We departed Santa Pola on the last leg of our trip from Sardinia to Almerimar. Thankfully the winds and swell had calmed and we had a great sail to our next port of Les Salines. This is an interesting little port with a big fishing fleet so we were greeted with strong fishy smells as we arrived. It is situated on a long strip of land that separates the inland sea of Mar Menor from the Mediterranean. This makes it home to a variety of wildlife, sea birds and pink flamingos that strut though the shallow brackish water of the nature reserve. It also has some amazing salt flats where salt has been harvested for many years dating back to Roman times and beyond. They even match the pink of the flamingos.
Our next coastal hop took us to Cartagena where we planned to spend a few days sitting out strong south westerlies – not ideal when heading south west. We moored in the Real Club Regatas, a smaller marina with an architecturally interesting club house and, more importantly, a swimming pool – much needed as the temperatures rise. The only drawback was that we were right beside the main ship terminal so our views were completely blocked the first day by an enormous cruise ship and then, for the next few days, by a large and very noisy naval ship. Aside from enjoying the beautiful city, ancient buildings and great restaurants we were delighted to meet up with some of our fellow Viking cruisers, who will be on the rally from Gran Canaria to Grenada. Dawn and Joe of ‘Pixie Dust’ joined us for drinks before we headed out with them for an excellent Japanese meal, and the next evening we all went aboard ‘FraZaz’ where we met Mike and Sue. We had such a fun time and we’re really looking forward to meeting the other twenty two Viking Crews.
We departed Cartagena with just a couple more stops to break the journey to Almerimar. Garrucha is a working port and holiday resort but a major disadvantage is the dust generated by a constant train of lorries depositing gypsum for loading onto the ships, a million metric tonnes each year, and we felt most of it had been blown onto Merryn. We had managed to pick up fishing tackle on our prop so Jonathan had to heroically dive in the harbour to unwrap a length of fishing net. It is a shame that there is so much rubbish in the sea, and we spend a lot of time on passage looking out for it and trying to steer around anything that might foul our prop or rudder. On an earlier trip en route to Santa Pola we snagged a huge length of fishing net that was largely submerged and impossible to see in advance. After trying, and failing, to free the line with a boat hook, Jonathan had to dive under the boat whilst at sea (fortunately very calm conditions) and remove the snagged netting.
Next stop was San Jose, a pretty harbour and holiday resort just north of the Cabo de Gaia. The harbour was more suited to small pleasure boats and for once, and only once, we were the biggest boat in the marina!
We are now in Almerimar where we will be leaving Merryn for the next six weeks. We return to London and France whilst Merryn has all the standing rigging replaced – a requirement of our insurers for the Atlantic crossing. We’ve kept ourselves busy with a few more boat related jobs and purchases and hope that we will be blessed by the shrine and prayer for Mariners.
