Its the end of June, 2020 and the Spanish government just lifted the emergency lockdown after the first wave of the pandemic while keeping certain restrictions in place. For the first time since March, we can sail on to the next destination.
So, we continue our journey north up the Spanish Mediterranean coast starting with Almerimar. We didn't get out to explore much as we needed to find a few boat items now that the shops were open again, and we also wanted to keep moving now that it was already mid-summer.
We get the first opportunity to test out our gennaker sail as we installed it during the lockdown. We have several good weather windows to test out the sail with perfect condition of light wind in the downwind direction. We develop a good process for efficiently deploying, gybing, and tacking the sail. It works best if I manage the lines in the center of the boat behind the helm stations and Peter manages the furler and communicates to me how much sail is in/out.
Almerimar has a good selection of chandleries with the larger marinas and quantities of wintering boats there. There, we were able to find a handy mooring item which quickly became incorporated into our stern tie method. The item was a 'rubber band' shock absorber and the brand is InMare Nereide Model 122TL for our weight. We use them for stern mooring if we suspect a swell coming in or for long stays. We also use secondary dock lines as a back up and feel completely secure in any condition. The ‘rubber band’ compensators are really light and small, especially when compared to the heavy metal springs, they don't stain, and absorb shocks well.
Moving along, we hop up to Aguadulce, which has easy mooring along an open roadway of cafes and bars. The restaurants are open, though only to a limited capacity, and only for outdoor dining. It seems that the only tourists are German, as others are still discouraged to leave by their home countries (England), or have high pandemic infection rates and are generally unwanted tourists (USA). We still wear masks everywhere at this point as it is required by the government in all public spaces. This has really paid off for Spain as they were able to conditionally open after reducing their first wave.
Upon recommendation, we go to a wonderful restaurant in Aguadulce called La Gruta, or The Grotto. Located in a cave, it is unique, comfortable, and friendly. We toured their massive bodega and the food was great. We took a few days in Aguadulce to splice up the stern lines to the new shock absorbers. We used a thimble to convert rope to chain for the dock side to prevent any chafe.
Next, we move along to Garrucha, a touristy fishing village with a Main Street lined with restaurants. Across from the marina, the port is very active with frequent truck deliveries of gypsum which is then transported away via ship. Apparently, there is approximately 1 million tonnes of gypsum exported from here annually.
We then take one day to make a few repairs to the blue wrap on the hull. This is the first time we tried this, but it was very easy. We just cut out the piece of the hull wrap that was ragged, clean the bare hull, measure and cut the replacement piece, and lastly just place the replacement piece on while keeping out any bubbles.
For the next episode, we continue moving up northward toward Cartagena. I knew nothing about Cartagena before visiting, but it is now one of my most favorite Spanish cities.
