Home page
So the season has arrived and its time to look forward to this years passages. We have decided to winter in Turkey so we have created an approximate plan of where we need to be and when during the summer. This plan in part is to ensure we arrive in Turkey and also to let friends know where they can join us should they feel so inclined.
We popped over the border from Gib to La Linea (Spain) to buy some vegetables at a sensible price and have a little lunch. Whilst enjoying a drink we decided to leave for Estepona on our return to the boat. This decisiveness astonished our waitress with whom we were having a fun conversation. She asked if we could possibly speak to her husband and give him a master class in making his mind up!
We left Gibraltar at two in the afternoon for a pleasant sail to Estepona. Well the Rock still held some surprises. The wind whistles around the 'Rock' and we enjoyed 30 knots for a short while, it settled as we moved out of the Rocks influence.
Estepona was our first experience of southern Spain as a holiday spot. Too many bars and people for our liking, too touristy. The following morning we were joined by John & Nicola of Seraphym (whom we had met in Gib), just as Kevin was walking along the pontoon to get a flight to the UK. He needed to go back briefly to sort some problems. He booked the first available flight out. Where do you think Kevin flew from, Yup Gibraltar!
Sara enjoyed a peaceful week watching every episode of every series of Will & Grace! Kevin meanwhile had been collected from Stanstead by his friend Billy to enjoy a freezing week in England. Upon Kevin's return we left Estepona the following morning for Puerto Banus.
Puerto Banus is even more undesirable a destination than Estepona, expensive and full of people with more money than class, we described as 'full of posers and criminals'.
We were not aware till later that its allegedly run by the Russian mafia, what isn't these days! Two days was as much as we could take (or afford) so on to Benalmadena.
Benalmadena is a strange place, a huge marina of well over a thousand berths built in and around retail outlets and apartments. They tower over the boats with their mock North African architecture. Another purpose built resort of boats and apartments with the tacky British holiday maker clearly in evidence, time to move on again.
Next stop was Calleta de Valez, another of the Junta de Andalucia marinas, basically an upgraded fishing harbour but pleasant and unpretentious, typically Spanish really, with helpful staff.
The following morning we moved on down the coast to Motril. Now this was a surprise, a small privately owned marina at the end of a commercial harbour with aggregate dust flying everywhere. Unfortunately we didn't know we could anchor in the harbour area, so instead took up residence on a hammerhead pontoon. The port Police were very friendly and helpful. The dour reception we received from the club official when we went to pay our dues was only exceeded by the cost. €36 no water electric or showers that we could find.
Shortly after, an Italian racing boat tied up alongside, very serious ocean racing flyer with canting keel and twin rudders. Of course the crew immediately set about charming the pants off my domestic goddess, which she resisted with aplomb. We discussed with the Italians that we would be leaving around 8.00am, they informed us it would be no problem as they were leaving at 6.00am. Imagine our surprise when we came on deck at 8.00am to discover them still asleep in their bunks. we decided that we needed to wake them, so Sara charmed their pants on! They apologised and said whilst getting drunk in the club the previous night they had been told of gale force winds the following day. Not normally a problem for them, but nursing one damaged rudder they were avoiding conflict with the elements. They downloaded a Grib (weather) file from the internet and agreed the forecast was benign. With that they hitched up their pants and left, coffee in hand!
We followed a few minutes later and hoisted full sail for the trip to Almerimar. A beautiful spring morning we were making reasonable progress as we rounded the headland just outside Motril, then the wind hit us. Within a few minutes we were making over 9 knots (that’s very fast for us) in 40 knots of breeze (more than we had in Biscay) and still full sail up.
How embarrassed were we. The autopilot was starting struggle a little so Kevin decided to helm as we were screaming along and it seemed a waste to miss such a helming opportunity. The autopilot knew something we soon discovered, the boat was out of control! We quickly put in a reef of the sails to bring Nadine under our control again, and just as quickly the wind dropped and we ended the trip motoring without any wind at all. During the trip Sara was again treated to a personal escort from a lone dolphin for over an hour.
We reached Almerimar just behind Spinning Wheel (the Italians) as they go no faster than us under engine. They called us on the VHF as they had been informed by phone that there was plenty of depth to enter the harbour, when they called by VHF to obtain permission to enter they were told that the dredger would in fact be arriving in a couple of days!
They then asked us to lead the way and discover for them the deepest entry route. They must have cleared with just a very few inches as our depth sounder gave the same depth as their draft. A good laugh was enjoyed when we moored up together; as yet again another marina office was on siesta.
The next surprise was seeing the Cole family on Masala a few berths along from us when we finally docked. We were all delighted to see each other as we hadn't expected to see them again for a long time. Sara, Christine and Elaine picked up again and went horse riding at the local school, the boys discussed maintenance on engines and anode replacement. Some ladies just don't know how easy they have life!!!
We spent four weeks in Almerimar and had to return to the UK yet again during our stay. Almerimar is a place where many UK boats winter or live full time, some people have been living onboard for nearly a decade. The place is a purpose built resort with rental apartments which makes it quiet out of season except for the yachtie residents. There is a radio net every morning where yachties offer assistance, advice, lifts, weather forecasts and the ultimate boat jumble ' treasures of the bilge', a sort of radio based bring and buy. Eventually after three weeks word got about that Kevin can help with their pc problems. Well once the cat was let out of the bag the only way to stop it was leave! Seriously Kevin did enjoy helping all those people, even if he was still giving advice 10 minutes before we left. The upside of all this, it is a two way street. We met many lovely people who delivered and collected us from the airport or the supermarket in their own or borrowed cars. This place has a true community spirit with nothing too much trouble, or anybody looking to make any gain. we were invited to meals BBQ as thanks for our help and just general sociability. There were too many people to list, but special mention must be made of John & Mary of Kipenzi, who amazed us at their tenacity and defiance at letting getting older inhibit them from doing anything, inspiring stuff.
Shortly before we had to say another fond farewell to the Cole family, young Bryan offered to go up our mast to sort out the camera which wouldn't work. Unfortunately some of the fixings had seized and he was sensibly cautious of breaking something so came down. Somebody had the daft suggestion to send Kevin up, never one to duck an opportunity, he was winched up by Bryan & Jeff, his first time in 20 years. The camera still doesn't work!
During this period a chance meeting in the laundrette with Mary, an American, led to a lasting friendship with two lovely and hugely entertaining people; notwithstanding Max their dogs own grumpy appeal! We ended up travelling with them to the Balearics; Sara played Scrabble with Mary whilst Kevin played chess with Helmut overseen by Max, the true skipper of their boat.
Well that’s all for this episode, and brings to a close our travels along the Spanish mainland. Next we travel to the Balearics before we reach Sardinia to meet up with our first visitors of the year.
Kevin & Sara
Home Page
Next
So the season has arrived and its time to look forward to this years passages. We have decided to winter in Turkey so we have created an approximate plan of where we need to be and when during the summer. This plan in part is to ensure we arrive in Turkey and also to let friends know where they can join us should they feel so inclined.
We popped over the border from Gib to La Linea (Spain) to buy some vegetables at a sensible price and have a little lunch. Whilst enjoying a drink we decided to leave for Estepona on our return to the boat. This decisiveness astonished our waitress with whom we were having a fun conversation. She asked if we could possibly speak to her husband and give him a master class in making his mind up!
We left Gibraltar at two in the afternoon for a pleasant sail to Estepona. Well the Rock still held some surprises. The wind whistles around the 'Rock' and we enjoyed 30 knots for a short while, it settled as we moved out of the Rocks influence.
Estepona was our first experience of southern Spain as a holiday spot. Too many bars and people for our liking, too touristy. The following morning we were joined by John & Nicola of Seraphym (whom we had met in Gib), just as Kevin was walking along the pontoon to get a flight to the UK. He needed to go back briefly to sort some problems. He booked the first available flight out. Where do you think Kevin flew from, Yup Gibraltar!
Sara enjoyed a peaceful week watching every episode of every series of Will & Grace! Kevin meanwhile had been collected from Stanstead by his friend Billy to enjoy a freezing week in England. Upon Kevin's return we left Estepona the following morning for Puerto Banus.
Puerto Banus is even more undesirable a destination than Estepona, expensive and full of people with more money than class, we described as 'full of posers and criminals'.
We were not aware till later that its allegedly run by the Russian mafia, what isn't these days! Two days was as much as we could take (or afford) so on to Benalmadena.
Benalmadena is a strange place, a huge marina of well over a thousand berths built in and around retail outlets and apartments. They tower over the boats with their mock North African architecture. Another purpose built resort of boats and apartments with the tacky British holiday maker clearly in evidence, time to move on again.
Next stop was Calleta de Valez, another of the Junta de Andalucia marinas, basically an upgraded fishing harbour but pleasant and unpretentious, typically Spanish really, with helpful staff.
The following morning we moved on down the coast to Motril. Now this was a surprise, a small privately owned marina at the end of a commercial harbour with aggregate dust flying everywhere. Unfortunately we didn't know we could anchor in the harbour area, so instead took up residence on a hammerhead pontoon. The port Police were very friendly and helpful. The dour reception we received from the club official when we went to pay our dues was only exceeded by the cost. €36 no water electric or showers that we could find.
Shortly after, an Italian racing boat tied up alongside, very serious ocean racing flyer with canting keel and twin rudders. Of course the crew immediately set about charming the pants off my domestic goddess, which she resisted with aplomb. We discussed with the Italians that we would be leaving around 8.00am, they informed us it would be no problem as they were leaving at 6.00am. Imagine our surprise when we came on deck at 8.00am to discover them still asleep in their bunks. we decided that we needed to wake them, so Sara charmed their pants on! They apologised and said whilst getting drunk in the club the previous night they had been told of gale force winds the following day. Not normally a problem for them, but nursing one damaged rudder they were avoiding conflict with the elements. They downloaded a Grib (weather) file from the internet and agreed the forecast was benign. With that they hitched up their pants and left, coffee in hand!
We followed a few minutes later and hoisted full sail for the trip to Almerimar. A beautiful spring morning we were making reasonable progress as we rounded the headland just outside Motril, then the wind hit us. Within a few minutes we were making over 9 knots (that’s very fast for us) in 40 knots of breeze (more than we had in Biscay) and still full sail up.
How embarrassed were we. The autopilot was starting struggle a little so Kevin decided to helm as we were screaming along and it seemed a waste to miss such a helming opportunity. The autopilot knew something we soon discovered, the boat was out of control! We quickly put in a reef of the sails to bring Nadine under our control again, and just as quickly the wind dropped and we ended the trip motoring without any wind at all. During the trip Sara was again treated to a personal escort from a lone dolphin for over an hour.
We reached Almerimar just behind Spinning Wheel (the Italians) as they go no faster than us under engine. They called us on the VHF as they had been informed by phone that there was plenty of depth to enter the harbour, when they called by VHF to obtain permission to enter they were told that the dredger would in fact be arriving in a couple of days!
They then asked us to lead the way and discover for them the deepest entry route. They must have cleared with just a very few inches as our depth sounder gave the same depth as their draft. A good laugh was enjoyed when we moored up together; as yet again another marina office was on siesta.
The next surprise was seeing the Cole family on Masala a few berths along from us when we finally docked. We were all delighted to see each other as we hadn't expected to see them again for a long time. Sara, Christine and Elaine picked up again and went horse riding at the local school, the boys discussed maintenance on engines and anode replacement. Some ladies just don't know how easy they have life!!!
We spent four weeks in Almerimar and had to return to the UK yet again during our stay. Almerimar is a place where many UK boats winter or live full time, some people have been living onboard for nearly a decade. The place is a purpose built resort with rental apartments which makes it quiet out of season except for the yachtie residents. There is a radio net every morning where yachties offer assistance, advice, lifts, weather forecasts and the ultimate boat jumble ' treasures of the bilge', a sort of radio based bring and buy. Eventually after three weeks word got about that Kevin can help with their pc problems. Well once the cat was let out of the bag the only way to stop it was leave! Seriously Kevin did enjoy helping all those people, even if he was still giving advice 10 minutes before we left. The upside of all this, it is a two way street. We met many lovely people who delivered and collected us from the airport or the supermarket in their own or borrowed cars. This place has a true community spirit with nothing too much trouble, or anybody looking to make any gain. we were invited to meals BBQ as thanks for our help and just general sociability. There were too many people to list, but special mention must be made of John & Mary of Kipenzi, who amazed us at their tenacity and defiance at letting getting older inhibit them from doing anything, inspiring stuff.
Shortly before we had to say another fond farewell to the Cole family, young Bryan offered to go up our mast to sort out the camera which wouldn't work. Unfortunately some of the fixings had seized and he was sensibly cautious of breaking something so came down. Somebody had the daft suggestion to send Kevin up, never one to duck an opportunity, he was winched up by Bryan & Jeff, his first time in 20 years. The camera still doesn't work!
During this period a chance meeting in the laundrette with Mary, an American, led to a lasting friendship with two lovely and hugely entertaining people; notwithstanding Max their dogs own grumpy appeal! We ended up travelling with them to the Balearics; Sara played Scrabble with Mary whilst Kevin played chess with Helmut overseen by Max, the true skipper of their boat.
Well that’s all for this episode, and brings to a close our travels along the Spanish mainland. Next we travel to the Balearics before we reach Sardinia to meet up with our first visitors of the year.
Kevin & Sara
Home Page
Next
posted by Kevin and Sara at 1:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home