Puerto Genoves, Garrucha & Aguilas - First anchorages of 2001

We left Almeria in a very light southerly wind on a smooth sea and with barely a cloud in the sky. Mmmmmmm, very pleasant.

We were aiming to round Cabo de Gata and like all the major headlands we have passed it was a flat calm. This time we were only going twenty miles and we just let the wind and current push us along at a sedate three to four knots. A couple of hours into the trip Chris saw a fish jump out of the water about a boat length astern, I turned around and a few seconds later a shiny silver swordfish jumped clean out of the water and then again for the last time. It was an amazing sight, only two or three feet long including the sword, but with a sliver of a crescent moon shaped tail and a lean teardrop shaped body with a long sharp pointed nose glistening in the sun.

A further two hours and we all but drifted past Cabo de Gata, thus leaving the Costa del Sol and entering the Costa Blanca. The latter is named after the light grey rocky cliffs, which in bright sunshine look white against the land behind, we saw our first of these within half a mile of the cape. We were then pleasantly surprised to hear Kasara calling us on the VHF. They had left Almeria a day before us, heading for San Jose (they knew the way . . . . :-) and had called to ask us what the visibility was like as they had been fog bound all morning. We could hardly believe that just a few miles further on there could be fog! They had been hoping to leave for Garrucha further up the coast, but not without clear visibility.

About four miles past the cape is a small bay, about half a mile wide, nestled deeply into the coast offering good protection from most wind directions and we decided to anchor here. As we turned into the bay the scenery was jaw-droppingly gorgeous and there anchored about 100 metres off the sandy beach was 'Lara', a yacht we last saw in Gibraltar. We found ourselves a good spot for our first anchorage of 2001, dropped the hook, let Charlie our wind generator go and sat back and enjoyed the view. The peace and beauty of our first stop on the Costa Blanca a stark contrast to the concrete high-rise developments that had marred the Costa del Sol.

That evening Trevor and Fiona, from Lara, rowed over to say hello and we caught up on each other's news. They too had popped over to Morocco after leaving Gibraltar, but had ventured inland exploring for ten days and had quite an exciting time.

After a very quiet night's sleep we weighed anchor and set off for Garrucha, a further thirty miles up the coast. There was a light mist rolling over the mountains but we could still see the other side of the bay half a mile away so visibility was more than adequate for avoiding other boats!

There was a light Southerly wind and we were able to sail the whole way, our luck must be changing? Two consecutive legs under sail! The visibility varied from bright blue sky and sunshine to thick fog with Chris below watching the radar but, when we could see it, the coast was beautiful; rugged and mountainous decorated with the odd beach and castle here and there.
Seven hours sailing later we were berthed in Garrucha, a small, pleasant though unattractive, fishing port. We explored the town in the evening and found a very convenient supermarket barely 100 yards from the port where we stocked up the following morning.

The morning dawned without a single cloud, the air so clear and bright it could have starred in a Persil advert. The Harbourmaster gave us a very good weather forecast complete with extravagant hand movements to make up for his lack of English and our lack of Spanish. By eleven thirty we had cast off and were leaving the port into a glassy sea with barely a puff of wind. Half an hour later and it felt like all hell had been let loose! We went from full main and jib to single reefed main, then triple reefed main, then no main at all and just a sliver of jib in about ten minutes. A westerly wind had arrived with astonishing suddenness and was doing its best to turn the sea into a roller coaster. Chris still hasn't been up the mast to replace the wind instruments so we do not know what strength wind we had, but judging from how little sail we needed to still be doing between five and seven knots, the sea state and the way spray was being blown off the tops off waves all over the place it must have been gusting to force seven. At least the wind was from off the shore and did not have time to build up a really big sea, so we just sat back to grin and bear it!

Four more hours of regular showering of, thankfully warm, salty sea spray later and we entered the natural harbour of Aguilas. Nature has carved quite an entrance into the harbour and man has later added a castle to the port hand rocks that in no way detracts from their magnificence!

We pottered round to the most sheltered corner of the harbour and dropped the hook in six metres of clear water and watched the chain and warp follow to the bottom. I seem to remember not being able to see my own hand beneath the water in the Solent!

After a windy night we decided to stay for a further day on anchor. We received an SMS message from Kasara, who had left San Jose for Garrucha the previous day, and had experienced force 10 winds and been towed in to the port! Glad our wind instruments are playing up!

In the afternoon the wind calmed down and we spent a pleasant afternoon watching the 'Cat Channel', Giblet playing on the boat. An American couple on the only other yacht anchored in the harbour rowed over to say 'Hello' and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with them. They had quite an interesting yacht with a Junk rig and very shallow draft, with leeboards like an east coast barge to help them make way to windward. They reminded us that Gentlemen never sail to windward and consequently their leeboards are in as-new condition! By a bizarre coincidence we discovered that they had berthed their yacht in Maldon in Downs road boatyard for two years across the road from where Chris lived as a child.