. Once all was OK Ali ordered me back to bed but I couldn’t sleep so I got back up with him and tried to persuade him we should go into one of the ports near Alicante instead of carrying on to the point as it was very un comfortable. We were doing 7 - 8 knots with only the mainsail reefed right down which means it was far from ‘fair weather sailing.’ At about three in the morning the wind started to die away and Ali convinced me that would be it for the night so we would carry on and all would be well, he even started to take the mickey out of people who are superstitious about the weather and was whistling for wind, complaining that it was going to get calm…… I went to bed and got a couple of hours sleep but was woken by daylight and the boat straining a lot. I was quite surprised to find the sails down and Ali actually saying thank God he had taken them down or we would have had to go to Ibiza! The wind had picked up again to at the very least a force 6 it was Ok as we were still in the lee of the headland Cabo San Antonio (incidentally a very beautiful bit of coastline) Unfortunately it was coming from the exact direction we would be heading as we turned the headland.

We had intended to go to Denia about six miles up from the point but decided to head to Javea instead as it was only one mile around the point and still slightly sheltered form the wind. When we got into the bay I called the marina to ask for a berth and they said no, even when I played the two small children onboard card. We saw another British yacht head for there then come back out later too so we very dejectedly headed North to Denia another five miles away.





It neer looks as bad in the photo as it felt at the time - honest!






So how long do you think it took us?? We had to go around another slight headland to get to Denia but this took us out into the full force of the wind. The seas were very large and we couldn’t motor in the direction we wanted at all so we put up the jib and motor tacked. It was pretty awful really the angle we could make was about 75 degrees to what we wanted so we had to do about five miles of tack for every one of progress towards the breakwater. The worst thing was that we could see the harbour all of this time and the other British yacht must have had a much better engine or propeller as it zoomed right past us! Buggers! The sea was breaking right over the boat, the decks and cockpit got soaked for the first time since the English channel. The girls were hanging on under the spray hood having to turn around every time we tacked so that their heads were upwards. Every now and then we would try taking the jib down and just motoring into the wind but the boat just couldn’t do it so it was back to tacking and getting very wet. Finally the wind died a little and we could motor the rest of the way still another two miles we were only making 2 and a half knots but it felt like we were speeding along! We got into the harbour just before 2pm it had taken five hours to go the last five miles. The forecast had been right in the direction of wind but it had only predicted winds of up to fifteen knots. Our wind speed indicator has been broken for a long time but when we got to the marina a British bloke came to ask what it was like out there saying his had been recording thirty knots in the marina. We were just glad we were tied up nice and safe.

I let Ali go off to bed for a few hours as he hadn’t slept since midnight whilst I dozily kept an eye on the girls - a DVD and chocolate helped a lot with that and was a treat for the rough day. When Ali got up we all had showers and went for a wander into town stopping at the first restaurant we came to, an Indian and had a very nice meal. The girls had their favourite chicken tikka I had lamb and spinach and Ali had a sizzling lamb hotplate which was also very good with a bottle of red to wash it all down! (The girls had lemonade just in case you think we were trying to sedate them!) The only problem was that we were all so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open, which the wine certainly didn’t help with. We got back to the boat and straight to bed with no complaints from the girls for once not trying to stretch out bedtime.

Thurs 4th November

We are still in Denia today, it is a very windy day so (which was actually forecast!) We are berthed stern to at a big concrete pontoon which is OK but lets just say the back of the boat is very well fendered. Hopefully the wind will die down and change direction again tomorrow so we can keep going towards our berth in Barcelona.