To Alicante and .............

The winds have died completely, so much so that we have motored on flat seas for the last two days.  At some points the sea was so calm it turned almost oily looking.  The scenery though was fantastic; huge sea cliffs, giant sea caves and small calas. There was still snow on the hills behind the coast adding to the views.

Leaving Denia

Calm seas

Sailed past lovely cliffs

Altea marina from the old town area

View of Altea from the sea

Our first stop was at Altea,  I had a walking trip based around here with my ex-colleagues last year so it was good to see the place again.  This years walking trip is also going to be based in Altea so we managed a sneaky peak at the hotel and Carole got us a guided tour of the facilities - all good too.

Church at the top of the hill

After Altea it was a short hop to Alicante itself, again flat seas and sometimes a little misty, making the fishing boats was saw seem to float in thin air.  All very atmospheric.

Passing between islands

Benidorm rock

Great coastline

Slight mist developed

Approaching our final destination - Alicante!

The port staff at Alicante were their usual helpful staff and one remembered us from the last time we were here 18 months ago with our old boat.

We got ourselves settled into the new berth and took stock.

Have to admit to feeling somewhat deflated; we've got so used to travelling each day and exploring new places that it felt strange to know that we’d be keeping the boat here for a while.

Fortunately, we met up with some sailing friends Martyn and Jane who have their boat in Alicante at the moment. We went to the “cheapest Chinese restaurant in the world” followed by a local Flamenco night in a small bar.  Great fun and it chased the blues away.

Flamenco night in a local bar

It’s taken both of us a few days to get used to the idea of not travelling on.  Neither of us can wait to start the next trip.

Denia 2

After the last vicious storm when we saw frequent Gale Force 8, occasional Severe Gale Force 9 and a gust that just tipped into Storm force 10 - and this was in the sheltered part of the harbour - its a relief to have some calm. One of the great points about this boat over the last is how serene it is below when the weather is raging outside - we had no problem living on the boat in these conditions.

What a difference a day makes - well, two actually, yesterday the winds dropped to about 20 knots and kept a big swell running, crashing into the harbour walls and along the coast. We managed a great walk along the coast and found a cliff edge bar that must have been a very dramatic place to be over the last few days and or there, for first time ever in Spain, we had a Brussel Sprout tapas - amazing; sprouts are vastly improved by garlic, chilli and jamon!

Looks a totally different place in the sun

And you thought Christmas was over!!

Today the winds are down to around 10knots or less and sun came out.  It looks like a different place altogether.

We walked to end of the west breakwater this afternoon, it was completely covered in crashing waves before.

For the first time a few days we managed a G&T on the aft deck and watched the sunset.

We also took the opportunity to have the rigging checked and re-tensioned, it’s had two months of sometimes hard sailing since it was first rigged and the wires have stretched out.

G & T on deck - first time in ages

Some adjustment needed to the rigging

Hope to leave tomorrow and sail around the headland of Cabo de la Nad.

That's our next headland to sail round

Denia

We like Denia harbour, and not just because its a nice safe place to wait out the storms!  The staff have been helpful, the showers are the best so far on our trip, it's got great wifi and the town is full of interesting little corners and great (and cheap) cafes.  It seems like it must get a lot of tourists in the summer but at this time of year it just locals, who seem happy, if not a little surprised, to see sailors at this time of year.  The weather has been dramatic and appalling, but despite this we’ve been able to wander around and do some of the tourist stuff.  Friends in Alicante say they’re having the same weather there too, so stopping here for a few days is no hardship.

glad we're not out there!

The next storm is forecast to be horrendous, so we asked if we could move to a more sheltered berth, no problem they said.  So we dropped our “slime lines” (these go from the harbour wall out to a concrete block in the harbour, you use them to hold the boat at right angles to the dockside - and they’re called slime lines because, well, they are slimy!) and dutifully backed out of our current berth and tried to head off to the new one only to find I’d somehow managed to get a slime line rope caught around the propeller and jammed it.  Couldn’t go forward or back but we managed to drift close enough to throw a rope ashore and the Marineiros pulled us in, they arranged a diver to cut the rope free and then we set off to the new berth again, €100 lighter in the wallet! First bloody time I’ve managed that trick!  Hope it’s the last.  The €100 was a bargain - it was freezing cold, and very murky water, if I’d been the diver, I’d have charged more.

Did I say the storms would be horrendous - I wasn’t wrong! 

Seaweed dumped onto the road by the waves

the wind caused some damage

Palm trees pretending to be flags

So glad that we are holed up in Denia, and in a more sheltered berth. I’m convinced that if we’d stayed in Valencia the storm surges in the harbour would have causes damage to the boats there.  Looks like the weather is calm-ish tomorrow which will allow the waves to settle down and then the day after looks pretty good to carry on towards Alicante - but we will see!

To and From Valencia

To Valencia

Early start from L’Ametlla with light winds and a flat sea left us motoring most of the day. Got some great photos of local fishermen though.  Most of the fishermen seem friendly towards us sailors, but we do do our best to let them get on with their work without having to worry about us getting in their way.

Morning rush hour

We also passed Peniscola, a very pretty fortified town built on an isthmus, didn’t have time to see it but it’s on the visit list for the coming season.

Peniscola

A couple of nondescript harbours followed (although one, Benicarlo, had a proper Indian curry house on the harbourside; so I forgave the rest of its boring bits) as we made good progress along the coast, eventually stopping at Burriana, about 30 miles shy of Valencia itself.  Nice and very cheap marina but a real ghost town; may be it gets more lively in the summer.

We had some lovely sunsets

Weather forecasts - we religiously check them, usually several and tend to believe the worst of them.  

Today we set off to Valencia with a forecast 10 -18 knots lovely sailing weather.  Just after leaving the harbour the wind was a steady 15 knots on the beam - full sail and going well.  An hour later it was 20 - 25knots, now reefed but still going well.  Another hour later out was 25 - 30 knots, well reefed but the boat was great, seemed to be loving it, doing 7 to 8 knots with only a small main.  For about half an hour we had 30 knots gusting to 35 (tiny main now!), Carole was on the helm and she peaked at 8.5 knots; the boat won’t go any faster than that.  The best part was that the boat was completely under control and loving the conditions. To be fair we were going across and slightly down wind, the fastest direction and the seas were only 1 - 2 metres high, so all the conditions were right, but we simply romped along. Over the days sail we averaged 7.3knots - not bad at all for a fat 36’ cruising boat, and we’d slowed down as we approached Valencia and got some shelter from the shore 

Making way nicely

Its amazing how used to speed you become, less than 7 knots felt slow, the odd occasion when we dropped below 6 felt painful!  Normally we’re happy to sail at 6 knots.

Just as we sailed into Valencia harbour the Spanish Lifeboat came powering back from somewhere, hadn’t heard anything on the VHF so hope it was just a training exercise.

In Valencia now, booked in for 3 nights so we can see the city.

Valencia.

Stopped at the Marina Real Juan Carlos I, a huge harbour built for the 33rd Americas cup races a few years ago. a bit soulless but great showers!  Two problems though, it s a fair old cycle ride to anywhere in the city from here and a swell works its way into the marina and the boats continually jerk and swing about no matter what you do to the mooring lines - not a restful place but cheap!

Valencia is an interesting place

Lovely squares everywhere 

Valencia is a great place to see by bike - we cycled all over the place. The old city centre is full of great architecture and some of the best tapas bars we’ve found in Spain, the linear city park created in the old river bed lead up from the harbour and is just a wonderful use of the space; full of people walking, running, cycling, playing with their families.  Built at the bottom of the park is the futuristic Science museum and “Palais de Belle Arts”, amazing modern architecture.

Map of Valencia showing the previous river bed; now a park from the marina into the city

interesting trees

Armed and ready for shopping with fold-up shopping trolley.  No loss of street cred here  - everybody uses them!

Pretty market

Market stall

Great tapas bars - Just where to start  

Belle Arts building

dramatic new architecture

After a day of heavy winds the swell entering the harbour caused us to worry about the safety of the boat such was the  jerking on the lines; quite a few of the local boats had damage to them.  The following day gave us a weather window to escape down the coast to another harbour before a series of really strong weather fronts were due to hit the coast.

Interesting headgear for the IMAX film

On from Valencia

We set of early with a plan of either making it to Gandia, or if we had a good run and the sea’s weren’t too bad we’d head on to Denia.

We made Gandia by 14.00 and the seas and wind conditions appeared stable and OK so headed off to Dernia.  We made good time but the swell was increasing and at times was pretty big as we approached the harbour.  Denia is a ferry port for the Balearics and has a deep dredged channel into the outer harbour. We surfed the boat into the channel and were soon into the shelter of a great marina.  The staff helped us moor as the wind was picking up and we were soon enjoying a cup of tea on the boat.  We’d seen snow on the hills as we approached and there was about 1/2” of snow on the boats in the harbour - Med Sailing?  

entrance to Denia - snow on them there hills, you can just see the masts of boats in the harbour

Snow on the boats!

The forecast storms hit in the early hours of the morning and the best place to be was definitely tied up in a safe harbour!

The forecast is for severe storms for the next few days so we’ll be safely  tucked up in the harbour and may catch a small train along the coast and into the hills - called the “Limon Express” - for some sightseeing.

Med weather??

So glad we were safe in a marina

The local papers were full of the weather situation

Movin’ On

We went for a last walk along the beach at Barcelona and ended up hiring a pair of Segways for an hour - always wanted to  but they always seemed a lot of money but a few minutes of negotiation with a Russian mafia type guy and we got a cheapish late afternoon ride - great fun.  We wanted to buy a pair until we realised that they are £7k each!

Had great fun on these - only us 2 with our Russian guide

We set off from Barcelona early-ish on 7th January and wandered along the coast, getting back into the routine of sailing each day.  Stops at Sitges, Port Salou and L’Amtella got us hooked on travelling again.

Leaving Barcelona harbour

Good wind - up to 30 knots and a flat sea -  gave us a great sail

Skipper needs to be kept fed.

Sitges was great, we came here 17years ago, boat hunting ,with Jen and her friend Sarah, it was bigger than we remembered but just as pretty.

Nice place, Sitges

This is what a beer and a bouncy sail does to Carole!

Some fantastic stone carving on house door surrounds in the old section of town. 

Interesting carvings - fun trying to guess their story,  just why is one man grabbing the ear of the other?

We moored stern to the Capitainarie, not realising that it’s lit up each night with lurid colours - pretty though; it was like a disco in our aft cabin.

Our own personal light show - changed colours constantly - all night!

Port Salou turn out to be a bit of a slog, the final headland, just past Tarragona, stored up some bouncy seas and the usual head wind, but only for an hour or so until we could bear away round the point to the harbour.  They were full due to rebuilding their pontoons so we stopped on the fuel pontoon overnight. Bit of a dead town at this time of year - only place open was a fab cake shop.

Great sail the next day to L’Ametlla, strong winds, 20-30knts, but a flat sea so the boat simply powered away. It was good to arrive in a proper fishing harbour too, not just a leisure marina.  The fishing boats came in and unloaded their catch a few hundred yards from us.  

The forecast for tomorrow, the 10th, is no wind in the morning and then a mini storm coming through in the afternoon, just about when we would be off the exposed Ebro delta so we’re stopping here for two nights and plan to leave on 11th.

L'Ametlla has proved to be a little gem - unpolished but still a gem.

A walk along the coast from the harbour let us watch the stormy winds roll in, the fishing boats came in too and we got to watch the fish market auction action. really good stuff.

Good cloud formations

As ever, the women do the work!

Fish auction; like the Dutch ones, the price goes down instead of up.

A hive of activity in the harbour