Aguilas - 37:15:33N 1:39:79W
Red Skies
David Alexander
Sun 13 Sep 2009 14:16
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On Thursday 10th Sept we left Almerimar marina to
continue our passage East, as the forecast, although continuing Easterlies, was
for an abated Force 4. And so it proved, for the first hour! Thereafter the wind
strength built and with it the short sharp chop of swell and soon we were
motoring directly into the teeth of a Force 6. We had hoped to anchor in the
shelter of the Cabo de Gata but when we arrived there 6 hours later, the
gusts were finding a route around the Cape and we decided to continue to Puerto
St Jose, which is a small marina about 6 miles past the Cape. What we had not
realised was just how small it was and when we arrived, having failed to raise
them by either telephone or VHF, we were relieved to be helped into the only
berth in the marina capable of taking Red Skies. The marina was in fact a Club
Nautico and the large majority of the boats there were small day boats. Having
said that, we were extremely grateful to get out of the wind and waves (over 30
knots coming across the deck) but we did have some significant swell affecting
our berth and put out 8 lines in an attempt to avoid crashing into the adjacent
concrete quay walls or the neighbouring Police patrol boat.
 The marina at St Jose - we were the first boat on
the right hand side
The town of St Jose is a very attractive tourist
town, almost exclusively frequented by the Spanish and we found that our limited
Spanish vocabulary was put to the test as no-one we came across spoke any
English.
 The town of St Jose with the marina on right of
photo
The Levanter continued through Friday but with a
more optimistic forecast in hand we set off late Saturday morning to motor (yes
it was still blowing North Easterly and that was where we had to get to) in the
direction of Aguilas. The wind died down, as forecast, during the day and when
we reached Aguilas at about 6 pm we decided to anchor in the adjoining bay.
There were a number of day boats at anchor when we arrived but at dusk these all
left and we had the bay to ourselves (and the sea-gulls and the jelly-fish).
Despite seeing huge swarms of jelly-fish in the sea as we came along the coast
we only spotted a few in the bay and so we risked a delightful swim after a hot
and steamy passage. We also enjoyed a pre-breakfast swim the following morning
in beautiful light as the sun rose out of the sea.
 Our over-night anchorage at Aguilas
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