Curare's Adventures

Sailing the Spanish Mediterranean

We make these observations of the Med for sailors based on our six weeks of cruising the coast of Mediterranean Spain, not any other part of the Mediterranean. Some of these things we knew because we had read guide books, other things were unexpected. There are no photos. In no particular order here is what to expect:

- Entering the Mediterranean we passed through the 30 mile long Strait of Gibraltar which at it's narrowest point is named Tarifa. At this point Africa is only 8 miles away. The water at the western end of the Strait is 2 - 3 meters higher than at it's eastern end causing a constant surface flow into the Mediterranean of 1 to 2 knots, or up to 6 knots, depending on barometric pressure, surface winds, and Atlantic tides. So getting into the Med was easy, getting out may be a challenge.

- The wind at Tarifa are said to blow in excess of 30 knots 300 days per year; we were glad we passed through the Strait on a calm day.

- The scenery along the Costa del Sol is one long stretch of condominiums, apartment blocks and white sandy beaches. There is very little wilderness to break the monotony of the construction.

- There are really no secure anchorages along the Costa del Sol, we stayed in marinas, as did everyone else.

- There are some anchorages along the Costa Blanca between Cabo de Gata and Cartagena, but most boats opt for a marina.

- The scenery along the Costa Blanca is stunning when seen from the Sea. We travelled within 0.5 miles of the cliffs, something we never do, to get a better view of the spectacular geology.

- We sailed 60 miles overnight to Ibiza and Formentera, two of the Balearic Islands. Finally there were more anchorages than marinas, and the scenery is pretty nice as well.

- It is either blowing too much in the wrong direction, or not wind enough to sail. This year we moved 1200 miles and 716 miles was motoring. Be prepared to burn a lot of diesel or you will be waiting around or sailing very slowly. Due to our visa restrictions we did not have the time for the latter two options.

- Weather forecasts are only correct 20% of the time, 80% of the time the wind comes from a completely different direction. This makes it difficult to choose a destination or an anchorage. In addition the wind strengths are poorly predicted, with no wind in the mornings and good sailing winds in the afternoon, despite the forecast calling for good winds all day.

- Wind shifts of 180 degrees generally occur in the dark of the night.

- The anchorages we stayed in are not snug little coves, they are generally off of a beach and shore side cliffs provide protection from the wind and swell.

- The swell: this came as a complete surprise. It was always there and was not consistent. Some days the wind would blow from the south but the swell would come from the north, the wind and swell directions seldom matched. This made it even more difficult to choose an anchorage. We generally opted for protection from the swell unless the wind was forecast to be 'blowing a gale'.

- Marinas are not always protected from a swell event. At one marina on the Costa del Sol Curare was rolling so badly we had to sleep crossways - and we were at a dock!

- Anchorages fill up between 11 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. By 7 in the evening most boats have left, racing to get back to their home port before dinner at 10 or 11 at night. Arrive in the morning or after 7 in the evening to get a better spot for your hook.

- Dust gets everywhere. At first we blamed it on the Sahara Desert but as we moved north, away from Africa, every morning we still had a layer of red dust coating every line, stanchion and piece of canvas, despite wiping everything down the previous evening.

Now we will go into one final marina to clean everything, do some maintenance, and put Curare to bed for another winter in Spain.

A Dramatic Change in Weather

We left our anchorage on the north side of Ibiza midday on September 30 because a large swell had developed overnight and all of the boats were rocking from side to side exposing their bottom paint. We had planned to stay one more day so that we could enjoy more of the island but the rolling was significant and was forecast to continue for the next 24 hours; we decided to leave.

We quickly got organized, mounted the wind vane rudder, stowed items not needed for the passage north and hauled anchor. Once clear of Calla Sant Miquel the wind reached 10 to 12 knots from the southeast so we tried to set sail on a deep broad reach to our destination of Sant Carles de la Rapita, 100 miles to the northwest. With a reef in the main and some genoa out we thought we'd be having a pleasant sail but the major swell, out of the east north east reached two metres, and there was another, possibly two, cross swells so we felt like we were in a top loading washing machine - agitating wildly. We altered course to take the swell on the stern quarter but then we couldn't keep the sails filled. So we dropped the flopping main and continued under genoa alone, but that didn't lessen the rolling or slatting of the sail. In the end we motor sailed and gradually the swell veered more to the southeast and diminished slightly.

When GG went off watch at 2100 hours he was dressed in T-shirt and shorts. Coming on watch at midnight, October 1, he donned the full fleece ensemble, including a wool toque. Crossing the 40th parallel, we had sailed into winter! By this point the wind had nearly died away completely so we became a slow moving motorboat for the remainder of the trip. Suddenly, twenty miles out from Sant Carles there was a cluster of radar targets - 28 boats had departed the fishing harbour and circled around Curare as they lay their nets. Some had AIS, some didn't, but as Curare has AIS as well collisions were easily avoided (sailing at night has become a lot simpler with AIS in addition to radar).

The sun was just breaking through the morning haze as we approached Punta de la Banya at the western end of a long sandy peninsula that protects Badia dels Alfacs (Alfacs Bay). This well protected bay, on which Sant Carles is located, is part of the Parc Natural del Delta l'Ebre and is, among other things, a bird sanctuary. LE was thrilled, the birds just squawked. As we did not need to be at the marina until the following day we decided to anchor in the lee of the point and enjoy our last day of cruising for this season taking in the quiet, peaceful setting. Boat chores would wait.

The Ebro Delta

When LE was looking for a place to leave Curare for the winter of 2021/22 she had no idea that the marina she chose was located on the edge of the Ebro Delta, a place she had never heard of. This is the largest wetland in Catalonia, Spain, and one of the most important in Western Europe behind the Camargue regional park in France and the Doñana National Park in southern Spain. The Delta is at the mouth of the River Ebro, which has a length of 930 Km. This is the third longest river in the Mediterranean, after the Nile and the Rhone. The Ebro Delta covers an area of 320 km2, and, coincidentally, is the third largest delta in the Mediterranean after the Nile delta with an area of 24,000 km² and the Rhone delta, which covers an area of ​​500 km². The current form of the Ebro Delta is a perfectly drawn “arrow” that penetrates about 22 km east into the sea. Of the 320 km² of the Delta del Ebro, 20% are natural areas, 75% is arable land, and 5% is urbanized.

Part of the Delta was declared a Natural Park in August 1983, and it was expanded in 1986, so that the Park itself now has an area of 78 km². It was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2013. The river, sea, bays, beaches, dunes, salt flats, coastal forests, coastal lagoons, and river islands, in combination with the rice paddies, are home to a variety of fauna and flora. Over 700 species of flora have been recorded and it is internationally important for eight species of plants. The Delta shelters 316 species of common birds, of which 95 species use the delta for breeding. Remember the Audouin's gull from a few weeks ago and how excited LE was to see it? The Ebro Delta has the world's largest colony of Audouin's gulls; in 2006 it held a record number of more than 15,000 pairs.

Rice paddies occupy approximately 22 km² of the Delta, produce 45 thousand tonnes of rice annually and are responsible for 20% of Spain's rice production. The Arròs del Delta de l'Ebre Protected Designation of Origin (D.O.P.) has existed since 1992 and is recognized throughout the world for its excellent quality and flavour. It is only sold as "extra" class. Too bad one of us is not fond of rice as all of the restaurants have rice entrees as their 'house specialty'.

We have been so busy with boat related chores that we have not had any time to explore  but we do see some wading birds in a nearby swamp, and others as they fly above Curare in the early evening. LE hopes to visit the Park, for at least one day, upon our return in May 2022; GG will be dragged along.

An Eurasian Bird

Two days ago, while making the long trek from the hard storage area to the marina, we spied a colourful, cocky new bird swimming in the brackish water. It had an orange head and orange beak and looked vaguely like a Merganser. LE does not have a Mediterranean bird book on board but she looked in her British Isle coastal bird book, because a lot of the birds are the same. The closest was a Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) but that one has a blueish beak. Eventually the internet identified the bird as a Red-Crested Pochard (Netta rufina). Confusingly a Pochard has two different genus names, only the family name is the same - Anatidae.

This bird is restricted to Europe and Asia, never seen in North America, so LE was pretty thrilled to see it (GG actually saw it first, but he was not as enthusiastic). We saw a male, and according to birders it is unmistakable with it's rounded orange head, red bill and black breast. The flanks are white, the back brown, and the tail black. The scientific name is derived from Greek Netta "duck", and Latin rufina, "golden-red" (from rufus, "ruddy"). Its breeding habitat is lowland marshes and lakes in southern Europe and it extends from the steppe and semi-desert areas on the Black Sea to Central Asia and Mongolia, wintering in the Indian Subcontinent and Africa. According to an article on Animal Diversity Web almost half of the population (27,000 to 59,000 pairs) breeds in Europe and about 20% breeds in the European Union (EU). Eighty percent of the EU population breeds in Spain, perhaps in the Ebro Delta? We saw only this one male, must be anti-social.

DISTRIBUTION MAP

lime green - breeding        blue - non breeding     dark green - resident

 

 

 

 

New Hoses for the Baby Blake

Every three to five years we replace the hoses connecting our Baby Blake toilet to the outside world. Depending on the amount of use the hoses get a large build up of sludge develops that eventually restricts flow. We last replaced the hoses in 2016 whilst on the hard in Virginia. Since that time we've carried spare hose with us in anticipation of needing to make the change, and this year was the year.

As usual GG procrastinated and wanted to delay the work,  We had the time, there was no excuse. Armed with a cut off grinder and sharp knifes he cut away the old hoses, without too much cacka falling out into the surrounding space.  The head was then thoroughly cleaned.

The new hoses went into place relatively easily, with only a few choice words to encourage them, and then the area was cleaned again. At the end of the day the head was sparkling clean and the Baby Blake was sporting some glistening white new sanitation hoses.

Sant Carles de la Ràpita

For our final two weeks of this sailing season we stayed at Marina Sant Carles in the small town of Sant Carles de la Ràpita. The town was not as interesting architecturally as some of the previous towns we had visited, like Marbella and Cartagena, but it has a long history. During the middle ages this location was occupied by the Arabs and there was “ràbida” (a convent of monk soldiers), which has subsequently been changed to the word Ràpita. The present city was founded by King Charles III, the same king who built the city walls in Cartagena, and he used the large natural harbour as a trading port to serve the Spanish colonies. His intention was to build a great city, but the king died in 1778 and his vision of a great city died at the same time. There are a few remnants of King Charle's city, such as the Capelleta (the unfinished church) and the Placas (Plazas) de Carles III and del Mercat, but most of the buildings are square and boxy without any charm.

Purely by accident we were there during a weekend festival. We think it was a harvest festival because there were rice straw bales decorating street corners and entrances to pop-up tavernas. People dressed in traditional Catalonian clothing, marching bands paraded through the streets, houses were decorated, and street vendors sold plates of stew, yummy oysters, paella, and anchovies.

Almost everyone was selling endless varieties of vermouth, in fact some places were only selling vermouth. We had a difficult time imagining anyone drinking vermouth, a bitter fortified wine, but in Spain sweet red vermouth is a popular drink. This starts out as a white wine but turns red when it is infused with caramel and botanicals. Each variety of vermouth has it's unique flavour like cinnamon, cardamom, or cloves, and you drink it straight or on the rocks. Interestingly vermouth is considered an acceptable drink to have before noon on Sunday, no wonder the town declared Monday a holiday from work.  We, unfortunately, had boat chores to attend to so didn't imbibe.

Sant Carles Marina

We arrived at the marina in Sant Carles on a Saturday at the beginning of October and were escorted to our slip by a marinero in the "Flamingo One" tender. Both of us were surprised at the size of the marina, 1,150 berths, and there is another, equally large one, right next to it. This marina is part of the MDL Group based in England which has been operating marinas for over 45 years. Perhaps because the parent company is British there were a lot of British flagged vessels in the marina and English is the most common language heard at the dock. Besides the usual marina facilities of showers, toilets, and laundry, this marina also has an on-site bar/restaurant and an infinity swimming pool.

One of the reason LE chose this marina is that it offered a side tie, rather than Med mooring. We needed to give Curare a thorough "lay-up" cleaning and being side tied made this a lot easier. If we are Med moored we have to take sails, lines, laundry, etc. off Curare via the bow which, although doable, is not easy. We had a haul out date on Friday which meant getting all of the major washing finished by Thursday. One of the first things cleaned was the rigging, it was still grimy with Saharan dust collected on the Costa del Sol. GG went to the top of the mast with a bucket of water, LE controlled the lines from the deck. Then it was the sails turn to be washed and dried, and next, all of the running rigging (AKA ropes). We knew Curare was dirty but it was not until we started to wash things that we realized she was filthy. Fortunately the marina had unlimited water and we were very close to a tap; a lot of water was used. Meanwhile LE was washing the boat canvas and cleaning down below, re-washing all of the lockers that she cleaned at the end of July in Vigo. She had forgotten how quickly mold will grow in a warm, humid environment without much air circulation. Not that we had a huge mold problem, but there was a bit in a few out of the way corners that were not washed in July.

We would have been finished our task list by end of the day Thursday, but at noon on Thursday a marinero came to the boat and said we had to be hauled at 3 P.M. Sudden panic; we had not eaten lunch, the dock was still covered in our cleaning supplies and LE had bits and pieces strewn everywhere down below. So we collected all of our things, ate some lunch and motored across the bay to the 75 ton travel lift. Without any instructions from GG (LE thinks the workers thought he was a bit of a nuisance) the competent yard workers had her lifted out, pressure washed and in her resting spot by 4 P.M. For the first time ever Curare is strapped to the ground by four wide tie downs, usually only used if high winds are expected. We don't know what to think.

Cleaning things on the hard means carrying water up and down a ladder so we were glad to have almost finished all of the washing; now it was time to pack clothing, linens etc. into large zip locks, clean and wax the hull, disconnect batteries and solar panels, empty lockers, clean the fridge, stow the sails down below and wipe all of the walls and ceiling with one final rinse of bleach. All of this activity is best done when we are not living on the boat so we rented a small apartamento in the Hostal Augusti, a convenient 10 minute walk from the marina, and 1/2 block from the SPAR grocery store.

By the time we departed everything possible had been done to ensure Curare was clean and safe for a winter by herself, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the Covid virus will settle down and we will be able to return next summer.