We left Benalmadena the next day and sailed to Almunecar, or rather we motored. The winds being light we could not sail. We anchored near marina del Este in a anchorage of about 12mtrs depth, but only a short distance from a isolated beach . Once the anchor was down we changed to swimming costumes and swam from the back of the boat. The water was lovely and clear, but due to the depth was quite cold. We only stayed in the water a short time, all the same it was very refreshing. We secured everything and settled in for the night. Jackie was busy cooking dinner when watching the goings on on shore, we suddenly realised we had anchored off a nudist beach!! And... there was plenty on display! We decided as it was too late in the day and we didn’t really want to pull up the anchor and re-set it somewhere else we would stay. Obviously without a dinghy we could not go ashore. (Not sure we wanted to, is it obligatory to strip on a nudest beach in Spain?). The beach stayed quite busy well into the dark with several beach barbecues on the go. Surreptitious viewing by binoculars showed they were still unclothed at 10:00 'O’clock.
The cove was next to large cliffs with a gorge running down to the beach. In the night the wind funnelled down the gorge and we had a bouncy night with occasional gusts of up to 20kts. Pete got up several times to check we still were where we had dropped the hook and had not moved. (That's his excuse- Jackie)

The next day again, there was no wind so once more we motored. This time around Cabo de Gatta a large headland with spectacular cliffs dropping 100's Meters straight down into the sea. We managed a short sail in early afternoon before the wind died again. So motored to Puerto St Jose. The harbour here is very small, the pilot books state that the charges are high, so again we anchored. We dropped the hook just around the corner from the marina in the company of a multi-national fleet of boats. There were Norwegian, Danish, French, German, Spanish, Belgium & ourselves as the only British yacht. We tucked in very close to the cliff in about 5mtrs of water, the bottom was quite weedy (not a good thing when anchoring, as the anchor can't dig into the bottom). Once we thought we were secure, we donned swimming togs as well a mask and snorkel to check the anchor. We could see it quite clearly on the bottom and though it had dragged into some weed it seemed to have dug in well. To play safe we let out another 5mtrs of chain to ensure the drag was parallel to to the bottom. Any more however was not possible as the other boats were so close, we might swing and hit. Further swimming was abruptly curtailed when Nat saw little jellyfish drifting by. As Pete swam back to the steps at the stern of the boat he was stung on the leg by one. So entertainment that evening had to be on board. Nat got out the chess set and played both Pete and Dave. Whilst Jackie set up her laptop in the cockpit to work on some of her Teaching course she is writing, whilst doing this we also blasted out 'Queens Greatest Hits' out of the speakers in the cockpit. If the other nationalities didn’t like Queen 'Tough'. We been forced to listen to Julio Eglasis several times from Spanish anchored boats, so were only getting our own back!

We left the next morning early (before any of the other nationalities could get up and complain about our late night concert. Oh yes, we did sing along to Freddie after a few wines, G&T's and Sangria's) heading for Aguilas, Once again there was no wind and we motored on a glassy sea more like a lake than we expected the Mediterranean to be. The temperature was also rising and hit 38.5Deg C. so we were thankful for the Bimini shading the cockpit ensuring we didn’t cook too much. We arrived at Aguilas by 15:00 hrs, entered the Harbour then went to go into the marina, but were turned away, there was no room! This was a big problem. Nat was due to fly home the next day and whilst we could anchor for the night, with no dinghy, we had no means of getting him and his bags ashore. Fortunately, we found a new marina. This was so new it was not marked on either our charts or in the Pilot book that had been published in 2011. We edged in hoping that there was room and we would not be sent back out to sea again. It turned out to be a real gem! (OK a little expensive but not too bad). They directed us to a berth and came and took our lines as we moored up stern first to the pontoon, then helped to pick up the lazy line from the shore and tie it to the bow to stop the front swinging. The showers being new were fantastic, and it even had a swimming pool for boat owners use as well. We swam and rested by the pool till 19:30. After this we walked into town and found somewhere to eat. This was Nat's last night with us, so we wanted to have a fair-well dinner before he left. The next day we went into town to find a bus to take Nat to the airport. No buses were going directly to Murcia airport, but he could catch a bus to Marcia town (bus station) then another would take him to the airport. All looked good. We gave Nat a few extra Euros, just in-case the costs were greater than expected (He'd left his credit card at home in UK so had no emergency access to funds) we said our goodbyes & he caught the bus. Alas at Murcia he was told that there was no bus to the airport, thus ended having to get a taxi from Murcia town centre to the Murcia airport and so used up all the Euros we gave him (good job we did). Having seen off Nat we decided a 'day off sailing' was called for. We wandered around the town stopping for a drink in the town square, before slowly strolling to the beach. Here we had a 'menu of the day' at one of the many beach restaurants. A full three course meal with wine, for 9 Euro's, Bargain! After this we went to the supermarket to stock up on food, then waited for the bus back to the marina. The heat was getting unbearable, we waited and waited. Half an hour, 45 minutes, 1 Hour, 1hour 20 minutes passed, still no bus. We took to taking it in turns to wait at the bus stop, whilst the others sheltered in the shade on the other side of the road. Pete returned to the supermarket, to get a bottle of drink, as we were wilting in the heat. Then a local informed us that the buses don’t run during siesta time (14:0hrs till 17:00Hrs). We had arrived at the bus stop at 13:50 so missed the last one till after 17:00. Despite looking for a taxi, (they obviously also shut down for siesta as well), we were left with no other option to walk back to the marina. Leaving it any longer and the meat would have cooked in the bags! Eventually we arrived back at the boat and placed the shopping in the fridge. The weather station on board told us the temperature outside was 46 deg C, no wonder we were wilting! We spent the rest of the day by the pool jumping in and out just to keep cool. Ah - its a hard-life this sailing lark!

After two days in Aguilas we left the next morning and motored 'Yet again' To Cartagena. This was only a small trip, and we were there by 14:00Hrs. We tried calling them on Channel 09 on the VHF but got no reply. Conscious of the 'siesta' time, we just assumed that no one would be available till 17:00Hrs. So motored in. Just as we were about to tie up at a vacant berth, a marina employee turned up on a golf buggy, and said 'to follow him' to a berth. He shot off in his little cart and we had difficulty keeping track of where he went. Eventually we worked out what berth he wanted us in. Another stern to mooring! Well we were getting confident about these now, we'd done 'OK' the last three times. We knew what we were doing didn’t we? This time we truly cocked it up. It took about 5 attempts to line up the boat to the berth, between a very large & Flash Catamaran & a new looking 47ft yacht (both bigger & much more expensive than ours). Well we managed to hit both and scrape down the side of the yacht (I don’t think the marina personnel were very impressed! - he asked if we were a charter boat!) Fortunately the fenders saved all boats from serious damage, and the slight scuff mark on the yacht polished off easily, so he finally seemed OK. Fortunately the owners of the two craft either side of us were not present to see their pride and joy bumped, and bashed, as we came in.

That evening we met friends, Chris and Derek, who came on board for a meal. They live in Spain and Jackie had stayed with them last year after her illness. It was good to meet up again and exchange stories. They told us their place was near Aguilas and if they had known Nat needed a lift to the airport, they would have been happy to take him! 'Oh well we know for next time'. We only stayed one night as the marina was expensive. Before we left we took a tour of the town, so left quite late in the day, departing our berth at 14:00. This, we also managed to screw-up, nearly managing to spear the side of our boat onto the anchor of another boat opposite. Pete jumped off and held the stern in, whilst Dave got a line on the front of the boat to another boat whose owner helped him pull us round. Pete advised Jackie to steer out and not worry about him, leaving him on the dockside. Jackie & David then motored round the marina, whilst Pete ran along the pontoons. We found a suitable berth into which Jackie could manoeuvre easily to pick him up. She carefully lined up, motored in, as soon as she was close enough Pete leapt on board, she slammed it in reverse backing straight out of the marina. We all looked at each other with shock and relief to be out of there.

We had filled some Solar shower bags and placed these on the cabin roof prior to leaving, hoping that by evening they would be hot and we could have a shower whilst at anchor. As we came out of the Harbour & passed the big breakwater the boat rolled, and they dropped overboard !!! In the narrow confines of a busy commercial harbour, Pete decided that trying to recover them might cause even more problems. So we left them floating towards the harbour wall and headed out to sea.

Finally we had some wind, and sailed 'albeit genteelly' to round Cabo de Palos passing inside of the island off the point. The wind then picked up and the first time since leaving Gibraltar, we sailed well. 9.7Knots downwind along the spit of land that separates the Mar Menor (Little inland sea) from the Mediterranean. This spit of land only a few 100mts wide is filled with hotels and apartment blocks that the Spanish use for their holidays. As we sailed we passed hundreds of huge jellyfish each the size of a large dinner plate some the size of a car wheel, They were coloured brown & red, they looked an amazing sight as shoals of these 50 or 60 in a group drifted passed. We anchored at the middle of the spit, tucked around a small headland, so we were sheltered from the wind. Arriving at about 17:30 there were at least one hundred boats anchored here, from small speed boats, Sailing Yachts to large flash motor yachts that would cost over a million pounds. We had to pick a spot outside all of these as they were so closely anchored together. The depth was very low and we only had about1 meter under our keel. However by 20:00Hrs we were left with one other yacht and a powerboat, the rest had all left for the marina. Did they know something we didn’t? We checked the forecast again, in-case of gale warning, but all seemed fine! Eventually we came to the conclusion that the Spanish prefer to eat ashore and spend the nights in Marina's, disregarding the cost. We spent a quiet night here and because we had a long leg the following day, planned for a departure at 06:00am, before even the sun would be up. We got up in the dark and made ready to leave. Switching on the instruments we were surprised they showed we had 0.1Mtr or 4” clearance under our keel. Very carefully we pulled in the chain then slowly edged out to sea, heaving a big sigh of relief once we had 3mts depth, and had not touched on the bottom. That's the closest we’ve come to grounding so far on this trip, and was close enough!
As the daylight came we could see the vast amount of fish farms on this stretch of coast and threaded our way through them. Winds were again light to start, but with the sun came the wind. We sailed up past the island of Tabarca, cutting inside between the island and the mainland. We had to dodge the many tourist ferry’s taking people on day trips to the island. The skippers seem to not know the 'rules of the road' that motor gives way to sail and ploughed on a automatic course irrespective of what’s in front of them. Twice we had to alter course to avoid them, when they should have manoeuvred around us. We passed Alicante, seeing the Barbary castle on top of the cliff, then rounded a headland and set sail for Campello. As we did so a Spanish yacht on the same tack came along side. We had a friendly race with them down the coast, yelling messages at each other. They were slightly ahead of us at first, but by dint of careful sail tweaking, we managed to creep up on them. By going to windward to steal their wind, we passed them. UK honours gained, we waved farewell and left them in our wake, pleased with our little victory.
We had called Campello marina early that morning and booked a space for two nights, this was the stop near Dave's home, and where he would be leaving us. Before that we were to spend two nights vacation off the boat, at his place in Alicante.......