Thursday 25 April 2019

The ladies in the marina office had told us that they open at 9.00 am. If we wanted to leave before then, we should let them know the night before, then call the marinaros when we were ready in the morning and they would come to the boat to take back the electricity adaptor and refund the rather steep 100 euro deposit. That sounded like a good reason to leave before 9.00 am, so saving us the time involved in going to the office. As it happened we wanted to leave well before then anyway, so as to get to Alicante before the wind got too much in the afternoon. As were traversed across the harbour, we had to slalom round the in coming fishing boats, several skulling boats and some two metre day boats, with guys fishing amongst all the traffic.

We had a superb sail, the whole way, even better than yesterday. These two days have made the waiting to go worthwhile. It was again downwind sailing. The speed didn’t drop much below 7 knots and for a good deal of the time we were stonking along between 8 and 10 knots. We’ve needed to wear our mid-layers. It’s still quite chilly out on the water, but great to not need 5 layers of thermals and foulies, which we would need in UK waters at this time of the year.

It must be galling to have spent a fortune on the nearest boat, and found yourself upstaged, parked next to 3 much bigger boats.

We shared the reception berth with this beauty

We arrived in Alicante about 1.00 pm, having crossed under the flight path for the airport. Planes, mainly EasyJet, were arriving at about 5 minute intervals. The harbour is huge, with the fishing part and the container port within it, then the two marinas, which are also big. Even at low season prices its by far the most expensive yet, but it is right in the heart of the big city.

Within a few minutes of us tying up at the reception pontoon, the border force arrived and took an age filling in their forms. They were mainly interested in where we paid our taxes; asking several times if we had a residence in Spain. It’s the first time we have been asked to show our sailing qualification certificates. They check those here too. At last, they were finished, satisfied, as we know, that all the paperwork is in order, so we could check in at the marina office. By the time we docked in our berth we had used up two hours, so were starving.

Alicante, from what we saw in a two hour walk around, has an old walled city on one side, dating back to the defences against the invasions by the Berbers in the Middle Ages, then a lot of 19th century grand buildings, along with the more modern urban sprawl. We called into the cathedral, which was quite plain, but were treated to a choir and orchestra, who we guessed were practising for Accession day. The lady opera singer was belting it out, very impressively.

The beach and promenade are rather pretty. We liked the city; has a nice understated buzz about it. While we were walking around in the early evening the pavement restaurants were getting ready for the night service. We understand that the place really comes alive after 9.00 pm.

Distance covered today	32	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	173	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	173	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)