Its July 2020, and Chloe is now sailing regularly with the new Gennaker sail, harnessing the power of light winds. We are continuing up the Spanish Mediterranean coastline to our last destination, Cartagena, before jumping off to the the islands. We were recommended to visit by friends we met on a large catamaran in Tangier, Paul and Elena. Elena was from Cartagena and it sounded like a great place to stop.
We were not sure what to expect as neither of us had been there before, and WOW!, what an amazing city. It is now firmly on our top 10 list of European cities to come back and visit again sometime.
As always, the Spanish culture and people are incredibly friendly, welcoming, and down-to-earth, but the city is also an amazing display of relatively modern architecture and diverse history. The city is very walkable, charming, and has a lot of varied things to see to learn more about the culture and history.
There are several plazas, tapas bars, wine bars, and archaeological sites and museums. The main pedestrian street, Calle Mayor, is a marble-clad street of modern shopping, restaurants, and plenty of places to sit and enjoy the people-watching.
The city also has a strong military presence as it is a leading naval port in the Mediterranean. A large naval shipyard was established here in the 18th century as well as the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean.
Both the Naval Museum, adjacent to the marina, and the Military Museum, further inland, are recommended to get a sense of the history of shipbuilding back in the times when Spain was sending out armadas to go conquer the New World. You will see the Guiness Book of World Record largest collection of small scale military transport vehicles and the most complete display of uniforms we have ever seen. To Peter's delight, they even had women's military bras on display!
Yacht Port Cartagena was comfortable, easy to sail to and easy to maneuver within. All the facilities were available as would be expected in a marina this size and they were in the process of renovating the bathroom and laundry facilities while we were there, so the marina should be even more comfortable for visiting sailors in the near future.
As we don't have air conditioning on the boat, we took time out to sew a custom wind scoop as summer is approaching in the Mediterranean. Part of the video shows how we constructed this new item on
