36:45.8N 02:05.6W

We reluctantly left Aguadulce marina as planned on Sunday.

The sun was up and there was a light breeze.  Heading across the bay, the wind increased, until it was a good 15 knots as we approached Cabo de Gata.  The pilot book is full of doom and gloom about this headland, explaining how there is an adverse current of up to 2 knots and that the wind increases “substantially” as you reach the point.  Unfortunately the pilot book was right, but with the help of the engines we managed to crawl past the point.  This headland marks the demarcation between the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca.  The latter gets its name from the rocks which shine white in the sunshine:

Cabo de Gata:

The white rocks:

With the winds strengthening we headed into the bay at San Jose and dropped the anchor close to the rocks, so as to gain the maximum protection from the winds overnight. 

We had a lovely swim, and after our usual shower off the back of the boat, were able to sit and enjoy our anchorage which is inside a nature reserve.  A lovely spicy chicken dinner, and we retired after taking this picture of the night view from the stern of IOLA.

Initially, I had wanted to leave early on Monday morning, but when I got up the winds had strengthened and checking the web, found that there was 45 knots further out in the bay, and 20+ knots where we are.  It settles down a bit around lunchtime, so we will probably leave then and get as far as we can towards Cartagena, our winter destination.