Spanish Navy and more Pandas
Minka of Southampton - Cruising Log
Edmund Wigan
Sat 24 Jul 2010 17:10
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On a whim I decided to sail up to Cartagena today.
It is only about twelve miles but took a while as there wasn't much wind. On the
way into the port I spotted this navy ship at the dock which rather looks as if
they only completed half the payments on it. Maybe David Cameron's new aircraft
carriers will be built on the same basis. Let's just hope they order some
vertical take off planes to go with them.
 Sorry it's not a good picture.
I only stopped in Cartagena for a beer and the
marina didn't charge me anything for parking which is a better deal than I got
with the the car park a week ago.
Once out of the port I put up the sails and
set the autohelm so I could make some lunch. After a couple of minutes I heard
this very peculiar deep engine noise so popped my head out of the hatch to be
confronted by a Spanish Navy RIB (that's a type of blow up boat) They
must have known I was going to be rude about them only buying the front
half of their ships as they told me to leave the area as they were about to
commence live firing.
 I was a bit slow getting my camera so didn't get a
close up. There was a helicopter buzzing about but I couldn't get that in the
picture. After visiting me they then went to another yacht and proceeded to
escort us out of the firing area. It is a strange choice of place for a firing
range within a mile of a major port entrance.
 Just as I was approaching Mazarron on the way back
I spotted the Panda Powered Cat. That's an interesting concept I wonder where
the Panda stuffs the bamboo to make the cat go.................
 It was a bit deceptive as I thought it had stopped
but it seems to only do about two kts and as you can see there is hardly any
wake.
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