Into the Med
06 August 2016 | Caleta de Velez, Spain
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With Gibraltar behind us, we are blowing into the Med.
We have covered a fair amount of territory in the week since we left Seville.
First we did 70 NM down the river coasting on to the Old City of Cadiz. We got really lucky and met up with friends of the Gregory's, Ulf & Sara, who happened to be 'stuck' in Cadiz with engine issues. That was our luck as they gave us a great tour of the best tapa's bars in town for a whole day. We also made it on a ferry across to Puerto de Santa Maria for a little sherry tasting before moving on.
After a WINDY trip around famous Cape Trafalgar we did a night stop in Barbate before making it around WINDY Tarifa, know for the fact that the wind reaches 30 knots 300 days a year! No wonder it is know as the kite surfing capital of Spain.
We got properly checked into Gibraltar to reset our EU tax clock. You can only have a US registered boat in the Euro zone for 18 months without them wanting to collect use tax, last year we went to Norway, now we are good for another spell.
Next day at noon we left after getting tax free diesel for less than $ 2/gal and cleared Point Europa for a WINDY blast into the Med with the Rock to port and the Atlas Mountains in Africa to starboard.
After an overnight anchor stop in Fuengirola, at the center of one of the most bizarre coasts we have ever seen we pushed further East for 25 NM before the WINDY conditions forced us into the cute fishing village of Caleta de Velez, where we are still tied up waiting for the Easterlies to moderate a bit!
Caleta is very different from the 50 NM along the coast of Costa del Sol, which looks like Miami/Cabo on overload. Hotel after hotel, condo developments thrown onto the cost like Lego bricks.........the anchorage we were in at Fuengirola had us surrounded by jet ski's, floating carousels and water slides and about 500 folks per 20 feet of beach! At least we were tired from the sailing and slept through 15 bars competing on who could play the loudest music!
Tomorrow we will try to stick our nose out early in the morning and see if we can get East before the afternoon wind kicks up..........
Here is a short video of Gibraltar, just cut and paste
https://youtu.be/Uo0CEWfYd4c