Into the Eastern Hemisphere

Have been enjoying more of Spain over the last week but realising that this is a huge place and we are only just scratching the surface.  We have spent almost three weeks here now.  Yesterday we sailed through the prime meridian and are officially now in the eastern hemisphere.  Scott was most excited and tried to enthuse the kids but they were over it pretty quickly.

We said goodbye to Heather in Granada during a two day trip up there.  We drove up from the coast through some amazing countryside and stayed in the city for a couple of nights.  The main reason for the trip was to see the Alhambra Palace but as it turned out we never got the opportunity due to a lack of organisation with ticket reservations and a lack of time.  Instead we wandered around the old city looking at the sights.  We had just been in the Alcazar in Seville also and so not sure everyone was up for another old palace.  That is one of the problems with hitting all the sights  - you need space between the visits to appreciate them all.  Hope we will come back some time to look at the Alhambra though.  We did enjoy Granada though.  Heather took off on the second day by train to Madrid for her flight to Bangkok.  The rest of us returned to the boat at Almunecar.

We stayed in the marina for a couple of days and then headed east towards Cartegena.  From here on we were going to try and anchor off where ever possible.  The problem is that the coast is pretty exposed all the way up the Mediterranean side.  There are bays and nooks and crannies you can hide in which is fine in good conditions but if the weather turns  you need to be really careful.  We anchored off for four or five nights before reaching Cartegena in a number of different spots along the coast.  In all the anchorages we saw only three other boats anchored.  Even sailing, there were not more than a handful of boats out on the water.  Not sure where the cruisers are.  Maybe come July everyone hits the water in their boats.  The interesting thing is that the marinas are pretty full with boats just sitting there.

One of the anchorages - Puerto Genoves at Cabo de Gata

The coastline on the way up has been pretty dramatic.  The massive development of the Malaga Torremolinos area reduces.  There is still a lot of building on the coast just not to the same scale.  All along the coast the mountains rise behind creating a spectacular vista.  Towns are clustered around beaches or ancient strategic points where medieval forts sit atop isolated rock outcrops.  In places the terrain gets very rugged with steep cliffs falling into the sea.  Other times the coastal plain flattens out and in these areas the land is almost completely covered in plastic sheeting.  This is for the growing of fruit and vegetables.  The whole area looks pretty dry from the water but when you are ashore it seems lush enough.

The plastic hillsides

We reached Cartegena and decided to stay for a couple of days to have a look around.  Cartegena has just about as much history as you can stuff into one place due to its natural harbour and location on the Mediterranean.  It was built up by the Cathagenians over 2000yrs ago and became their major city in Spain.  It was from here that Hannibal left to march over the alps with his elephants and teach the Romans a lesson.  After Rome eventually won the Punic wars they sacked the place but then built it up into a major trading hub.  From there it went to the Huns and Vandals for a few years who did little of any value before the arabs moved in for a few hundred years.  Finally the Europeans took over when the moors were expelled from Spain and the town has had its ups and downs.  Given all that there is a tremendous wealth of artefacts around the town.

Sam still needs a haircut

The town itself is not particularly pretty and there are all types of buildings lying beside each other and a lot being renovated.  There are beautiful art nouveau buildings from a grand period at the turn of the century next to horrible 60’s type blocks of apartments which in turn are next to Roman or Medieval ruins.  Saying that though, the town has a great feel, is very interesting and a joy to walk around and explore.  There is a lot of work being put into the preservation and display of the historical heritage and we saw some great exhibits.

One of the beautiful typical streets in Cartegena

There is a Roman amphitheatre right in the centre of town in amazing condition.  We  spent a couple of hours looking around it.  Mashed up against one side is an old church which was partially destroyed during the civil war.  The whole scene is just amazing.  The best display we saw was a Roman house.  You enter a non descript modern building and there preserved is a Roman house - there are still some mosaics on the floors and walls.  You walk through the house and out the back onto a Roman street - still within the modern house.  It is a fantastic display.  Anyone who gets the chance to spend a couple of days in Cartegena should grab the opportunity.  It is not as grand or well known as Seville or Granada but a really interesting place.

The Amphitheatre right in the middle of town

The Roman Amphitheatre

We departed Cartegena to head up to a place called Calpe which is the jumping off point for the Balearic Islands.  Had just about the worst couple of days.  Anything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong:

• We came out of Cartegena with a moderate breeze which built to 27kts and then found that we had a problem with the furler on the genoa.  Eventually we had to manually furl the sail.
• We lost one winch handle over the side and another the following day
• We lost the MPS over the side.  It was stored on the foredeck but had not been tied down securely for the trip.  As we heeled it went over the side and we only just managed to retrieve it after a lot of sweating and pulling.
• A shackle on one of the liferaft frames worked itself loose deploying one of the rafts into the water.  This was just as we were coming into Alicante marina and we had visions of the thing inflating and us arriving towing a life raft.  Luckily we managed to get it back onboard intact.

We made it up to Calpe after a stopover at an anchorage and then a night in the marina at Alicante.  We are due to head over to the Balearic Islands today and will make a landfall on either Ibiza or Formentera depending upon the wind.  We are all looking forward to the islands.  We will only have a few days in Ibiza though as we have to get to Palma by the 9th June.