madrid

a beautiful journey by train across most of spain revealed the most surprising sites: very rural and some very poor places; certainly something not expected of Europe. at the end of the line we arrived in the beautiful city of madrid. because we are now so accustomed to more quiet places, a city this big and busy is a bit overwhelming. our sightseeing here is not the most conventional. we enjoy things like the AC in the hotel room a nice big dry bed, or the nice long showers with the rarity of hot water. and believe it or not what we fancy the most is to go to the movies. all things that are not so common on board. but more than for tourism we came to madrid to renew a passport which not so unbelievable is already full of stamps and also to take my flight back home for a couple of months for now. a short stay with mixed feelings of course.

gibraltar

back in palma we found out that argentineans can come without a visa to europe and stay up to 3 months consecutive and 6 per year if they go out of europe for 3 months. some complicated rule which in simple terms meant that we could not stay in Europe after august 31. big problem considering we decided to cross the atlantic in november. so we changed plan from the originally intended stay in the south of spain to another place outside the European union. That only gave us two options. morocco or gibraltar. after making inquiries of marinas and chandleries we decided on gibraltar and headed there.



so from ibiza we had the last sail of the med. approximately 300 miles south west on what were the most perfect weather conditions of the last couple of months.
favorable winds and currents followed by no wind some times and flat seas and many many dolphins swimming around. No clouds, beautiful skies… etc. we really had all one imagines on a passage. It was rather emotional, at least for me; as I will be getting off the boat for several months; so it felt like a perfect farewell and close of a chapter.


The only complicated part of this leg came when we had to round the rock of Gibraltar. This was a race against time. There is a constant easterly current from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean of 2 knots. That means we already had current against. In addition, this current can be reversed or increased depending on the wind and the tides. to have favorable tide we looked at the charts and figured out we hat to arrive in Gibraltar, at the marina at 7:20 PM that is one hour before high tide. The calculations gave us the best favorable times to sail around from 3:20 PM until 7:20PM. We could not stay out one minute after because the current would start to play against us. In addition we had strong winds against (20 knots) which would make it impossible to advance with both current and wind against. We force the engine, motor sailed and generally tried to get the best speed for the last 4 hours of our sail, having the last hour a speed of even only 1.5 knots… but finally unbelievably enough we made it into the marina at 7:19PM . we could not believe it when we made the entry in the blog. Exactly on time. A bit stressful but we made it.




once in the marina we relaxed, cleaned as usual and started packing for our trip to madrid and for me my departure. we also went to the immigration authorities and were pleased to have confirmed that, being a British territory, argentineans could stay here without problems and without the 3 month cap that we had in spain. so we found the place that would become home for esteban and puerto seguro until november. a perfect spot with a good and comfortable marina, chandleries, many restaurants shops, and just a walk (and a cross of a live runway) away from spain. a very interesting place indeed.




after so many miles our boat needs serious maintenance. its over 32 years are really showing, not to mention the thousands of miles that we have covered already. There is nothing really wrong except that every item on board needs to be looked at, inspected and in some cases some parts replaced. so esteban will do just that in the next three moths to come. Puerto seguro will be like new again and ready to cross the atlantic at the end of the year.

ibiza

ibiza is in the south of the balearic group and the most western island, very close to mainland spain. we had heard about this island but really did not know much about it. when we arrived we realized that the place is famous for the clubs, the music and the parties. the port of san antonio, where we anchored is not very pretty. it has tall ugly buildings from them 80s and the shops and restaurants are not stylish at all . everything is tailored for the tourist that visits this place which must average around 18 years of age. it is like cancun on spring break. little activity in the day and lots of parties at night. young europeans, mostly british, come here in the summer to party hard. Walking around the streets of san antonio confirmed to us that we are definitely getting old.


besides the craziness of the town, we found the port to be conformable and we enjoyed the company of other sailor friends we met here. in fact this island was particularly special for that. we met wonderful people from spain whom we went with to the famous café del mar bar and had some drinks. We also met a great couple from Ukraine and another from south africa. With all of them we spent some quality time.







we also did the typical touring around by bus this time and discovered some pretty and interesting parts of the town of Ibiza on the other side of the island. at the end we had a wonderful time here; not the typical party time but some more quiet and relaxing one!

valldemosa

after visiting palma on the cost we went up the mountains of the north of mallorca to soller. we actually never made it there but instead visited many other smaller towns and one particularly beautiful called valldemosa; small and quiet! definitely more of our type of place. in this town we saw that the back tire of the scooter had two big lumps. this made us choose smaller roads to get back to porto colom. driving at high speeds in the fast highway would have been very dangerous. we were actually lucky we did not have an accident on the way there. imagine that… having sailed safely through pirate waters and end up in an accident in a motorbike in the highway… rather pathetic. But nothing happened and we had a not so urban route back to port. small towns and countryside views.

palma really has it all: beaches, great ports, big cities and small, historical sites and architecture and even their own language which is not like Spanish; at least we could not understand. thankfully everyone also spoke spanish, so communicating was not a problem at all.

palma

palma is the main city in mallorca. we rented a scooter as usual and planned to visit a small beach town. when we arrived however we were very surprised to see the city was not small at all. it was big, busy, touristy and very developed. pretty of course but not quiet. it also looked very chic with excellent hotels, boutiques and good restaurants all over. the port, we thought was bigger than miami with many terminals for huge cruise ships. the marinas were the most fancy we have seen so far with mega yachts of the type we had only seen in boating magazines; all looked very sophisticated and luxurious and of course mega expensive. we were glad we did not arrive there in puerto seguro. not only it would have probably cost us a fortune, but our boat would have certainly looked like a dingui to the other big bots around.

getting there was in itself funny as we entered a huge 4 lane super fast highway without noticing; so there we were as fast as the little scooter would go, and looking 100% as lost tourists that could not find the small country side roads. so we had a very urban day between the many tourists but enjoying nevertheless the great sites such as the amazing cathedral and the shops and restaurants around.

porto colom

after another 300 miles due west from sardinia we arrived in the balearic islands of spain. we arrived in porto colom in the island of mallorca; an amazing spot full of boats at anchor in a fully protected cala. the bay is very shallow and is full of vessels from huge motor yachts to the typical cruising sailboats to the small lasers from the sailing academy with all the kids every day sailing around us.

on the shore the town has lots of restaurants, some of them super fancy and great stores and everything we could possibly need or want. we were happy to hear spanish on the VHF and also in the marina offices and the weather forecasts. it made us feel like at home. we quickly met our neighbors and were invited to have dinner with them on board their catamaran and with another couple that left from florida as well. it was wonderful, our first night in this port and we already had friends and a wonderful time. after that, every other day and night was similar, exploring the town and the nearby calas by dinghi. we visited the biggest cave so far in the water and as usual walked all around. another great spot!!

beaches of southern sardinia

we decided to go beach hopping in the south of sardinia and anchored at several beaches along the coast. some appeared in the maps or guides, some did not. we were sailing with the boat very close to shore and simply anchored wherever we spotted a place we liked.



tuarreda was the last of the spots we visited. when we went to shore to the cool bar on the beach we got a nice welcome from the bar tender who proudly said we were in one of the most famous and pretties beaches in the world. after this comment esteban and i looked at each other and realized that we have actually been to so many beaches around the world already that we had some sort of authority to tell this guy if he was right or not. and immediately in unison we told him he was right; and then we explained how many beaches we had seen so far; to which he was extremely pleased to have this confirmation from these world travelers that his sport was in fact one of the prettiest in the world; and it was indeed.

unfortunately we had very strong winds while we were here and we were forced to be a lot in the boat and could not leave it because we were dragging and also it would be too irresponsible to leave the boat with very strong winds while at anchor. But eventually the winds died down and we enjoyed this little piece of paradise. here, we were visited by a good friend of esteban from argentina that moved to italy many years ago, so she is really a local now. it was wonderful to spent some time with her and hear her stories of how life goes in sardinia. and from what she told us, is definitely not a bad place to live at all!

pula

the biggest town we visited in sardinia was pula, and this is not really big. it has around 6000 habitants and during siesta time it seems a bit like a ghost town. it has lovely small stoned streets full of restaurants and shops. almost all the houses have very pretty windows full of flowers of different types and colors.

the people that live her are very easy going and relaxed. we felt the atmosphere of a small town. we loved it. because the scooter rental was the highest price so far of the trip (102 dollars par day!!!) we decided to walk around this lovely region and were lucky to be picked up by locals in their cars who offered us rides. so we gladly hopped into their cars and saw a bit of their home while talking to them and getting to know a little bit some of the local culture. a perfect place to spend our vacation time in sardinia!

sardinia

because of lack of time we could not sail in the north of sardinia which was very much recommended by many friends that have sailed there. instead we only went to the south of this island but we were very pleased. if the south is so pretty i can only imagine how the north is. we found the towns and beaches around cagliari to be relaxing, quiet and extremely beautiful. the few days we were in sardinia we felt like on a vacation (as if we were not already in a major one) but we really did because we only stopped in remote anchorages with beautiful beaches in the background and white sand bottoms with transparent water. we would swim to shore or around the boat and spend the day enjoying the sun in the boat. perd’e sali was the town we arrived at. with only one restaurant and nothing else to do or see, we walked around the lonely streets, saw the many big and pretty houses mostly opened in the summers only, and enjoyed the beaches and atmosphere of a truly remote vacation place.

the evening shows

the leg from tropea to sardinia was about 360 miles due west passing through the aeolian islands in the middle. one of them is called stromboli, after the volcano that lies in the place. the island itself is only the volcano with a couple of towns near the shore. because it is so difficult to anchor in this place, we decided to only sail around it by night to see the show. the volcano has erupted many times, and is constantly active with minor eruptions, often visible from the sea, giving rise to the island's nickname "lighthouse of the mediterranean". sure enough when we sailed around it we saw the volcano’s eruptions, one every 5 to 10 minutes. it was unbelievable to see this. first because it is almost unreal to be sailing so close to a volcano and second, even more surreal when that volcano is active and constantly throwing lava up the sky. it was fantastic. this show lasted several hours for as long as we kept seeing the volcano’s lights in the horizon.


the second night at sea on this passage was uneventful except for a bad food poisoning that esteban caught in italy. it was his turn this night to see the fire… of another kind of course. luckily the whole ordeal lasted only one night and by daylight he was feeling a lot better.

the final night of the crossing was probably the scariest of our trip. during the day we saw the barometric pressure gauge go down quite a bit while at the same time we saw all the heavy clouds getting more dense and dark as the night approached. by nightfall we were sailing through the worse electrical storm we have ever seen. the clouds were surrounding us and we had nowhere to go. at some point in the night we tried to sail backwards to avoid being hit by the lighting but we also had lighting in the back, and to our left and right. there was nothing else to do but put all electronics that could fit inside the oven (i am not sure this works but some sailors do it, so we did it just in case) and wait for the daylight to come. we were so happy to see the sun light and with it the end of this grand 9 hour electrical storm.

unfortunately we did not take any pictures to share and show what we saw. these are only of the clouds forming earlier in the afternoon before. we were too occupied praying and literally maneuvering the boat around the strikes; well esteban was at least. i was below deck for the most part, afraid covering my eyes and ears imagining how we could get out of it. watching the display of lights would have been wonderful in a TV screen or some other place safe, but certainly not in the middle of the sea with the mast to act as the only pole to attract them and with the most horrific sounds on top of us. miraculously, and i really think it was a miracle, we were not hit by any of them and somehow made it to the morning safe and in one piece and with all the electronics working.

vibo valentia

this city is located some 40 kilometers up the mountain and away form the coast. we rented a scooter and went around little roads in calabria all the way to this non touristic place called vibo vanlentia. here we met some local officials and had a not so touristic experience in the questura to process some papers related to our travels. so we experienced a little bit the day to day business and some of the bureaucracy of the country. most of all, the officials were always very polite and friendly with us. we also had one of the best meals of the trip so far. in a little local place, nothing fancy, not expensive; just simple good food served by the owner: a kind and big italian woman that was clearly very happy to see us eating everything she served us.