Wed 18^th , Thurs 19^th and Friday 20^th Aug

Well Cartagena certainly has changed since we were here just two years ago. Then it was very much work in progress with some very smart areas and some very grotty parts, but an apparent determination to shake of its industrial and grimy past and try to take a share in the lucrative tourism and yachting markets. There is still a big naval base here, but the shipyards are clearly taking in other work now.

The town is just wonderful and all the rebuilding work is tasteful and on a very grand scale. It is very hard to visualise that this place was very heavily bombed during their civil war and has suffered neglect and decay almost ever since. The first and most obvious sign of the intent here is the frantic construction work down on the waterfront where they are effectively doubling the length of the Cruise ship terminal quay. But the whole of the towns extensive waterfront has been done very well with huge open spaces and imaginative planting and sculptures etc (Sarah is particularly taken by a huge male nude and the whale tail emerging from the harbour – photos may follow if I can get her out there!).

The Club Regatas Yacht Club Marina is a little basic with a lot of swell from tugs and other vessels to contend with, but as compensation they have a first class club house with a superb swimming pool, bar and restaurant for visitors to use. The town has pretty much everything somewhere (which is a bit of a problem as directions can be hard to get) including an  ‘Él Corte Ingles’ which is the nearest thing to John Lewis out here.   Sarah spent the majority of a day there whilst it rained doing some serious shopping (not the retail therapy she might like as it involved a new hoover, boxes for storage in the bilge etc) and then had to persuade a very surprised taxi driver parked outside that she would like him to drive back into the store to collect her purchases from customer services, not as straightforward as you might think in pigeon English!

BUT, having arrived here and settled in, we noticed that there was a lot of feverish work going on all around the waterfront area with dozens of containers, big fenced off areas and even a two storey temporary building being erected. Then a sound stage and other developments and we were soon to discover that on Saturday the circus comes to town. Not the sort of circus you all might expect but the America’s Cup sort of circus. Actually it is called the Med Cup but it is contested by most of the America’s Cup teams in special yachts and used by them to train teams and develop new ideas. Sponsored by Audi, this event is a huge travelling circus with lots of the big name skippers taking part. The last stage was up in Barcelona last week and Cartagena is host this week with the racing kicking off on 24^th August. By Thursday things were beginning to take shape and then one by one the yachts started arriving, brought down by delivery crews and took their places along the main town quay, lined up stern to the prom so everyone can stroll along and view them. By Friday the place was humming and the sponsor became rather more obvious with the strategic placing of over 30 brand new Audis of all shapes and sizes around and about the big waterfront area. (It did strike me that if you owned an Audi, it would be very easy to find a free parking space this weekend!) Of course this jamboree has a downside and whilst we were sort of congratulating ourselves on having literally a ringside seat for all this, (the yachts are moored only metres away from us) we discovered on Thursday night that they like to party. Long and hard! So the bar overlooking the marina blasted out music until 6.30 am when the drinking games took over. This though turned out just to be a practice run for Friday night which was louder and I suspect that we, like most other visiting yachts will be gone by Sunday! And there is still the very big stage being constructed......

Anyway, we spent the past few days getting things done as ever and wondering quite where all the time goes. Scott Free suddenly appeared on Thursday morning which was a nice surprise. They also has a surprise as they approached the big harbour when a submarine surface immediately behind them! They had had a pretty good trip from Tunisia, apart from several huge electrical storms and a lot of rain, but had been very upset not to hear us, or Apparition at all during the SSB radio net that we have. We too had been disappointed not to be able to speak to them and they had to confess that they had completely forgotten that Tunisia is on UT plus one hour and of course we are running on European time which is UT plus 2, so they had been sat there calling us at the wrong time of day!