37 24.3 N 001 34.1 W Aguilas
Thursday 17th June 2010

Great excitement on two fronts. We have had our first decent anchorage in weeks, clear warm water, swimming off the back of the boat and Richard caught a fish. And they say the Med is fished out!

Yesterday, we were aiming for a place called Garrucha 50 nm away (not spectacular but a useful stop). However, the wind was light and we were going slowly. So after rounding the mighty Cabo de Gata, we ended up after about 30 miles in a little bay called Cala de San Pedro, one of only about 2 possible anchorages en route. We were hot. The little bay was surrounded by cliffs on three sides with lots of holes in them. There were various structures you could only call cave shelters and hovels (with expensive solar panels attached). These were inhabited. And tents. These were also inhabited. With a very weird mixture of new age dreadlocks, and prim and proper Spanish matrons and little children and lots of dogs. Half of them seemed to go around naked and practise a form of yoga that didn't hurt when you got sand in the delicate bits!

But all seemed cheerful and not very noisy. Some night bonfires were lit and the atmosphere was nice. We were not sure how they got there over the cliff tops until we saw the delivery crews coming in high speed RIBS to drop people and/or supplies on and off.

It was here that we had wonderful swimming and a lazy evening meal, after which Richard decided to do a spot of fishing. He caught a beautiful silvery blue thing that we think may have been in the gilt bream family. Typical, to catch dinner just after we had eaten. However he was despatched, cleaned and put in fridge.

We sailed past Garrucha today and on to another spot called Aguilas. We anchored in the NE corner of the bay for more swimming and aforementioned fish that we BBQ'd tonight. He was delicious. We're slowly making tracks in the right direction...

37 33.8 N 001 15.4 W Mazarron
Friday 19th June 2010

After our 2nd successful attempt at finding an anchorage for the night with swimming, etc. we opted to try for a third time. We sailed slowly with cruising chute flying for 20 odd miles further up the coast to the bay of Mazarron, to again tuck in as close as we could into a hummock of rock. A nice spot, we had a swim then went ashore, climbed said hummock to a 16th Century look-out tower that watched over the cliffs and sea below and did a little supermarket shop. Back to the boat for late dinner at 2130 (Spanish timing you know) and then the trouble started.

There was little or no wind. But the swell! It started curling round the headland and came straight in at our boat - with no wind or tide to position us, we were wallowing broadside to the swell which grew to about 1.5 - 2 metres. Things were crashing about in the lockers as we rocked violently from side to side - it was not just about being uncomfortable and not sleeping, it felt downright precarious. The dinghy was still down, with outboard attached. Putting out a kedge anchor would have been insufficient, so we reluctantly decided to make the move c. 4 miles across the bay to Mazarron itself. We hauled the dingly alongside, started the boat and with engine running slowly, pointed her into the swell. R leapt into the dinghy from there, managed to get the outboard off and handed up to me, scrambled back on board, and between us we got the dinghy secured on the stern with a trusty and well practised method of hauling it up. By now it was pitch dark and there were fishing nets and pots in the water. Luckily we knew where they were.

Finally roller-coastered into Mazarron to the Real Club Nautico. We were hailed by a Marinero just about to head off home, who helped us into a berth and got us sorted before leaving the Club for the night. The office would be closed over the weekend, so we were lucky to catch him.

On waking, we were surprised to find Mazarron a very nice, civilised place, the marina pleasant and the town attractive. We found the market, bought a crab and picked up some info about the history of the place - one bit of which was alum excavation and exportation going back centuries, its use being the fixing of dyes.