Sant Carles de la Rapita 40 37.268N 000 36.259E

Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Thu 9 Aug 2018 06:07
Our sail north east from Valencia was punctuated by an overnight stop in a little marina called Las Fuentes, a charming little place. The marina office has a striking triangular appearance. Slightly alarming was the lack of water there. We tied up with less than 10cm below our keel.

In the morning, under a clear blue sky and with little or no wind, we puttered out to continue our journey, motoring the 6 miles of so to a spot called Peniscola, where we dropped the anchor and enjoyed a brief lunch stop. Peniscola is a pretty place, with a fortified town built on a rocky peninsula, dominated by a castle. All very historical, but backed now by a large tourist town and seething beach full of excited holiday makers, complete with informative tannoy system and multilingual announcer!

After an hour or so, soaking in the dynamic and conflicted ambience of the place, we detected a few zephyrs of breeze, so up came the anchor, up went the mainsail and, with an apparent wind angle of about 90 degrees and 10 knots of wind, up went the spinnaker, in, although I say it myself, a textbook bare headed hoist! And then came the boatspeed.

Slicing through the water at 7 knots plus, we completed the 35 miles or so to Sant Carles in a few hours, arriving in time for drinks in the bar overlooking the attractive swimming pool available for the marina guests.

Sant Carles is a proper Spanish town. It is not a tourist spot, apart from the marina, and is surprisingly large. Good shopping, eating and so on.

Persephone is staying here for a few weeks while we escape the brutal heat of Spain in August....exchanging it for that in southern France instead.

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