Cartagena
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Fri 15 Aug 2008 21:24
37:35.786N
00:59.07W
We left Almerimar on
Tuesday afternoon, making a note to ourselves to remember to leave a little
earlier in the day - before the wind gets up! It was quite festive getting
out of the moorings in a stiff breeze, and Steve's boat handling skills were put
to the test. Fortunately, although the boat had different ideas to
Steve;s about which way she wanted to turn, we left the marina without
incident and set off in quite lively seas with a fair wind pushing us along at
7-8 knots.
The seas gradually
calmed down, and with a good following wind it was a fast passage right up until
the last four hours or so, when the wind died and we resorted to the
engine. It was another overnight passage which saw me (Chris) on watch
when the sun went down...
and when it came
up again...
Where was
Steve? Where else would the skipper be?
We arrived in
Cartagena mid-morning on Wednesday and liked it immediately. It is
surrounded by mountains - this is the coastline as we
approached
but the
town is very attractive. This
is the view from the boat as we were moored in the
marina.
The
marina belongs to the Yacht Club and so for 28 euros a night we had this
beautiful spot right in the town and full use of the club's facilities which
included the club house and their swimming
pool
As the
wind was not going to be good for us today, we decided to suffer a further day
here and make straight for Menorca, a passage of some 300 miloes. Neither
of us is too keen to spend any time in the Balearics, so we plan
to sail straight past Ibiza and Mallorca, and make a stop at Menorca prior
to moving on to Sardinia. Well, that's plan A
anyway...