Sailing to Cartagena

Our final night in the Balearics was calm and very peaceful, some validation of our decision to stay put for the night as we most definitely would not have been sailing to Cartagena had we left Cala Tarida that evening.

Leaving Ibiza   

The forecast early the following morning showed that we still ought to expect around 14knots from the northeast for a good proportion of the passage to Cartagena so, despite the early morning calm we headed off. We could have left later but if we had, we would probably not have been able to reach the band of strongest winds before that band moved westwards. By leaving early, we hoped to be able to reach the area where the wind was forecast to be strongest at about the time that it built and then to stay in that band of stronger winds as it progressed west.

Georgina doing the sailing   

So much for the theory. We ended up motoring for quite a lot longer than we had hoped would be the case but the wind did build gradually – ever so gradually. But, by 1125 we had all the white sails up and filling and Georgina (the windvane steering system, as opposed to George, the autopilot) keeping us going in the right direction. It was lovely to be sailing again with a good passage ahead of us and with Georgina silently and efficiently doing the work. George chunters away as he works and, left on for too long while we are sailing, will drink the batteries dry of juice so we mostly use him when we’re under power or just for very short periods when we’re under sail. Georgina, however, uses the power of the wind and so makes no noise and takes no electricity. It’s wonderful and very liberating for us as it frees us to sleep (one at a time!), do chores, cook, eat, etc etc and all while BV continues to operate in her element. Obviously, we have to keep an eye on things and tweek the windvane adjustment now and then but by and large Georgina just keeps on sailing.

The promised 14knots never did materialise and as the wind started to die away we got the MPS up. George took over from Georgina during the hoist but we got Georgina going again once the sail was up and trimmed. We carried the MPS for 4 hours but by early evening the wind had become too light even for that sail so we reverted to the engine. Being a calm night we each stood one long watch, with my watch’s ‘highlight’ being a plethora of ships converging on our track at about 2300 and Nicky’s ‘highlight’ being 2 large groups of fishing boats operating directly on and around our planned track, close to the headland about 20nm east of Cartagena.

Approaching Cartagena – (bottom left) a submarine, escorted by the Salvamento Maritimo, departs the port   

Dawn broke, Nicky woke me with breakfast and we got the mainsail down, only to discover another break in the sailcloth – this time on one of the batten pocket reinforcement patches. Not good! We decided that we would need to bring forward our plans to replace the sail and would need to start work on that as soon as we arrived at Cartagena. But first we needed a berth. Nicky radioed the Real Club de Regats Cartagena to see if they had space and received a super-efficient response, first from the office staff and then the mariñero.

Turning into Real club Nautico   

The RCRC is based right by the centre of the city and we were soon berthed, stern to the pontoon with 2 ‘slime lines’ to our bow, enjoying the view and pleased to be back in a city we had enjoyed so much on our previous. But nice as it would have been to have gone exploring again, our priority was to find a sailmaker.

Cartagena, Spain