It's our intention to reach the Balearics by early June and with a few hundred miles still to go we've been feeling the pressure to move on. We decided that if conditions allowed we would sail overnight to Almerimar some 130 miles along the coastline rather than port hop.

Unfortunately the weather hasn't settled and the forecast has been changing quite dramatically within a six hour period from near gales to calm. We finally found a window, an easterly scheduled to turn westerly 10-15 knots overnight before returning easterly again the following afternoon so we took it on the basis that at least we're making some progress towards the Balearics.

To take advantage of the east going current meant a mid-morning departure and a leisurely start to the day. We said our farewells to Ian and Carol-Ann and headed through the masses of ships all anchored in the bay. The downdrafts coming off Gibraltar were quite surprising considering there was no wind and we were quite pleased that we hadn't unfurled the sails. By the time we rounded Europa point the gusts disappeared and we found ourselves with virtually no wind heading in between the ships at anchor to the east of Gibraltar. Whilst weaving our way through these ships we spotted a waving dorsal fin of the largest sunfish that we've seen to date.


Europa point, the southern-most point of Europe and now we're officially in the Med proper!

We have finally reached the Mediterranean! It's taken us 4 years to get this far. This must be a record for being one of the slowest journeys to the Med, but what a journey we've had. The places we've visited, the people we've met and now in front of us we have access to many more countries, different cultures to experience plus new challenges, that of Med-Style moorings, fickle winds and very hot summers (we're not sure how we're going to cope with that yet). On the plus side there is no significant tides to concern ourselves with.

With the weather being so changeable we decided to motor along the Costa del Sol coastline passing popular holiday destinations like Estapona, Puerto Banus, Fuengirola, Benalmadena and Malaga. Surprisingly, despite all the high-rise apartments and large towns along the coastline the mountainous backdrop is an amazing sight. Somewhere off Marbella and Fuengirola we picked up the latest weather GRIB file using our 3G SIM. This latest forecast confirmed no significant change so we decided to continue overnight to Almerimar staying in deep water (greater than 500m) in order to avoid any fishing buoys or nets that may have been laid near the shore, still hopeful that the westerly wind would arrive during the night to give us a push.

Throughout the day the occasional dolphin joined us but the highlight of the day was spotting turtles - not just one turtle but three sightings! The camera wasn't to hand for the first two and to be honest we really didn't expect to see another but then we did and managed to capture one on camera.


a turtle!

As evening approached we settled into our night watch routine, 3 hours on, 3 hours off. The moon and stars filled the night sky casting a silhouette over the sea which made for a lovely night passage - shame we were motoring. On occasions we could hear dolphins and see the phosphorescence as they disturbed the water around us whilst we kept lookout for passing fishing boats, other yachts and the occasional cruise ship destined for Malaga. The VHF radio was pretty active too with ships confirming course changes and weather bulletins updates, all spoken in English followed by Spanish.


the mandatory sunset photo!

The following morning dawned hazy, the mountainous backdrop snow capped and the sea mirror calm. The VHF radio warned us of an inflatable boat adrift somewhere in the vacinity of the Alboran sea area (that's the area of sea were currently sailing) with 45 persons onboard and to report it should we be nearby. We've read about it, seen it on the TV and now we're in an area where people are risking their lives in hope for a better life. It makes it very real when we're being asked to keep a lookout.


no wind here... mirror calm conditions

As we neared Almerimar the haze lifted and we could see a much flatter coastline with miles and miles of plastic sheeting covering crops for the markets of Europe. Strong winds can rip sheets off and carry them into the sea for the unsuspecting yacht to get tangled in - a couple of our fellow cruisers have been caught out here.


plastic-covered greenhouses stretching for miles

A 'marinero' (marina assistant) was waiting for us at the arrivals quay and took our ropes before directing us into the office to report in where we were welcomed by a really friendly, helpful man. He handed us a map of the town, pointed out shops, banks, two chandlers, tourist info etc then handed over keys for toilet/shower facilities (returnable deposit €20), a unique electricity plug (returnable deposit of €50) confirmed the price per night whilst indicating our allocated berth on the map before advising us that another marinero would be waiting to take our ropes.

Being total novices to Med-style mooring, we were pleased that our first experience went without a hitch. Mind you we didn't have any wind to factor in. Bruce steered Flirtie bows-in towards the concrete wall as close as he dared whilst I handed the marinero the port and starboard bow ropes which he wrapped around bollards before passing them back to me to make fast. The marinero then passed me the 'slime line' (a line that runs from the shore to chain some way back from the stern of the boat fixed to the seabed - so called because of the filth/slime it attracts resting on the harbour floor for much of its life) which I walked back to the stern and tied off. The good news is that we didn't hit anything and it wasn't too messy a job but we did spend at least an hour trying to position ourselves close enough to the concrete wall to enable our passerelle to reach but far enough away so as to not damage Flirtie. As Bruce was fitting the passerelle in place I sensed that he wasn't happy with the way things were going and no doubt refinements will need to be made, money will be spent... I can feel a walk around the complex coming on, looking for ideas and with over 1000 boats moored here we're certainly going to come away with a solution... all we have to do is get off the boat first!


go-on, it's perfectly safe... honest!

Total distance this season: 341.16 nautical miles