Getting to the ARC (2) ... Cartegena to Gibraltar
Moondancer
Sun 16 Nov 2008 17:49
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After we got back to the UK in the middle of August
we stayed long enough to get Ted's results which were great and for his
19th Birthday, for which he turned out to be away, before heading quickly
back to Cartegena. Once again we were joined by
friends, this time Caroline and Jim, who were originally going to do the ARC
with us before Jim sadly became ill and, although now recovered and back
sailing, he could no longer take the time.
  We first visited Garrucha which was mainly a small
fishing port with a little local marina, it was full but they let us spend
the night alongside the fuel/reception dock. Then we went round the striking
coastline of Cabo de Gata, which marks the boundary between the Costa
Blanca and the Costa del Sol and stayed the night in Almeria. It was the
night of a great fiesta with an enormous parade, all the ladies down to
tots in their strollers were in Adulucian dresses and shoes. We then sailed
on to Almeriamar which was only 18 miles away but a complete contrast as
it is a purpose built tourist development with many unsold units,
it was a bit souless but as we were then subjected to a
very strong levanter we stayed another day. The next night we
were in another small local marina in Caleta de Velez before getting our wallets
out and gladrags on for a night in Puerto Jose Banus.
 The last day's sailing round Europa Point and into
Gibraltar was notable for two things: the first was that we sailed straight into
a stiff breeze and against the current as we approached Europa Point, which was
almost a welcome change, the other was that an oil rig had run aground off
the Point and was surrounded by seven tugs and police boats patrolling an
exclusion zone. The zone ran for a mile round the rig and as it was
only a half mile offshore would have meant a long detour for us into the wind.
The radio was full of excited messages from the various boats involved in the
rescue operation and we could get no response to our request to sneak through
along the shore line so Fiona rang the port operations office on our mobile
and was able to get the required permission. We went to Marina Bay marina
which is the furthest marina into the bay and is right next the the airport
runway. This was not a problem from a noise point of view as
there are so few flights, but we did get our own private airshow as a flight of
hawks and two tornados were at the base for exercises. We were at the end
of a pontoon only 50 yards off the runway and had a great show as they took off
and landed.
 Jim and Caroline stayed on for a day in Gib before
flying out
  We then had just one more day before our next
friends arrived to sail down to Lanzarote with us.
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