Friday 26 April 2019

We planned to spend the next couple of nights at anchor, so it was vital to get some exercise today even though we had a reasonable distance to cover. I am not normally one who enjoys early morning exercise, but the suggestion that we went to what the marina guy had described as the more “famous” bakery, was enough to get me moving. Although it was about 8:00 we were able to run through near deserted pavements on our way. We armed ourselves with croissants and pane au chocolate (they only sold them in fours, so we had to get four), and then ran back to the boat. We showered etc before leaving but were able to enjoy breakfast on the move.

While slipping out of Alicante we passed a squared rigged ship that was obviously having refurbishment done. During the night the top of one of the masts had broken and was being suspended at a strange angle by the remaining rigging. There is now even more work to be done on the ship.

Our route took us across a large bay, and for most of the day we could see our destination in front and Alicante behind.  Being able to see where you are going makes it seems close, but in fact we had nearly 40 miles to cover, so the progress did not seem as quick as it could have.  The winds were between light and nothing, a big change from yesterday where you felt a lull and then saw that the wind was only blowing at 22 knots, not the 25 it had been shortly before. We got the spinnaker out for its first use of the year, but it soon came down again as there was not enough wind to fill it.

We are seeing a fair amount of wildlife, there are more birds here than there have been anywhere since we left Britain, it must be that the cliffs provide nesting places.  We also had a very quick visit from a couple of dolphins and then, as we both looked at a fishing buoy that we were passing, a swordfish jumped clear out of the water. We also spotted a rather strange looking fish that we think was a small shark.

Various views from our anchorage

We anchored in a small bay at Moraira. When we arrived there was one boat there but this soon left and we enjoyed the seclusion of our own anchorage, albeit under the gaze of the houses on the nearby cliffs and hillside.

Distance covered today	37	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	210	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	210	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)