May 2017 Cruise

Back to the Boat.

Well, the last few weeks have been a bit hectic, we flew to Alicante on 15th May and arrived at the boat seemingly at the same time as loads of other boats friends in Alicante (Carole even got some tennis in with Charles from Snowgoose). Consequently its been a bit of a social whirl. We even got to a dinner dance at the next town along the coast with ian and Sue.

Flamenco evening with friends form the marina

Sadly a new curry house has opened on the side of the marina and we can smell the spices frying from our berth.  We sampled most of the menu  over the last couple of weeks.  

On one sociable night Carole and our friends from the yacht Midnight, Tina and Steve, decided that a dawn swim in the bay was called for to watch the sunrise over the cape.  

Stupidly I agreed to be the photographer, another glass of wine and it seemed an even better idea - especially to Steve who bravely volunteered to stop in bed! 

Great photos though!

Interesting exhibitions in town

Dawn and Alan from Dorset came to see us for a few days - lovely day sailing and tapas evenings - Alan is a manic swimmer and dragged a willing Carole into the water either from the beach or off the boat at every opportunity. - Great to see them.

Horse fix!

Lunch and swim stop

Ibiza here we come                   (wifi a bit sketchy over here!)

We gradually got the boat sorted ready to sail over to the Balearics and after much studying of the weather forecasts set off on 29th May, we anchored in the bay off Moraira and the following day had a great sail across to Ibiza. Full sail and powered up all the way until the wind dropped and swung onto our nose, we ended trying allsorts of stuff to keep sailing in the right direction, but eventually about 12 miles out we gave up the fight and dropped the sails and motored the last couple of hours. Dropped anchor in Cala d’Horta, fabulous turquoise water. As soon as we got to the perfect spot the switch on the anchor windlass broke and it was back to manual anchoring - just like we did on the last boat!

Anchored in Calla d'Horta

A clifftop walk

Lovely sunsets are the norm here

After a couple of days lazing at anchor and swimming ashore for coffee, we sailed up the coast through a series of beautiful islands to drop anchor in the bay of Sant Antoni. the passage between one pair of island - Conjera and Bosc, shelves up from 30m to 3m within about 50m and then drops off again just as quickly - you have to be confident of your passage plan as the speed at which the seabed comes up to meet your keel is mesmerising, the numbers on the depth sounder flash by. there is 3m of water at the shallowest part, we only need 1.6m to float so in calm water there is little danger - wouldn’t like to be there when its rough though!  Sant Antoni bay is a good anchorage but the life on shore is fascinating - its one of the clubbing meccas on Ibiza.  We went to do some shopping, found a Lidl - we were coming out with veg, bread, etc - most of the other customers seemed to have cases of vodka, fabulous people watching. Also found a chandlers that sold anchor windlass switches - now have a fully operational electric anchor windlass!

Have trolley, must shop!  Provisioning.

Sunset after sunset

Dave with his new Ibiza haircut

Cala Port Torrent

Two years ago, almost to the day we sailed our previous boat - Blue Horizon - into a smallish cala called Portinatx. Today, Saturday, (3/6/17) we sailed in on Half Moon, we even managed to anchor in almost the same spot. Great location - treated ourselves to a meal out and ended up watching Real Madrid beat Juventus in the final - every Spanish bar and restaurant had the match on and the locals are fanatical football fans.

Boat in Portinatx

The weather forecast showed strong winds and a fairly large swell swinging round to the North (the only direction that Portinatx doesn’t provide shelter from) through Monday which meant that Portinatx would be a fairly exposed and uncomfortable place to be. 

Sunday meant a sail back the way we’d come to find a sheltered anchorage for Sunday and Monday nights.  The wind built through the day and we had a fab 30 mile sail, broad reaching for lots of it, until we rounded Cabo Llantresca and ended up dropping the sails again and motoring the last 2 miles into 25knots of wind to Cala Port Roig.  A small anchorage fairly full of boats who obviously had the same idea as us, we found a space, dropped anchor and settled in for the night.  The wind died in the evening and we went swimming - Carole snorkelling around the cala, fabulous, warm (only warmish for me at 20degrees), clear water, its great to be able to check that your anchor is well dug in - especially when you know there is a lot of wind coming!

I just love the snorkelling 

Did I say a lot of wind?  Well during the night the wind spun through 180 degrees and shot up to 35/40knots within a minute together with lots of rain. There was chaos in the anchorage, the boat behind us dragged their anchor and collided with another boat, we started the engine to take some of the pressure off the anchor but each time we eased the power the anchor slowly dragged down towards another boat.  Eventually, 0200hrs, we had to get the anchor up and re-lay it, not easy in the conditions, but with top steering from Carole it held, and we could relax.  An exciting night. No pictures sadly!

Best seat in the house.

The next morning we nipped into the next cala for a bit more shelter and a relax.  The weather forecasts are changing daily at the moment so it looks like we'll be heading north again, dodging front lines and swell.

Sailing by

On the way north towards Cala Port Torrent Carole spotted the fin of a big whale breaching, exciting but sadly no more sightings.  We did see dolphins though as we crossed the bay of Sant Antonio - always a good day!

After a blustery sail it was good to anchor for lunch in a tiny bay in the shelter behind Isla Conejera for lunch and then a lazy broad reaching sail over to Port Torrent - back to turquoise water and flat seas.

Checking the chart

After some R&R here we headed to Sant Antonio to find some food shops and fuel for the boat.

On 8th June we motor-sailed up to Cala Benirras, famous for local drummers meeting each sunset and drumming on the beach until late.  It also has a rock stack in the middle of the entrance to the cala which as the sunset silhouettes it, it looks just like Queen Victoria sat on her throne. We’d anchored next to a Russian charter boat and were serenaded with Russian folk songs until late into the night - never want to hear the Volga boat song again.

Cala Benirras

Watching the sun set whilst listening to the drumming

Queen Vic rock in the distance

In Port Miguel today, 9/6/17, not a port but another cala with good shelter from the forecast easterlies and stunningly clear water. Plan to stop here for a while. Although Carole went snorkelling and found a load of little jellyfish - she came back to boat like she had an outboard motor attached!

Paddling About

We’ve spent the last few days of day sailing around and Carole swimming, me paddling on the edge, one swim was enough for me at these water temperatures -14 degrees C..

Water warming up nicely

It's such a hard life

We also had another Padel lesson, great fun, especially as two Spanish ladies asked us for a game after the lesson - 2 hours of running about and then another run to get back in time for the Queen.

Padel courts are a combination of a tennis and squash court

Well, its nearly Easter!

Well, when I say the Queen it was a symphony orchestra and a rock band together with 4  “International Cantors”  doing all the Queen hits.  The Spanish are very enthusiastic clappers and, like the Welsh, they can all sing (unlike us English, especially me!). 

A great night - nearly three hours of top music - and loud enough for our ears to be ringing when we left.

the stars of the show (and a fan)

We’ve spent the last couple of days sorting the boat out ready to leave her when we return home to Witherslack.

Boat put to bed with it's summer cover on

Now back home for a while but looking forward to going sailing soon!  Flight booked to come back on 15th May!

A last evening walk before we leave

More Foot Work

The weather has settled down now, sunny and warm with a sea breeze forming most afternoons.

Took the camera for a swim

Couldn't get Dave to join me

We’ve managed to get out and about on the bikes after handing the hire car back in between days out sailing and also - eventually - worked out how to book a padel court at the municipal centre and have a good run about.

The hire car was so cheap we’ve now got another one - this time £29.00 for 10 days - just ridiculous prices at this time of year.

We’ve had an explore along the coast north of here - we’ve only been this way by boat before - it was good to see the towns and villages that we passed and we discovered some good anchorages for this summer too. 

This place reminded us of Ibiza

The Costa Blanca coastline

Part of the reason to go north was to go to a craft fair at Javea - Carole bought some earrings at a Christmas fair in Alicante two years ago but had just lost one - a chance comment in the local newspaper suggested the artisan would be in Javea on Sunday so we buzzed off to see - and Carole now has three identical earrings!

Another trip up the mast was needed to replace the Windex as well.  Got some good photos of the neighbours boats as well as our own - 15m to the top of the mast - great view. A while ago we bought some kit to let me to climb to the top of the mast without having to be winched up - Carole now just has to tail the safety rope to make sure I don’t fall, much easier for both of us.

Dave up the mast

We’ve had some great nights out with our boaty friends, as well as several impromptu bottles of wine sat in sunny cockpits.

The car has let us get a couple more walking days in, eventually climbing the famous Puig Campana.  Its 1410m (4625ft) high but fiercesomely steep in places.  The route was only 18km but according to the health app on the iPhone the climb was the equivalent of 258 flights of stairs!  

Puig Campana not far to go!

The notch in the peak was kicked out by the local Giant when his wife was ill and needed some more sunlight.  The chunk he kicked out landed in Benidorm bay and is now Benidorm island (its the same size as the missing bit) - so the locals say - I believe them.

The scenery is amazing - but hard walking

Top of Puig Campana

We didn't take this option

Steep enough

Had a very cold (and quick) swim in Cala Finestrat after that walk - Carole said it it’s good for the legs - yet to be convinced. She swims in water even colder than today - totally bonkers.

Going to see the Queen tomorrow and am looking forward to hearing the Spanish singing….

Pottering about

Just been pottering about for the last few days before we handed the hire car back.  We’ve managed to do a good walk in the mountains behind Calpe, about an hours drive from Alicante.  Great walking area with lots of paths and tracks.  This walk took us in a loop up into the mountains above the Leper Colony at Fontilles.  The colony is now a leprosy research centre, of  

First view stop

world renown apparently, training doctors from around the world. It was built in 1902 and has a big wall encircling a huge area to try and keep the infection from spreading, it was totally self sufficient with its own bakers, carpenters, theatre and of course church and graveyard.  Beautiful place now though.

Leprosy complex in the valley

On the way home we drove over one of the colls used on the Vuelta d’Espana cycle race - impressively steep but not as impressive as the apple strudel in the Spanish/German cafe at the top of the pass!

We"re not far from Benidorm!

Some terracing belies belief

The cherry blossom and flowers are lovely

We’ve also had a couple of padel tennis lessons while in Alicante - its a sort of cross between squash and lawn tennis, with back walls that you can bounce the ball off - if you’re good enough. The racquets are like giant table tennis bats. We’ve seen padel a lot in Spain 

and a few years ago we had a try on a court but had no idea what we were doing. Now we know what we’re supposed to be doing!

A padel court is about half the size of a tennis court

The padel club also has 12 tennis courts

We’ve also had a couple of days of “comedy” rain - it was raining so hard, it was having a laugh!  Which was fine apart from our normally very dry boat decided to let three hatches leak at the same time so the jobs list grew and we’ve been replacing hatch seals.

Still, we managed to get out for a sail yesterday and anchored off a small island for a lazy lunch and then motored back in no wind just before the light went - lovely chilled out day.  Carole went swimming, though this time with a wetsuit on, and tried out the waterproof camera we’ve bought to replace the one we drowned coming along the coast from France - and it works.

Dave loves our boat

We're not too good at selfies!

The camera works