Cassini's blog - Cassini blog#139 Long but windless weekend in Southern Spain

Cassini blog#139 Long but windless weekend in Southern Spain

Cassini's blog

Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine

Mon 12 Aug 2024 12:22

Long but windless weekend in Southern Spain

Sadly the wind still doesn’t oblige us with any breeze fit for the name, and Friday we motored the short distance to Benalmadena. This has been referred to as Disneyland of the Costa del Sol, I thought more Blackpool on steroids! It is a large marina with plenty of bars, restaurants, tourist shops etc., selling all sorts of things we do not really need.

We were allocated a berth in the midst of several super yachts; the nearby car park reflected the expense of the area with Lamborghini, Maserati, Bentley, Mercedes etc parked all along the jetty. Despite ashore being very busy, our berth was quiet and proved to be a good spot for a couple of days in a marina. A chance to do some laundry and stock up with groceries, fuel and water.

Friday evening, we wandered to a local Mexican restaurant for beer and nachos - not as good as Antigua but enjoyed nonetheless. Saturday, after shopping at Carrefour, the others came back to the boat to unpack and I walked onto Lidl for a couple of items. I took a wrong turning on the way back, ended up at the far side of the marina with no way to get across to our boat. I had to send an "I'm lost" message, retrace my walk and arrived back very hot and sticky. The rest of the day we relaxed on the boat; very hot, high 30s by the afternoon, but enjoyed a delicious ice cream late afternoon.

The plan for Sunday was to move further along the coast and anchor at La Herradura, a 38 mile trip. Very little wind again although we did put up the main sail - more in hope than expectation - but it gave us the chance to see how well the new mainsail halyard worked (very well it turns out - less fiddling trying to get the clutch to grip the line). I'm not sure it gave us any extra speed, but it was good to at least look like a sailing yacht. The coastline was continuous hotels, apartments and crowded beaches with an occasional Moorish tower on a hill side.

We arrived at the anchorage at about 18.00, all set to drop the anchor, pressed the button - nothing. After about an hour of attempting to identify the issue, we tried the local marina to arrange an alongside berth, but they were full. The next option was to motor onto Motril, about another 10 miles along the coast. A quick telephone confirmation that a berth could be found and we set course for Motril. Dinner plan B; luckily we had cooked sausages the day before so the boys enjoyed cold sausages, beans, and potato salad; cheese salad for the girls eaten whilst motoring.

Motril is a commercial port with a members-only Club Nautico marina at the NW end, and a family owned marina with a few visitor berths to the east. We arrived about 20.30. The marina staff were so helpful in finding us a berth, assisting with the ropes, welcoming us and offering to call an engineer if needed for the windlass problem. Once secure and tidy, but still dirty, it was straight up to the bar/ restaurant for much needed refreshments. What a friendly place; drinks ordered, soon-after followed by a plate of tasty pork stew. A second round of beers then Sally and I headed back for showers, weary, hot and grubby after our long day. A mistake, we missed out! More beers and the owner, Roberto, brought 2 more plates of tapas for Nigel and Simon. Just what they needed to boost morale after a tough day. And the bill, just €14!

Today, our resident Chief Engineer, climbed down into the anchor locker (see below) to investigate the fault. Nothing very obvious until he did some continuity tests on all the wires. Several wires were corroded under bits of tape and a number of end electrical connections had come adrift. Simon took the wiring diagram (copied from google page), re-ordered the wires, replaced lots of connections with the myriad spares we have, then sealed them all again in heat-shrink. All tested in about an hour. Well done Simon. A few sentences is not really enough to show our appreciation of Simon’s skills and tenacity.

Nigel went to locate a new hosepipe as whilst repairing one hole, several others appeared. An example of the willingness and friendliness of this marina, Roberto lent his van and Nigel and Simon drove to Motril town and found the local B&Q. Nothing is too much trouble here.

We are staying here tonight then will head off before returning on Friday ready for our weekend trip to Granada.

Catherine

Two of the tapas that Simon and Nigel enjoyed and the ‘Chief' upside down in the fwd sail locker doing his magic with the cables!