Valencia to Cartagena

With so much going on at the moment, I've let this blog slip somewhat.  I'm actually writing this update on the 13th September 2018.  I'll have two more updates to post after this -then we'll be back up to date with the 'Honeymooners Edition"!..

Flying out on the 12th of October 2017, just after my Exhibition at the Rountree Tryon Gallery in London, this was to be a swift boat moving exercise.  The plan was to sail Bumblebee down the coast from Valencia to Almeria, where overwintering is nice and cheap.  This was expected to be a fairly tedious stretch of coastline so we brought lots of reading material.

The first leg was 4 1/2 hours to our familiar Club Nautico de Gandia where we arrived rather late at 8:30pm on the 13th.  We had a swim in the morning before briskly setting off again towards Altea -we were aware we had a long way to go to Almeria.

On the 14th we sailed past Benidorm and took in the unusual view of skyscrapers crammed in along the coastline.  After passing Alicante we unexpectedly stumbled across a tiny Island called Tabarca so we dropped the anchor and had a look around.  Spider Island might have been a more suitable name..

By the 15th of October we were making good progress when we pulled into Cartagena for the night.  The entrance at first promises little -there are large industrial and naval facilities in the port and it took some time to navigate past the huge cruise ship to find our marina.

Things soon looked up as we started to explore the town.  This little gem of a town echos a past of extreme wealth and a rich history as a convenient and protected natural harbour.  The more we saw the more we liked.  The marina was well run, affordable and full of friendly sailors.  The next morning we should have set sail for Almeria where we were booked in for the winter and had our flights home.  Instead we signed a contract for a 6 month berth, prepped Bumblebee for the winter and set out to explore all Cartagena has to offer.

What Julia didn't know at this point was the fact I had a jeweller in London making a ring and I planned to ask her to marry me.  In the next couple of days I missed several perfect opportunities to ask her but I needed to wait until I had the ring!

So with Bumblebee safely secured in her sheltered berth, we headed back to England for the winter months and one or two significant like events..