37 33.8 N 001 15.4 W Cartagena
Monday 21st June 2010

After cooking the crab, we set off for Cartagena. First however, we went round the headland and dropped anchor for lunch in a stunning bay surrounded by cliffs. Clear clear blue water, you could see our anchor clearly 10 metres down in clean sand. Had crab (naturally), swim and siesta. We were joined by 2 enormous yachts racing, beautiful gleaming things with four spreaders, about 20 crew - each must have been 25 metres long. One Spanish, one from Guernsey.

We left at the same time as the Guernsey yacht, they went well offshore (with a boom their size, you don't want to risk accidental gybes!) and we more directly. We met up again at the entrance to Cartagena, them bearing down on us (trying to mow us down?) and shouting at us to get out of the way. Now they were the overtaking boat and the windward boat, both of us on port tacks, they had clear water and we had a digue or harbour wall smack in front of us. To non sailors that means we were the "stand on" vessel and they should give way to us. A RIB roared up to us and said they had lost their engine and were coming into harbour and berthing under sail. We gybed round, did a 360 to get us astern of them and followed them in. They apologised later (think the skipper got a tad het up).

Now Cartagena is really interesting. Named after Carthage, it has an ancient history going back to the Phoenicians. Its port is vast with commercial basins, naval basins and 3 yacht basins. Yet it doesn't have that grubby industrial look about it. The avenues are wide marble and travertine limestone tile. There are many of the quirky statues I love so much and that the Spanish do so well. In addition, though, they are trying hard to excavate and display some of their extraordinary archaeological treasures - we feel we have only touched the surface. They have a Roman amphitheatre (reminds me a bit of the one at Paestum), city walls and Moorish castle, Roman streets and roman house, now preserved as a museum with 1st century BC tiling and wall paintings, 6th & 7th Cent BC Punic and Phoenician remains galore with amphorae of all kinds (holding wine, olives, salted fish, etc), vessels, ornaments, trinkets and tools. We went also to a stunning new submarine archaeological museum that housed Phoenician shipwrecks and their contents, traced the marine history of the region (mostly through underwater artifacts) and carefully recovered and itemised tools, personal effects, needles and adornments, pots and earthenware, ivory tusks with engravings and even one willows basket that has survived after 8,500 years! The Pheonician boats were surprisingly small, but also amazingly complex in their construction.

The town has lots of falling down bits though and you can see in the rubble underneath, the remains of roman pillars and cobbled streets just lying around. A lot of work still to do - funds probably not permitting!

Off today, whether this will go up or not, I don't know. We have a connection of a sort, but it is so intermittent and slow, uploading is impossible.