Playa de San Pedro
18 October 2022
Steven Cowart
We left early the next morning from Cartegena and enjoyed a nice downwind sail to Playa de San Pedro. We once again had very little wind for most of the day. What wind we did have was from behind us so we motored quite a bit till late in the day as the wind finally made an appearance.
We anchored in a tiny cove off of a small beach that offered good protection from the swells. Although the swell was blocked, the canyon above the beach funneled some wind into the anchorage making it an interesting night.
The wind the next day was forecast to be much stronger and should be behind us most of the way. When we left early the next morning it was indeed blowing over 15 knots from behind. We hoisted the spinaker and started enjoying some great sailing and really nice speed. as we neared the point where Spains mainland turns towards the West, the wind was really picking up. We where flying along and occasionally hitting speeds above 12 knots. The wind was starting to approach 30 knots at one point so we finally had to douse the spinaker to keep from damaging it. We hoisted the jib and slowed down quite a bit until we turned the corner at the point and headed West towards Almerimar. After we moved West about 10 miles or so we were able to re-hoist the spinaker. We made better time this day than almost any day we have sailed.
In conditions like this the swells can easily reach 3 meters or more. Because they approach from the back, they just gently lift the back of the boat and push us along as they pass underneath. It really amazing how easy of a motion it is and how well the boat handles it.
It's actually very nice sailing conditions if there is enough wind to overcome your forward motion. You need much more wind while doing this because for every knot of boat speed, you lose 1 knot of windspeed. For instance if you have 18 knots of wind from behind and you boat is moving at 8 knots, you only have 10 knots of wind on your sails.
We easily made it to Almerimar before dark and checked into the Marina for a couple of nights to wait on friends before heading out again.