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!