Mooring practice in Málaga

We were both itching to move on from Duquesa. That’s not to say that we didn’t enjoy our time there; more that there is so much that we want to explore.

Rob Whybrow did a great job of fitting the new generator with excellent attention to detail. We will certainly use him again if we need any marine engineer-type work done whilst in the western Med. Highly recommended.

Rob finished the generator work on Wednesday 9 April and it fired up on the first press of the start button. Having taken the picture above, we put back all of the kit we keep in the machinery space and, for the first time in over a week, had our saloon back neat and tidy. Hooray!

We spent the evening getting in some supplies and enjoying mussels cooked in a picante creamy sauce (Ed: Moules à la Reg).

The morning brought an overcast day but with a gentle breeze building from the east. On previous form there would be enough wind to sail but not too much – better for going upwind than downwind – just as well we were headed to the east! Having paid the marina we departed and motored off. Before long there was just enough breeze to sail so we switched off the engine and tacked backwards and forwards enjoying the view of the coastline and being at sea again. Even the sun found its way through the clouds. By early evening the wind had died and we were faced with the choice of 3 hours of motoring to get to Málaga or to find somewhere closer to stay for the night in the hope that the wind would return in the morning. The Cruising Association notes on the Costa del Sol describe the area as a passage coast rather than a cruising coast. Certainly there are very few (if any) snug anchorages or natural harbours. However last year we had safely anchored off the open beach at La Cala de Mijas during settled weather and, with the same conditions, we elected to do so again. We enjoyed sundowners and dinner in the cockpit with the happy memories of the fun we’d had there last July with our friends who own a villa in the village.

Our plan paid off and in the morning we had a good sailing wind from the SE and roared off up the coast. As we approached the ‘delights’ of Fuengirola and Torremolinos (too much concrete; definitely not on our list of holiday destinations) the wind died away and then came round to the SW. It built quite rapidly and started down-drafting from the Sierra Nevada, so much so that we had to reef down; great fun! We wove a course up the coast quite close inshore to avoid a marked wreck and then gybed offshore so that weren’t directly down wind and yet avoided an inconveniently placed fish farm.

Steaming up from behind us was a large cruise liner and it was apparent that we were both going to arrive at the entrance to Málaga at exactly the same time. Whilst ships should give way to sailing yachts we decided this was not the time to push the point and so we held off to the side and then snuck in behind her only to find that she was now starting to do a 180 degree turn in the middle of the harbour. We motored quickly to get out of her way and then watched aghast as a fishing boat came in at top speed and cut through the blind spot right under the cruise liner’s bows. I bet there were some blue words being uttered on the bridge.

The Mediterranean Almanac suggested that the only suitable mooring for us in Málaga would be found at the Réal Club Mediterráneo pictured above, this side of the cruise liner. We circled outside for a few minutes calling them on the radio but with no response. There was no obvious waiting pontoon so we put ourselves in a mooring and went in search of the office. Halfway there we were met by a member of the club staff. He was very apologetic and told us that the port police had now forbidden them from accepting visitors. We would have to move to quay further in which is pictured above. We untied and moved to an empty mooring on the quay next to the other sailing yachts. It took a while to get settled as the mooring lines were tangled and wouldn’t come up properly. In the end I hauled up the tangle along with a rusty trolley! We entertained the tourists for half an hour with our antics and had just about finished all sorting out the lines and putting BV ‘to bed’ so that we could relax and have lunch when the port police turned up.

They claimed that we couldn’t stay where we were; “not possible”. Apparently, we would have to move across the other side of the harbour. They told us it would be €118 for 3 days, no water or electricity, and a new day started at midnight (3 days = Fri, from our time of arrival, Sat and Sun to midnight). The police were polite and highlighted that it was expensive but it was a ‘commercial port’.

We moved over to our new mooring in front of the motorboat pictured below. It would be an expensive stay but the location was perfect for visiting the cathedral, Alcazaba, the Castillo de Gibralfaro and the Picasso museum; we couldn’t get much closer. It was also an ideal position for seeing the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations which start on Sunday and which in Málaga are so spectacular they are attended by over 10,000 people. The Port Police met us, left us some immigration paperwork to fill out, and arranged to return in 20 minutes.

Málaga cathedral, Alcazaba and the Castillo de Gibralfaro 

With the paperwork filled out and a few questions answered our details were radioed in to port control. The price went up to €124 for the 3 days; at their insistance we had to moor alongside rather than bows to and that, unfortunately, took up more quay space and was therefore more expensive. We decided we could stretch to that because of the location but would have to move off before midnight on Sunday, straight after the Semana Santa parade. Having agreed everything we explained that we would need to visit a bank because the mooring fees could only be paid in cash and we didn’t have that much to hand. The radio then sprang into life again; the price had gone up to €172.35 for the 2 nights. Despite the polite apologies of the Port Police and the claims that it was because it was a commercial port, we decided at that point that the price was now far too much and left.

It was a shame that mooring in the centre of Málaga wasn’t really viable for us but, as Nicky said, we’d seen the centre of the city and could take pride in awarding ourselves a competent crew qualification. With a brisk sail, reefing, tacking, gybing, some downwind work and mooring bows to twice as well as alongside, we’d practically covered the whole of the syllabus in one day! So, the only option was to try the whole thing again but this time 15nm further east along the coast at Caleta de Vélez – hopefully there would be space for us there (at a reasonable price for a longer stay) and also a bus to get us back into Málaga!

Torre del Mar, just east of Malaga, Spain