Benalmádena

Our original plan had been to take advantage of the forecast northeasterly wind and to sail from Cartagena to Gibraltar in one leg. That would have given us a few days in Gibraltar before our flight home to sort out buying some bits and pieces that we needed. However, the requirement to replace the mainsail meant that we left Cartagena at 0655 on Saturday 19 August aiming to get as far as Torremolinos.

Leaving Cartagena   

The sun was just about thinking of getting up when we left but the harbour was already busy, readying itself to receive a large cruise ship. We cleared the harbour promptly so as not to get in the way before turning southwest to head down the coast. In the oil refinery port just outside the main harbour, the huge drilling platform ship alongside the quay there was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Once clear of Cartagena’s approaching shipping we hoisted our sails and set up BV so that she was steered by Georgina, the Hydrovane. We then settled into easy passage making with 12-13 knots of wind from behind us. The miles slowly ticked past and BV was comfortable and quiet with very little roll. We spent the time sorting out photographs and clearing the backlog of blog reports, all the while expecting the wind to get up to match the forecast.

It did not do that until midnight and even than was fairly short lived. At 0330, with the wind at less than 5 knots, I gave up sailing and we started to motor.

Dawn   

Dawn came and hoped that with the sun rise we’d also get some wind.

But it was not to be. The sea remained oily calm and what wind there was came at just 1-3 knots. At 1015 Nicky noted in the log, “getting dull!”.

An hour later things were far from dull. By this time we had already seen lots of dolphins in the distance but now a large school of them came to play in our bow wave.

With the clear blue water and so many dolphins it was a fabulous display.

They stayed with us for over half an hour and then decided that they had other places to visit. It was magical to watch them so close up clearly having fun and interested in looking at us looking down on them!

Torremolinos ahead   

Towards the end of the day coastline swept closer to us and the haze cleared enough for us to get a good view of the Torremolinos and the adjacent parts of the Costa del Sol. Our first impressions were that the town and, indeed, much of the coastal stretch on either side, is very built up with lots of apartments and accommodation blocks. Just south of the main town centre is the Benalmádena marina, our destination.

Approaching Torremolinos and Benalmádena marina   

We arrived at Benalmádena at 1740 and tied up on the waiting quay so that we could do the check-in paperwork at the marina office. The 200-mile passage from Cartagena had taken us 34 hours and 45 mins and so we really just wanted to sort out dinner and get a good night’s sleep. The office was reasonably efficient and after about 20 minutes we were manoeuvring in the marina again to reverse up to the quay and secure ourselves. Nicky had spotted on the office board that the allocated mooring had ‘12 metres’ written over it. Once we were in position we found out why: the forward pick-up line was almost vertical and so didn’t hold BV off the quay to our satisfaction. The mariñaros was recalled and we moved along the quay to another mooring which had a much better angle on the forward line. We were actually glad that we had made a fuss and moved because we found that there was a surprising amount of surge in the marina despite there being no wind. We shunned the ‘delights’ of Torremolinos, sorted out dinner on board and crashed out.

The UK Sails main sail loft is just 5 minutes away from the marina but it was closed for the holidays. Fortunately for us, Andy Longarela, the boss of the sail loft, lives about an hour away and was happy to meet us at the marina. He arrived at 1000 in the morning and quickly got to work measuring BV for the new mainsail. Despite the holidays we actually had 2 sail lofts competing for the work, one up at Barcelona and UK Sails here in Torremolinos. It was a difficult choice because I suspect that the not quite so high-profile Barcelona loft was offering us a good deal on a slightly better sailcloth. However, Andy had seen us in person, had actually seen the yacht, checked the measurements of the rig and would deliver and check the fit of the sails when they had been made. So, rather than quibble over a couple of hundred euros, we shook hands and Andy got the deal. Apparently, our sail will be the first to be cut when everyone gets back from their Spanish holidays so we should see Andy again in just a few weeks. That delivery time is very good for us because it won’t hold us up too much from our planned time to be moving on from Gibraltar.

For now, however, our priority was to get BV to Gibraltar so that we were there in time for our flights home. As a result, at midday we were getting BV ready to go again. During our short stay at Benalmádena we hadn’t actually left the marina. However, what we’d missed out on tourism was more than made up for by successfully arranging for a new mainsail to be made for us.

Benalmádena, Spain