THE COSTA BLANCA

June 29th Tuesday
Almerimar > Cabo de Palos (148nm)
It feels like my body is resonating with the engine, it's been on for so long! Arrived at Cartagena which despite its' dramatic cliffs and pretty bay, has an ugly entrance with a refinery and gas/oil/chemical tanks on the northern aspect. We've been trailing a fishing line behind the boat for the best part of 2000 miles now and we finally got a catch which made me very excited, less so when I had pulled in the line to see what it was - a small torn plastic bag - the fishing continues but I would appreciate some advice. We went through some breakwaters and into the urban area which wasn't a whole lot better than the harbour entrance, with lots of building going on in the docks and a small naval base nearby. At the marina they were hosting a regatta and all the berths were taken, they offered a berth on a pontoon that was so high that if we'd have stayed there Iris would have been a wreck by the morning, we asked if we could just stay by the fuel pontoon for the night and go in the morning but the marina manager said no. There were no safe anchorages nearby so we had no option but to head out to sea again, this at 10pm! and after a long hard slog against the wind. So we continued to Cabo de Palos, a small fishing village with a tiny marina and a tricky entrance which was narrow and fringed by rocks. We got there at about 2am and although at first it looked full, a friendly yachtsman gestured to us to raft up next to him which we did. And although it was late and all the bars were closed, when he heard that we were parched after 2 days at sea he even went so far as to grab a couple of very cold beers from out of his fridge for us. We chatted about boats and sailing for an hour or so and learnt that his name was Eric and that he ren a bar next to the Mar Menor, a small inland sea about ten miles up the coast. This is a place that stands out on the charts and somewhere that I wanted to go and have a look at.

June 30th Wednesday
Cabo de Palos > Tomas Maestre (Mar Menor), 10nm
On to Peurto "Tomas Maestre" at Mar Menor, a big marina on its' entrance, We had to wait for a lifting bridge to open before we could enter and used the spare time to anchor for half an hour. I've never anchored before in Iris but things went smoothly and it held immediately. Liz wanted to see if she could get the anchor/chain back up on her own and that was OK too. In the marina the facilities were fair and we got the chance to read our emails at the Copas del Mar Cafe, one of about 4 or 5 along a short parade of businesses that overlook the main pontoons. In the evening we went for a drink and watched Portugal win their quarter final. At another bar we had a nightcap and listened in spellbound horror at some Spanish Karaoke. Way too holiday for me.

July 1st Thursday
Tomas Maestre (Mar Menor) > Torrevieja, 21nm
After a quick sail across the Mar Menor and a free air display by the Spanish Air Force, who have a training base nearby, we went through the bridge again and out into open sea. Off to Torrevieja, a short way up the coast.

"Not very interesting" is how one of the cruising guides describes Torrevieja, Maybe a little unfairly, it depends on what you want from a place. If it's lager and chips, tat shops, building sites and street traders that do their best to rip you off then this is the place for you. It was only a short hop up the coast for us and the reason we stopped here was that there was a Wauquiez Pretorian (slightly bigger boat than Iris , by the same builder) for sale which I was curious to have a look at, we needn't have bothered, it had been sold already and the broker hadn't updated their website. We walked around town for a couple of hours but found nothing much worth our attention. In the evening we ate at the 'Club Nautico' restaurant and were served a couple of pre-cooked, out of the freezer pasta dishes.

July 2nd Friday
Torrevieja > Torrevieja 10nm
Could end up being a sort of 'Ground Hog Day' experience. Went to a local chandlers to buy some shackles, alcohol (for the cooker, not us) and a mosquito repeller. Went back to the boat and fitted our new shade before setting off for Alicante. Outside the harbour though, the sea had picked up a bit and when we got to Cabo Cervera and made the turn for Alicante the waves were 2+ metres and a F4+ wind was on our nose again. The boat was only managing about 1.5knts and we had 30 to go. I didn't fancy making a 15 hour sail out of a 6 hour one so we headed back from whence we came, the first time that I've had to make that decision since I bought the boat. We arrived in Torrevieja at about the same time as yesterday and moored on the same pontoon in the same position. I could do with a drink and wonder if we might have wasted the meth's on the cooker.

July 3rd Saturday
Torrevieja > Villajoyosa, 48m
Tried again to get somewhere today and found that although the seas were still up, the wind had changed direction a little bit and allowed us to head for Alicante, later it veered around to the east a bit and we decided to attempt to get to Villajoyosa, another 15 or so miles. This is right next to Benidorm and I was expecting it to be a shabby copy (oximoron?), but it wasn't. More like a town that the Spanish have developed for themselves along the same lines as Benidorm but a lot smaller and more attractively landscaped and planned. Liz and I had a good tapas meal at the Club Nautico restaurant for a reasonable price and we enjoyed all of their up-to-the-minute facilities - showers etc. Lucky for the Villajoyosa to have such a pleasant club to use.

July 4th Sunday
Villajoyosa > Calpe, 16nm
We were going to spend a bit of time in Villajoyosa but Liz needs to do some work and has decided that she can't do it in the mid-day heat so we spent the morning and mid-day sailing a little way up the coast to Calpe (has a big rock on its edge) which is another busy seaside town with a smart marina.

Benidorm was a quiet fishing village in 1950 - and then someone had a vision....

Had an incident with a large Spanish registered motor-cruiser on the way when it passed us on our starboard side (right hand) at full speed and almost knocked Iris over. Pity we didn't get the name of the boat to report to someone (who I don't know). Back In Fuengirola I saw one of the worst examples of mooring a boat I've ever seen with two guys putting fenders in the wrong place, coming in downwind and then smashing the bow of their 40+ foot cruiser into the concrete jetty, We've recently come from Torrevieja where a similar thing almost happened when three men, all screaming at each other (one shouting "you haven't fucking well taught me how to tie a bowline"), came in to moor up in a slight breeze. I am forming an opinion that "in general", ALL people with motor-cruisers are wankers. Discuss.

Calpe is a reasonable place to set sail for Ibiza from. Only about 75 miles away but we may carry on to Morayra, south of 'Cabo de la Nao' which is THE closest possible place to cross from. Especially as this marina is costing 26€ per night, cheaper at other times of year but in July and August prices double (and in Ibiza sometimes treble). Time to put into practice our anchoring techniques.

July 5th Monday
Calpe > Morayra (5nm)
Calpe being a little bit expensive, we thought that we'd motor 5 miles north to Morayra. It only took an hour and a half to get there and first impressions were that it seemed much less developed than nearly all the other places we'd visited in the past fortnight. We moored up on the west side of the harbour mole (wall) and checked in to find that it would only cost 14€ per night and the facilities are pretty good. This is one of the nicest towns that we've stayed at for a while - a great place to spend some time before heading over to Ibiza. There are also a few cruising yachts here and we soon got chatting to a couple, Ron and Nicky, a couple of old sea dogs who are doing their fifth year or Med cruising in a Westerly 33. While Liz settled in front of her computer I went round town to shop for food and buy some electrical sockets to make up some adapters. Although most marinas have the same sockets for electricity and water there are many who either use non-standard ones or even proprietary ones. It's a real pain to keep having to unscrew sockets all the time, hence I am going to start making adapters. Later we took the tender "Pupil" out for a spin and went for our first swim in the Med' off Morayra beach. It's what it's all about. In the evening Ron and Nicky came over for a gin and tonic (we bought some ice, luxury) and then went into town together for an Indonesian/Chinese. That night we had a restless sleep as the wind picked up and the boat moved around a lot, making all sorts of creaking and tapping noises.

Morayra - Calpe rock left of picture

July 6th Tuesday
Morayra
Woke to find that my swimming costume had been blown overboard and was now sitting in 3 metres of water beneath the keel, Liz donned her swimming costume and retrieved it for me. I went to the local internet cafe and updated the site, I spent three hours on line using my own PC. In the evening we went for a meal in town at one of the tourist traps and had an average meal followed by a fantastic ice-cream from a 'heladeria' which was recommended to us by Ron.

Iris berthed along the inner mole at Morayra (the rock on the far left horizon is Calpe)

July 7th Wednesday
Morayra
There are a few people on the quay who have problems with their boats, A Frenchman who I helped remove a spreader from the mast because it was broken and needed welding (not easy to find an aluminium welder in this part of Spain), another French boat with damaged sails who are making repairs on deck, and an Italian guy who's about 60 years old, sailing alone round the western Med', who has a dodgy gearbox. I hope that this place isn't jinxed. Ate out in town again and went back to the boat for another windy nights sleep.

July 8th Thursday
Morayra
Not much going on today, Liz is as busy as she can make herself in this heat and me likewise. Ate out at "El Pou" (in Spanish - "the well" I think), a small restaurant in the centre of town. The food didn't merit the name but the service was sh*t. We saw a couple of girls, Ronnie and Kate, at the next table who were on a large ketch (twin masted sailing boat) near Iris in the marina and got chatting to them. We had hoped that it was an all female crew of two who had sailed her from Southampton, the boat's port of registry. But it turned out that it was Ronnie's father's vessel and she and her friend were just using it as a floating hotel for a week. They came back to Iris for a G&T later and we spent a pleasant couple of hours chatting.

July 9th Friday
Morayra
Walked into town and bought yet another 6 pack of 1.5 litre bottles of water, we get through about 4 bottles per day in this heat. The water capacity on Iris is 100 ltrs, which I now realise is inadequate for serious cruising, 200/250 would be better, although the water on supply in Morayra is a bit suspect and I'm not sure if it's suitable for drinking. The best so far was in Gibraltar and Nazare where it had a healthy non-taste.

Liz has finished her work at last, and I have checked the weather sites on the internet. I think that we'll be leaving for Ibiza this evening, or maybe tomorrow morning. The wind direction isn't perfect (N, NE) but it doesn't look likely to change for a while and we have to go sometime. We will need to be in Palma, Mallorca by the 17th to meet Kevin, a friend from Brighton who's coming out for a week.

Ate out at the Chinese/Indonesian restaurant that Ron and Nicky had pointed out to us.

on to the "Islas Baleares" - (page 3)