Continuing coasting along the costa coast

We, again, left our friends in Alicante and headed back to our favourite anchorage in Torrevieja for 3 days while Mandy worked. We met some other friends, Paul and Opel, and went over to their boat for sundowners. They have been living this lifestyle for 5 years and we learned so much chatting with them as well as having a great laugh and too much to drink. Good job is was calma chicha (Oily, glassy sea) for our row back to the boat.

After 3 days we left Torrevieja and headed for Almerimar. Apparently one of the cheapest marinas in Spain with a large community of liveaboards. We sailed through the night and arrived around 3 in the morning and dropped anchor outside the marina for a sleep until the office opened. The marina lived up to all expectations, really friendly staff waiting at the dock to take our lines and €15 a night. So many amazingly different boats here especially the Spanish galleon, Andalucia which was moored up next to the welcome dock when we arrived.

This other boat I would almost give up my Nauticat for. But I don't fancy how much it would cost to park in a marina overnight. Defo squillionaire stuff. Super modern work of art ketch, I have no idea what make of boat it is.

So we had a look around the Andalucia. When the 30 strong crew are not sailing her they open the boat up for visitors as a floating museum. You feel like you are on a movie set but this is a real working sailing boat.

Looks pretty orca proof to me.

Always useful to have canons, just in case.

Look at the crew standing on the rigging, so cool.

The Andalucia is a replica, launched in 2010, of the first ship to ever circumnavigate the world. In the days before clocks on ships so their navigating was all dead reckoning. 100 years before Captain Cook. 

Having both these amazing ships next to each other was quite a sight.

We stayed in Almerimar for 3 nights, again whilst Mandy worked. We'll be back in a few months. Great place to restock our supplies as the supermercardo is really close, the beer is 21p for a 330cl, 4.8% can and there are loads of boat chandlers for spares. We also had a good berth by Mario's bar.

The morning we left we just caught the Andalucia leaving for Sardinia. We were a bit late to catch them and we were going in opposite directions.

Pity there was no wind, so they didn't put their sails up.

Then an overnighter to Gibraltar sailing at warp speed 1 knot. We gave up at 3am when the wind completely died and dropped the anchor in the bay off La Herradura. A great looking town from the sea, we didn't go ashore, 20 minutes from Nerja. It was lovely and sunny so we decided to spend the day here. Mandy went for a refreshing swim around the boat. I am waiting for the water to get a bit warmer because I am older than her and my skin is thinner. And the other reason is I knew I would end up cleaning the beard off the hull. (It's not Mandy's department cleaning the hull)

We left La Herradura in the late afternoon to do an overnighter to Gibraltar, we sailed off the anchor and all the way to our anchorage in La Linea by Gibraltar. No engine at all. It was a bumpy ride. Sailing in the Med is easy they said. No tides they said. But the short frequency waves can make a 1 metre swell hell. Still we flew, bumpily, at over 5 knots all the way. Took a shortcut through an anchorage and had to hand steer as the auto helm wasn't doing very good avoiding the massive ships. It doesn't steer downwind very well with certain crazy med wave frequencies. You can hear the autopilot, Myrtle, screaming away one way, over compensating, and screaming back the other. We called her Myrtle after Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter.

Got to Gibraltar a little early for the marina and dropped anchor on the Spanish side in La Linea for the night. Great view of the Rock, planes landing and the zillions of massive ships anchored in the bay.

Mandy off home for 11 days leaving me on my own. ☹☹☹ Lots of jobs to do, should manage them all in 11 days.

Life is good, I am a lucky bastard!!!