Cruising progress 2015 (Click to enlarge)
30th June 2015
Once we left the Mar Menor, we headed towards Denia, on the way anchoring overnight near Alicante. I have always wanted to return to Denia, as when I was a child we spent several very happy holidays in villas in the nearby Las Rotas. I was hopeful that I might remember some of the landmarks, so we cycled along to have a look and although surprisingly little seems to have changed over the years, the only thing I could remember was the restaurant where we always ate (in those days it was the only one!) and possibly one of the villas we stayed in, but I couldn’t be certain. It’s still a very attractive area and I would love to visit again. On our way back to the marina we met up with our Swedish friends, Peter & Elizabeth on Ananda. They had just returned from Ibiza to have some work carried out on their boat, so meeting up was a very pleasant surprise and we spent a couple of days with them before heading out to Ibiza and Formentera ourselves.
At the beginning of June we received word that Mike’s brother-in-law, Peter, had very sadly lost his long battle with cancer, so we did two long day sails back to Torrevieja, on mainland Spain, where we left Mistroma for a couple of weeks and flew home for the funeral. We were very upset that we weren't able to see him before he died, but at least he died peacefully at home with his wife and daughters by his side.
On our return we discovered that the heating element in the hot water tank wasn’t working, so Mike spent several days trying to source a new one and also a box spanner to remove the old one. Apparently box spanners do not exist in Spain (at least no-one recognised a picture of one when he visited the shops)! Eventually he managed to order the element from the local chandlery and replaced it without the aid of the box spanner. While we were waiting for the bit to arrive, I finally managed to make up our sun screens for the cockpit, which zip on to the awning and are now giving us much needed shade. Another job ticked off the list!
We finally left Torrevieja and had a couple of great sails back along the coast, spending two nights anchored at Altea and then on to Javea before sailing back out to Ibiza. We left Javea reasonably early and once out of the bay had the unexpected bonus of wind, which had not been forecast, so we had another great sail for a couple of hours before it died completely and we were back on the engine for the remaining six hours or so.
We anchored in a small bay near San Antonio, Ibiza and the next day met up with Andy and Anne, friends from home who were holidaying in a nearby hotel. It was good to meet up, but unfortunately we had to move that afternoon as the wind picked up and changed direction, leaving us on a lea shore. We had an excellent sail in flat water tacking back and forth across the bay and eventually found a more suitable anchorage, where we stayed for a few days before moving on to a different part of the island.
