Almerimar. 36 41.873N 002 47.388W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Mon 14 May 2018 13:22
The marina here is enormous. On arrival, one ties up at the fuel dock to register. We tdid just that, with a little help from the marineros who took our lines. Another largish cruising boat called Amour de la Mer came in a few minutes behind us, but got the approach horribly wrong, and instead of the normal approach alongside into the wind, they attempted to come in downwind, to park behind Persephone. Armour is a centre cockpit boat, and the skipper put her in reverse to stop her, then left the helm to throw a line to the marineros ashore. Unfortunately, while he was still away from the helm, the boat reversed into our port quarter, giving us a good shove to windward and denting the edge of the transom.......so you can imagine how I felt about that!
After registration, it was off to find a berth....stern to a dock. Not easy with a cross wind of 18 knots.....but eventually, with the aid of the marina shore team, we made it in safely and with no further incident.
Almerimar is a marina and golf resort. All built at the same time around, I guess 15 years ago, there is a feeling of slow decline about the place. Most of the appartments and flats are apparently occupied, though maybe a third are not and never have been. However, the bars and restaurants around the marina seem to be thriving, and we enjoyed a nice lunch yesterday in one of them.
There is a very capable boatyard here and several chandlers....I managed to source the sail slide shackles I need for the mainsail, which I couldn’t find in Gibraltar.
A very nice guy from Switzerland, called Lucasz is moored next to us....he has bought and restored a 10m steel yacht and is setting off on a circumnavigation in December. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with a few G&T’s aboard P last night with him and exchanged tales of derring do....
Perhaps tomorrow, we will move on to Cartagena.....
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