Back home in Cartagena

This is probably the last blog of the year as we are now back in Cartagena and planning to fly to UK on Friday 19^th October.

Our last report came from a wet Palma de Mallorca on Thursday, 27 September. Well it remained wet, windy and with big swells until well into the weekend. On the mainland conditions were even worse with nine deaths from flooding in Andalucia. However we enjoyed the town and had a sociable time with a number of friends.

By Sunday the wind had eased and the swell diminished so that Monday looked good for a mass exodus. This gave this gave the excuse for a huge Sunday lunch at the restaurant at the gate of the marina with Maren, Reed, (SMB), Griff and Jane. On staggering from the restaurant we found ourselves being introduced by Reed and Maren to Jonathan & Rosalind Webb who also have a J class and whom I’d seen not more than 3 or 4 times in the last 40 years. A very small world!

We left Palma on 1 October about three hours before dawn but with a lovely full moon. With little wind it looked as though it would be a motor for the 60+ miles across to Ibiza. So it was until around noon when a little breeze arrived just as the engine failed with a fuel blockage. At least we were able to make progress in the right direction for the hour or so which it took to pull out the various nasties in the fuel lines, change the primary filter and blow through the system. Just as the engine was re-started, the wind died, however by late afternoon we were safely anchored in Cala Portinatx on the north coast of Ibiza.

At this time of year, with the main holiday season passed, the calas are even more delightful and we were one of only three or four boats at anchor. We decided that a second night here was warranted and fell into our ‘cala routine’: swim, breakfast, swim, swim, lunch, siesta, swim, ashore for a glass of wine at the nearest bar, sups on board. A hard life – although Sarah did spend some time working on her Spanish Civil War course from Cardiff university.

The next stop was Puerto de San Miguel. Not really a port but a very attractive cala.

Routine followed – swim, swim, drink ashore etc.!

Leaving Puerto de San Miguel there is an amazing rock formation, said (with a bit of imagination) to look like Queen Victoria on her throne.(SMB suggests more like the Buddha).

The forecast was for the winds to remain generally in the east sector for a couple of days before going south west so it seemed sensible to plan to cross soon to Cartagena. Cala Tarida seemed a suitable jumping off point, so it was here that we spent our last night in the Balearics.

We left Cala Tarida just before noon on Friday, 5 October for the passage to Cartagena. We had decided that we would return here for a second winter as not only is the marina safe and welcoming but the yard next door can work on the boat and a particular plus is the town itself, attractive and full of museums, tapas bars etc.

Although the forecast had been for NE force 4+, the actual breeze for most of the time was NE force 3 or less. In the 24 hour, 135 mile passage we had only 6 hours sailing and 18 under engine. Indeed it would have been more under engine had we not got a further fuel blockage at midnight in the shipping lanes between Cabo de Palos and Cabo de Nao with 3 knots of wind. Rather than change filters we tried blowing through the fuel lines. This took half an hour or so but the engine did restart, leaving Tony with a mouthful of diesel (only solution to the problem was of course red wine), and by noon we were tucked up back in Yachtport Cartagena.

It is good to be back here. There are two boats here whom we met last winter and another met in last year in Baiona. On Sunday, the day after our arrival, there was the first of the winter barbecues – a very sociable event with about 25 of us. Since then we have been arranging for the fuel tank to be cleaned, wash off & antifoul for March, bicycle wheel repairs, quotes for a new cockpit cover, attempt to try and get the dinghy professionally repaired, car hire, flights home and all the domestic bits which come with the end of the season. The worst job was replacing all the tubing for the heads and holding-tank outlets which had become blocked with calcification and nameless other substance – however job done - & we now pump away merrily! It feels quite strange to be on shore power and to be able to use the lights all the time, also to have water available and not to have to ration ourselves to 25 litres per day – we now wash up (and ourselves) in hot, fresh water!

Over the season we have not covered huge distances, logging little more than 1800 miles, but we have anchored many scores of times in delightful spots, swum many hundreds of times, eaten many tapas as well as consuming a bottle of wine or two. We will probably come out here again in January or February for some maintenance work and then come back again in early April to start the season properly. We have stopped making plans as we always change our minds with whim and weather, so next year remains a blank slate!

Tony & Sarah Boas

Malo 37 – Ione

Cartagena 16 October 2012