Cartagena
12 June 2017 | Cartagena
Carole Young
On 02/06/2016 we edged around this attractive, arid coastline with low rise apartments and sandy beaches, in search of a sheltered anchorage. We passed a sunfish flopping his fin from side to side on the surface; I think it must be quite lonely to be one of these solitary species.; after this we past a small fishing boat housing three hopeful locals with their rods out. There were a few small villages tucked into the hills, one of them being Nerja , where you can visit the prehistoric caves; this bay seemed a little too exposed for anchoring so we carried on. The views along here are spectacular, suddenly all of the buildings have disappeared and we can see steep cliffs coloured with shades of yellow ochre, sand and beige and beautiful beaches with a few houses scattered in the hills. There are quite a few look-out turrets perched on the high rocks. We motored around the next headland and came to the Ensenada de Herraduras and dropped the anchor in 5m of clear water; this was a beautiful little bay with a town which sprawled into the mountains. We saw an impressive large house perched on the edge of the cliffs; some of the houses gave the impression that if you walked out of your front door you'd fall off the edge- not a place for those suffering with vertigo! This is a much nicer coastline than I had envisaged- I had only imagined high-rise hotels and bars serving English breakfasts! A British couple in kayaks paddled up to Swallow for a chat and told us that they had been renting a house here for over a year and had fallen in love with the place. Unfortunately this perfect little spot turned into a very rolly setting overnight- oh well, you can't have everything!
The following morning we set sail for a 48 mile trip to Almerimar; the wind was funnelling into the bay and we had a good beam reach, starboard tack. We could see Kinni Rossi in the distance with no sails out and we soon realised that once we reached the headland that we would have no wind. The whole journey was very still and I even managed to chop the vegetables for that evening's dinner. We spent two nights in Almerimar, which is a 70's purpose built complex for the marina with plenty of shops and bars. This is one of the cheapest marinas on this coast and lots of boats over-winter here. We grasped the opportunity to leave here before the easterly winds set in so that we could make our way towards Cartagena.
When we set off on the 05/06/17 it wasn't our intention to go the whole 120 miles to Cartagena but we didn't fancy any of the anchorages or marinas on the way, especially as we would have been stuck there for a few days whilst waiting for the wind direction to change; so we went for it, the full 24 hours! We had a close reach motor sail for most of the way, although we did enjoy a couple of hours with the engine off in the evening, making 4.5 knots with the wind on the beam; we hadn't prepared any food for this unintentional long journey so I made us some tuna pasta and ate our dinner without the drone of the engine, it was very tranquil. We watched the sun go down and at 2130 we put the engine back on. I had about four hours sleep down in the saloon and then at 0200 I kept watch while Paul rested. The moon shone over the water behind us and there were thousands of twinkling stars. Paul reappeared at 0500 and so I took the opportunity of another micro sleep; at 0730 Paul called me, I was in such a deep sleep that I woke up panicking thinking there was an emergency; turned out we were approaching Cartagena, what a relief! The next minute, after an uneventful 23 hours, a cruise ship, Celebrity Reflection, was bearing down on us; Paul called them up and the captain told us to keep our course and he would overtake us shortly to enter the harbour; we cautiously followed him in, unsure of where he was going to tie up, and watched him do a 360 turn to rest against the terminal wall, right next to the Real Club marina where we were heading for. We were welcomed in at 0845 by Sue and Ed (Locomotion); Ed had kindly organised a berth for us as the Cartagena Yacht Club next door was rather expensive. What a result- a lovely little club with a swimming pool!
Cartagena is rather an elegant town with some great architecture. We visited the Roman museum with an amphitheatre which was excavated in the 1990's, this was awesome. The beautiful marbled streets are lined with shops and restaurants. There's quite a lot to see here but we were happy chilling out for a few days as we were exhausted. We were to leave here on 09/06/17 which was a year to the day that we left Yarmouth and headed across the Channel to Alderney- how far we have come, at least 2300 miles so far! Feeling a great sense of achievement. We are not far from Valencia now which is where we will leave Swallow for a couple of weeks to head home for Jack's graduation.