Saturday was an exciting and exhausting day – firstly taking our car back to Yacht Port Cartagena where we hope to finish our trip and secondly getting a taxi back to the airport (which we had driven past). Luckily we squeezed in a couple of coffee stops along the way 😉
We flew from Murcia airport which has to be one of the oddest travel experiences you could wish for. The airport is absolutely deserted – with one small café serving little more than cakes and crisps. I checked at the information desk – perhaps there were more facilities after the departure gate – yes indeed, another café upstairs. So we made our way to departures only to be told the café wasn’t open until nearer the departure time (nor was the departure check either) so we couldn’t go through. Back to square one and a disappointing bag of expensive crisps for lunch, but the excitement of getting back far outweighed the lack of lunch.
Eventually we did make our way through and onto our plane which departed a little later than expected and arrived on time. It’s a different experience altogether being on an internal flight – surrounded by Spanish who all clapped and cheered on landing as though it was a miracle!!
On arrival we took a taxi straight back to the port and were very happy to see Gemini J exactly as we’d left her – even, perhaps a little cleaner – it must have rained while we were away. We were lucky enough to see our friends Sarah and Tony from Ione who had been put back in the water the day before. We met for dinner before they sailed on the next day. We had an absolutely fabulous evening with excellent food and marvellous company. It’s always good to share tales of sailing and they had given us lots of excellent advice about Sardinia and Corsica way back in the spring so it was great to catch up. The following morning we watched them leave after coffee but hopefully we’ll bump into them later in the trip since they too are heading back to Cartagena more or less on the same timescale as us.
That day Skipper Nigel set to work on some final hull jobs while I went up the hill to the supermarket to get supplies. The propeller was lovely and shiny by the time I got back, having been thoroughly cleaned by the skipper.
We were back at the restaurant (a couple of steps from Gemini J) for lunch where we were offered a local fish called a “red scorpion” served Menorcan style. It turned out to be delicious and with prawns to start, a fabulous option for our Sunday lunch.
I went for a wonderful walk into the surrounding countryside in the evening – even picking up part of the cami de cavalls (the long distance footpath round the island), and seeing cows !
The following day was the big one – back in the water day, and unbelievably it was raining!! Just as Gemini J was put on the remote control frame to drive her back into the water. We watched with nervous anticipation but we had no need to worry, everything went really well and before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes and motoring out of the marina.
It has stopped raining by then and we traced our way back through the channel and out onto the waves ! and yes, there were a fair few of them! We knew conditions would be against us and it was very much a battle against the wind and waves the 6.6 nautical miles to our mooring buoy at Isla Colóm. I would love to post some photos but for once I didn’t take any – so focused we were on checking out the boat and battling the waves….I even lost my hat in a gust of wind !! Luckily once we were past the lighthouse at Favoritx everything calmed down and we had a very relaxing afternoon and evening after the excitement of the morning. We’ll stay here a couple more days and see what the weather does before we continue our journey. Delightful sunsets here too……
The Adventures of Gemini J 