Steve's Mum's funeral was a quiet family affair, and gave us the chance to pause and reflect on life in general. We always take so much for granted. Now is neither the time nor the place to get all philosophical, so let's just say we are both ready to get going again, and embrace our wonderful way of life all the more.
When we returned to the Mar Menor, Lynne's parents were at their home in Los Narejos. We spent a few days with them before returning to the boat at Tomas Maestre marina. Lynne's brother Phill was staying there on holiday and the boys enjoyed catching up, going go-karting and playing some pool, with Phill winning as usual!
On returning to Scarlet, Steve spent the day giving her a thorough clean, whilst Lynne took the bus along the La Manga strip to the Mercadona supermarket to do some provisioning. Mercadona deliver to the marina for a fee of just over 4 Euros. Well worth every penny as this was a large shop to last us some time.
The day before we left the Mar Menor, we vacated the marina and anchored off Los Narejos beach. Here we picked up Lynne's family in the dinghy for a day's sailing on Scarlet Lady.
Due to a lack of wind, we motored down to the South West corner to Playa Honda and dropped the anchor for lunch. The campsite at Playa Honda has a Spar shop which sells camping gaz, so Steve and Phill nipped ashore to get one.
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| Captain Graham |
In the afternoon there was enough wind for a gentle downwind sail back to Los Narejos, passing through Isla Perdiguera and Isla Mayor. We dropped our guests ashore and headed across the Mar Menor to spend the night at anchor outside Tomas Maestre marina, to catch the scheduled bridge opening the next morning.
The following day we headed out of the Mar Menor and along the coast to an anchorage Ensenada de Albufereta, just beyond Alicante.
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| A peaceful evening |
After a night there we pushed on again to Moraira, which was to be our last stop on the Spanish mainland before heading to Ibiza. Fortunately we had 12 to 15 knots of wind and had a fantastic sail, reaching over 7 knots at one point.
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| Bowling along |
Steve was curious to see what Benidorm was like, so we went quite close inshore. It is full of high-rise buildings, and could be considered to be Spain's answer to the skyline of Manhatten. Most of the beaches where closed off with bouyed areas, so we decided not to go ashore but press on.
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| Benidorm skyline |
On our way along the coast we passed Greenwich Marina. It is at this latitude that you change from zero degrees west to zero degrees east or vice versa, depending on which way you are heading. It was about this part of the coast that we encountered a fleet of fishing boats returning to port. As we were the 'give way vessel' courtesy of the fact that by now we had our engine on, it turned into an eventful hour of working out which ones we could hold course to, and which ones would require us to make course corrections for.
We arrived at our anchorage, El Rinconcet in Moraira on Friday afternoon. Wow! What a place. The anchorage is stunning with crystal clear water and few if any jellyfish (unlike the Mar Menor), so we just had to jump in for a swim and cool off after a long day.
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| Anchorage at El Rinconcet |
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| Lynne cooling off |
We took the dinghy ashore and walked into Moraira town, and to the marina. En route we stopped at Barcos & Cosas S.L. where Lynne bought a smart new pair of deck shoes. The owner of the shop spoke excellent English. We explained to him that we had seen what we believed to be a small shark circle the boat along the coast the previous day but were not sure what it was.
He felt sure it was a Pilgrim shark, as there had been a few recent sightings locally. He kindly got a photo up on his computer for us to see, and sure enough that is what we had seen.
Although a cousin of the Great White Shark, the Pilgrim shark does not have any teeth and feeds off plankton, so poses no threat to humans. We still wouldn't want to find ourselves swimming with one though!
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| New shoes |
Whilst in a cafe at the marina, we discovered there was a Moors & Christians fiesta going on in the town that was due to finish on the Sunday, so we decided to stay the weekend.
The festival included the daily firing of Blunderbusses at the fort, and a re-enactment on the beach when the Christians regained control of the fort from the Moors. To end the celebrations there was a firework display on the Sunday night which we had prime position to watch from the comfort of our cockpit.
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| Festival time |
Sad as we were to leave Moraira, it was time to move onto Ibiza. The morning breeze became a consistent 15 knots of wind on the beam, ensuring a fast and comfortable sail. Sadly though after six hours the wind died down completely, and we had to put the engine on and motor the rest of the way to our intended anchorage of Cala Badella on the south west coast. When we were about 2 miles away, we were paged on our DSC VHF radio by our friends Graham & Linda off Obsession of Poole who were already in the anchorage. Graham explained that the anchorage was laid out to mooring buoys, and he guided us on the best way of mooring up. Unusually the mooring buoy also had a line for attaching to our aft cleat. Had Graham not been on hand to assit we would never have known this. No problem on the day we arrived, but we were very pleased to have the extra security when the weather turned the next evening.
Later that evening we were invited to a barbecue supper onboard Obsession, where we were joined by another couple, John & Carole off Cristal, who were also staying in the anchorage.
The following day Graham & Linda decided to head off back to the mainland, as they had a flight home booked from Murcia airport a few days later. The wind really picked up in the afternoon, and we spent a very rolly and disturbed night on our mooring buoy. In the early evening, an aluminium boat bounced into the anchorage and picked up the mooring buoy next to us. Steve called across via the vhf to explain there was a stern line they could pick up too. At lunchtime the next day, the owners of the aluminium boat called Nautilus rowed up to us in their kayak and asked "are you Steve & Lynne?" It turns out they are from Eastbourne too, and are good friends with Dr. Peter Dickens who sailed across Biscay with us. What a small world! Stephanie and Ian have recently changed their racing yacht for a lovely bluewater aluminium yacht. You can catch up on their own blog here
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| Calas Badella |
Once the weather settled, we headed out of the Cala and along the coast to San Antonio. The anchorage was very crowded and there were tour boats, power boats, and jet skis zooming in and out of the moored boats creating a lot of wash. We didn't like the look of it one bit so we decided not to stay, and dropped our anchor in Cala Basa around the corner instead.
There are some caves surrounding this Cala, so we took the dinghy over to have a closer look.
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| Caves at Cala Basa |
Our next destination was Espalmador and Formentera, two islands just south of Ibiza. Espalmador was all laid out to mooring buoys, which you needed to book in advance on the internet. As we weren't aware of this, we hadn't done so. A guide in a rib came over to us and said we could pay him 29 Euros for the day to pick up a spare buoy. As it was already 2pm it didn't seem worth it, so we carried on about half a mile along a sandy spit at the top end of Formentera and dropped our anchor.
The whole area is a marine and wildlife reserve, and you can see why. It can only be described as a touch of Paradise. The water is so clear and blue. It didn't take us long to decide to stay a few days. It really is a playground for the very rich (and possibly famous). Scarlet Lady was anchored with some very large and expensive super yachts and 'gin palaces'. Most had paid crew pandering to the owners'/charterers' every wish. The routine appeared to be well disciplined. Drop the anchor and a huge garage would open up at the back containing all manner of toys, jet skis, powerful ribs etc. Towels and cushions would be laid out on slumber areas for guests, and trays of nibbles and drinks would be wafted about.
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| Millionaires playground |
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| Billionaires playground |
When we went ashore, there were lots of sculptures made from pebbles and rocks piled up on one another. Just about everywhere you turned you saw one, and people were creating their own as we walked along the beach.
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| Stone sculptures |
On our last night we were treated to a gorgeous sunset over Isla Vedra, off the south coast of Ibiza. What a perfect end to a perfect few days.
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| Sunset, end of a perfect day |
On leaving Formentera, we headed up the east coast of Ibiza. The weather was expected to turn overnight with strong winds forecast from the north, so we needed to find a well protected anchorage. We poked our nose into Talamanca, close to Ibiza town, but the swell was fierce and it was right under the flight path. Next, we tried the anchorage outside Santa Eulalia marina, but it was just too shallow if a big swell came in. We also noticed a yacht having difficulty retrieving their anchor as it had got snagged on a rock, so we moved on again.
We finally decided on Cala de San Vicente on the north east tip of the island. This Cala was well protected from the north, and would make a good departure point for our journey across to Ibiza. It is a pretty little anchorage with a nice sandy beach and clear water, and we both had a quick swim before dinner. There are two hotels on the beach which are lit up at night and look quite spectacular.
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| Hotels at Cala San Vicente Ibiza |
Next waypoint, Mallorca.
Lynne & Steve xx
