Dénia - 38:50.291N 00:07.077E

ALKIRA
Charles & Maggie Bevis
Fri 20 Jun 2014 18:49
The day spent sailing from Villajoyosa to Dénia was rather unremarkable and the weather chose to take a bit of a dive too as it was overcast and quite cool, with the occasional spot of rain. The Wind gods did not perform as forecast, were variable and-stayed stubbornly on the nose instead of veering to the east as promised. The sea conditions were choppy and uncomfortable. However, we did manage to get in a final stint of sailing without the engine once we cleared the Northern cape. We then had a most pleasant reach to the east past Javea and on to Dénia.

We arrived in Dénia at approximately 18:30 and tidied ourselves up. A quick wash down of the decks and showers ashore and plo and behold, it was suddenly G&T o'clock, hooray!

Supper was a bit later than usual at around 9pm. A large fresh fillet of salmon and prawns mixed in with other goodies was washed down with a nice bottle of Chilean wine.

Our evening ritual, which began last year, of watching an episode or two from a TV series, or a movie, has continued into this year, but it doesn't begin until everything is cleared away and usually not until darkness has fallen and the mosquitoes, if there are any, are on the prowl looking for Charlie. It's at this point we usually retreat downstairs. We're presently working our way through Game of Thrones, series 3. Unfortunately we don't have series 4, so that's on the list of things to buy next time we go home.

We were advised to buy a small leaf basil plant as apparently the mosquitoes don't like the aroma. So while in Villajoyosa, we did exactly that, but we also bought a larger variety too as we love the leaves chopped up with a generous helping of olive oil and balsamic dressing poured over a plate of beef tomato. During the day they (the plants) live in the cockpit under the shade of the bimini, but at night, they join us in our cabin and hey presto, Charlie hasn't been eaten during the night by mosquitoes (or me) since then. A good result all round - despite the double entendre!

Dénia is a really nice town and if I had to choose somewhere to live in Spain, then this is probably where I would come to. It's a lively town with nice streets, shopping, an excellent indoor market, although nowhere near as good as Valencia. A street market held on Fridays is bursting with home grown produce of fruit and vegetables by the tonne. The stalls are busy from first thing in the morning until they finish selling at around 1pm, with many selling out of their produce. A healthy sign indeed.

We called in here last September, so the town and essential shops are known to us. Finding the laundry first thing this morning, before moving to the market and then supermarkets, kept us busy, with a further trip on our bicycles into town later this afternoon to finish the big shop. Many parts are busy and there is a strong German influence here too, as many own either apartments, or boats, or both! The yacht club Real Nautico Dénia is virtually full, with no sign of the abandoned boats we have seen elsewhere. Pleasant bars/cafes coupled with the alfresco life style clearly make for a good life here for many, it has a very pleasant vibe and is most enjoyable.

The bonus today was also the weather, it was just perfect, clear blue skies and around 28 degrees. What. Ore could one ask for?

We took the opportunity to fill the freezer, fridge and every other locker that wasn't already full, as we leave for Ibiza in the morning and we're really hoping that we shall be finding quiet peaceful anchorages for a lot of the next week or two. We seem to have been doing mainland Spain for a long time now, so are greatly looking forward to visiting the Balearic Islands and seeing/doing something entirely different.

We expect to leave Dénia around 10:00 on Saturday once we have filled the fuel tanks, and that should hopefully keep us going until Sardinia or maybe even Italy. Ibiza is less than 50 nautical miles from here and providing the weather behaves, we should be looking for a nice spot to drop anchor by the late afternoon/early evening - we hope. It's just a shame that we are late as it is already high season and we are expecting crowded anchorages and exorbitant marina prices.

With the weather expected over the next week we plan to sail up the west coast of Ibiza and then along the North coast before crossing the 100 miles or so to Majorca and then possibly on to Menorca. After Majorca we then have the longish 200 mile crossing to Corsica, which will take us about two full days weather permitting. We're hoping for a week or so in Corsica before dropping down to Sardinia in time to meet up with Matthew at the end of July.