There's been quite a bit of drama!

Well we finally managed to drag ourselves away from Valencia. If you saw our last blog you will know that we loved the city - and in fact we are now planning a mob-handed return there in March for Las Falles, their big fire festival. Anyway, since then we have slowly started to move south and we are currently in Cartagena. We are heading for Gibraltar because we plan to leave Viridian there whilst we return to the UK over Christmas. Although I don't like Gibraltar very much, it is cheap and convenient for flights and it has VERY cheap fuel.

Cartagena is actually not very far from Valencia, but although we haven't travelled a great distance we have experienced quite a bit of drama! I will tell you about this later.....

Our first stop after Valencia was Calpe, because there is a nice anchorage there (and anchoring is free so we like it very much) and Calpe is a nice town. When we arrived in Calpe we discovered our visit coincided with one of their annual festivals. Spain loves festivals - it seems that there is one pretty much every weekend. I didn't get all the details, but I gathered that this particular one was to commemorate the Moorish invasion and it was splendid! The town was rammed and the entertainment ran over several days - there were several parades; fireworks; and a re-enactament of the invasion with a battle on the beach. I thought their parade of floats was fabulous - in my opinion it made the Notting Hill Carnival look a bit amateurish....

We would have stayed in Calpe longer but the wind direction changed to the southwest and it promised to be a bit uncomfortable on the anchorage there, so we moved to a very quiet and very protected bay where we could anchor a little further down the coast. Unfortunately whilst we there our generator failed (yet again.......this was getting very tedious) - so after an overnight stay we headed down to Alicante.

Our very secure and secluded anchorage

We had visited Alicante a few days earlier, taking the bus from Calpe to watch the start of the Volvo Ocean Race which was very exciting! I must confess I was a bit surprised to see so many spectator boats impinging on the race course - it looked like total bedlam out there and I understand that there were very nearly a couple of collisions. Race management should have been better, you really shouldn't have to worry about crashing in the first few minutes of a Round The World race - its pretty much the equivalent of a dog running onto the football pitch at the start of the World Cup and stealing the ball!! 

It was mayhem out there!

Whilst we were in Alicante this time we visited the castle and found an amazing restaurant. The views from the castle were great, but one thing that really made me upset was the graffiti.....what kind of person thinks it is clever to put their tag on a building that is over 1200 years old? Very cross!!

Great views from Alicante castle

Keko and Laura need a good kicking..... 

....as do Justo and Elena!

Our trip to the castle was trumped by our visit to the restaurant L'Atelier where we had a great 4-course lunch for €13.50! If you are interested here is their Trip Advisor review.

From Alicante we went on to Torrevieja and it was during this passage that our first bit of drama occurred....

We were a couple of miles away from Torrevieja and getting prepared for the anchorage (my mouth was getting prepared for the first beer of the day) when we heard "Mayday, mayday, mayday" on the VHF. You could feel from the speaker's tone of voice that he was really distressed and he went on to say that his propellor shaft had just been ripped out his boat; that they were taking on water very rapidly; and that they were sinking! Cartagena Rescue Service responded and requested that any vessels in the vicinity provide assistance. Although a couple of other boats replied to say that they were about an hour away, we worked out from the position given that we were closest so we went up to maximum revs and altered course to go and find them; luckily we had loaded up with 200 litres of fuel in Alicante. As we were making our way there we pulled out our emergency pumps, but when we understood that the boat in trouble was an 80ft motor cruiser we realised our hand pumps simply weren't going to crack it.....Fortunately by the time we reached the motor boat they had managed to slow the ingress of water and their bilge pumps were enough to keep them afloat whilst we shadowed them back to Torrevieja in case of any further problems. They were very grateful. 

Conquest of 1966 making for Torrevieja - before they sink...

From Torrevieja we came down to Cartagena. We like the city, the marina there is very reasonably priced, and we know Juan-Pedro who is a brilliant engineer. He fixed our watermaker last time we visited and we were confident that he would be able to do a proper repair on our generator.

The catacombs in Cartagena

One of the beautiful buildings in the city centre

I love this statue.....

Cartagena's sculptures are everywhere....

It was here in Cartagena that we had our next bit of drama......

It was 02:30 and we were both in bed asleep when we were woken by someone shouting "Socorro!" loudly and constantly. It took a while for this to register (I now know this means "HELP"), but after a few moments we realised there was a problem out there so we scrambled to put on enough clothes for decency and had a look outside. What we found was about 10 metres down the pontoon there were a couple of people trying (and failing) to pull a body out of the water. If you have ever tried to lift a comatose body you will know that it is really difficult. It was pitch black so Jan grabbed our big torch whilst I rushed over to help and collectively we dragged the body on to the pontoon. I don't know how he had fallen into the water or how long he had been in there but he wasn't breathing. One of the other guys gave him some rescue breaths (rather him than me) whilst I started heart pumps. Well the First Aid course was worthwhile, because luckily after a couple of minutes or so (it seemed like a very long time) he spluttered a couple of times, spewed out some water then started breathing.....Long story short - police arrived some minutes later, closely followed by the ambulance and he was taken away. Hope he was OK....

10 reasons to visit Valencia

We have spent three weeks in Valencia so far, some of the time together and some of the time on our own whilst Greg or I returned to UK for a few days on very inexpensive flights.  As a result, we have done quite a lot of exploring and have concluded that, like Porto, this is one of those cities that is definitely worth a visit and hasn’t ever really been drawn to our attention before......so here are 10 reasons why you might consider a trip to sunny Valencia.

1. It’s a city with a great beach and inexpensive marina; so you get both a city break and a seaside break all rolled into one.  The city is less than a million people so it’s a perfect size for getting around.  The beach is long and wide with a great promenade with plenty of bars and restaurants. The marina is friendly and very cheap.

Valencia Marina

Flying over the beach in Valencia

2. The architecture is interesting.  It’s a great blend of the very old in the old town with its ornate towers, domes and balconies and then there is the futuristic science park, opera house and aquarium complex that takes your breath away.

Science Museum

3. There is good shopping here - all within good walking distance.  There are malls and still the high streets with lots of individual and interesting independent shops. 

4. The Central Market is amazing.  The displays are fantastic. It’s spacious, architecturally stunning and the array of produce is mesmerising.  There is also the Colon Market which is beautiful in a touristy Covent Garden kind of way but a bit expensive.

Central Market

5. The welcome for cyclists. Motorists are extremely courteous to cyclists at junctions and crossings and there are miles and miles of cycle paths all around the city enabling you to get around quickly and safely. As in most big cities you can pick up City bikes from one station and leave at another.  There are loads of bike hire shops as well. 

There are cycle tracks throughout the city

6. The green artery.  In1957 the city suffered some terrible floods so decided to divert the river around the city, leaving the river bed dry.  This was then planted with beautiful trees and shrubbery and the extensive land has been made into a wide range of outdoor activities for everyone to enjoy.  As always, the cycle paths thread through the winding course of the former river allowing you to hop in and out of the city at different points whilst breathing lungs full of fresh air and enjoying the peace. 

Bridges cross what was the river.....

Cycle paths are all along the old river bed

7. The restaurants are great.  Valencia is the home of paella and prides itself on its own version of paella with rabbit and snails. It is delicious. We have eaten in some lovely and inexpensive restaurants. We even spotted an open-air paella making competition at the Central Market which was very exciting!

Competitors in the paella competion

Valencian paella

8. There are loads of bars, in fact you can't walk more than about 25m without coming across one - and the nightlife is great if you are looking for a late one ..

9. Culture.  There is a great aquarium and loads of museums, churches and galleries to keep you busy if that is your interest.  The cathedral dominates the old town.

10. The city puts on lots of free activities which attract lots of people. We have experienced traditional dancing, outdoor orchestra and stages with bands for free.  We are particularly looking forward to the explosive Las Falles in March when we are planning to return to this absolutely fab city. 

Valencia

We are now settled in Valencia for the next 3 weeks. Both Jan and I have to go back to the UK for a few days and the marina here is relatively cheap (at least in comparison with the Balearics); the city is fun; and flights to the UK are not expensive. 

So far we have only had a brief look at the city but it looks really exciting. There is some amazing architecture and the river through the centre of the city has been converted to a park.  

I went to the aquarium yesterday, which is very interesting and well worth a visit if you come here. The tanks are huge, the variety of fish is really extensive and the explanations are in English as well as Spanish and just about the right length! One particular highlight was watching the staff in diving suits inside the tanks feeding the fish, including their several octopuses, by hand.

Valencia Aquarium

Sleeping sea-lion

The last week of our stay in Ibiza was great because Miranda came to join us. We were anchored in San Antonio and took a bus trip to lunch at a great restaurant in Eivissa, Sa Vida. I had to give it 5* on Trip Advisor,...great food and really good value.

From Ibiza we paid a brief visit to Formentera. It was interesting to see Superyacht "A" anchored off the coast there. I am very undecided about that boat, its not pretty but it certainly has a sort of brutal beauty when you see it close-up - I would love to see it sailing in 20 knots!

Superyacht "A"

Formentara was a bit of a shock. We couldn't find anywhere to anchor because they are very protective of their seaweed, so we had to pick up at mooring buoy at a cost of €48 per night which was a bit of an ouch!

From Formentara it was back to Ibiza, where we found a great anchorage in the bay next door to Eivissa. There was a nice handy dinghy dock and though it was a bit of a walk into the city centre I wish we had found it earlier, Eivissa is a great town and much nicer that San Antonio where we had been anchored for most of our stay in Ibiza.

For Miranda's last night we went out for the night in Eivissa where it was good to find Solomun putting on a free DJ set by the waterfront in the marina. 

Ready for a night out in Eivissa....

I hadn't heard of him before but Miranda is a fan and was very excited by the prospect. If you like dance I would recommend you check him out on Spotify - he's excellent! 

Solomun by the waterfront

Did I mention that the generator failed AGAIN! The engineer we used to fit the new water pump in Palma had told us that a part (the drive wheel pulley) was old and worn so needed replacement, so we had expected the fault - but it meant that staying on anchor was difficult so from Eivissa we moved directly to Valencia. Once we arrived in Valencia a local engineer we found then explained that the problem was not with the part, but with the fitting of the water pump. Do not use Mike Parkin in Palma for any work - he is expensive and not very good!

 Anyway, we are now here for a while. as you can see from the photos it looks like a fun place, I will update you soon.....