Moraira Again

12th - 14th July

We knew that the wind wasn't favourable for a sail up the coast and we left the harbour at Torrevieja intending to make a long tack out to sea. Our first concern was the myriad of small boats that were at anchor, mostly fishing. We had to plot a careful course through them, so no sailing until we were clear of them.

Next, I had a brainwave... Why don't we go to Ibiza? 'Don't be silly,' said Tony,' we are going in totally the wrong direction'... and then the wind changed and we were going in the right direction. By this time Tony had had time to think about it and, you know, Ibiza didn't seem such a bad idea. And that's what we did. For maybe an hour we sat in the cockpit, enjoyed the sail and headed for Ibiza, crossing our fingers that some time before Friday the wind would be favourable to sail back to Moraira. But it wasn't to last. Tony went down below - why do these things always happen when Tony is 'Down Below'? - and the wind changed. Not a gentle little wind change, that would have been too easy. The wind changed by 60 degrees... causing the sails to flap and generally cause minor chaos... and took us in the direction of Moraira. 'Can't we just go to Ibiza anyway?' 'No,' said Tony, 'it is not practical to continue on to Ibiza. Not now!' So that was that. We headed for Moraira.

It was a good sail, a good long tack heading up the Costa Blanca. We had no real plan as to how far we would go that day, everything depended on the wind. Soon we could see Tabarca Island but as we got closer we could also see that the anchorages both sides were very full. Also, the gentle sail we started with had turned into a not so comfortable sail. We decided to stop at Porto Santo Palo, just opposite the island, but once there it was obvious why no-one else chose to anchor there: it offered no shelter, there was no way to get ashore (nothing new there!) and it was very choppy. We had a quick lunch and set off on our way again having decided to stop once again at Puerto de San Juán, provided there wasn't too much of a swell.

But you know, it was no longer a good sail. It was a very hard sail with a choppy sea and an increasing wind. We would have reefed the sails but we were so near to Puerto de San Juán it seemed hardly worth it so we battled our way through the waves making good speed but certainly not relaxing. Around us most other boats were taking in their sails or struggling to make way. It is a strange thing we have noticed. When a boat is over-rigged, that is, it has too much sail for the conditions, it usually goes slower than if the sails were just reefed in a bit. With our anchorage in site though, we decided to leave things as they were and hope that when we got there it would be possible to anchor. We could see boats there, plenty of them, so it couldn't be too bad, and amazingly, it wasn't. As we came into the shelter of the headland the wind and the waves died and we were soon at anchor, getting ready to go ashore, enjoy a glass of wine, and get some WiFi.

We stayed there two nights. The first night there was a fiesta at the Club Nautica. We saw the tables being prepared on the quayside as we sat and sipped our wine. And then, just after midnight, we awoke to the sound of disco music. They was having a great time and continued to have a great time until three o'clock in the morning. It would have been fun to have joined them...

We slept late the next morning and then coffee ashore and more WiFi. I was sitting looking out towards Ganymede when I said to Tony, 'There's a Guardia Civil boat near Ganymede. I think they are looking for us.' 'Why would the be looking for us?' Why does it always happen this way? 'Tony, they really are looking for us. Look!' Another of those mad rushes, pay the bill, collect the laptops, get back to the dinghy and out to Ganymede, where they are still hanging around, looking... And yes, they did want us. They wanted to see our papers but they were very pleasant, very polite about it. I think what happened was that we should have taken our papers to the port police in Torrevieja but we had misunderstood and thought we were to take them next time... so the Guardia Civil at Alicante were on the lookout for us. Well, that is my theory anyway.

That night a heavy swell came into the anchorage. Another night of being thrown around, of waves crashing on the hull, or the hull crashing on waves. We left early next morning. Are you surprised? It wasn't a pleasant sail. We were on full main and reefed genoa and the sea was not nice. I had felt unwell before we left but by the time we got to Moraira I could think of nothing else but getting into the marina and tied up to a pontoon. And then disaster. We couldn't get into the marina, it was full! So we made our way, once again, into the anchorage and found a suitable spot to drop the anchor.

And there we stayed.