……and once again we find ourselves in San Jose, today is a rest day so I have got time to catch up the last two days of activity aboard Gemini J

On Monday we had a nice sail & motor sail from Aguilas to Garrucha, the coastline as you leave Aguilas is beautful and whilst the wind was light again we were lucky in that it picked up later in the morning. We even needed our coats to protect against the cold wind!!

Not quite what were expecting mid-may to be honest. However, we were very happy to get to sail motor free for an hour and in decent winds too.

Garrucha is maybe not the most stunning marina we’ll ever visit (OK, definitely not!) but the approach is really interesting as it involves going past a massive tanker which on this occasion was actually being loaded. The coastline in this part of Spain is geologically rich and Garrucha is the place where the gypsum is loaded ready for transport all over the world. It is odd being dwarfed by such a large ship and at such close quarters but fascinating too. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the lorries going to-and-fro from the ship taking their loads in quick succession.

The marina itself is a little bit bleak if I’m honest, it’s very new and there is really nothing of note here (well not that we found anyway) although the beach at Vera is beautiful. The view out of the “kitchen” window as I prepared our meal was lovely though.

We had found ourselves berthed alongside and the next boat to arrive was our neighbours from Cartagena unbelievably – it was quite funny chatting to them about the coincidence (especially since we’d left before them and they had just sailed/motored over that day) The next morning we waved them goodbye as they dpearted. As we left, winds were once again very light so we motored away – Skipper Nigel even got his fishing rod out (sadly once again we didn’t catch anything) We were caught up and overtaken by the yacht that had been moored next to us in Garrucha.

On this part of the coast we pass an interesting building – Hotel Ilegal – I don’t know the story of it suffice to say it is looking exactly the same as it was two and a half years ago when we passed this spot. Around this time the wind picked up and once again we were sailing 🙂

We arrived in San Jose and it is just as beautiful as we remembered. It’s just a small, fairly shallow marina, often overlooked because it has the reputation of always being full but we were lucky there was space for us! We could watch all the comings and goings for the afternoon, including the sailing Alsatian and the ridiculously expensive charter motor yacht.

Today we decided we could not resist the charms of San Jose so we asked to stay another day. There was an element of confusion – it seemed that I was mistaken for the crew of the said motor yacht and they were telling me we had to move our mooring space. Thanks to the intervention of the marinero it became clear that there was a mistake and we didn’t need to move. However, amusing to think that I was mistaken for super-yacht crew (well it made me smile afterwards anyway).

We finally set sail on our holiday adventure on Saturday, we could possibly have departed on Friday but as we were right on the edge of a weather warning zone we decided to have one more rest day and put the finishing touches to our passrelle (gangplank to you and me) it now looks awesome.

As it was, the Saturday weather was lovely and we headed out early, excited to get the journey underway. This was only to find that whilst it was beautifully sunny there was a stomach churning swell and really not much wind in the end. We motored out and around cabo tiñoso finally deciding to call it a day and head into Mazarrón after making relatively slow progress. Still, we felt like at least the journey had started and the engine got a good run ! Always look on the bright side and we were so happy to be back out on the water everything was fabulous.

 

We had a lovely mooring space in Mazarron on a pontoon rather than alongside the bars and restaurants so we were one step removed from the two weddings and a political party rally that took place in the evening. It was very interesting to watch everyone and we felt really relaxed enjoying our evening drinks and meal aboard. Sunday came and we departed our mooring space in quite hazy conditions, after taking Tines out on a sunrise dog walk. We had checked the conditions and decided that although Garrucha was easily achievable in terms of nautical miles distance, the wind direction was going to change in the afternoon (which turned out to be true) so we would be better aiming for Aguilas and enjoying another shorter day.

As we came out of the marina we were happy to find out that the swell had died down after Saturday and it was not as problematic for us. Today’s problem was the wind – or rather the lack of wind! Definitely not enough for sailing so once again we motored along. Interestingly we kind of knew the conditions weren’t great because for two hours we didn’t see another boat!!! It was eerily quiet on this stretch of the med. til a catamaran on spinnaker sail loomed out of the very far distance and took two hours to catch us up just as we approached Aguilas. For those of you who know the story of the autohelm (the automatic boat steering system) I am pleased to report that we used it today – and it works brilliantly. Only one emergency deactivate required thanks to a huge floating plastic bag disguised as a sun fish which we really wanted to avoid. It works really well both on sail and off and hopefully now all our problems on this front are finally behind us (but this being the boating world, watch this space)

Tonight we find ourselves in a wonderfully under populated marina just outside the town of Aguilas. In all the time we’ve been sailing we’ve been here twice and both times it has had the least boats moored. It is strange mooring without the need to go between two boats or alongside one, in fact it requires a whole different level of skill, even in just a small amount of wind. Skipper Nigel got us onto berth very professionally and even after a couple of hours we remain alone on the pontoon, no neighbours to chat to or discuss the weather with.

 

 

Since I didn’t get the blog uploaded yesterday, here’s a couple of photos from my sunrise walk with Tines

 

 

J

Just as we were getting ready to leave for the holiday earlier in the week we found a leak, getting progressively worse. The culprit was the grey water pump, that’s the pump which takes the waste water out of the boat. It was something that needed to be fixed and as usual, never a simple story. We asked the boatyard for a quote to fix (extortionate) then we decided to tackle the job ourselves, with the invaluable advice of our lovely boat neighbours. We ordered a pump, we waited for it to arrive and then the fun began! Taking the boat apart, the pipework goes more or less half the length of the boat and as you can imagine as it basically goes under the floor it is a pretty horrific task. It involved us crawling all over the floor and squeezing our arms into gaps and places that you wouldn’t normally need to go. Removing the hoses at the beginning of the job wasn’t too bad, however, reinstalling the new hoses, (after we’d been to the chandlery to buy a great length of snakelike pipe in between times) was a bit of a nightmare. This was definitely a team effort, with guidance from our neighbours too and with lots and lots of huffing and puffing we managed it. In addition the connection to the tank which holds the grey water was found to be corroded so another bit of ingenious invention on Skipper’s part fixed that problem and the new pump was installed.

This was a very different story to “toilet-gate” there were no lost tempers aboard and although the job went on over a few days it seems like this was the right approach – slowly but surely and now we have a fully functional grey water pump and we’re back in business.

Whilst all this was going on the port of Cartagena has seen some of it’s busiest days as far as cruise ships go, which is always entertaining for us. We had one day with two huge liners looking over us.

Another day we enjoyed the luxury Crystal Espirit (62 passengers to 91 crew!!) being completely overshadowed by P&O Britannia, one of the more modern looking super cruise liners with over 3.000 passengers aboard. It was great fun watching them come onto berth but it’s also always a relief when they leave at the end of the day, especially since Britannia was carrying out crew “exercises” and testing their alarm systems during the morning which was not exactly peaceful!

And whilst all that has been going on we’ve been enjoying the first few days of our holiday, relaxing in between stages of boat work and today that will involve studying the forthcoming weather forecast, if it proves amenable then perhaps tomorrow we’ll set sail…. and meanwhile, around the marina…..

Following on from March is maintenance month, where I left you wondering if our new loo would arrive (or maybe not, but just to remind you where I left you last time) Well, I´m happy to report it arrived, and it is lovely (now).

Anyone whose partner has ever done a “DIY” job whilst they are in the vicinity will understand.

I went out for a couple of hours,  it was anticipated to be a “quick” job,  I came back,  I found an empty tool bag,  tools all over the floor,  Skipper crouched in the WC head over the loo.  Now at this point what can one do ?? 

1. Retreat without announcing your return (a good option, however, there´s a dog involved here who needs to be checked on) 
2. Announce your return and politely ask how it´s going (you know it´s not going to be a good or repeatable answer but you ask anyway)
3. Announce your return and offer to go and do some essential shopping

I went for option 3 and headed out to the shop as quickly as I politely could.  I did the weekend´s shopping and queued up for ages because the next day was a local bank holiday (unbeknownst to me beforehand) and eventually returned.  On my return I found the same Skipper,  still crouched in the WC,  still with his head over the newly installed loo.  This time the tool situation had changed,  this time the entire contents of the plastic boxes containing nuts and bolts had been strewn (or do I mean thrown ??) all over the tools – making the floor look somewhat like a piece of modern art. 

The situation duly noted I offered to walk the dog,  without particularly asking how it was going,  that was plainly obvious  from the verbal offerings coming from the loo (or maybe the skipper).  Tines and I duly walked, and walked,  and eventually came back to find the new loo finally installed,  everything was fantastic and I was even offered the job of packing away all the tools, nuts, bolts, drill and drill bits (lucky me).

We unpacked the shopping, had a lovely lunch and settled down for a siesta.  Nature took its course and we were very happy to use the new facilities, only to find a problem with the flush!  Was it blocked?  Had it been installed correctly?  Was there an issue with the valves installed by the boatyard?  The water was filling up fast – swift action and a bit of bailing out solved the immediate problem.

Luckily,  age and experience were on our side this time and we decided (after the morning that we´d had) the problem could wait until the next day.  This would be safer,  there would be no more anger towards the loo today.  The valves were duly closed and we settled down for the night.

The next morning we were up bright and early and ready to tackle the situation. We had a breakfast conference about the possible problems and potential solutions.  Thrown into the mix was the possibility of user error – at which point I was able to spring into action and offer my services to try again.  This time I turned the handle 90 degrees and started the process of green-amber-red (which is the order of flushing according to the instructions, unhelpfully color coded).  Success!  Oh,  I must try that again,  success!  Skipper had a go, success ! Things were looking up,  perhaps the day before a bit of tiredness had set in,  perhaps the handle was mis-positioned,  perhaps we didn’t flush it enough times initially – we´ll never know.  However,  now the problem was solved!    There is no way Skipper will be able to find any tools or nuts or bolts next time a job comes along but for now loo-gate is over and peace reigns aboard Gemini J.

Take a look at the instructions – it´s simple right ??

Onto the next boat job xx

….and also cleaning,  although the Saharan rains that we´ve had have made keeping the top deck clean somewhat of a struggle.  Skipper Nigel has done fabulous work so far (and there´s still two weeks of the month left to keep up the good work!!)  For my part I´ve started reading another book and generally spent a bit of time relaxing aboard 😉

After our fabulous quad biking experience we´ve concentrated a bit more on life aboard and have cleared out some of the “junk” (oops I mean “things”) that accumulate on a boat and those of you who have ever lived aboard will know exactly what I mean,  and we´re only weekenders!

Now, there´s no way around it, I have to tell the tale, we have been experiencing a bit of a leaky loo – not the best thing to be writing about but nevertheless something that could happen to any of us 😉   We had noticed more of an accumulation of water over the recent weeks which had lead to the seacock valve looking decidedly “stuck” so out of the water Gemini J had to come.  Following on from the experiences of friends we had no hesitation in popping round to the boatyard next to the marina where we met a fabulous young guy called Fran who speaks excellent English (I´m not sure my Spanish would stretch to marine lavatorial and plumbing references although I gave it a good go!)  He arranged for us to be lifted out 3 days later which was last Wednesday to hopefully have the plumbing part of the toilet replaced,  oh and while we were out get the hull cleaned too. 

Wednesday morning arrived and we were alarmed up for 6am – we left the house at 6:30 and were on the boat just after 8am ready to head round to the holding dock where Gemini J would be lifted out of the water.  We had a 9am appointment and after a couple of phone calls we motored into the dock.  This was quite an experience because we had to do a fair amount more “rope/line” throwing and catching than on previous times out of the water and the dock is way deeper than the one we´ve used before. The ropes were also huge, Skipper Nigel even managed to get clonked on the head by one and ended up with ever such a slight black eye as a result!!

This dock is designed for boats and ships,  the tuna fishing boat which was out of the water being repaired is massive compared to our small sailing boat. The guardia civil boat was being maintained by military style personnel all in their standard dark green boiler suits,  alongside the tuna fishing maintenance team who were somewhat more variously dressed and nearly all smoking whilst working (definitely something we´re not used to seeing!)  We had plenty of time to observe all this since once we were docked – we had to wait (and wait) for the crane to lift us out of the water as it was moving Dora onto dry dock for some work, a sailing boat from Helsinki and actually our marina neighbours too. 

I am not sure if I will ever get used to being involved in having the boat “lifted” from the water – it is, to put it bluntly, quite scary and you need a lot of trust in other people (not a problem) and very big machines (a bit more of a challenge for me). Every time we go to a different boatyard the procedures are a little different but more or less two big canvas bands pick your boat up into mid-air before placing it onto some very small wooden blocks.

Once we were lifted out we saw how dirty the bottom of the boat appeared,  and although it is very much on the surface it is always horrible to see all the barnacles on first inspection when you take a boat out of the water.  Still, one industrial jet-wash later and everything looks much better!

At this point we went for coffee and tapas whilst the cleaning was going on and we returned for Skipper Nigel to go aboard with the engineer to investigate Gemini J´s plumbing.  Once the job was agreed we headed for home leaving them to finish the job and for the marina “marineros” to put the boat back on her berth later that day.  Just as we arrived home my phone pinged with photos from Fran – showing us all the work that had been done, including replacing the anode!  Fantastic, and fingers crossed they have solved our water issues.  Don´t look in too much detail at the next photos but for the more technically minded reader they show you what work was done (and I know that will be of interest to one or two readers)

Two days later and we arrived back at the boat for the weekend,  checked out the work which we were really happy with and got on with the business of ordering a new loo – well,  why not since the old one had had to be removed.  Not quite as simple as it seems,  ordering a replacement for a Dutch loo which was installed on a French boat by a German which is now in Spain!  An hour and a half of various internet searches (plus the ones Nigel had already done during the week) and we had a loo on order,  at the time of writing we are waiting for confirmation of when it will be delivered from Bremen. Meanwhile we have alternative arrangements 😉

So February came around very quickly and we started with the boat jobs we were planning to do in January but didn´t get round to! High on the list was fixing the autohelm (the autopilot for the boat). The polarity was wrong and the fix involved a fair bit of investigating the tangle of wires under our dashboard. It was a good opportunity for skipper to tidy everything up. Round 1 of changes didn´t fix the problem but we had fun going out and testing it with a relaxed Tines aboard too

Round 2 did fix the problem and we had a nice outing to test the fix, albeit on a hazy calm day since we needed to be able to run the tests without the interference of too many waves or too much wind.

We now have working autohelm and one very happy skipper 

After fixing the autohelm we turned our attention not so much to a boat job but to the purchase of a new outboard motor. We had the opportunity to buy an electric, battery operated motor which is extremely lightweight and after much discussion we went for a test run. Luckily for us it was our friends who were selling it so we enjoyed a great couple of hours testing it and learning how it works – flying round the marina on our dinghy.

The decision to buy it was difficult since there is absolutely nothing wrong with our current outboard, however, it is (and obviously always has been) extremely heavy and lifting it on and off the boat onto the dinghy has always been a chore. On reflection we haven´t used the dinghy as much as we might have because of this difficulty. The torqueen electric motor that we now have is really, really light and comes in 3 pieces so it is possible for 1 person to put it on the dinghy and assemble it. Now we can´t wait to start using it once the weather improves.

Anyone want to buy an outboard motor 😉 ??

Obviously the next big thing in February is Valentine´s Day – this year my wonderful husband and I won´t be together since I am heading off to the UK to spend half-term with family. Suffice to say, he´s off the hook, no roses or chocolates to buy! However, I am going to use this blog space to say HAPPY VALENTINE´s DAY Mr Heard
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Wherever the sea takes you,
I´ll be there too
xxx

As for the planned boat jobs, well, suffice to say that nothing major took place. January tends to be a strange month here in Spain, New Years Resolutions are quite tricky since the big “return to work” doesn´t happen until after the 3 Kings celebrations on 7th or 8th January. By that time ideas of turning over a new leaf usually get forgotten and it´s the most we can do to catch up on things that get left undone over the lengthy Christmas period.

We had some extremely high winds, hurricane force I believe, on the second weekend in January, this meant that whilst we were at the boat for the weekend we had to stow everything away as if we were at sea because the boat was heeling so much (yes, even inside the marina!) It was quite exhilarating if a little disturbing so not much sleep was had that weekend!

Luckily the following weekend was much better weather and we went on an activity adventure !! The Saturday morning started with us dropping of Tines at the dog sitters, then meeting our friends before driving up into the Sierra Espuña. There is an amazing little hotel there which organizes activities and we met a group of our friends there for Quad Biking and Laser Clay Pigeon Shooting. After a coffee and catch up the group was split into two – Nigel and I were in different groups, so Nigel went off shooting in the morning and I went off as part of a group of 4 quad bikes plus the leader. It was the first time I had been quad biking so I was a little nervous but our guide was fantastic and it wasn´t as difficult as I expected. The hardest part was not trying to put my foot down every time it got a little tricky (remember, it´s not a push bike – I had to keep telling myself)

The scenery for the quad biking is stunning and we were incredibly lucky with the weather given it was January. We went out down towards a beautiful turquoise blue reservoir and back through pink and white almond groves and orange orchards.

We all met up for a snack lunch before switching activities. The Laser clay pigeon shooting was next for our group. The guns are real guns which have been adapted to fire light beams rather than bullets which is ingenious. The activity was much more fun than we had expected and although the guns are really heavy on the arms I can recommend it. We all said we´d give it another go. To be honest, I was absolutely terrible at it – and managed to score zero on the last round – but once again it was in stunning countryside and we were treated to a lovely warm day.

After we finished we jumped back in the mini-bus and headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed a couple of rounds of karaoke before our evening meal. The majority of us had chosen a delicious chicken and ham pie which didn´t disappoint.

Sunday morning came round all too quickly and after breakfast we had to say goodbye to some of our group. It seemed like we had been there for much longer than 24 hours thanks to all the action we managed to pack in to a short space of time. The rest of us went off for a walk in the opposite direction to the day before, we climbed up to the top of the hillside and were rewarded with fantastic views over the hotel and beyond into the valley.

All too soon it was our turn to depart so away we went, exhausted but very happy after a fabulous weekend, I can highly recommend the Hotel Mariposa and I am sure we´ll be back before not too long! Next time downhill mountain biking 😉

When we arrived back we came back to our house and literally crashed out with the cats for a couple of weeks !  They had obviously missed us,  although judging by the size of them they certainly had been well fed during our time away!

After that there was a trip back to the UK to catch up with family and indulge in some pre-christmas celebrations which were fantastic.  I even got to travel on the Santa Train (a wonderful steam and diesel experience run by volunteers at Peak Rail in Matlock)  We were entertained by magicians and balloon artists, visited by Santa and we even enjoyed a delicious mince pie whilst we were chugging through the stunning Derbyshire countryside.

We enjoyed walks in the woods and games with the boys.  It was a great time spent with family and we were sorry it had to be so short.

Life in Cartagena marina suits us really well,  there´s plenty of “boaty” activity to see and do and it´s a great city.  There are also some stunning walks,  one of which I did on a beautiful November day with Rosemary and Bella.

Now – how about Christmas  in Cartagena.  The lights are stunning for a start!  And so is the “Belen” or Nativity Scene,  which takes a good half an hour to walk around and needs a second or third visit too.  We enjoyed a night out with friends “seeing the lights” just before Christmas weekend which was fabulous.

We went sailing just before Christmas weekend,  and had a great time – although once again with very little wind!  We really are very used to motor sailing now and we simply enjoyed our time together on the open sea once again.

As for Christmas day,  well, as has become our tradition this was spent on Gemini J,  our limited kitchen area managed to happily cook up smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, served of course with bucks fizz.  We had duck for lunch and paté in the evening,  it was a very relaxing day.  Boxing day was also very quiet and we headed home to check on the cats the day after.

When we returned we found our boat neighbours and friends were also back in the marina so things started to get a little more social,  we went out to find the closest bar with a pool table and enjoyed a few games before it became ridiculously crowded and noisy!

We went sailing on New Year´s Eve for a few hours, once again with limited wind but the sun on our faces and happy that Jamie had come sailing with us to help determine the “fault” with the autohelm,  which turned out to be a cabling issue – yet to be resolved (watch this space).  We also took Jamie´s mate Phil,  a first time sailor so we had all the sails out, desperately trying to use the little wind we had but to no avail,  we had to motor sail again!  We all had a great time and headed back for a siesta before the evening activities.

New Year´s eve evening saw us hosting a “gathering” on Gemini J for the first time – and it worked out well which we were really happy about.  We had our lovely friends, Judith, Poppy, Jamie and Phil  aboard and numerous “family” style games including a sailing version of happy families, a cutting version of pictionary where we had to cut out the item on the card (great fun) and a new game to us “Dobble”.  Now, if you have ever played this then you will imagine how much fun it was just in the run up to midnight on New Year´s Eve after numerous alcoholic beverages had been consumed.  We celebrated Spanish new year with the traditional grape countdown,  eating a grape on every chime of the clock in Sol Square Madrid (thanks to the internet we even managed to watch it at the same time!) we enjoyed another hour of party games before we celebrated English new year with Big Ben´s chimes.

On New Years Day we were lucky to be invited to brunch on Poppy and Judith´s yacht – and amazingly we all felt well enough to really enjoy it and it was fantastic !!!!  Although we had put the start time back from 11am to midday which helped a lot! And in the UK, that would be the end of things,  but here in Spain there´s another 5 days to wait for the arrival of the 3 Kings.

On January 5th we went to see the 3 Kings arrive in Cartagena,  of course, they came by boat (although we were all a bit disappointed that it wasn´t more stylish than the “Barco Touristico”) and there were a lot of them,  not only the 3 Kings themselves but each one with a group of Royal Pages to help them.  There was quite a flotilla involved and the fact that the “Aduana” (or Customs) boat was right behind them made us all chuckle!    After they landed the children who had posted letters to them in the Royal Post Box went up to see them and have their photos taken etc.  In Spain the tradition is that the children write to their favourite King and then (as per the Kings taking gifts to Jesus) on 12^th night the Kings bring gifts for the children.  Nowadays I believe that Spanish parents are a bit more pragmatic and use the 24^th December to give some gifts from Santa Claus or Father Christmas, safe in the knowledge that the children can use them during the school holidays, rather than wait for the day before they go back to school when the 3 Kings will tradtionally bring gifts.  I guess this means that many lucky children here will get two “gift” days.

We had time for a traditional siesta before we headed back into town to see the parade of the same 3 Kings,  this time they were aboard floats throwing gifts to the children.  Before the 3 Kings there were many other floats all with different characters,  all throwing sweets for the crowds.  It was stunning,  even if the children involved looked really quite tired by the time the procession passed us (about half an hour from the end of the route).  We had a great evening and would recommend it to any visitors.  Among our favourite floats were Woody Woodpecker and the Pink Panther,  but we also saw characters from Madagascar,  Frozen and Toy Story to name just a few.

And so we find ourselves on the 7^th January – truly the end of the celebrations,  held up by traffic in town whilst the Christmas tree is taken down.   We have the same “back to work” feeling,  only a week later here.

New Year´s Resolutions ??

Start the list of boat jobs we created whilst on our trip to the Balearics 😉

Plans for 2019 ?

Watch this space,  but they involve a trip to Mazarron and Garrucha in March, a Skipper´s trip May/June and then further afield September/October/November once again

Plus anything else we can fit in between 🙂

And this blog ??

Due to popular demand I shall try to continue this year.  Maybe not all about sailing,  but also about our land based adventures,  bring on 2019 and let´s make it a year to remember.  We wish all our friends old and new all the best for the coming year and hope it will be everything you wish for.

So,  today was our last day, and amazingly we managed to do some sailing.  As usual we were up at sunrise, but today we prepared ourselves for an earlier start than normal.  We watched the fishing boats preparing and leaving as we had coffee.

Once again it was a hazy start to the day as we made our way down the familiar coastline towards Isla Grosa and on to Cabo de Palos.  The conditions were calm and hazy and we had to motor sail to make progress.

As we know from experience this is a journey of two halves (not in distance) there is almost always a change in conditions as we round Cabo de Palos and today was no different,  round the cabo (cape) we found high seas and high winds,  we made our way out towards the Islas Hormigas to make the most of the conditions and finally we put the sails up and switched off the motor !!

We sailed all the way back to Cartagena and we were extremely happy for this to be the way that we were able to end our trip.  As usual on this stretch of coast we saw a fair bit of yacht traffic which was good fun to sail alongside.  

Overall this was one of the best days of the trip (which is brilliant considering neither of us was really looking forward to the last day)  We were “surfing” down the waves which were behind us and we had the mainsail reefed making the most of the 14-15 knot winds.

The entry to Cartagena was a welcome sight and there was even a cruise ship in port to make it even more spectacular than usual.

So it was that we finished our trip,  tired and happy after a great day sailing.