Sunday 14 April 2019

It’s been a day of contrasts, and fantastic.

We had a relaxed, quiet start, and despite leaving late morning, when the wind has usually kicked in, we had to motor all the way to Cartagena, because there was no wind. That is until we arrived at the marina and had to park, where is was blowing a hooley. I had to abort the first attempt to get in our slot, but got in on second attempt with no problem. We had planned to finish our sailing, last year here, but the weather conspired against us, so it feels good to have arrived six months later. All the better for the fact that arriving on Palm Sunday and being here at Easter will be extra special.

Cartagena is a city and major naval base in Murcia. It was founded by the Carthaginians around 220BC and boomed during the Roman period. We have lots of delights in store to see, but have arrived at the beginning of Semana Santa, when there are daily celebrations and processions in the lead up to Easter.

We arrived at about 3.30pm an the marinaro who welcomed us in, let us know about the parade at 5.00pm. We speedily put Equinox to bed, putting on all the covers and closing everything down and rushed off the the city. En route we met the German couple we had chatted with in Aguadulce, who also left there on Thursday, but early morning. They had sailed to Cartagena in two days and had had a very difficult time, with super high winds getting into their midway stop over. They had been concerned about us, when we had not arrived yesterday, so were surprised to hear we had had a very gentle four days and had stayed an extra night at our second anchorage because it was so delightful. It was a complete contrast of experiences with just a small time difference in the journey timing.

The Palm Sunday Parade was nothing short of incredible. It continued for two and a half hours, beginning with Bible stories, then continuing with groups from the local churches accompanied by their pasos (decorated floats of the Easter story). Cartagena is famous for these florally decorated floats and there is great rivalry between the two strict religious brotherhoods, the Marrajos and the Californios, which are then divided into the churches. I lost count of how many floats there were. Each church must have had at least a hundred people in the team, which began with small children, progressing on with ages, a marching band, and finishing with the paso, mostly carried by about fifty. Sweets and cards from each church were distributed to the watching crowds.

We are looking forward to lots more wonderful treats that this part of the world has to offer.

Distance covered today	23	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	99	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	99	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)