Curare's Adventures

Costa del Sol

Since arriving in the Mediterranean seven days ago we have been sailing and motoring from marina to marina with the beaches of the Costa del Sol (Sun Coast) to port and the aquamarine waters of the Med to starboard. We have probably been in more marinas this sailing season than all of our other seasons combined.

The Costa del Sol extends from Gibraltar in the west to Cabo de Gata in the east, a distance of 155 nautical miles. It is said that this stretch of coastline has an average of 300 days of sunshine per year and people come in droves to get a tan. To accommodate all of the sun worshipers tall apartments, hotels and condominiums line the beaches and behind them soar rocky mountains. There are very few places along the coast that have not been built up, and the beaches form an almost continuous band of sand adorned with red and brown bodies.

In the 1970's people of the jet-set went to cities like Malaga, Marbella and Torremolinos and photos of their famous selves had backgrounds of brilliant white houses adorned with tiles and flowers. It looked pristine and idyllic. That was a long time ago and many things have changed, however the sun stills shines.

Any of the natural coves or bays that we would normally have anchored in have long since been developed into marinas. And where there wasn't a natural harbour to use, artificial harbours have been built. There are marinas every 10 to 20 miles along the coast and range from small, rudimentary fishing harbours to massive, elaborate ultra posh marina-condo complexes where the rich and famous love to be seen. Even though all of the marinas have an enormous capacity, these are often full during the height of the summer. Disappointingly for us, Curare and her crew have had to cruise from marina to marina rather than being able to enjoy nature and cool breezes on the hook. We did anchor our first night out, at a recommended anchorage (which was directly in front of a beach), but the swell was large and we rolled all night. In the morning as we watched the tractors going back and forth raking the sand on the beach we had to clutch our coffee cups to prevent them from sliding off of the table. That made the decision to be marina goers a little easier.

After our rolly, sleepless night we went to Marina Bajadilla in Marbella, where we had called to make a reservation. As we sailed in we could see it was no longer a city of bright white, tiled houses, but it did have several beautiful beaches and even a few palm trees. Best of all we finally connected with the man who could fill our Canadian propane tanks. While waiting for propane we wandered into the old town and it was there we found the Marbella of the 1970's, unspoiled and slightly sleepy. In any other year the old town would have been claustrophobic with tourists, but Covid 19 has kept almost everyone away. For us it was idyllic and an enjoyable place.

The Last Resorts

After two weeks in the Med we finally had some days without a large swell so Curare escaped the marina circuit and went to anchor at the most eastern end of the Costa de Sol. This was not an anchorage we normally would have stayed at as it was directly in front of a long, sandy beach, there was not a cove or embayment in sight. During the day we were on a lee shore pointing southwest, at night when the wind died we turned the other way. The holding was excellent in sand and, at night, to keep us perpendicular to the always present swell we threw out a stern anchor.

At one end of the beach was the small town of San Miguel with it's guard tower, constructed in the late 1700's, and at the other end was the even smaller town of La Almadraba de Monteleva with it's conspicuous church. These two places each had a small tourist hotel and a handful of beach restaurants, the last resorts on the Costa del Sol. By day the long beach was full of people and their sun umbrellas, all socially distanced, but by 7 P.M. almost everyone had packed up and left.

Across the main, two-lane, road are a large series of artificial salt ponds. The town of La Almadraba de Monteleva was built in the 19th century to house the salt workers and their families and there is still a large salt pile in the center of the town, but it looks like the salt ponds are no longer being used, except by birds. And the birds LE wanted to see the most were the resident flamingos. So early one morning we took our dinghy ashore, crossed the road, walked about 3 minutes to a convenient bird blind, and there they were. The rest of the day was uneventful with cleaning and maintenance chores.

Beware the Posidonia

We have been lucky with the weather and for the past week we have anchored in somewhat protected coves. The Imray guide book we have on board, "Mediterranean Spain", is good for marina information but somewhat lacking in recommended anchorages. For anchoring we use an app called Navily, which is similar to the Active Captain app; boaters provide information on anchorages based on their opinions.

One of the first comments that LE read was "A very cool anchorage. Although beware of the POSIDONIA!!" And others "Good sandy anchorage with little Posidonia", or "Lots of Posidonia so we would not recommend arriving at night". Our Navionics chart labels areas "Posidonia Prairies" and states "Use extreme caution not to damage the ecosystem when undertaking activities affecting the seabed (including anchoring)". What was this stuff?

After a very minor amount of googling we found that Posidonia is a type of sea grass found in only two areas of the world; Australia (where there are eight species) and the Mediterranean Sea where there is one species - Poseidonia Oceanica. Here it is commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed and the EU recognizes Posidonia prairies (meadows) as a habitat of community importance, listed in the EU Habitats Directive. The prairies are an excellent indicator of "good health" in coastal waters.

Posidonia can grow on both rocky and sandy bottoms to a depth of 50 meters. It propagates by seed and also by spreading rhizomes. Each rhizome has tiny rootlets which stabilize the ocean floor and each rhizome produces leaves which buffer the action of the waves. New rhizomes grow on old and dead ones, raising the sea bottom, analogous to coral reefs in tropical oceans. The Posidonia prairies are an important sink for carbon dioxide, being able to soak up 15 times more CO2 per year than a similar sized piece of the Amazon rain-forest, and they are a habitat for numerous species, some of which only live in the prairies. Adjacent to a Posidonia prairie the coast is covered with dense masses of old leaves and fuzzy little balls of fibrous material (Neptune balls) called an Arribazon. This accumulation might not make the beach an inviting place to acquire a tan but it contributes sediment and nutrients to the beaches and helps protects the coast from erosion.

So Posidonia meadows (prairies) have been added to our list of things to consider when selecting an anchorage, it might look like the most protected anchorage on the coast, but Posidonia makes it not a spot to stop.

Real Club de Regatas Cartagena

As it is with all major ports of the world, Panama being the exception,the only way to visit the city is to stay in a marina. Cartegena has two marinas and both seem relatively modern and well kept. We chose to stay at the Real Club de Regatas Cartagena (RCRC) as it is an international affiliate of our home yacht club and they have a pool! We had emailed ahead to make arrangements and initially had a quick response but followup emails didn't get returned - we must have confused them with our constant change of plans as the weather changed. As it turned out a marinero was waiting for as at the end of the second pontoon (labelled Muelle 4 to add some confusion!) and helped us tie up and secure the stern lines. It was a fortuitous location that provided us with a great view across to the main promenade where everyone in Cartagena strolled by in the evening, the fortified walls and castle beyond. The only downside was the steady flow of boats taking pilots out to waiting merchant ships.

Entry into the marina was straight forward and well marked but there was significant traffic from the constant movement of harbour tour boats and shuttling of Navy vessels. The bay of Cartagena has been the base of the Spanish Armada for several hundred years because of it's geographic position, natural wind and sea protection and tall hills providing military protection from every direction except the south. In fact Chris Columbus returned here after his remarkable voyages to receive a pat on the head. We observed at least 12 Navy ships in the harbour, including a submarine. The very first submarine was designed and built by a Cartagenian, Isaac Peral, in Cadiz in 1888; it was capable of going 10 knots underwater for 30 minutes powered by electric motors. Battery powered EV's are not a new phenomenon!

The RCRC was created in 1905 and construction started on a club house at the head of the pier along the waterfront. King Alfonso XIII visited Cartagena in 1907 and accepted honorary presidency of the club, authorizing the use of the royal crown. Sailing and rowing boat regattas were held that first year and have continued annually since. The yacht club building was inaugurated in 1912 and became a focal social and sporting centre. In 1985 a new marina complex was constructed and the yacht club moved its facilities to the modern facilities it hosts today. The original, elegant clubhouse is now used by the Cartagena Port Control.

We enjoyed exploring the city of Cartagena from our water side resort, took avail of the yacht club facilities to clean the boat, ourselves and the laundry, and re-provisioned for the next leg of our journey up the Costa Blanca.

Cartagena Spain

In January 2016 we visited Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, named after the city of Cartagena in southern Spain. At that time we had no idea that we would be visiting the original, but here we are. We motored into RCRC intending to visit for a few days but then the weather changed so we stayed a little longer. We are not in a rush to get anywhere and Cartagena is a good place to get stuck because the old, historic city is directly adjacent to the marina.

The city was founded in 227 BC by the Carthaginians and named Qart Hadasht ('New Town'), because 'Old Town' was the city of Carthage in present day Tunisia. It was from this New Town that Hannibal and his elephants crossed the alps to engage the Romans on their own turf. Despite Hannibal's best efforts the city was captured by the Romans in 209 B.C. and renamed Carthago Nova. Then it was pillaged by the Goths an 425 A.D., and subsequently the Moors. During the 1200's the city was under the governance of Moors, then Spain, the Moors again and then Spain again. It had a turbulent beginning but by the 16th century Philip II of Spain had made Cartagena into a great naval port for the Spanish Armada. It seems that the reason everybody wants to be here is due to its well protected geographic setting, arable fields for crops and numerous base metal and gold mines.

With such a long history there are many things to see so we bought a museum pass and spent our mornings and late afternoons visiting the historic places. During the middle of the day the temperatures reached 34 C and it was way too hot to walk around so we either went grocery shopping in an air conditioned store, sat on the terrace at the yacht club or washed the boat and sprayed ourselves with the unlimited water at the dock. The oldest site we saw was a portion of the Punic wall, built by the Carthaginians. The remaining parts of this very, very old stone wall are not that impressive but they originally stood 10 meters in height. The cities occupation by the Romans is evidenced by lengths of paved roadways exposed in excavations in various parks and plazas, the Casa Fortuna constructed in late first century B.C. and abandoned in the late second Century A.D., an amphitheater upon which a bullring was constructed in 1854, and a Theater built in the first century A.D. but only discovered in 1987. Across the street from the marina is a vast rock wall, Muralla del Mar, built during the reign of Carlos III (1759 - 1788). This wall used to encircle the entire city but only the seaward and the east walls remain in place. More recent history is evidenced by the many modernist, neoclassical and bourgeoisie buildings built in the early 1900's when people became very rich from the nearby mines and built houses to impress their poorer friends. A lot of these decorative buildings are located along the principal pedestrian street, Calle Mayor, but walking around day after day we discovered them scattered everywhere; all of them have names. Our final museum visit was to the shelters built during the Civil War when Cartagana was being bombed by Italian-German aviators serving Franco. These shelters were excavated into the side of a hill in 1937 and could accommodate 5,500 people, it must have been standing room only because it was not a huge space.

We left Cartagena with a much greater appreciation of the extensive history of this remarkable place and a clearer concept of how the history that we learned in school fits together. Next stop - Carthage maybe?

 

 

 

 

 

        

Goodbye to plastic rings

The other day, in our endless hunt for a grocery store, we stumbled across this tiny place; Supermercado Es Calo. It looked really, really small but it was another hot day and we were out of beer so we donned our masks and went inside. This supermercado turned out to be a fantastic store, it had everything, we even found whole wheat tortilla wraps (not usually found in Spain). But the most surprising, and innovative, item was the method for holding the eight cans of San Miguel beer. Instead of the plastic rings, ubiquitous in Canada, the beer cans were held together with thick cardboard. The cardboard was rigid so the cans could not slip out and it was easy to carry, perhaps easier than carrying cans held together with the plastic rings.

Think of all of the animal lives that would be saved if the world no longer used plastic rings to hold their beverage cans together. We hope this idea catches on. Way to go San Miguel!

Audouin's Gull

The other day we had a visit from a small seagull, floating at the side of Curare. This seagull looked rather ordinary but it had a red bill and black legs, different than the usual yellow legged gull we see everywhere. After a bit of research, googling "Mediterranean seagull red bill", LE discovered this was an Ichthyaetus audouinii or Audouin's gull. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ikhthus, "fish", and aetos, "eagle", and the specific audouinii and the common name are after the French naturalist Jean Victoire Audouin.

This gull is restricted to the Mediterranean Sea, the western coast of Saharan Africa and the Iberian Peninsula and it is rare. In fact in the late 1960's this was one of the world's rarest seagulls with a population of only 1,000 pairs, although a recent paper by the European Commission for the environment estimates the current population to be 13,000 pairs. However the population is decreasing and it is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN redlist.

We feel lucky that this rare bird wanted to pay us a visit, but it probably just saw Curare as a floating snack bar.

Ouch, that Hurt

While anchored in a small caleta at the south end of Ibiza, GG decided it was time to scrub some barnacles off of the hull. Donning his mask and snorkel and armed with a scrub brush, he was 3/4 of the way around the boat when LE decided to look over and cheer him on. That's when she noticed some mauve coloured jelly fish swimming near by. Just as she was about to offer a warning, GG was jolted, zapped and stung. LE said he squealed like a girl and the whole bay looked over. He was quickly out of the water and in some serious pain. Welts from the tentacles soon appeared across his back and underarm but the pain was not subsiding. We tried using our magical Detol antiseptic, rubbing alcohol and other products to relieve the sting but nothing was working.

Accidentally touching a jellyfish releases millions of stinging cells called nematocysts that attach venomous sacs that are triggered by contact. Continued contact releases more venom. Reviewing our Marine Medicine guidebook it recommended flushing with vinegar to neutralize the venom and to shave the area to remove any additional nematocysts that could fire more venom. GG decided to just use the vinegar and see how that would work. Luckily we have lots of vinegar on board so we soaked a rag and made a compress and after 10 minutes the pain started to subside but the tentacle shaped welts had swollen considerably. Over the next four hours, and much vinegar, the swelling and pain went away and the next morning all that remained were some angry red scars.

The type of jelly fish that GG tangled with is the Pelagia Noctiluca or mauve stinger. They are six to 10 cm in diameter, transparent with eight tentacles, four oral arms and pink to purple gastric pouches covered in nematocysts. They are described as one of the most venomous jellyfish with a very active toxin that creates a burning sensation and intense pain. GG had a few additional terms to describe the sting.

As a myth buster, our medical guide says "Don't let anyone urinate on you as a treatment for jellyfish stings. The acidity is wrong, the salt content is low and there is no ammonia in it." Glad we cleared up that rumour!