April 21^st  PUERTO DE AGUILAS

Up early and off at 08.15, earliest this trip! The sea was like glass. Not a breath of wind, so motored and stuck jib out when we got about 5kts of wind from SE. The landscape was stunning. It’s apparently where they make spaghetti westerns. Really desolate, little coves, small settlements, far less developed than Costa del Sol (we are now on Costa Blanca). Thought it would be well worth driving along that coast. Occasionally saw a motorhome through the binoculars, stray white dots on small coves miles from anywhere….

About 11.30 we saw a couple of pilot whales making leisurely progress at about 45 degrees to the boat. Then a couple more – then everywhere we looked, for about 2-300 yards in all directions, there must have been 30 or more, they were popping up everywhere, we were right in the middle of them. I was really worried we’d run one over, but after about 10 minutes we gradually parted company.

Along we went – past every conceivable stage of abandoned development – foundations, concrete underpinnings, half built, almost finished and completely finished. It’s unbelievable the amount of capital that has been thrown away on this speculative construction boom. Presumably these “assets” are still on the Spanish banks’ balance sheets, they can’t afford the write offs. Absolute disaster. You can almost imagine tribes of outlaws living in the ruins. I suppose they will all have to be bought by the German government, who can then give each German pensioner a seaside home in Spain (some DIY required)……

We got to Puerto de Aguilas at 16.20. Bit of a hassle berthing – no one to tell us where to go, so squeezed into a tiny space on the end of a pontoon, with virtually no room to get off! Eventually extricated ourselves and were given very handy berth near showers.

We  wandered into town and into a tapas bar. Disconcertingly, there were 3 or 4 guys in there, but all the chairs were arranged in rows facing the telly. We decided they must be going to watch some telly programme so wandered elsewhere. We got to a bar near the fishing quay – there were half a dozen guys watching football. It had been on about 5 minutes. I looked more closely at the screen – it was Barcelona vs Real Madrid, “el classico”…!

We watched a bit, then wandered off at half time. There is a beautiful square, with giant fig trees, restaurants round every side, all full, all with big screens, everybody watching! Even the restaurant by the marina had erected a giant screen outside….

We went to a tapas bar “Bar de Aguilas”. It was great. The woman had a tiny bit of English and agreed to bring us a bit of what she thought was good. We ate really well. There was something called “Letones” which was delicious. I thought at first it was some kid of fish, Graham thought it could be sweetbreads. The woman said “It is from the cow”. The wonderful Collins English/Spanish, Spanish/English dictionary, cost ca £20 on my iPhone, has no translation. Probably just as well?

The rest of the food was excellent, calamares, albondigas, patatas con ajo – went to bed pretty stuffed after a really good day.

52 NM covered.