Mediterranean Sun

Leaving La Línea de la Concepción in the late morning, we were very pleased to quickly cover 45nm as we saw the rock of Gibraltar disappear in the hazy low clouds and the mountains of the southern Spanish coast appear in the northwest. At twilight we dropped the anchor by Cabopino a small sand dune, slightly less built up compared to rest of this coast.  Little wind the following day made a hot and slow journey to cover the last 18nm to Málaga and we ended up using the engine for the last 6nm as no wind was forecast for the afternoon and there was very little thermal wind effect.

Thanks to our excellent former crew member, Mario, we were all set up to arrive at the harbour, Benalmádena. Using this suburb of Málaga as our base, we were pleased to restock the boat explore the city and have an excellent time visiting some local friends with a barbecue by the beach.

After saying a sad goodbye to Regina, we set off from Málaga on Saturday afternoon, and were helped by the engine to escape this low wind corner and make it to a lovely bay and nature reserve by La Herradura at dark. Sailing off our anchorage in the morning, we were only able to make around 2.5kts, so we set the spinnaker and were happy to see the wind increase throughout the afternoon. By the evening we were making up to 7kts as we arrived at a stunning bay by La Punta de la Arraijana with time to swim in the crystal clear waters and climb the rocky cliffs in the remaining daylight hours.

With full stomachs and bodies refreshed after a morning swim we left this nice anchorage and were able to put up the spinnaker again with 2-3 Beaufort from the west. Nearing the bay of Almería the wind began to change to east, as forecasted, and we took down the spinnaker to sail on a close haul into the harbour at Las Roquetas de Mar to find shelter from the Mistral winds coming in the evening.

Leaving the harbour after some greatly needed showers, following several days sailing downwind in the August heat. We welcomed the strong winds and enjoyed tacking against 25kts apparent with small, reefed sails into the Golfo de Almería. Rounding the Cabo de Gata in the evening sun we were in awe of the stunning mountains in this national park and enjoyed the views down the coast to arrive at a relatively sheltered anchorage near the village of San José at sunset.

Taking up the anchor in the early morning we sailed close to the wind with a light breeze up the coast, northeast, toward Águilas. Tacking close to the shore to avoid going against stronger current we were able to admire the beautiful rocky scenery.  As the wind turned further to east in the evening we put up the 80 percent spinnaker to sail at half wind to a sheltered anchorage behind the Islote el Fraile arriving just after dark.

Making a short hop to Cartagena, we once again enjoyed experiencing the increasing wind throughout the day and sailed on a close reach into this large port.  We were impressed to discover this interesting city that none of us had heard much about before and restocked and cleaned the boat and crew to get ready to cross to the Balearics.