TELL-TALES
Rod Heikell's very informal site on sailing around bits of the world and an eclectic collection of things nautical or nearly so.
Skylax blog SPAIN 2007 
SPAIN
Balearics & Mainland Spain en from Trapani to Gibraltar
11-10-07
We left Trapani early morning headed vaguely in the direction of Sardinia or Palma Mallorca depending on weather. It wasn’t a great start as we tacked off Sicily until the promised NE winds kicked in and we sailed slowly towards Sardinia. Off the bottom of Sardinia a nice strong easterly kicked in and by late evening on the 12th we were flying towards the Balearics.
13-10-07
The wind died in the early morning and we entered what the Italian forecast called an ‘area di instabilite’. Between thunderstorms, light variable winds and an overcast sky we motored for a fair chunk. Lu even had a couple of waterspouts off in the distance. By night a good Force 4-5 N-NE had kicked in and Skylax picked up her skirts and was sitting on a comfortable 7½-8 knots headed directly for the Balearics.
Early morning waterspouts in the 'area di instabilite'. It's overcast so the pic is not that great.
14-10-07
By evening we were approaching Mallorca still sitting on 6-6½ knots and early for a berth in Palma. Happily I’d phoned Terry who arranged a berth in the tightly packed harbour, though at a price: 90 Euros a night. Ouch.
Still it was good to catch up with friends and top up with water and victuals. On the 3rd day here a tornado brushed the east coast causing torrents of water to wash cars and houses away and killing one person. This was the second tornado in a week which sort of hints at some pretty dramatic changes to weather patterns. In Palma we had horizontal rain and the harbour turned liquid brown with all the goop washed down off the hills.
Palma harbour after the torrential rain and tornado
18-10-07
We left Palma for Cartagena with light winds that steadily increased through the day until we had a healthy 25 knots plus pushing us on and a disproportionate cross-sea. Lu even had the top of a wave dump in the cockpit on her watch. We flew down to Cartagena and were off the bay and outer entrance by nightfall. Lu was worried about catching the Rugby World Cup final between England and South Africa the next day, but I persuaded her we could carry on to Almerimar and easily be there in time for the evening kick-off.
Skylax flew and we tied alongside the arrivals quay at 1400 the next day.
Almerimar
We stayed a week in Almerimar relaxing and provisioning. Lu got to see the South Africans beat England, only just, and we read English papers and had a few big English breakfasts. Yeah, it’s that sort of place, but easy on the brain and relatively cheap to boot. A week here cost a tad more than one night in Palma. The supermarket here has most of the things you need to get for the transatlantic and at good prices. And it’s only a short trolley trundle back to the boat. So hurrah for Almerimar.
Almerimar
30-10-07
We fuelled up in Almerimar and were soon sailing slowly down the coast. Gradually a nice norther kicked in and we arrived off Europa Point early in the morning. A couple of months ago a cargo ship was rammed off here and sank just off the point with about half of the hull out of the water (at an angle). At the time we didn’t know what was going on with large ocean going tugs holding it in place and isolated danger buoys all around it. We worked our way around it and finally pottered up to Marina Bay at dawn.
Skylax en route to Almerimar. Wind is around 25 knots with a healthy cross-sea.
One hour in the western Mediterranean
1200-1300 local time
37 52’.57N 00 06’.25W to 37 49’.65N 00 02’.18W
Wind east 20-25 knots
Big cross-sea 2-2½ metres
1 small loggerhead turtle
Yacht off to port (it’s been there all night)
2 small bits of polystyrene
1 plastic water bottle
1 plastic long line ball
1 plastic food container
1 small yellow bird (migrating?)
1 small strip of plastic
Clump of polypropylene rope
2 loggerhead turtles swimming together
1 blue plastic bag
Short bit of rope
1 plastic detergent bottle
Gibraltar
It’s a love-hate thing with Gibraltar. Apart from the smell of stale fish and chips and lots of punters off the cruise ships wandering up and down the high street, it’s not the place it was to provision up and get spares and repairs. In fact the amount of space for visiting yachts is decreasing all the time with Ocean Village building waterside property at a great rate and plans for more. I wonder next time if we will even stop here.
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