Sailing in Spain

It all started with a forwarded link that Gloria sent me a few months ago.  It was an advert for a certain brand of winch, on a sailboat.  The two minute ad explained the advantages of this kind of winch, with close up shots of the line going through and a few of images of the sailboat tacking and cruising along.   I thought,  "that's cool,"  but why is she sending me a commercial of a winch?   I forgot to respond until a week later she texted me "so what do you think?"   - Of what?  I replied.  - Of "Happy Days"? (the name of the boat you saw on the transom).  - That's the new sailboat Cedric bought!  What...??    I looked at the ad again,  a beautiful 45 foot Hanse sailboat cruising along.   I had a work flight to Sydney shortly after and met them for dinner and got the whole story.

Gloria and Cedric are friends of mine that I first met on a sailing adventure in 2008.  With an extended leave of absence from work,  I had responded to Cedric's online search for extra sailing crew in Fiji.  I spent over four months sailing with them in the South Pacific.  It was an amazing leg of Cedric's much longer sailing trip he had done,  going two thirds around the world over a two year period.  Well that was ten years ago.  Being the passionate sailors that they are,  they decided to take another extended leave from their work and life in Sydney to set sail yet again for a long journey on a new boat. 

He had recently bought the boat in Barcelona and the plan was to sail it down the Spanish coastline, through the straight of Gibraltar, and on to Cadiz,  an old Spanish port city on the Atlantic side.  There, 'Happy Days' would stay for a month over the Christmas holiday period  before setting sail again across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.  That's where Gloria would join him after starting her one year leave from work.  A few months in the Caribbean and onward to the Pacific after going through the Panama Canal.  Cedric had already lined up a few people to do the Atlantic crossing from one of the several "searching for crews" sites online.    I had vacation time in November so it was a fortunate opportunity to  join up for that leg of the journey...  a month of sailing along the Spanish Mediterranean coastline!

Cedric had found Antoine, a young enthusiastic Frenchman, to join 'Happy Days' for the Mediterranean leg as well as the Atlantic crossing.  They had been together on the boat already a week making preparations and doing the first two sailing legs from Barcelona to Tarragona, a hundred kilometres down the coast.   That's where I joined them.  A tear in the genoa had made us remain in that marina for three days while it got repaired. It was just as well as I had a flu just as I arrived in Spain and the extra time helped me recover.

The first sail was to be an overnighter, 24 hours,  as the conditions were good and Cedric wanted to make it to Valencia sooner rather than later.  It was exhilarating being out on the water and with a strong wind, up to 35 knots at times, it was good to figure out the main sail, to test the reefs that we had set up.  'Happy Days' performed really well and it was the first real sailing that Cedric had done on her since getting the boat.

We arrived to the Valencia marina the following morning, tied up,  then we all passed out for several hours until the early afternoon.  The night watch, wind and cold had taken a toll.  A few more days in Valencia before Loic, Cedric's cousin,  joined us for the next 10 days.

There are not many protected bays on the Mediterannean coastline of Spain.  Therefore,  anchoring a sailboat is not really an option.  One must go to a marina and pay for a berth for the required amount of time you stay.  Availability was  not a problem seeing that we were there in the off season.  I was surprised how developed the coast was.  A lot of condos and seaside resorts for the masses of Northern Europeans that want warmer weather and cheaper getaway homes than in their respective countries.  There is an average of one marina every twenty miles, so many to chose from.  When the weather was good, we basically made our way south.  Sometimes we had perfect wind, other times it died down or was straight on our nose, so we had to use the motor.  We  would usually  leave early morning and arrive at a marina in the late afternoon.  It was interesting to see the marina life, with the large variety of boats.  They were often located close to the centre of the cities.  We spent several days at each of the larger cities and had a chance to explore some of the historical sites, or just going out to eat at restaurants.  Most of the time however we bought our own food and cooked up meals on the boat.

Marina life

Alicante

Lots of "jamon iberico" and "rioja" wine.

Cedric was doing a lot of preparation on the boat,  getting it ready for the year of sailing.   

Always nice to see the sunrise on the horizon. 

"Tenir la barre" (taking the helm) Being a French crew, I learned many nautical terms in French.

Moraira

Sierra Madre mountains

Loic left us at the city of Cartagena. We continued  south to the very developed Costa del Sol region near Malaga.  An hour away from the marina,  the wind died down and the water was flat. We saw a group of dolphins in the distance, turned towards them and then were greeted by a spectacular show of their curiosity and dexterity at the front of the bow.

"Arco iris"

The weather was solid rain and no wind for the next few days so I took a side trip to Granada, that famous Andalusian city with the Moorish fortress of Alhambra.   The overlapping styles of architecture, Islamic to Christian, over several centuries, was indeed impressive.  Antoine went to Sevilla and would re -join the boat at Gibraltar.  When I returned,  Cedric and I had two great days of wind and sailed most of the way around the rock of Gibraltar.  We opted to stay in a Spanish marina,  right next to the border and crossed by foot to explore this historical British outpost.  We hiked up the rock and had spectacular views of the straight,  the massive bay of Algeciras as well as the mountains of Morocco across the water.  There were many macaques, those tailess monkeys, that were quite eager to steal food from unsuspecting tourists.  Seeing a wig up in a tree gave us a good laugh!

The wind and currents were favourable to leave after a few days at Gibraltar. We said adios to  the Mediterranean and entered  the Atlantic Ocean.  The coastline here was a lot less populated and several of the empty hills and cliffs were punctuated by old towers from centuries past.   We spent one night at Barbate, a fishing town that revolved around the activity of catching blue tuna.   Some old photos near the marina showed the massive size of these fish which, sadly over the last few decades,  have become smaller and smaller, both in their size and with their numbers in these waters.

Playa de Barbate

After just over three weeks,  we finally arrived to our destination,  the old port city of Cadiz. It is here that Cedric will leave his boat for a month before crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean.  He still had quite a few things to prepare on the boat and had ordered several parts and pieces to the marina here. Before parting ways, we had spent five days exploring this fascinating city.

Cadiz, we learned, is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Europe.  It was founded over 3000 years ago by the Phoenicians. The old part of the city is on a narrow spit and it still has a medieval  feel to it with narrow cobbled streets joining larger squares.  Part of our daily walk from the marina was along the ramparts of the old city.  Various times we stumbled into some excellent bars and eateries, tucked away in some very old buildings with lots of character.  We caught an amazing  flamenco  show at a local bar with nary a tourist in sight.

An exhibit in the "Casa de Flamenco" museum.

Antoine and I both left on the train to Seville the same day, me to explore that famous city for a few days before my return home and him to go back to France for the holidays before his return on 'Happy Days' in January for the Atlantic crossing.  Cedric still had a week to prepare the boat at the marina before his holiday break.   It was a fantastic trip and a great way to see the coastal Spain with good friends and, of course, always the sea and skies.