Time in Cartagena 15/16th Sept.
Nimue
Tue 16 Sep 2008 12:13
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Cartagena is a very attactive city with
a modern Club Nautico (including a swimming pool). We moored Nimue
bows to the concrete pontoon (similar to Gibraltar), but it initally wasn't easy
for me to get on and off, as we have have not made/purchased our passerelle
(for those uninitiated, this is a type of 'walkway' which is attached
from the boat to the pontoon) So the procedure for getting off the boat
involves climbing round the forestay and stepping onto the anchor (which rocks)
and then a big downward stretch to feel the pontoon
below. Sounds farily simple until you find you've stretched
as far as you possibly can and there is just sea and not a
pontoon under your foot. Anyway after some thought I
made the procedure alot easier, as I 'built up' the pontoon with some
wood which gave additional height to step down onto.
We were woken up next morning to the
sound of horn blasts and when we looked out to see where the
noise was coming from we couldn't help but notice that the very large
cruise liner 'Oceana' was moored about 100 metres from us on the
landing pier next to Club Nautico. The blasts were identification
signals for the passengers (so it didn't leave without
them). Cartagena is obviously a stopover for cruise ships and it
was soon full of tourists buzzing around the place.
  'Oceana' in Cartagena
I managed to drag Michael to 'Corte Ingles'
which is a posh Spanish department store with a very good supermarket and
we again stocked up for our onward journey. The only difficulty here
was when we tried to take the supermarket trolley out of the complex to get into
a taxi about 50 metres away and we were stopped by security and told
us we couldn't take the trolley out of the shop? So I hauled
everything out of the trolley and down to the taxi and in the meantime the shop
staff we busy trying to find someone to give us a hand. Too late........
we had already finished by the time help arrived, so we'll have to remember not
to go there again!! We also managed to pick up a new boat hook
from a nearby chandlery, the type we lost when I was trying to pick up a buoy in
Ireland and had been looking to replace since.
All in all we really liked Cartagena and well
worth a visit. The morning we left I wanted a quick run ashore to
pick up some special paella rice, which can only be found in
the Murcia region. One the way, I heard a voice saying "hello
Anne". On turning around I saw Sheila Whitehall (colleague from my old
HSBC days) and she was in Cartagena with her husband doing some shopping for
their new house in Murcia.....small world???
  The first ever Spanish
subermarine Me
with a sailor??
  Pleasant
surroundings.............
The marina and Michael carrying the shopping again!!!
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