It was time to say “hasta luego” to San José. We were up early and Tines and I took an early morning walk back past the restaurant from the day before and along the beautiful beach.
We slipped out quietly, not wanting to disturb our neighbors aboard their Moody. Sarah, Wessel and Luca the dog who had sailed all the way from Cartagena the day before and were pretty tired when they docked. We shared a couple of beers the evening before along with fishing tales. Wessel had fantastic photos to go with his story of catching tuna and golden dorada off Madeira – it made our fishing story seem quite tame 😉
The conditions as we departed were very calm with stunning scenery.
We found ourselves motoring headland to headland as it was a hop along the coast for us heading to either Garrucha or Águilas depending on the conditions.
We reached Carboneras and once again we’re admiring the beach which looks almost deserted and absolutely stunning….but right next to the industrial port.
We then headed back past the Hotel Ilegal and towards Mojácar.
We decided that although there wasn’t enough wind for sailing that we would continue to motor sail onwards to Águilas, another 27 nautical miles away and an evening arrival. We were overtaken by a speedy Danish yacht not under sail like ourselves.
Everything went well, we even took turns at the helm and had siestas.
Only in the last 2 nautical miles did we get a bit of excitement. Someone dropped their lovely stainless steel “sippy cup” overboard !!
“Oh dear” (or something similar) “quick, grab the boathook” COB – cup overboard!
It was brilliant practice for MOB (man overboard) so we gamely went back to retrieve the cup. We did it on the third attempt (it was a bit like hook a duck, I had it both times before but it just dropped off the hook!!) Not bad for an object that has a very small handle and a very smooth shiny surface.
Now clearly we might not have done this in rougher seas, but is was an extremely good drill that we should do every now and again anyway. So from an accidental slip/drop came a positive MOB practise – plus we still have 2 cups to use !!
We entered the port and were to told to wait at the waiting quay – which we moored up to unaided only to be immediately told to move again onto our berth. It was a bit of a pain after quite a long day to be honest and the marinero was not the most helpful to say the least. Puerto de Juan Montiel in Aguilas really is like a ghost marina, once again we were alone in our mooring with no boats next to us or even anywhere else on the pontoon. It seemed like we were the only people aboard a boat that evening and certainly the only visiting yacht! A strange feeling, but since there was almost zero swell we slept very soundly that night!
The Adventures of Gemini J 