Cartagena to Gibraltar

Hi from Clare,                                                                                         Thursday 8^th September

THINGS COULD GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT



Abandoned RIB



We left Cartagena Saturday 27^th August to sail for two days (230 miles) to Gibraltar. For the first 24 hours we sailed with the wind behind us averaging 7 knots.  The wind then dropped and we motored for the last 20 hours. On arrival at Gibraltar the water temperature had dropped from 28 degrees to 17 degrees and the colour changed from sparkling blue to murky brown/green.  The cooler water and the heat from the land caused thick fog. We could see on the AIS and radar many large cargo ships anchored off Gibraltar and despite the fact that they were well lit we didn’t physically sight them until they were within two miles. The lack of visibility was making me a bit nervous as the previous morning we found an unmanned 27 foot RIB with two 200HP outboards adrift at sea. We tried raising the Coast Guard but nobody would answer our calls until we used some magic words like “Securite”.  After some difficulty with their understanding of Andrew’s accent they finally got the message.  So I was hoping in the fog that we wouldn’t find a similar hazard in our path.



Early morning Rock



NOT JUST ANOTHER ROCK

Gibraltar is a fabulous place and we spent a week in the Marina Bay marina which is a five minute walk from town. There are 30,000 inhabitants in Gibraltar and it is mostly English speaking. The main supermarket has English products like scotch eggs and Cornish pasties. Then there’s the Gibraltar Arms Pub which has delicious fish and chip and chicken pie with chips, peas and gravy.   Two meals for 9:50 pounds.  Things we probably wouldn’t eat at home but after months of Mediterranean food a touch of English tucker was fabulous. Shopping is inexpensive and when the cruise ships arrive the streets are very congested. Alcohol is duty free and so I had a great time stocking up on spirits and liqueurs; a litre of Bombay Sapphire, Tia Maria, Baileys and the like cost around $15.

  

                   The big picture                                                         Main Street Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a compact 6 square miles. The airport runway crosses the main highway connecting Gibraltar to Spain.  The boom gates come down and the roadway is manned by police to ensure no pedestrians are crossing the road when the planes are using it.  The runway is next to the marina and so the noise of the first few flights is quite an experience. I think I must have looked rather shocked as our Aussie neighbours Jo and Arnie on ‘Just Jane’ quickly reassured me that the planes didn’t fly at night. – be grateful for small mercies I say! 

Another close landing

  

We took the chair lift to the top of the rock; how could we not?  We had a marvelous view of the town, surrounding waterways and Morocco which is only eight miles across the Gibraltar strait.

  

Views from the Rock

INLAND TRAVEL

Flamenco trio

We went on a two day excursion to inland Spain to visit Sevilla. Our helpful Aussie neighbours on ‘Just Jane’ told us that Sevilla is very hot with no wind for relief. So we dressed lightly and took one back pack with bare essentials.  Fortunately I took my umbrella for the sun because it poured rain for the two days we were there. Our first purchase was a couple of one euro plastic ponchos which we hung up at night so they could drip dry by the morning. On day one we visited the Alcazar which is a group of palaces built a thousand years ago, the 12^th Century Cathedral and the Bull Ring built in 1881.  By then we were sick of walking around in the rain so we sought refuge in our hotel room till night when we ventured out again in our ponchos to attend a Flamenco Dancing display. This was held at the cultural centre and with only 150 people in the audience we all had a close up view. The movements of the female dancer almost divide her body into two parts. Her upper body and arm movements are artistic and fluent while her lower body and legs are all power and frantic hammering – it was very exhilarating.  The flamenco guitarist was fabulous and the singer who is telling the story of the dance was very passionate. Unfortunately he sang in Spanish so we couldn’t follow the storyline.

 

The Alcazar

The following morning we woke to heavy rain and so out came the faithful poncho. We only had summer clothes with us and so I wore the poncho to keep warm. I must say it was pretty robust as it stood up to two days of wear without tearing. I now have it in the bottom of my handbag for emergencies.

We visited Plaza de Espana situated in The Paseo de la Palmera the most beautiful avenue in Sevilla.  The Plaza was built in 1929 as the centre piece for the Ibero- American Expo. It is the most visited monument in Sevilla.

  

                        The Cathedral                                                        Plaza de Espana

BACK TO BUSINESS

The used our time in Gibraltar to make duty free purchases in preparation for the Atlantic Crossing shortly after Christmas. We now have a life raft, complete spare auto pilot, spare starter motor and new starter battery. Let’s hope we don’t need the life raft!

We left Gibraltar Tuesday at midnight. For the first time in our cruising life we now have to consider the tides. We traveled down the Gibraltar strait and exited the Mediterranean; but more about that next time.

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

We will see a bit of the south of Spain before sailing on to Portugal where we will meet up with Mark and Amanda on ‘Balvenie’  We are looking forward to catching up with them.

Love

Candy XX

Ibiza to Cartegena

Hi from Clare,                                             Friday 26^th August 2011

SPARKLING WATER OR SPARKLING WINE

Bye Bye to Ibiza

When last I wrote we were heading to the holiday destination of Ibiza town. I was eager to compare it to the party town of San Antonio. Well Ibiza town is the capital of the island and a full on city – there was no comparison. We stayed for two days to see the town and then we escaped back to peaceful days in quiet anchorages.  For the following week we had lots of social gatherings with our friends on ‘Tactical Directions’ (Tony, Jacqui and guests David and Karen) and ‘Blue Banana’(Sam and Bill).

OH NO!

Early Sunday morning we left them at Ibiza and sailed to Cartagena Spain arriving around lunchtime Monday.  It wasn’t the best trip as we had a big swell behind us and we rolled for most of the way. I didn’t know anything about Cartagena and I was a little disappointed sailing in here. There is quite a lot of industry here, a large ship yard, shipping containers, warships in the bay, dust swirling off the bare hills, black smoke rising and distinct smell of petro-chemical; I thought oh no!

View from the sea - not so inspiring

City Hall

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

However as soon as we went into town I realized how wrong I was. The people of Cartagena are eager to share 3000 years of history with visiting tourists. Throughout the 20^th Century they have spent a huge amount of money to preserve buildings and excavate archaeological sites as well as restoring the more modern architecture – even Gaudi has one of his designs here.  A lot of the archeological sites have an air conditioned building erected over them. This is to help preserve the site but as it is really hot here, it helps to preserve the tourist as well.

 

                    Inside the Punic walls                                             The Roman Theatre

We bought a ticket giving us access to nine archaeological sites ranging from Rampart walls built by the Carthaginians in 227BC through the Roman period (roads, houses, theatre) to a mediaeval castle and the 1930’s Spanish civil war air-raid shelters  This occupied us fully for three days.

 

                Roman road 4th C AD                                          and the building above it

 

      A fine old house by Gaudi                                            Spainish Civil War air-raid shelter

The Audi MedCup yachts in harbour

THEY SAIL HERE TOO

As we arrived the Cartagena leg of the Audi MedCup was starting and was to go on for our entire stay.  This is a grand-prix style series of races held in 6 Mediterranean cities for TP52s and Soto 40s.  Very high-tech light, fast and expensive looking one design crewed racers.  The courses were several miles out but live video and English commentary was available on the wide screen back in the harbour.  There was even an Australian team in the 40 footers.  At the same time a regatta for about 30 Optimist dinghies was being run and if all that was not interesting enough there were two foiling Moth class scows sailing inside the harbour too.

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

Today we have been busy cleaning the boat and preparing to leave tomorrow for Gibraltar.  At the moment it is blowing from the south west and we are hoping to leave early tomorrow when the wind turns to the north east. The trip will take us 2 days all going well.