Gibraltar to Cartagena 2020

Rob's Bread in the Cobb Cooker Experiment!

I tried an experiment today with our charcoal (Cobb) cooker, as I am planning to bake our Christmas cake in it and wanted to see how it performed. I cooked a loaf of bread and it turned out extremely well, as you can see from the pictures. It saves so much gas using the Cobb, especially when you need long cooking times, 8 briquettes of charcoal rather than an hour of Calor Gas. Smells nicer as well.

1st October: Gibraltar to Estepona

Rob checked us out of the marina yesterday (£19 per night) and we planned to leave Gibraltar at midday. We will miss Gibraltar quite a bit – but we won’t miss the construction noise! They are building new pontoons near us. We had a quick shower (we WILL miss the showers!) and took Hoopla to the fuel barge – £149 to fill the tank (£0.46 per litre!). We left the fuel barge (very happy!) at 1.30pm to a windy and choppy sea – but Gibraltar is a headland after all! We had wonderful 20knot winds, which meant a fantastic sail!

We arrived and moored up on the Estepona visitors pontoon to check in – and we were given bottle of wine!

the Marianos helped us ‘park’ Hoopla at around 7.30pm. We had

Strong winds all evening, with gusts reaching 20-25knts. It reminded me a little of A Coruna!

2nd October: Estepona

It was very windy during the night but we still managed a good nights sleep hahha. It was still windy in the morning, reaching 15-20 knots. Not brilliant weather so we spent the day on board – but Rob & I still managed to pop out for beer and a coke though. This is a very nice marina and quite sheltered. We agreed, though, that it’s not a brilliant start to Mediterranean sailing! For supper, I made us some homemade meatballs with pasta – it was delish! The wind eventually died down, thank goodness.

3rd October: Estepona to Benalmadena

It’s now cooler during the night so we have to now close main the main doors lol! We woke up this morning to a nice and sunny day with a deep blue sky. Gorgeous!

We had a quick tidy up and then we all got Hoopla ready for passage number 26 for this season! We finally slipped our lines at 11.15 and continued on our way.

This was a motor journey, again, but we smiled all the way! We kept up an average speed of 6 knots and I saw a whale! An Orca! A-Maz-Ing!

We checked in and paid €30.50 for tonight’s mooring. We moored up and the slime lines were ok. Phew. We are only here for one night as we are keen to get to Cartagena.

4th October: Benalmadena to Este

This is a very peaceful marina and we all had a very good nights sleep.

The alarm woke us up at 8.30am and we slipped our lines at 11am. We had to use the motorboat next door to ‘walk’ us out, which worked brilliantly ! The wind picked up we sailed and sailed and sailed. This made Rob a very happy Captain! We followed the coastline and we saw a couple of caves. The swell increased to 1.5 mtrs, then 2.5 mtrs(!) then 3 mtrs(!!) Literally, the sea ‘picked’ Hoopla up and then we surfed down the waves. Soon a pod of 5/6 dolphins surfed with us too! Amazing! We were going to anchor out for the night, but when we arrived at the anchorage, it was tiny and full of buoy’s. We saw that there was no room to ‘swing’ and so we decided to pop to the marina. I am so glad we did as it was such a pretty place! Later, we saw the most magnificent sunset.

5th - 6th October: Este

What a beautiful place Este is! And a bonus of great wifi!

We all walked along the marina and we decided on a pizza for lunch

we were joined by lots and lots of sparrows (my favourite birds). Just before, Rob popped to the marina office to extended our stay to 7th (as it was so gorgeous) and came back with a bottle of wine! Thank you Este Marina!

We met John next door, who Rob helped with his electrics. He gave us some mangos from his tree….

The amenities and showers were ok.

Rob later dived under Hoopla to clean her bottom and the water is cold! It is supposed to be warm!!

We had to do a shop but the supermarket wasn’t a brilliant one! Hardly any choice and what there was, was quite expensive! so we bought one meal; burgers & chips! Hopefully we can stock up at our next stop!

We have an early start tomorrow as we have a 12 hour passage. We prepped Hoopla before turning in and set the alarm for 7am.

7th October: Este to Aguadulce

The alarm went off at 7am and Rob and I was up at 7.15, and we started preparing Hoopla (Jack was still fast asleep in his cabin). Rob went and checked us out at the office (€40 per night) and then we were ready to slip our lines at 8am. What a lovely sunrise!

We had a flat, Mediterranean sea all the way – it was like glass!

It was another motor journey (sigh) but it wasn’t too bad as we followed the fantastic coastline. We noticed it was mountainous 3/4’s way and then we saw lots of greenhouses. In the distance, we

saw 2 x pods of dolphins and a few flying fish. Yay!

We finally arrived in Agudulce and we slimed up no problem (yay!) at 7.30pm

All in all, a very good 12 hour journey and 64 nautical miles but we are all quite tired! We had a quick microwave meal of tinned meatballs and uncle Ben’s rice, washed down with a kopperberg(!) closely followed by bed

8th - 9th October: Aguadulce

Aguadulce is another lovely marina! Again, blue skies and sunshine but jean’s and fleeces are needed in the evening. When Rob went to check us in, we found we had to pay €10 for the wifi! This was for a week and we’re only here for two nights! We had to pay it as our data allowance was virtually zero, plus we needed it for Jack’s geography lesson. Ho hum. The beach was gorgeous but we found that the water was cccold! Shame.

We decided that we had to make good use of the paid wifi, so we watched The 3 Musketeers that evening!

On our second day, Rob did the laundry while I covered maths with Jack. Rob now appreciates that it is a task and a half, hahhaha!

For our last night, we thought we would eat out. Rob found a lovely, local pizzeria. Delish.

Aguadulce is a very nice marina with basic facilities – but clean. It’s an early night for us as we have another (our last) 12 hour passage tomorrow! We are getting closer and closer to Cartagena! This is where we will stop for the winter (and where we should have been this time last year lol).

10th October: Aguadulce to Garrucha

Our alarm went off at 7am and we turned over and went back to sleep! We were up and about by 7.30 though.

Rob checked us out, €15 per night +€10 for 7 days wifi (even though we were only there for 2) but still a good and fair price for mooring!

We noticed that we are now getting a very heavy dew on Hoopla in the mornings. This meant we had a wet and slippery deck to deal with too! We eventually slipped our lines at 8.30am.

The sea was like glass but we had a cold wind right on the nose. Brilliant – NOT!

We saw the sun rise and set at sea again. We also managed to retrieve some rubbish from the sea, including a polystyrene box! We continued to follow the stunning coastline and a bottlenose dolphin jumped in and out of our bow wave for five minutes, before going on it’s way. We also saw a whale in the distance and a whole school of flying fish!

We arrived at Garrucha marina at 7.30pm and then we got caught out as we were asked to berth alongside the pontoon, instead of the new Mediterranean style mooring, bows to! Alongside is so much easier! Well, that was our last 12 hour passage of the season!

Our next stop is Cartagena!

11th - 12th October: Garrucha

Again, we all slept very well! We had breakfast at around 10.30am with blue skies and sunshine

Rob decided to scrub the decks as we are side to, as they had gotten filthy from us getting on and off at the bow and walking to the stern. I had a quick tidy up then I sorted, and put away, the clean laundry – it was nice to have clean socks again

Jack has been skateboarding on the quayside a couple of times and Rob and I popped into town once or twice! Unfortunately, there was not a lot of shops – but what was there, was nice. We stopped off for a beer and a pina-colada on our way back

. There is a very nice beach here but we all decided not to have a quick dip – now we know how cold the sea is

Here we had access to basic portacabin facilities (small, 1 x loo and 1 x shower) but the water pressure was excellent! It has definitely turned quite chilly at night now (we might have to dig out our duvet when at Cartagena).

Garrucha is not a bad marina. The staff were friendly and the place had lots of cafes and bars.

We are all quite excited and nervous about finally arriving at Cartagena tomorrow! It has been such a focal point for so long (2 years now) that we hope we won’t be disappointed

13th October: Garrucha to Cartagena (!)

We didnt need an alarm (yay) this morning and we woke up 8.45, with breakfast at 9.15. Rob & I decided that we would like to be leaving at 11am this morning, as we had a few jobs to do first, incl Rob looking around the big boat behind us.
We actually left at 11.45(!) as Rob had to be dragged from the big boat haha (55′, 49 tonnes(!) 5 cabins 2 ensuites and a walk in engine room!). Wow. Just wow.
It was a looong 7 hr passage but with gorgeous scenery! 2 dolphins came over but didn’t stay long, unfortunately.
It was sunset as we arrived at 8pm and the marina staff helped us moor up (two slime lines this time, one either side). We were left with a huge gap between Hoopla to the pontoon AND it was also a fair drop from our bows to the pontoon. Thankfully, the man (who we now know as Jose) went and found us some steps and when Rob pulled in the ropes, it was easier to then get on and off! Yay!
So, we have finally arrived at Cartagena!