2nd to 6th June Almerimar to San Jose

We had enjoyed Almerimar, though it is a slightly strange mixture of pleasant resort and abandoned grand plan; right up that is until Wendy’s new folding bike was stolen on Friday night. We had grown careless in the quiet place where nothing much seemed to happen and left the bike (with 2 locks) chained to a lamppost next to our stern. Mistake, as Wendy was awake at 2am when it disappeared. You live and learn. We spent half of the following day explaining the situation to the police via the interpretation app on a mobile phone.

The rest of the day took us to Almeria, which under the Moors was the most important port in Spain. The town grew immensely rich, though little remains of the glories except the Alcazaba, which looks down on the town. Although its buildings were once said to rival those in Granada little evidence now remains within the still impressive walls.  The commercial harbour does not welcome yachts but was dominated by an oil platform.

On Sunday we left Almerimar to go round the Cabo de Gata onto the Coasta Blanca and into the tiny marina at San Jose where Wendy impressed the locals by reversing Cara Mara into the only available parking spot. San Jose is a surprisingly pleasant little holiday village, a far cry from an almost, wanabe place like Almerimar. The best bit of being here was that on Cabo de Gata you can visit the saline lake Salinas, and see the flamingos.

The wall of Alcadaba were built by the Moors to provide a palace and fortress and to surround the town. After the christian re-conquest the fortress was extended with round towers to withstand cannon.

Little remains of the once stunning Moorish architecture and gardens

Cabo de Gata is impressive, dark volcanic rock, with almost white intrusions .

Add captionThe tiny marina at San Jose

Salinas, the lake is still used for extraction of salt

Hundreds of Greater Flamingos, (they really are pink), make the journey to Salinas well worth while.

28th May to 1st June Motril and Almerimar

We spent a very windy weekend at Motril in the very welcoming Yacht club. Dave finally worked out one of the reasons the bilge under our engine was getting so wet. This has been happening since we left Lisbon and it turns out that an innocuous looking pipe under the engine is actually the pipe for the pressure relief valve for our hot water tank.

Cara Mara was not behaving herself on the 37 mile motor from Motril to Almerimar, not only wasn’t the autohelm working but the gas alarm went off, causing us to switch off the gas and forego any thoughts of cups of tea (actually not a problem in the heat). When we arrived Wendy was muttering about selling the boat!

Luckily we are well within our schedule to meet our next crew member Biddy and Almerimar is a quiet and fairly cheap marina so we have decided to stay put, get a few jobs done, order a new valve from the UK and rent a car for a bit of land exploration.

The good news after a couple of days of investigation is that the autohelm problem was nothing worse than a loose wire, the apparent gas leak was a bit of oil on the sensor and the internet should deliver a new valve in a few days.

This area of spain grows much of europes winter vegetables. Every bit of flat and not so flat ground is covered in plastic. Not too pretty.

The offending pressure relief valve is under our bed but discharges under the engine.

The Sailing club at Motril has this rather splendid pendulum set up to indicate the direction of the wind

Malaga to Motril, 25th to 27th May

The last 2 days we have mostly motored down the coast, first to Caleta de Velez, where Stuart left for Malaga Airport, then a night at anchor and now we are in the port of Mortil, on the coast south of Granada. Leaving Malaga, the coast has fewer high rise blocks, though they still appear on the longer beaches. Dwelling perch on the steep hillsides and mountains rise in the background, occasionally an abandoned unfinished concrete shell sits as a reminder of more optimistic times. There are small round fortified towers every few miles along the coast along which runs both the “old” road and in the background the tunnels and bridges of the newer highway.

Just before we reached Motril we made a slight detour to see Salobrena the village where we spent 2 weeks on holiday with friends more than 30 years ago.Though it’s now gained a small beach resort it's still a pretty place; the original village perched on a rocky outcrop below a Moorish castle with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background. 

The Moorish fortress at Salobrena, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background

Salobrena village and beach resort

May 24th-25th, Marbella to Malaga

We motored and sailed the 30 miles down the coast from Marbella to Malaga, by-passing the delights of Torremelinos. Malaga port has benefited from major EU finded investment and now has a new cruise ship dock, eating and shopping area as well a a Pompidous art gallery.
The city has some interesting sights including the Alcazaba, the palace-fortress of Malaga's Moorish governors and the older Castilo De Gibralfaro, which was origionally built in the 8th Century. The unfinished cathedral dates from the 16th century on the site of the former mosque. The Plaza de Toros is apparently roman in origin. The city was the birthplace of Picasso and now houses a major gallery showing his work. (this post was written over lunch in the shadow of the cathedral, listening to buskers playing classical guitar).

The Pompidou Centre with the Alcazaba in the background.

The purple Jacaranda trees are stunning

Nice view of port from Alcazaba rather spoilt

Alcazaba

Plaza de Toros

Tropical gardens

Malaga Cathedral