We spent three days in Santa Pola, and while we enjoyed having easy access to dry land after more than 5 days afloat, we did miss the peace and solitude of the Mar Menor. Santa Pola is a pleasant town and we visited the medieval market held in the keep and surrounds of the old castle as well taking our new bikes (replacing those stolen in Almerimar last year) for a couple of good outings. The first was to the salinas, acres and acres of ponds that are flooded with seawater which is then left to evaporate leaving behind the salt which is then collected and hopefully purified before being sold. This isn't a cottage industry rather a major industrial concern, with huge mountains of salt piled up by the salinas, worked by huge diggers and cranes that would be more at home on a major construction site. Our second trip was out to Cabo de Santa Pola where we chained up the bikes and walked up the hill for the view - we are not yet "cycle fit"!
On the social front, we met up again with "Miss Chips" and "Paradella" and after swapping photos of each other's boats sailing on passage to the Mar Menor enjoyed a few drinks together ashore.
After 3 nights we left Santa Pola for the 37 mile passage to Altea. This was a hard sail, with heavy seas, strong and gusty winds that were too far astern for good sailing. We anchored in the south-west corner of the bay in a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains and underneath what I think would be our dream house. It was a rolly night as there was some swell, but we have had worse. In the morning we moved into the marina which was very friendly and nice, but for the first time in ages we couldn't get wifi on the boat. We felt crippled.
There was no option, we had to find a bar so we could get online. We settled in a pleasant bar on the beach and ordered a beer and as the iPads came out, three Spanish lads pulled out their guitars and started playing what we can best describe as "electric flamenco". It was very impromptu but excellent. We settled in for a few hours enjoying the music, some tapas and a large jug of sangria. A beautiful evening.
We really liked Altea, which was just as well as we needed to slow down. (We've booked flights back home from Valencia which is only 70 odd miles away and we had over two weeks to get there). From our berth we looked out across the marina to Altea old town on the hill with its beautiful church with 2 blue domes and a tall thin bell tower surrounded by mountains. It is very pretty and a lovely view with our regular evening drink.
We sailed past Benidorm on the way here, and thought we should visit as it was only 20 minutes away on the train. It was another world and OK, we admit it, we're snobs - enough said! The train also went to Denia the other way, an hour through stunning mountains and coast. Denia had a very nice old town, waterfront and a huge ruined castle. As you all know we like our views, but around here it seems that if you chose a restaurant with views you are almost guaranteed mediocre food and this time we managed to resist our natural inclinations and had lunch in small tapearia tucked away in an old square, which was lovely.
Since we left Santa Pola the coast has changed and we have left the desert around Almerimar behind, the hills are now greener and covered, not in plastic greenhouses, but miles and miles of citrus trees whose blossom has given this coast it's name - Costa Azahar. On our last day in Altea we cycled to Albir (next to the marina in the same bay) and walked out along the headland to the lighthouse - beautiful.
After a week in Altea it was time to leave and we had a lovely gentle sail out of the bay, crossing the Prime Meridian on the way (Longitude is now East not West). There is a lot tradition and superstition amongst sailors about crossing the equator, having to appease Neptune, dance naked and the like, but none that we know of for crossing the prime meridian. Just in case, we invented our own and shared a boiled sweet with the ancient god of the sea! Perhaps we should have opened some champagne............A few miles later as we rounded the point at Culpe which is a huge mountainous rock soaring vertically out of the sea, we lost the wind and then all our instruments and the auto-pilot. We quickly tracked this down to a blown fuse, but the auto-pilot still wouldn't hold a course and so we had to hand steer the rest of the way, quite fun when sailing, but very tedious when motoring.
Our intention was to pick up a mooring buoy in Javier about 25 miles on from Altea as it's a no-anchor zone, but the buoys weren't there and so we continued on for another 7 miles to anchor outside the harbour in Denia. The wind picked to over 25kts as we anchored but the anchor dug in very tightly and we had a secure night. After we'd had dinner we went to investigate the auto-pilot and found that it's control rod had detached itself from the steering quadrant. A bit of manoeuvring and tightening four bolts and it all now seems to be in order, although I think I will be applying some loctite to these bolts before we fly home. We left early the next morning and started our 43 mile, 8 hr passage to Valencia. While the wind never got over 5 kts all day it was a beautiful relaxing day in brilliant sunshine on glassy smooth seas, and yes, there were Dolphins breaching in distance.
We are now safely moored in Valencia, looking forward to some exploring before we fly home next week.
Click here for the interactive map of our travels