Almerimar Marina – Costa Del Sol, Spain 31 January 2008

We left Puerto Santa Eulalia, Ibiza, late on Tuesday 28^th January based on a forecast of a window for the first 24 hours of north west winds to try and make our way to the mainland of Spain before the west and south west winds set in! No such luck, after 12 hours the north went out of the wind which became west 20 -25 knots, so we had no choice but to head south. Had we not left we could still be stuck there.

After a further 12 hours and another 60 odd nautical miles we were literally on our way to Algeria! But finally we got a little south in the wind and so we were able to change course heading for Cartagena on the mainland - or at least that was our wish! Fortunately with a help of the motor and AC being able to sail close to the wind we made it to the coast adjacent Cartagena on the Costa Blanca by 1pm Thursday and now thankfully we were in the lee of the land away from rough seas and the large swell! We followed the coastline south with help of the motor and rounded Capo Del Gata at around 4am in the morning and made our way down the Costa Del Sol coastline.

Knowing that the forecast was for strong, near gale, westerly winds by midnight on Friday we decided to head for Puerto Almerimar and the marina to take shelter – we didn’t want to risk heading into strong head winds overnight with the prospect of simply no shelter on this coast.

The truth is we simply didn’t want to risk being beaten up yet again!!!

We approached the harbour under radar and GPS because of fog, no wind and motoring and a few fishing boats to keep us on our toes. We were greeted by a very friendly port staff who assisted us to tie up, we did our paper work and were shown to our berth. Always fabulous to see some friendly helpful people!!

Overnight, indeed the westerly wind did kick in dramatically around 4am, to a point of 25-30 knots which has increased during today to 40 knots – naturally we were pleased we made the decision to take shelter!

We went off to the supermarket this morning to provision – is was obvious we were on the mainland – the choice was great – the packaging of the produce was amazing and the prices so reasonable. Being on Islands are expensive in terms of food particularly - Corfu, Malta, Ibiza where we have been!

After 3+ weeks from leaving Malta we are within 122 miles of Sotogrande, Spain, our next destination – just 20 miles north of Gibraltar – hard to believe it has taken so long to get 1000 nm! To get to this point we have spent 9 nights and 10 days at sea and 13 days and nights hiding from dreadful weather… Makes sailing to the Bay of Islands seem like an afternoon stroll!

We are going to have AC lifted out to sort out the knocking sound near the propeller. After that we need to push on and get moving to the Canaries and across the Atlantic. It is most likely that we will stopover in Gibraltar before we leave for the Canaries.

It looks like we will have a window tomorrow to leave and get to Sotogrande – we hope so!

Gosh Leg 2, Malta to Gibraltar, has been a rather tedious process!!

Keep you posted.

Love

The Jolly Rogers