Time to move on...Mar Menor 37 45.2N 00 44.81W
ALKIRA
Charles & Maggie Bevis
Sat 7 Sep 2013 13:27
We left Almerimar on Thursday morning and had thoughts of going to Cartagena, however, once underway and as the sea was so incredibly calm, we decided to press on a bit further toward Mar Menor. It meant another overnight passage, but we have ourselves sorted now and as long as we know we can get a good nights sleep the following night, we are not put off by lack of sleep, although Charlie always seems to succeed, whereas Maggie just closes her eyes and hopes!
The weather is good and the wind, well, you know where that's coming from by now, so another day of motoring, with the mainsail only getting a very brief glimpse of sunshine.
The bridge that divides the seas is raised every two hours so we needed to arrange our arrival for the 12 noon opening, which we successfully did.
On the outside, there has been a considerable investment in the commencement of what was to have been a very large marina, but has been stopped in its tracks, like so many other Spanish projects. However, once inside the canal to the inland sea there are more marinas all of which seem to be doing quite well. We had decided we wanted to anchor off for the night and found a pleasant quiet spot. Well, it was quiet for a short time but quite suddenly at around 1o'clock we were entertained by the Spanish equivalent of the Red Arrows, practicing their routine over the skies all around us. Looping the loop etc, those magnificent men in their flying machines put on a very good display. After a full hour of watching them they departed and all of a sudden there was a flurry of civilian aircraft taking off, who had clearly been grounded whilst the airforce did their thing!
Shortly after this, the wind suddenly came up and within minutes was blowing a 4-5 and shortly afterward 5-6. A quick check on the anchor to make sure we were secure and a brief discussion as to whether we should stay put or not, we both decided we were happy where we were and had a nice little siesta. After an early evening meal and a shared sleeping potion, (ie a good bottle of Rioja), we tucked up for a good nights sleep and realised the wind had vanished! Zzzzzzzz