Month: October 2025

The Coast of the Sun

October 27, 2025 / fiandadrian

By Fi

Yes, we’ve made it warm water. Wait. What? Its still not that warm.

We dock in Estepona. Back in Spain after our little British jolly in Gibraltar.

I try out the water as usual, and to be honest, its still chilly. I’m beginning to lose hope that I will swim this year. I am resigned.

Estepona was cute, a little touristy. We found a bar, and my magnet. And a nice restaurant with lovely limoncello. And a statue.

This is becoming a thing I’ve noticed looking through photos.

It wasn’t filling us with super Med vibes, so we thought we’d go and anchor off a white beach with crystal clear blue water.

And then this happened.

Mojito man! Mojito delivery to the boat. We very much enjoyed the watermelon-y goodness of the mojito and to be honest, I kinda hoped he would come back. He also delivers paella if you want. Pretty awesome service. Reminds me of the fellow in Bantry Bay in Sydney who in the mornings delivers freshly ground proper coffee to the boat.

Moving along… Another beautiful beach, but no. The water is still too cold for this Aussie cold fish.

We decide to push in further. Our experience is that we can usually turn up at a marina and they will find a place to put us. We found a marina that we figured would have space, and we had a whole aeroplane display to welcome us in!

This aeroplane did back flips and nose dives as we came into the marina.

We docked at the waiting dock, and after some time, and a phone call, were promptly told that they don’t have space and we had to move along. Oh… Quick replan.

Another anchorage. A stunning wild anchorage with dry cliffs, some swimming, crystal clear blue water and some nice walks.

The Parque Natural del Cabo de Gata-Níjar.

Stunning anchorage. Away is right over the far side.

I used all my spanish to ask some nice people to take this photo. It consisted of please, thank you very much and 2 glasses of red wine.

At this point we decided lets get going. We had guests visiting us soon, so a quick trip up to Aguilas was in order to pick up our friends for some sailing adventures.

It was definitely at this point, mid September, that we made the decision that this winter, we will put in airconditioning. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot, and I’m from Sydney. Its not so bad on anchor with a nice breeze, but in a marina, no. No, no, no.

Away parked up in possibly the hottest marina I’ve ever been in. There is a huge concrete wall behind us keeping the sea out, and the heat in.

And so it was, with an ice pack on my neck, desperately trying to cool down, that we found our lovely friends, just arrived from rainy cold London.

Yay they made it for a sailing adventure!

After a little boat intro, and an unpack, we head out for a lovely meal and a catchup, ready to get sailing the next day.

We’ve chosen a day with a bit of light up wind sailing and a little bit of tacking, not too bad for a first trip on Away. Ben and Nicole quickly get their sea legs and we make it to a beautiful anchorage at La Chapineta, where I promply set up my SunChill, because the water, the water is WARM!!!!!!!!

With this new found warm water, I just want to anchor, and anchor, and anchor and swim and swim and swim. It still blows my mind that really, nothing is going to sting me and kill me, or bite me and kill me, or stab me and kill me.

We move along the next day to a beautiful island, anchoring pretty far out as there are a few too many boats close in. We spend a bit of a rolly night here, and yes manage to get some swimming in again.

Next was travelling to Cartegena.

We’d been joking about seeing submarines the last couple of days as there were some exercises near us involving a ship and a submarine that we never saw. Well… On approach to Cartegena…

I look out to starboard an exclaim to everyone “That’s a f**king submarine”. Sorry Mum.

We saw a lot of this submarine. It weaved backwards and forwards across our track for about 45 minutes. We would slow down to let it pass, only for it to turn around and head straight at us again.

We found out later it was a brand new submarine and the Navy were taking it out for a spin. Literally.

Ben and Nicole were our tour guides as they had travelled through Cartegena to get to us. Another lovely meal, another lovely Spanish town.

If I do a big burp down there, will they hear it up here?

This is an original Roman road, complete with the foundations of building entries running along.

We are aiming to drop off Nicole and Ben in Palma on Mallorca in the Baeleric Islands, so we keep moving.

There is a man playing bagpipes next to a lighthouse when leaving Cartegena. Of course there is.

I had seen on the charts this inland sea looking thing. On closer inspection, this inland sea was really shallow, full of jelly fish, but you can anchor pretty much anywhere and there might be flamingos! There is a lifting bridge to get in, so we make our way north, timing it for the last bridge opening of the day (after a lot of internet sleuthing and also calling the bridge when we arrived to make sure it was definitely going to open).

We anchored in this abandoned marina for an hour to wait for the bridge.

Maneuvering out to get in line for the bridge crossing.

Ben doing a stellar job of getting us through the bridge.

Anchoring up, another quick swim was had, until yes, we confirmed the inland sea is indeed full of jellyfish. They aren’t really the stinging kind, but its not that nice.

Ben is trying out the water which is delightfully warm, and Nicole is on jellyfish watch. But it was pretty tricky. There is a LOT of jellyfish.

What we do find however, is the mud.

So the idea is, you wade into the water with a container, find a good gooey patch of mud which is in a layer on the bottom, then you collect the mud, get out and smother yourself with it, wait for it to dry, then jump back in the ultra salty water and wash it off.

Some people even lay in this channel. To me it looked like an irrigation channel, but it had very pink salt in it so maybe its good.

It was about a 30 minute trip to the mud in the dinghy. Mainly because with 4 adults we couldn’t get it on the plane.

But we arrive back at Away just in time to snap her with the sunset over the inland sea.

Swimming is still on my mind, so after 2 nights in the jellyfish, we again begin the trip to the islands. We were hoping to do a big trip, but the wind didn’t want to play, so coastal hopping was the go.

Anchoring up in San Gabriel for our launch off to Ibiza the next day.

We didn’t go ashore here as we had planned an early start the next day. Some more swimming was had though!

The wind was pretty friendly across to Ibiza. We make decent time, and we are scoping out some anchorages that may work for us. We were tracking an English boat along the way who seemed to pull into an anchorage on the island south of Ibiza called Formanterra. Hmmm, a quick replan and a 90 degree turn as we neared Ibiza, and all of a sudden we were sailing at 8 knots towards a totally differnet anchorage than we thought.

Ben doing an excellent job hand steering at 8 knots!

We managed to book a mooring ball in this bay super quick, and attempted to pick up the buoy in 25 knots of wind. After several attempts, a lovely man in a dinghy came over to help us out. I have no idea who he was, and we never spoke to him again, but he was an angel. It was really tricky to pick up the ball and tie on, but with teamwork we did it. And when we woke up the next day, all the stress and bruises just faded away as we saw the turquoise calm waters of Ses Illetes. And bonus the beach is dog friendly!

Lots of circle work trying to pick up the mooring.

Two nights were had in this paradise, before we figured we should get to Ibiza. The wind was just not cooperating, and this would be where we would need to leave Ben and Nicole to make their way home. The wind was coming from Palma and with tacking, it would be an extremely long upwind day to get there, so they replanned their trip back. Thanks Ben and Nicole, we had such a great time with you!

Adrian relaxing while our salty seadog friends take us to Ibiza.

Finding ourselves alone again, we quickly found friends! More on some buddy boat fun next time.

The Rock

October 8, 2025 / fiandadrian

By Fi

Me: “Gibraltar VTS, Gibraltar VTS, Gibraltar VTS, this is Away, Away, Away on channel 1-2, do you copy, over” I professionally say on the radio to announce our intentions to cross the bay to our booked marina.

Gibraltar VTS: “Away, Gibraltar VTS, you are clear to proceed. Oh, by the way, what is your air draft?”

Me: “20 metres”

Gibraltar VTS: “Ok thank you”

Confused, we set across the bay of Gibraltar dodging all the boats. Usually authorities are concerned about our water draft, how far under the water we go. But these guys are asking about how high our mast is! I check the charts for bridges or cables over the marina entry. Nothing. Confusion.

In the bay, there are anchored cargo ships, moving cargo ships, high speed ferries everywhere, pilot boats, sail boats, fishing boats, tinnes – you name it. It was possibly worse than crossing the traffic separation scheme in the middle of the English Channel.

Ahhhh there it is! The Rock of Gibraltar!

Why do they want to know our airdraft????? It all became clear as we turned to starboard to enter the marina channel. We literally crossed in front of the Gibraltar airport runway.

From our marina berth. The aeroplanes are massively loud!

It was kind of nice to see a little piece of Britain again. We promptly went out for some proper stodge food, a feed of fish and chips, steak and ale pie and some beer. A couple of Australians went to an Irish pub, were served by Spanish speakers, and ate English food.

Wandering around town, a little piece of Britain.

After our stodge, we realised a pretty big weight was lifting off our shoulders (and maybe adding to our bellies). The Orcas. There hasn’t been an “attack” east of Gibraltar for years, and from what we can tell, the Orcas are attacking boats in the north of Portugal at the moment anyway. As the weight lifted and lifted, we realised that Gibraltar would be a good place to actually rest for a while, decompress and get a few little jobs done.

We take a walk to “the Frontier” the airport track between Spain and Gibraltar. Yes this is people walking to Spain perpendicular to the runway.

We make our way to the roof top of the permanently docked hotel boat.

We find the chandlery, of course, wander around town and do some shopping, visit some nice wine bars and restaurants, and finally, we feel rested enough to actually visit “the rock”.

Up we go one sunny but windy morning to the top in the gondola and plan out a day looking around the rock.

Away is down there somewhere, next to the runway.

We meet the monkeys, Barbary macaques on the top. They are not interested in humans, unless you have a backpack or pram which they associate with food. We had neither, and so just observed from afar.

Walking on the top of the rock, we spy our first real view of the Mediterranean Sea. Oh my gosh we’re almost there!

As close as I was prepared to get to the Barbary macaques.

We walk down the hill a little to visit St. Michaels Cave and the angel inside. The formations were spectacular.

The angel. They have a fabulous light display going on highlighting all the rock formations.

After the cave, we wanted to see some of the tunnels. We we walking down hill a lot. Like, a lot. Maybe we don’t want to walk back up.

Ahhhhh, we were walking down hill so much, we decided we’d just keep walking down.

We walked down to the Siege tunnels, built around 1782 with the desire to reach a rock formation called “the notch” which they didn’t quite make it to. They also accidently blew a hole in the side of the rock, which happily provided much needed ventilation, and so this became a thing. Also because its good to poke canons out of.

One of the convenient holes. We completely neglected to take any photos of the actual canons. Oops.

Yes, this is the med, and I’m still looking longingly at it.

Next stop was the WW2 tunnels. Yes, there are so many tunnels in the rock its basically Swiss.

We were getting lower and lower, definitely not walking back up to catch the gondola at this point.

The famous Spitfire was shipped to Gibraltar in pieces and assembled. Kinda like Ikea furniture.

It was super fun visiting the rock. We were happy to have spent a bit of time here, recuperating and exploring. But now… It was time.

Leaving the marina in Gibraltar this plane conveniently landed to show how close we are to the runway.

We leave Gibraltar, fill up with some wildly cheap diesel, and turn left. Then left again, straight into the rising sun. East. To the Med!

Goodbye Rock! I’m off to warm, clear blue water that I can actually swim in because nothing really wants to eat me or sting me!

And we arrive, finally, in the Med. Our first Med mooring. Don’t worry, we get used to it and no one died and nothing broke.

We used to be almost the biggest boat in the marina. I guess we’re in the med now!

Orca Alley

October 7, 2025 / fiandadrian

After our rolly anchorage welcome to the Algarve, we decided to leave that morning and motor our way along the coast (there is still no wind) to see if any of the other anchorages were less rolly. We had a marina booking ready for the following night at Lagos, and a call to them confirmed that we could not come in earlier. Please please please let there be a less rolly anchorage. After looking in a few bays along the coast, and getting closer to Lagos, we reasoned that we’d either have to put up with another rolly night, or go past Lagos to a harbour, then the following day go back to Lagos.

Doesn’t look like the boat would roll around a lot, but once Away is stopped, she moves a lot in this. Its very uncomfortable and doesn’t give a good nights sleep.

Finally, about 10 nautical miles before Lagos, we found what appeared to be the least rolly place on this part of the coast. We gently went up and down the waves, and thought, good, we will get some sleep.

Then this happened.

So, we put up with another rolly night, and leave early to get into Lagos, to wait at their waiting pontoon until our berth became available.

Heading east into to Lagos, we experience the strong easterly winds that are causing all these waves. Finally in the approach channel for the marina, we experience the immense tourist traffic in the tight channel! A number of boats were hovering before the marina, due to the pedestrian bridge that needs to open to let them in, which means a lot of traffic, a tight channel, and a bow thruster that isn’t really working as well as it should, plus a cross wind wanting to push the bow around. Making a bold move around a tourist boat who we had no idea what they were doing, we just docked in the last available spot on the waiting pontoon. Phew. We were in. No one died.

We waited for about 5 hours while the motor boat in our berth had a long leisurely lunch and sank a few beers (Adrian went to see where our berth was). Finally, it was time to visit Lagos.

Lagos is a cool town, there is the old town area, plus the built up area around the marina with all sorts of restaurants and a constant stream of tourist boats promising the best day out at the local caves and grottos.

And we find a restaurant..

One of our favourite things to do. Yummy food.

We’d seen some of the famous caves and grottos from our trip in, and also from our walks, and it was particularly hot and windless. A trip to the pool was in order, leaving Bernie at home in the relative cool of our well insulated home.

After a few days of this, the wind finally was filled in enough for us to sail further down the coast and back to Spain.

We were looking forward to anchoring again, and had found some much more protected spots east along the coast from Lagos.

We had a nice sail into an anchorage near Faro, in a lagoon. We had been warned by the guide books that the tide can run quite fast in this lagoon. It was still very windy there, but flat calm water, and so we anchored next to another yacht, but still with plenty of space between us. Making some plans for the next day, sunset dinners were had, and then we heard a bit of a shout.

“Is there something wrong with your anchor???” shouted the boat next to us. Ummmm… no. But they did seem to suddenly be very close. Maybe there was something wrong with our anchor. More shouting conversations, before we agreed to chat on the radio.

Our neighbours were concerned because they thought their anchor was acting strangely and wanted to know if ours was. We were concerned because they seemed to be getting closer and closer to us, and as we were the last to anchor, it is up to us to move. Turns out they just wanted some moral support. Their boat was brand new, and they hadn’t had a lot of time anchored in super tidal areas, where the wind and tide make your anchor chain do weird things.

We stayed up for a while to make sure we didn’t hit them, or vice versa, then decided in fact this anchorage, whilst not rolly, was a bit annoying with the massive current and the wind still pumping.

We left.

We’re getting closer to the med, but also very very close now to “Orca Alley”, the place where most Orca “attacks” happen, so its still very much close to the coast travelling.

We skip along the coast to Mazagon for a couple of nights and some beach time, then on to Cadiz.

We entered Cadiz port at the same time as a modest cruise ship. We won the race to the dock with pilot boat ensuring suitable separation between our vessels

Cadiz had a wonderful old town, but to be honest, to get there was like walking through the movie set for 28 days later or other similar end of the world zombie movie. No people, rotting buildings, the occasional stray cat, stuff everywhere, flying rubbish and sunny and dry.