The journey so far ….

So because I am late starting this blog – I am going to do a quick summary of the journey so far.

We departed Cartagena and had a reasonable sail up to San Pedro del Pinatar,  where we chose to berth in our previous marina,  Club Nautico Villa San Pedro.  They put us on the visitor quay for one night – we had an overboard drill on entry when I dropped a fender but perfect skippering and crafty crew work soon retrieved it and we spent our first night alongside without further mishaps!

Day 2 saw us motor sail up to Santa Pola and Marina Miramar, one of our favourites, no mishaps entering the harbour this time and we were berth on pontoon B for the first time, close to all the bars and restaurants which was nice.  Day 3 was an enforced rest day thanks to a huge “gota fria” (the Spanish term for a massive downpour) this one was big enough to cause local flooding and just as I came out of the supermarket too !  I had to walk back to the boat ankle deep in water.  Thankfully it never lasts very long and we were on our way the next day.

We headed for Altea this time,  although to be honest the conditions really were against us and we struggled through on motor round past the ever spectacular Benidorm to our destination.  The sea was choppy to say the least so we had hard work on the helm and we were very glad to reach our destination.  Altea is a lovely marina,  with bizarelly low pontoons it was very much a clambour to get up the gangplank and aboard.  A nice walk along the promenade takes you to some lovely looking restaurants in one direction or the rocky beach in the other.  We had a take-away pizza from across the road for our evening meal which filled a spot and a great coffee and toast at the marina restaurant the next morning.  There is also a great looking swimming pool here for during the summer months (already closed for winter when we arrived, despite 30 degree temperatures !)

After Altea we wanted to head for Moraira to make the crossing to Ibiza, however, a morning call to the marina revealed it was full of regatta boats so no room at the inn for us (as the saying goes) We took an enjoyable morning to sail across to Calpe where we spent an expensive night preparing for the crossing the next day.  Calpe is a very niced marina, although pricey in comparison to the others we had visited.

We had perfect conditions for sailing across to Ibiza and everything went really well, we even managed to get a whole morning without the motor before we hit rougher seas at the mid point so we added a little motor to keep speed.  We were in two minds about going to Formentera or Ibiza and eventually we plumped for Ibiza and decided to head for San Antonio which we entered at night.  Coming in and trying to find a port and startboard light between bars, discos and fairground rides was not much fun but we managed and we finally got on berth around 1.30am.

The next day was of course a rest day in San Antonio, however, since we had visited before we were able to relax and enjoy the marina,  watching everyone coming and going on their various sized motor boats and ribs.  We stocked up the day after before heading north onto anchor for a couple of nights.