Puerto de San Juán

25th-26th June

In the morning Tony suggested we move to Calpe, at the other end of the bay, where the apartment blocks are... his reason, there is possibly a rail connection there that will take us to Valencia. I had planned to make that walk, up to the watch tower, but never mind.

Up came the anchor and off we motored. And then the sails came out. There was wind from the north east, blowing us gently down the coast. The sun was shining. It was a glorious day.

As we approached Calpe we got a better look at the apartment blocks. They were densely packed, almost on the seashore it seemed. Amazing. We couldn't imagine who would want to live there. But then, the view out to sea and round the bay, changing with the weather, with the seasons, one would never tire of it. And just because I hate apartment living...

The wind was stronger than we had anticipated, we were enjoying the sail, and the anchorage didn't look good: the wind was in the wrong direction so it didn't offer any shelter. So... we decided to carry on to Benidorm. There wasn't much of an anchorage there, we knew. In fact, it was a case of drop the anchor where convenient off the beach, but we decided to give it a try.

As we sailed peacefully along the coast we saw row upon row of high rise buildings, hugging the shoreline. It was difficult to see through the haze but we thought no, we'll give Benidorm a miss, better to continue while the wind is so perfect. And there was sure to be a rail connection between Alicante and Valencia. We were alone on the sea, or so it seemed, not another boat in sight.

We chose to anchor off the Club Nautica harbour at Puerto de San Juan, a suburb of Alicante. It is another of those anchorages that are snooked in behind a headland. I love them!!! But this one wasn't as 'snooked' as I would have liked. In some ways it felt like a large, open bay. I wasn't impressed. Also, all along the coast, squeezed between sea and hill, were apartment blocks. Huge apartment blocks. This did not look good. Huffily, I went up front to drop the anchor. I wasn't happy.

Almost as soon as Ganymede was shipshape and we were sure the anchor was holding we headed ashore. Fast work for us - it can take us a whole day to do that! As it turned out, in spite of all the buildings, the town was quite green: trees, a park, gardens round most of the apartment blocks. There were several small beaches, all of them popular with locals, there didn't seem to be any tourists around. One thing that seemed to be missing was a town centre, or any signs that might lead us to it. We walked. Eventually we found a Mercadona: one of my favourite supermarkets. But not much else. We stopped for a drink, it was hot work walking along, not always able to find shade. And I was carrying my laptop, hoping for a WiFi café. Drink, Mercadona and then we headed back to Ganymede by a different route... and I soon spotted someone sitting at a café working away on his computer. Ah Ha!
We stopped, I got my laptop out and we had another drink. And an hour soon passed. Definitely time to get back to Ganymede.

In this part of Spain they celebrate the feast of Sant Joán with bonfires on the beach and fireworks. I forgot to mention that they had celebrated in Moraira on Monday night with a bonfire, fireworks and disco. In Puerto de San Juan the kids were celebrating with firecrackers. Every few minutes, it seemed, there was a bang. That night, just as we had got to sleep, there was a big firework display in Alicante. Tony got up to watch. I was too deeply asleep.

Next day was more of the usual routine: ashore early for café con leche and then into town for some shopping. This time we stopped at the Club Nautico bar and discovered... they had WiFi. What a perfect day this was turning out to be. We both caught up on emails, blogs, websites, we Skyped Charlie... and then Tony was able to take the laptops back to Ganymede before we set off into town. This was almost as good as having WiFi on board. AND, after shopping... as usual, some wonderful prawns from Mercadona... lunch at the Club Nautico. What could be better. I was beginning to think I liked Puerto de San Juan.

Did you notice the date at the top of this blog? Today was our second day in Puerto de San Juan: 25th June - the semi-final of the UEFA cup: Spain v Russia. We heard every goal, knew the moment it was all over and Spain had won: the roar, the cheers, and then the fireworks going off all over town. It was stupendous. And later, before I was asleep this time, a huge firework display over Alicante. Spectacular! But was it for Sant Joán or was it for the football?