Our next little adventure was a fairly spur of the moment thing (as so many are nowadays) – we decided to head out mid-week and see where the wind took us. Well, as it turned out lack of wind but as you know by now that’s often the case on Gemini J. We headed out past the largest single masted yacht ever built (named M5) which had come to dock in Cartagena the previous day – it was quite a sight…..
At 75m in length she is over 7 times longer than Gemini J – and apparently cost over 50 million dollars when she was launched in 2003. She has a crew of 17 – and must cost a fortune to maintain. Funny thing is, even if we won the largest lottery in the world (if we played it) we still couldn’t afford her……
As we headed out of the harbour we were faced with slightly choppy waves and a little wind so it was in fact possible for us to at least motor sail. Since we had the new engine we are able to maintain a faster general speed and we headed along the coastline towards Cabo de Palos.
As we made our way along the coastline Skipper Nigel set and re-set the sails, aiming to get as much wind in them as possible. We were hoping that as we rounded Cabo de Palos the conditions would enable us to sail without the engine but it wasn’t to be – in fact the wind dropped almost completely for the last couple of hours of the journey. It was at this point that I was exchanging a couple of messages with our friend Rosana – only to find she was sitting on the very beach we were about to pass!!! We had considered going into the Mar Menor via the bridge that we had watched from the apartment a few weeks ago but decided to avoid the crowds and head for our old marina in San Pedro del Pinatar. Rosana was on the beach just outside the marina – we could almost give her a wave! What a brilliant coincidence – we invited her aboard as soon as we had arrived and got Gemini J onto her berth. We all went out for a meal and really enjoyed catching up.
We decided to stay the next day relaxing in the marina and once again Rosana joined us. We went for a delicious lunch followed by a siesta (on the beach for Rosana) – then I got the paddle board out and headed along the beach to meet her. It took me 45 minutes to get about half a kilometre – the conditions were definitely against me (it only took 10 minutes to get back). It was really a bit too choppy for the board to be honest but it was great experience for me and Rosana got to have a go too. We had a great time.
In the evening there was a market at the marina and a couple of live bands, we had a quick wander around before it got too busy and we enjoyed a lovely evening aboard listening to the music and relaxing. The marina is much as it was when were had our permanent mooring there a few years ago, most of the same restaurants and a couple of chandlerys too. Now, a slight admission on my part here – as we left Cartagena I had the boat hook ready in case it was needed since we now have different boats surrounding us. Unfortunately – I failed to re-secure said boathook and somewhere between Yacht Port Cartagena and Marina Salinas we lost it …….hmmmmm……..time to buy a new boathook. We saw exactly what we wanted in the window of the chandlery just across from the boat great – but could we buy it – absolutely not – despite our best efforts. It turns out that the shop is actually just marketing for a larger shop off the marina a few kilometres down the road (not much help when you arrive by boat) We tried to call, we even asked an engineer from the same company working on a motorboat if he could help but all to no avail – the beautiful blue boathook remains in the shop window and we are temporarily boathookless.
The next day conditions were even calmer than before as we left the marina, as it was Saturday there was plenty of other boat traffic including kayaks, jet ski’s, dive boats, motor boats, yachts and large fishing boats. Although the conditions were calm it was a fun trip down to Cabo de Palos where once again we hoped to pick up some wind for sailing. Alas, once again the wind was not in our favour but we had an enjoyable motor back to Cartagena along with a last minute bit of excitement.
As we rounded the breakwater that is the entrance to Escombreras port (part of the commercial outer harbour in Cartagena) we heard a deafening fog-horn. It was a massive ship alerting us to it’s departure – right across our path ……. Skipper Nigel had to take evasive action and change course completely so that we could get behind it. No problem really but very odd how there is almost a blind spot behind that breakwater – something we’ll be aware of in the future too.
When we got back to port Skipper Nigel cleaned the boat down – so we’re ready to go whenever the next adventure presents itself……must get a new boathook between now and then mind you 😉
The Adventures of Gemini J 