Wer'e off at last!

Wer'e off at last it seems like we have been waiting forever, I have to admit I used to feel very nervous about this but after hearing lots of people speaking of their experience I'm now very excited. Don says its going to be a very exciting adventure and so far he is right.

Well the freezer works so well and it's partially full at least we have lots of ice to chill those rum punches waiting for us.

At the exit of Cartagena is a wall with painting which look quite interesting

Cartagena exit

We left Cartagena with John alongside us on Osprey going for a run about, we will miss him, me especially with him teasing me with all kinds of stories about hurricanes and having to seal the boat with corks. John is a fountain of knowledge and will be our weather man for the crossing. His favourite saying is "never trust the expert who packs your parachute"

Not much further out of the bay we came across the replica ship that was used for the festival, it seemed very odd really going so fast without the sails raised, I guessed there would have to have been hundreds rowing at full pelt but Don insisted they had an engine, lol

Sorry to say we couldn't manage raise the sails until quite late in fact it was 3.35 by the time we did but it wasn't much only 7 or 8 knots, oh well this is the med. 

We did see dolphins and pilot wales but none of which wanted to play they must have been on a mission to do something else.

So far we haven't seen many other yachts but we did see one which we rather fancied but it wouldn't be good as we would need crew to help us.

 Coffee and ginger nuts

What did happen was we were surrounded by what looked like a garden centre had blown into the sea, such a mess, bamboo poles, irrigation pipes and huge plastic pipes. We saw a 45 gallon oil drum, a chair and some sort of wooden cradle, this was very stressful when we managed to snag what looked like half a palm tree on our rudder. 

 

it doesn't look too big here most of it was under the stern

This picture was taken from a distance after it was released

If we had hit this while we were motoring in the dark we dread to think what  might have happened.

 So the decision was made for us, no wind and having to motor in the dark we made a run to one of our favourite anchorages Cala San Pedro such a nice place, we did manage a good very still night.

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The following morning we took advantage of the sea being very calm and fitted some of the new rigging which involved both of us going up the mast which was a first for me. Great view up there but I forgot the camera, next time ok!

When we set out again we still had quite a lot of rubbish to contend with but we managed to sail through the night and onto Benalmadena. We stayed just the afternoon and night.

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After leaving we were lucky to have a little wind and used the new cruising chute great fun, so little wind though we could have managed more.

Our old Spanish courtesy flag, we do have a new one for later.

Me all wrapped up, it does get quite chilly at night, I had 5 layers on plus the lifejacket

We sailed into the night and dropped the anchor just outside La Duqesa but had a very rocky night, its only then you realize what is not packed or stashed properly, bottles, and cups clinking, talk about things that go bump in the night!

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The next blog to come Entering Gibraltar.