This is the start of our Mediterranean adventure. We have left the Atlantic behind. The weather is hot & fabulous, the sea is so warm & lovely ( I just had to go in) & it is even warm enough for Andrew.

We are going to leave VA here for 3 weeks whilst we spend a few days at Banoo Villa in Nerja & then fly back with Alex to the UK for a couple of weeks.

We will resume our adventure towards the end of September - back soon.

We have had a few pleasant days here mostly doing jobs on the villa after a hard season of rentals. There are always things to fix & replace. Not much else to report other than some good Spanish food, \240lovely hot sunshine & a nice trip into the mountains.

We are back at Sphinx & it’s a bit chilly 🥶

We are back and almost ready to set off again along the costa del sol. We plan to leave here tomorrow morning. It’s been a great safe port for VA whilst we have been to Nerja & back to the UK but there isn’t much to see or do here except enjoy the sunshine. We have cleaned down the boat from the dirty sandy rain, removed the covers and unpacked our new comfy cushions for the flybridge. Lovely bright Verano Azul blue - see below.

It was lovely to spend some time in the UK catching up with some friends & family but a shame we didn’t see everyone. We were mostly there to see Seb & get Alex into Swansea Uni so that took up a lot of our time. We also had a few jobs to do in the garden to keep it in control. The weather was mostly great whilst we were home but turned just as we left so our timing was perfect.

We have embraced the Costa del Sol for the night here in Benalmadena. Not my favourite place but a good stopping place for one night because we plan to anchor up for the next couple of nights close to Nerja so need to stock up because we may have guests on board tomorrow.

Our journey here was so calm it felt like we were gliding. We saw dolphins (of course), flying fish (fabulous) and two huge turtles and something that looked like a stunted whale which I still need to identify.

One night in Benalmadena was enough. It is a nice enough marina but the town is a bit Disney so we have moved on.

Tonight we are anchoring off one of our favourite local beaches to the east of Nerja. It was lovely to do the cruise along the coast past Malaga & all our familiar places along the coast & to see Punta Lara where our villa is. It was another very calm journey with a couple of dolphins sited & lots more flying fish encountered - my new favourite thing. We also saw a huge cruise ship going into Malaga that Andrew said we might be on when we are I n our 80’s but I think not!!

I have finally swam from the boat in tuis anchorage in clear blue seas - stunning. This is what I hoped being in the Med would be, calm, warm beautiful blue seas & clear blue skies - perfect - I think I am in heaven.

A few pics from last night & today

Last day in September - how quickly has this summer gone!!

After one quite rolly night at anchor in Playa Cantarijjan we moved around the corner to Marina del Este (our local) yesterday afternoon.

We absolutely loved being at anchor in that stunning location where we entertained Dean & Della on board (Dean is our pool man) for a couple of drinks watching the sun go down & 2 lovely dolphins performing some tricks. After we dropped Dean & Della back to the beach we dropped our green light into the sea and had an amazing show of small fish, flying fish and much bigger fish proving that there is a huge amount going on beneath us in the sea all the time. It was a stunning evening. We did sleep well & spent the morning on board doing jobs & naked swimming from the boat (it is a nudist beach but don’t worry - no photos😱). We took the tender onto the beach for a delicious lunch at El Barca (one of our favourites),being a Monday the fish was a bit limited but they still cooked us Pescado al horno y vegetales al Huerta- it was delicious.

When we got back to VA it was even more rolly so we decided to head into the marina for a quieter night. We have been fighting colds since we left the UK so are not feeling 100% sadly, hopefully soon we will feel fit & healthy again.

Today we are heading into unknown territory again and plan to reach Aquadulce (sweet water) close to Almeria.

It’s Autumn but still 27 degrees and sunny here.

Another pretty calm and effortless trip here today from Marina del Este. The only exciting thing to happen was a constant Pan Pan call from the Spanish coast guard requesting all boats in the area to look out for a nomad migrant boat with unknown numbers of migrants coming from Morocco that was either drifting or motoring towards the Spanish coast. We didn’t see it but we did see the Guardia Civil boats out looking for it. That was it, no dolphins, few other boats, no unusual sea life & only 2 flying fish spotted in 6 hours. Still the back drop of the Sierra Nevada and miles and miles of plastic poly tunnels along the coast was quite interesting.

Aguadulce is a modern resort with a beach and it appears not much else but we will get a bus into Almeria before we head off and might also get our bikes out if we feel better tomorrow.

Despite us both still suffering with hideous colds we managed a little bus trip into Almeria today for the huge cost of €1.35 each way, each!! It’s not a huge city but does have an amazingly large Alcazabar (one of the many Alcazabar we have now visited) which is fabulous, \240a lovely cathedral and pretty old town. We also resumed our love of great Mercados and the one in Almeria did not disappoint - the most fabulous fish displays we have seen for a while. Sadly we couldn’t buy any fish because we weren’t heading back for several hours but we did get some new local cheeses & a dried sausage 😀.

After the Alcazabar visit we found a lovely place for lunch and tasted some unusual tapas & raciones with fois gras, tuna, quail, octopus and cockles- all beautifully presented plus a lovely bottle of wine.

During lunch my cold got worse so we headed back to Aquadulce & collapsed in a heap! Today we are feeling a bit better but still not 100% but are heading off to an anchorage around the corner of the Cabo de Gata to spend a couple of days recovering floating aimlessly and hopefully catching something to eat. Aguadulce is a nice marina but there isn’t much here so it’s time to go.

After a bit of shopping this morning we made the 30nm journey to this beautiful anchorage in the Cabo de Gata national park, just around the corner from the point. We are planning to spend a couple of nights here if it is comfortable enough to try some fishing techniques & enjoy the peace & tranquility of this place. \240We are now on the east coast of Spain & working our way towards our final destination this year.

We saw the very odd fish again that we had seen a couple of times before & I managed to photograph it & finally identify it. It is a Sun Fish. A really slow odd looking thing that is usually surrounded by seabirds who apparently are invited to help remove the parasites it suffers from. It is an odd looking thing but really quite large and can grow to huge sizes.

I forgot to mention the other day on our way from Marina del Este we passed the 2000 nm mark. We are getting so complacent with it now 😀. Anyway it is not too far now until we stop for the winter & we are just enjoying the sunshine & warmth.

The bay here is just beautiful, totally unspoiled with crystal clear water, at 6 metres depth we can see the bottom clearly. Lots of pipefish & other small fish spottedso far but we haven’t caught anything at all to eat yet!! Dinner tonight looks a bit sparse!

After 2 beautiful days at anchor we are feeling a bit rocky but apart from that all is well. We had a relaxing journey up here to Garrucha passing some lovely scenery along the way - the Cabo de Gata National Park.

Last night after dark we dropped our green \240light into the crystal clear waters. Within seconds we had hundreds of small fish surrounding the light, then bigger & bigger ones showed up including more pipe fish. After about 10 minutes we were swarming with fish of all sizes & at the bottom some really big ones that looked a bit like small sharks - really fast. Quite pleased we didn’t actually catch one!!

We are here in Garrucha to meet up with friends from home Helen, Mike, Lavinia & Simon. Mike & Helen have a Villa near here and they are flying in tomorrow for a week here. We will stay a few days to see them and will then continue our journey north.

So yesterday we took our friends Mike, Helen, Lavinia & Simon our on a rocky rolly trip back down the coast to the beautiful bay of Aqua Amarga. Mike & Helen have a Villa very close to here and they all arrived on Monday for a week of sunshine.

We had a lovely day out on VA but unfortunately it was a bit more choppy than we hoped so the planned swimming \240off the boat in the gorgeous turquoise waters didn’t happen nor did the tender ride to the village but we did have a lovely lunch on board of bbq’d local Garrucha red prawns that were so sweet & yummy & chicken brochettes. Also failed to get a dolphin display for our guests but that \240didn’t spoil the day of catching up.

We left Garrucha this morning after a few lovely days & evenings spent with friends from home. Yesterday we cycled up the hills to Mojacar Pueblo and enjoyed a lovely walk around this old town on a hill plus a nice lunch of more Garrucha prawns (did we mention that these are the best prawns ever :)). We bought a few momentos of our time here including an iron Indalo man (a symbol of the area from a rock figure dating back to 4th century), a rafia bulls head and a chicken!! (See photo). We visited a typical Mojacar house museum built between the 15th century & abandoned 15 years ago & now restored to how the family would have lived in the early 19th century. The cycle back to VA was very exciting because we took the back roads which turned out to be mostly grit and all downhill - quite a thrill.

For our last night Mike picked us up and we all went to one of their favourite local restaurants for an absolutely delicious meal.

The trip today was a little bit more rocky than forecast so a bit uncomfortable but not as bad as some. Our arrival was fairly easy and again we are on finger pontoons here so very familiar. More about Cartegena soon. We are now only 36 nm from our final port for this summers adventure so will be here for a few days exploring until Seb arrives on Thursday.

Seb arrived today 😀 we picked him up at Alicante airport in a hire car and we are now back on board. He is with us for a week so will join us for our last 2 legs and into our final destination for this year at Torreviejo Puerto des Salinas.

Over the past couple of days we have been doing the amazing sites of Cartegena, a wonderful city that I knew nothing about before we got here. Firstly it is a huge natural port so has been of interest to civilisations going back to the Carthegenians 700 BC who named it. After them the Romans took over then the Moors & then the Christians and so has huge history even up to the Civil War. There are layers upon layers of walls and ruins all being slowly uncovered across the city. From the earliest Punic wall, loads of Roman remains, forts from the 17th & 18th century to tunnels to secure people during bombings of the civil war. Amazing. Of course we also have found the Mercado and the most amazing Spanish cheese stall where she lets us taste them all - 😋.

We are off today, our penultimate journey for this gap year. The sun is still shining & days are lovely and warm but it is definitely cooling particularly in the evenings so leaving our VA home won’t be so hard next week.

We have loved Cartegena, both the city & the marina despite the regularly visiting tower blocks (cruise ships). A really understated place that deserves better marketing.

Today we are moving around the corner to the Mar Menor - a small inland sea that hosts La Manga where we are hoping to anchor for a couple of days.

A very pleasant trip up here & into the Mar Menor. We are now anchored up but the wind has kicked up so the sea is a bit choppy & we are swinging a lot.

The Mar Menor is a unique place really with the whole of the slim piece of land that separates it from the Med is covered with hotels, blocks of flats and villas. The islands within the Mar however are without buildings & look very natural. The sea itself is not as clear as many places we have been and a strange brown colour so not tempting for swimming despite it being 22.4 degrees still.

OK quick update the weather is turning quite nasty tonight so we aborted the anchorage & have headed for a safe marina for a couple of days.

We have completed our final trip for this years adventure 😮. A short 15nm journey from La Manga to Torrevieja in a nasty cold westerly wind. We came here earlier than planned because the weather is turning nasty and we didn’t like La Manga at all.

So here we are 2250 nm since leaving Cherbourg almost 6 months ago. 43 ports & anchorages in 7 countries & hugely more experienced boat handlers (but still learning). Torrevieja seems a very friendly marina and hopefully a good place to leave our home for the next 6 months.

We fly back on Saturday and will spend the rest of this week entertaining Seb on his holiday & cleaning & closing up Verano Azul until our return in April 2020, for Gap Year number 2.

It’s really raining here - a lot of rain in fact helping us to get used to coming home on Saturday ☔️☔️☔️☔️😱.

Our penultimate bus trip (we are getting a bus to the airport on Saturday) and our last city excursion (delivered by head of onshore excursions - me). After a day stuck pretty much onboard all day yesterday due to pissing rain we made it out today to the city of Alicante.

Alicante is another better than you expect place with a pretty old town and very impressive Moorish Alcazabar on top of the hill in the middle of the city. We didn’t even have to walk up to this one because they provide a lift 😅. The views from the top are spectacular. We had a below average touristy lunch in the Plaza Mayor followed by an \240above average ice cream which we ate whilst sat looking over the marina (because we don’t spend enough time in marinas 😂). I think we are a bit Spanish city toured out now and ready for a break which sounds odd but sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

Seb sadly leaves us tomorrow night and then we have a day to clean & close up VA for the winter before we head back to Alicante airport on Saturday.

Our last day here before heading back to the rain at home. The sun is shining & its 24 degrees although we have been cleaning & packing up the boat ready to leave it for winter. We are in good shape to kick off again next April sometime.

It has been an amazing journey & fabulous experience and we are already excited for next years leg and discovering more of the med.

Gap year part 1 has ended & we are back in the damp & cool UK. We are already starting to plan and looking forward to part 2 in April 2020.

The blog will be back 😀