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| Irene's track: Spain to Italy July - Sept 2019 |
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| The screen on the aft end of Irene's doghouse softens the setting sun |
Our passage south was uneventful in the summer weather with
light summer winds aft of the beam, an ever present swell, and sunny warm days.
After a few days, just at sunset we reached Cabo de Sao Vicente (the southwest
corner of the Iberian Peninsula) where we turned left, towards the east, and
pointed at the Strait of Gibraltar. The wind rose dramatically and we
accelerated into the night, crossing the Golfo de Cadiz at a good speed that
night and through the next day. As we approached the Straits, the wind got
lighter and more fickle, requiring us to fire up the motor for the last few
hours. Irene’s luck was still holding – according to the pilot the Straits can
often bring notorious headwinds and nasty waves. We made our way on the flat
water to the Spanish (as opposed to English) marina La Linea and anchored just
outside the breakwater.
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| The “Rock”
dominates the view from a long promenade that leads from La Linea to town |
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| Our berth at La
Linea |
The next morning we moved into a spacious berth and lazed
about acclimatizing to the Mediterranean heat and dry air. Moving from the
Atlantic to the Med was a dramatic shift to hot weather and we walked very
slowly to town to get groceries, resting in shade as often as we could. The
next morning, provisions all stored, we headed back out around the rock and up
the Costa del Sol.
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| A minaret,
church, lighthouse, gun emplacements, barracks, caves and antennas all crowd
the rock | |
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| The sun dominates our life on the Costa del Sol |
Costa del Sol, sun coast, seemed to be a very apt name. We
were grateful for the shade in our dog house during the long hot August days. We
sailed a nice beam reach in hot air coming off the land to Puerto de
Fuengirola, where we found a spot to drop the hook in a tiny crowded anchorage.
This anchorage was just outside the buoys marking a swimming area that provided
endless entertainment.
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| Inshore watercraft of
swimming area | | | | |
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| View from our
anchorage at Fuengirola |
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| Irene was close
to the action in the swimming area |
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| Yes, crowded |
The anchorage was less crowded at night because many of the
boats were only day visitors, interacting with the swim area. A patrol boat
would swing through the area occasionally chase away anyone anchored wrong –
and clearly the local vessels knew what was right and what was wrong because
there would be a flurry of repositioning anchor spots as the patrol boat came
into view. We, on the other hand, were clueless. We knew not to anchor in the
swimming area marked by buoys, but we had anchored on the wrong side of an
invisible line (with several other vessels) and were told to leave by hand
gestures. Our second guess worked out, and we stayed another night or two
enjoying the scene.
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| The Guardia
Civil on patrol |
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| Swabbie |
Moving on up the coast, we further adapted to the
conditions. Peter mopped the dust from previous day off the decks in the
morning dew. Mornings were windless, so we often hoisted anchor late and sailed
in the nice daily afternoon sea breeze. One feature of the land was miles and
miles of plastic sheeting reflecting in the sun - roofs of greenhouses. These
greenhouses are the source of much of the EU’s produce, indeed our local
grocery store in Scotland was stocked with the produce of Spain. We couldn’t
imagine the conditions of working in these greenhouses during the heat of the
day.
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| Plastic sheet
roofs on greenhouses |
On the days with stronger breezes, a constant flotilla of
escaped plastic floaty toys streamed from the many swimming beaches out to sea,
to add to the poisoning of an overstressed sea.
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| Hot and dry conditions ashore |
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| Fishing |
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| Med sailing –
or motoring, as it’s called elsewhere |
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| Hippie camp |
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| Anchored |
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| OCC meetup with "Henry" |
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| Outdoor display
of fine art |
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| Even the
graffiti is very artistic in this part of Spain (Cartagena) |
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| Moving on,
sunset in our wake |
To be fair, our home waters in August have plenty of calms.
This part of the Med is similar, and our motor got more use than usual. But
almost every day we had enough wind to sail in the afternoon.
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| It is so hot
and dry that our self steering pulley grows salt crystals |
One morning while we were at anchor and on deck enjoying a
cup of coffee, a Guardia patrol boat came at us at top speed - at first looked
like it was about to cut us in half, then it turned away at the last moment and
rolling us in their considerable wake. We looked at each other and said in
unison, “This is crazy!” We realized that we needed a change from the crowded
and wacky Spanish coast, and when the wind came up we hoisted anchor and headed
directly to Tunisia.
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| Fast
container ship, and we note that the watch officer doesn’t have much of a view
ahead or astern |
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| Closing in on
Africa, we enjoy a last bikini day before more modest attire becomes appropriate |
Our passage started out in windy conditions and we made very
good (but a bit uncomfortable) mileage for the first three or four days, then
the wind eased - after which we sailed less (but very comfortable) miles. As we
closed on the coast of Tunisia, Irene was ghosting along at 3 knots or so. We
realized that she was setting us up for another night time arrival, so we
dropped the main and sailed the quiet night at 1 or 2 knots, arriving at Port
Yasmine at a reasonable 7 AM local. A man in uniform gestured for us to come
alongside a quay, tied up and began the formalities.
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| African
dragonfly |
And Tunisia was indeed a change. Hot yes, but not crowded, and we were never buzzed by high speed craft of any
sort.
Here in Tunisia, just about as far as one can get from the
green hills and cold water of Puget Sound, we met up with Syd and Birgit. We
had last seen Serafina at Shilshole, our home marina, as they departed for
extended cruising in 2014.
They had popped down from Licata, Sicily (where Serafina has
been based for a while) to take advantage of inexpensive diesel prices and top
off the tanks. We had been in touch, and had a plan to possibly winter over at
their marina in Licata.
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| We meet Seattle
sloop Serafina in Tunisia |
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| Ginger, Peter,
Birgit, Syd |
After a few days we had seen all that could be seen at Port Yasmine, and headed north (along with Serafina) to Licata.
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| FAD - Fish Attracting Device - Med version |
As we motored away from the coast we passed many small
clumps of plastic floats and palm fronds tied together and launched by fishermen to
attract fish with shade and bait. It’s not good to see more plastic in the
water that will degrade and end up in the food chain. In years past these would
have been made entirely of biodegradable and safe materials.
On this short crossing we also encountered thunderstorms, ship
traffic (all east-west traffic to and from the Suez Canal passes through here) and
light shifty winds.
Syd and Birgit know Licata very well – they even have a wonderful
apartment in the old city. They were superb hosts and guides, showing us the sights
and shops.
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| Guardia
Costiera - Licata Coast Guard |
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| Cemetery at
Licata |
We had a wonderful week in Licata. The week was a blur of
amazing sights, wine and food, alternating with visits with officialdom trying
to get permission to stay for the winter. It looked possible at first. However,
in the end, according to the Polizia Di Stato Commissariato it we would not be
able to stay. Shengen! So we regretfully did what needed to be done, and headed
back out to sea. Our new plan was to sail almost 1000 miles further east, leave the Shengen area, in fact leave Europe entirely,
and winter over in Turkey.
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| Back to sea,
bound for Greece |
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