We continue sailing out of the Mediterranean

Tabarca

After Oddvar went back to Norway we started sailing south on the coastline of Spain, to reach Gibraltar. We sailed from Alicante to the island of Tabarca. It is a beautiful island and in the wintertime it is only a few people living here. But in the summertime many tourists find their way here, either buy their own boat or at a public boat from the mainland. The bay on the south side of the island was full of boats, but we manage to anchor there. We shouldn`t stay for long.

It was not easy to get the dinghy ashore, we tried to take it to a place there were no people, but then the lifeguards was jelling at us and we had to follow the bouys and put the dinghy as far up from the beach as was possible. And with the engine on it is a hard job to move the dinghy ashore!!

It was already almost lunchtime so the temperature was a bit high. It was so hot that I couldn`t use my phone for a while, I had to wait in the shadow.

The island is known for pirates and around year 1600 – 1700 they plundered the mainland. The Tunisians came here in 1741 and they captured the pirates.

Walking through the wall.

It was lunchtime so most people went to a restaurant to eat. The other streets was quiet.

It was a beautiful place on a sunny day!

On the western tip of the island you could find a place for your self!

It was possible to walk over to the small island at the end, but you needed to take your shoes off!

The church, Iglesia de San Pedro y San Pablo.

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Back to the bay. You can use a boat for many things!

Many boats in the bay.

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When we came back to the bay we saw that our dinghy was out of air ( we have had problem for months, but now it looked destroyed), and Astor had to swim to the boat to pick up a pump, and took the SUP back to the beach. Meanwhile I walked to the lighthouse at the other side of the island.

Here is a video from this beautiful island:

Cabo de Palos

After Tabarca we sailed further south. It is really hard to find nice anchorages on the mainland of Spain and the wind is almost every day coming from south. So we wanted to try Cabo de Palos for the night. It looked really tight to get in and we didn`t know if there were space for us. Here you can see the entrance to the marina and we had to go on the left side of the marker there. It is really tight and we touched the bottom. It was nerve wracking, specially since there were many restaurants ashore full of people watching. I don`t like that…

Here you can see how tight it is. Felizia to the right. Luckily a guy saw us coming in, he had the motoryacht nect to us. He mooved his boat a little bit so we had more space. It is always nice to meet people like this! So we stayed here for the night. A little bit rolly through the night when all the fishingboat get in and out.

Astor was up very early and got the sunrise!

The colours are so nice early in the morning.

Before breakfast we had a short walk to see the place. On the other side of the bay there is a beautiful beach. At the end there you can see La Manga.

A nice promenade to walk on. We walked back to the boat and started to sail further south.

After a while a small plane circled around us and we was a bit nervous… we also saw a couple of planes more. We realized they were training so it was nothing to worry about.

From Cabo De Palos we sailed to San Pedro Bay and we arrived after sunset. It was so dark in this bay so it was difficult to see other boats without the anchor lantern.

This is a special place, I guess it is popular for hippies. If you take a look at the photo, very good, you will see some small caves/houses, I am not sure what you will call it…

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There was also an old castle. We didn`t get ashore as we wanted to sail further south before the wind started to increase.

Aguadulce

We sailed to Aguadulce where we called the marina and asked them if they had space for us. The weatherforcast was not good for the next days and there were no good place to anchor. They had space for us and the people in the marina was very friendly.

A big marina and we got a berth on the breakwater side and had to walk one kilometer to get around to the office. The office is in the yellow building.

There is a beach as long as you can see.

Almeria

Since the boat was safe in a marina we decided to take the bus to Almeria. It is a much larger city than Aguadulce and had some things worth to see.

From the harbour there is a main street for 1,5 km and there are so many fontaines and trees. Beautiful!

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If you like shopping you can find everything here!

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Alcazaba of Almeria

The most important place to visit in Almeria is the castle. We have been to many castles on our journey, but this is one of the best!

I am not sure, but we didn`t pay to go inside. The guy in the reception ask where we came from, and he said it was free. I asked why, but he couldn`t answer that.

This castle is the second largest Muslim construction in Spain, after Alhambra Palace in Grenada.

It was built in the tenth century after the city was found.

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It was a lot of construction work going on.

Almeria and the harbour.

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A beautiful place with water lily.

This is one of my favourite flowers!

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Stunning view with the city in the background!

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He was almost dead…

Here is a video from Almeria:

After some windy days we were ready to set sail from Aguadulce. Actually a couple of days before a guy stopped by our boat and start talking. He was from Trondheim! We invited him and his girlfriend on a boattrip the next day. That was very nice, and he sent us some “buy me a coffee” after that trip. We appreciated that!

The beach in front of Aguadulce!

And the day we invited this couple on a boattrip, another neighbour in the marina came over with homemade applecake!! In our next stop we bought icecream and that was perfect!! He got some waffles from us 🙂