Emerald Med moored in Almerimar

4th June

Another overnighter beckoned to eat up the miles towards the Balearics with Wednesday's winds looking best. We had a bit of trouble getting the bow round through the wind when we were leaving the marina but Colin won in the end and Emerald didn't hit anything.

Out into the bay and we were soon sailing under genny only towards Cabo de Gata and the Costa Blanca. The wind built through the day until we had F7; with thoughts of last week's strong winds still in our minds we weren't looking forward to another bouncy slog. But it dropped off after a few hours to a more comfortable F5-F6 which had Emerald romping along at over 6kts.


Sunset

The wind stayed with us until 2am when it decreased and went variable. At daybreak it was F5 on the nose which wasn't helping us in getting to the entrance to Mar Menor in time for the 8am bridge opening. We arrived at 8:20 so just too late, although no one had answered my radio calls to see if the bridge was opening so maybe they didn't start until later. I read two websites that said the first bridge was at 8am and every 2 hours from that and another that said the first was at 10am. Anyway, we had to anchor off for an hour or so. There were works going on in the outer harbour so we avoided going there for fear there might be rubbish on the seabed that would snag the anchor and plonked ourselves just by the entrance channel hoping for a bit of shelter from the little island just offshore.

We upped anchor 10 minutes before the 10am bridge and this time heard an announcement on the VHF that it would be opening. Just us and Red Snapper heading in but 6 boats heading out. Perhaps they were legging it to the Balearics before the winds go east. We thought about going on but were pretty pooped by last nights sail so we'll be in the Mar Menor for some days now. What is it with these easterly winds?