and registered our arrival.  And since we moved out for 100 meters from the entrance ( above ) to drop the anchor, the Marinetraffic registered immediately our departure… ;-)

But we are still there, right in front of the entrance. 

The passage was relatively simple…. The interesting part though was the weather…  It is a new experience for me to deal with the mountain coast line — well, I was following the Sierra Nevada in Columbia for much less  length,  and those mountain ridge influence is well described, at least I read a lot about it…   The situation with the Spanish coast is completely different. 

The only obvious and expected thing — that the .grib files are not going to work. At least in 10-20 nm from shore…  

The wind was coming and disappearing all night,  most probably depending on the mountain ridge on the shore line.  Another thing which I noticed — based on the cloud pattern, the weather system(s) is/are pretty ’static’… For example, the same pattern of the clouds may ‘hang’ at  the same place and forms for hours…. Which is completely new for me,  since the average life time of cloud formations in Montreal, or Caribbean is about 10-15 minutes,  with nearly constant movement at the same time… Another observation I made — I was probably totally wrong calling the waves here — swell… By the time the waves pick up and disappear — they more look like the wind generated waves… ( Which corresponds to forecast on windy.com …) 

In short, the weather here, and consequently, selecting the sailing is puzzling me a lot!  ;-). The reason we moved here — to hide from ’the big waves from the East’, which should be the consequence of the so called the Levante wind… The wind should start to blow on Monday, Tuesday… And I’m really wondering now what I’m going to see on my anchor and would I need to move to the marina… 

Marina looks huge and very nice.  But I have not even drop the dinghy today… All the exploration is left for tomorrow… 

The whole area around is  covered by the green houses.  The square miles of the surface, nearly from horizon to horizon, is covered by the green houses.  The guide says  that is the area where the big proportion of the  European winter vegetables are grown… 

The same guide warns that the strong winds are often pick up the plastic sheets from the roofs and drop them into the water, making them the submerged floating cutter knifes…  which should be avoided even with aluminium boats… 

And in the middle of that wonderful agricultural paradise there is a few hotels and newly build marina,  with the active ‘winter living community’. 

How long am I planning to stay here ?  It depends on the weather forecast, and the actual weather.  The idea is to wait until the weather improved, and  then to move around the Cabo de Cat and to move towards Cartagena, and then Alicante.  So, now we are really weather driven,  which we do not have control over, and which we do not understand!  Life is getting better and better!  But at least  for the next couple of days, we are locked here… either on the anchor, or being forced to move into marina. 

Besides the marina itself  — and the small town around  — the guide recommends to visit two cities around… Almaría and Alcazaba… No idea what those cities are about, and why it is recommended to visit them… 

Reading, watching the skies,  hiding from the purring rain, and opening the boat again,  a bit of cleaning after the passage — took the rest of the day.

Tomorrow is another day, 

Keeping the eyes on horizon, and talk to you soon. 

M.