It’s not quite a circuit of the Mediterranean but it signifies a stage of our journey where we cross our path and are on our way back out to start the trip around the world. 

We have addressed a number of the minor and not so minor problems and Mariadz is in good shape to go. 

We are running a little short of fuel having had to motor a lot more than we wanted from Sardinia and although we have 200 litres (with another 80 in cans), we decide to top up anyway so we have enough to get us to Gibraltar where it will hopefully be cheaper. That said, having paid €2.21 in Italy a few weeks ago, we are pleasantly surprised that it is €1.87 in Torrevieja. We add a little extra fuel – we don’t know how much it would cost in Almerimar but that feels like a good price so we add 350 litres. It takes quite a time – the pump is not fast but the bill is significantly less than the €1,000+ we paid last time!

It is an English bank holiday weekend at the end of August which gives us loads of time to travel the 150 miles south to Almerimar where we berthed for a couple of weeks four years previously.  The weather forecast is benign to say the least – as they say about the Mediterranean, either not enough wind or too much in the wrong direction! Today is little with barely a couple of Knots of wind coming from the East so the sea is calm with an occasional swell, from previous days weather or the wake of big ships maybe. We should arrive in about 24 hours.

Today, Bonnie has decided it is her day and has joined me in the cockpit. Two hours later she is still stuck to my side! That will her watch done as she goes back down below. We are conscious that this will probably be her last trip in the boat with one last road trip home back to England where she will remain on terra firma as we go around the world. It’s mixed emotions for us, on the one hand we will miss her terribly and one thing she has proved over the last four weeks is she can handle it. On the other hand, she is not a young cat and any health scare at sea could be serious. She will be happy with Lisa in England and her happiness is our main priority. 

And then suddenly nothing happened, and nothing continued to happen for some time until Maria decided it was time to start fishing! Fresh sea food for dinner it is then…. 

Having spent some time consulting with her new best friend, Charlie the ChatGPT, she is ready to get the first rod out. The sea is like glass apart from our wake and in the distance I can see some ships traversing the traffic separation system off Cabo de Palos. The only interesting thing to do is to watch Maria working out how to catch fish 🙂 she is so confident she is lashing down the rod with a thick line to ensure we hold on to the rod when the “big one” bites. Hmmm, we’ll see 🙂 while we wait for dolphins or a fish to bite, the only distraction are the brown fried egg jell fish drifting past with lots of little fish under them apparently seeking safety from larger predators. Looking that up was a highlight 🙂

And then the dolphins arrive but they are shy and stay between 50 and 100m away from us going in the opposite direction. At one stage, we thought a couple had peeled off to have a play but they turned back to be with their friends. Maybe later.

We always keep a listen out to channel 16 when on passage and there are regular reports in it as well as ships initiating communications. In this part of the sea, the information is presented as a pan-pan, which is unusual. Unfortunately, when you say it three times with a broad accent, it sounds like the old Perl and Dean cinema adverts- 

“papan, papan, papan, papan, papapan, 

papan, papan, papan, papaaaaan.”

Every time he comes on, we start singing it!

Dinner is straight from the freezer tonight and a lovely lasagne homemade by Maria. Really tasty. As the sun sets, we are starting to think about the night watches. I will probably get some rest at 10pm and come on watch at midnight with a plan to see it through til 4am so Maria gets a good rest. I will then come back on at sunrise. Maria will get to see sunset and sunrise which she loves and get some rest too. It has worked well recently so hopefully tonight will be the same. It promises to be a quiet night with no wind to speak of and the sea still.

A few hours later, as it comes up to midnight, there is a bit of commotion as I hear Maria chasing Bonnie round the deck – there goes her night time privileges – Bonnie not Maria. As Maria brings a caught cat back into the cockpit, she tells me of the interesting few hours she has had. She has seen a bunch of random green lights which seem to be marked buoys not on the charts. She has had to adjust our course to keep these on our starboard side but they have been regular, and really well lit. It has kept her on her toes, as well as Bonnie’s antics.  Maria also describes one that looked like a yacht but seemed to be a marker buoy too. Shortly after I come in watch I see one of these too, except mine genuinely is a yacht running with navigation lights, steaming light and anchor light. Hmmm very confusing but a mile and a half away so not a problem for us. Maybe they look at our navigation lights and steaming light and think we are running with the wrong lights! 

It’s quite a bright night with the moon having been full a few nights ago. It means there aren’t lots of stars but it does help with spotting things in the water and getting an idea of distance. Maria has adjusted course and seems to have us perfectly aligned in the channel between all of these buoys as I continue to see them for a long time into my watch.

At this stage, Bonnie has been down below sulking having been caught on her wander round deck. She thinks a suitable time for contemplation has now elapsed and moans at the closed door. I decide to let her back into the cockpit but she will only be allowed to sit with me and maybe next to the winches. We will see how she does but for the moment she is happy snuggling up to daddy-cat.

I remember from various courses that the Med. Is not particularly tidal but we have noticed quite a current at times impacting our speed by one knot (which at yacht speeds is significant!). We are now running with it, having fought against it for the early evening and our arrival time, which had been drifting into the afternoon is back to being late morning. There’s plenty of time for that to change either way though. As we leave the med, we will need to be conscious of the tide as the flow hardly ever favours us heading west because the med is constantly being “filled”. This is caused by evaporation in the Mediterranean but means that there will almost always be a current against us as we try to leave. Hence why we think of the Mediterranean as a lobster pot, easy to get in and difficult to get out again afterwards.

After about an hour of my watch, Maria’s well lit buoys have stopped but I have a fishing boat and a large sailing yacht to contend with in the next hour. AIS is truly a great thing although it is easy to become reliant on it and miss the fishing boats (deliberately not using AIS to not reveal their position to their competitors) and other small craft that aren’t using it. As I change course to avoid the large yacht, Aurelius, which will get too close, the green lit buoys return to keep me on my toes. Like the big ships, we like to make minor course changes a long way out to avoid other boats and I have made quite big changes to avoid Aurelius. At about a mile away, they make a small change to open the gap a little further. Any further changes from me would have started to get me closer to land so I am grateful for their late adjustment. Maybe they just wanted a good view of Mariadz! Once they are past I can get back on course. 

At just after 4am, it’s time for Maria to wake up for her watch. I take us through a few obstacles – a yacht and phantom east cardinal buoys – someone added to the chart but they aren’t there, before I get my head down for a rest. I’m woken with a start when Maria talks to me about a fishing boat we have come up upon. We are behind and so there is a danger of nets that we need to avoid. We agree to turn to port to get around her. And that’s it for my sleep, Bonnie is not sitting nicely having cuddles but running the mummy gauntlet trying to get onto the deck with stern words being exchanged.

The sun is up and it is going to be another clear, windless day with three knots of wind on the bow, plus the wind we generate doing six knots. Our speed through the water is steady but our speed over ground is dropping again as we fight the current coming into the Mediterranean.

The current is slowing us right down but the wind has shifted and strengthened as we cross the southern coast of Spain. It is now a northerly, so on the beam, at eight knots. Maria is in a rush to get in and I am keen to get the sails out at some point – so they all come out. We add two knots to our speed and knock off some time from the arrival too 🙂 we may be motor sailing but at least we are sailing at 7.5 knots 🙂

It isn’t long til we arrive at Almerimar, tie up t the quay next to the office, scene of a hiccup when leaving four years ago. After checking in we can go to our berth which is easy enough with loads of space and Mariadz has her home for the next two weeks while Bonnie journeys back to England.