After enjoying a few days with the monkeys in Gibraltar, it was time to move onward and up the coast of Spain as we enter the Mediterranean. Our first stop was Fuengirola, about 65NM up the coast. We slipped our lines in La Linea at day break and sailed out past the Gibraltar Rock. A simple beam reach in 12 knots as we headed directly south to round Gibraltar. It was not too busy but for a few anchored super tankers dwarfing us. We had planned to leave early and make a straight shot to Fuengirola as we knew that we would only have wind for the first half of the distance - this, according to wind models: ECMWF, GFS, and PWG/PWG. All published wind models were in general agreement. Rising from 12 to 20 knots until noon. Then it would die to 5 knots. What actually happened was 20 knots until noon. Then 25. Then 30. Then 35 knots. So much for weather forecasts. Most sailors we talk to tell us that the Medi wind forecasting is highly unreliable. 'Good to know.... we suppose that the nearby surrounding land masses, involving hot desert areas and mountains makes for trickier predictions.
The 35 knots caught us a little off guard. We jumped up on deck and rigged up our port side running back stay and hauled out our stay sail, to replace the jib. We also had the 3rd reef in the main. Chloe is happy in 35 knots with 3 reefs. She's very comfortable inside and we chugged along at about 7~8 knots with wind on our port beam. Chloe's cockpit was dry with only the occasional splash jumping right over the boat.
As we arrived into Fuengirola the wind dropped quickly to <10 knots and docking was simple. Some guys on the dock waved us over to our likely slot. Medi mooring, stern to, into Fuengirola was a little odd however. The docks are very very tall concrete and we had arrived near low tide. Our Passerelle was at a 60 degree vertical angle, once we had removed the dinghy. It was impossible to climb at that angle. So we added in our minds a new project to the list - to screw on some foot hold grip bars to the paserelle to give us a fighting chance of climbing up it during future steep incline deployments. As Fuengirola is a bit more of a tourist destination, we planned to do this in Motril.
Fuengirola marina and playa was full of English tourists and lined with small restaurants selling English Breakfasts and Fish & Chip meals. Even a biker gang of leather clad English folks were crowding into a nice cafe decorated in pink on the marina. It seems to be a package holiday kind of place but very down to earth. The marina facilities were good though and we found an excellent small shop that sold E-Scooters as we have been on the lookout for a second electric scooter for several months now. They didn't have the Xaomi M365 model which is the model we already owned, but we found a Spanish brand that looked good, the OutSider E-Volution that uses a lot of common parts with the Xaomi. So, we can now both scooter around town with a reasonable range of a few Km. We concluded that E-Scooters are idea for cruising. We recommend them 100%. We'll do a blog about them later with some of our learnings and the comparison of the two brands.
We did stay in Fuengirola for a traditional UK Sunday Lunch at the first restaurant next to or dock gate called the Spinning Goat - it was really good with four different roast meats with all the traditional trimmings. All in all : 10/10 SUPERB!! A bit like Thanksgiving dinner in the US, but the Brits do it traditionally, every Sunday!
We left Fuengirola in the early morning, heading for Motril. Here we planned to receive our new sail, shipped from Garcia. A Gennaker. It had taken a while to make as we asked for a 'Chloe' image to be screen printed on it. We'll make a separate blog about this gennaker sail, its selection, installation and use at a later date.
We picked Motril on the recommendation of a friend in Tangier who told us that the small Motril Marina was owned run by a super guy called Roberto and his family. Plus, Roberto kindly held the sail for us until we arrived at his marina and was very responsive in communicating with us.
Our sail to Motril was rather uneventful. A nice bit of perfect wind in the morning and then it died to 6~8 knots as we were 10 miles out. Sailing only about 35 miles, we arrived mid afternoon and were waved and helped into a stern to docking by Roberto and his fellow workers. A great small marina. Lovely clean showers. Solid WiFi. No laundry although there is a pick-up service or with the scooters is only 5~10 minutes adventure to Motril with a laundry bag on the handle bars or a back pack. Once in Motril town, there is a small super market within 300m of the laundry, several street cafes plus a Hyper market across the street.
Then, a few days later, the emergency lockdown due to COVID-19 went into effect. Even the wife of the president of Spain caught the virus. The country and the EU was now shut down. No one in or out. Only necessary street travel for groceries or medicine and only one person per household. Cafes and all non-essential shops were closed. The marina and port was shut down. We were isolated. We were alone. A very good place to be isolated however. We agreed with Roberto that we would look after the marina area for him and he was able to go to his home and be with his family.
The local Guardia Civil representative came over and introduced himself to us. Javier, turned out to be without a doubt the most friendly policeman that we have ever met. They helped us with groceries, wine and they brought our Amazon packages to us. They gave us fresh bread, pastries, wine, coffee, milk and tasty treats out of kindness and generosity. Wow. Spanish hospitality. We have so so much to learn in the United States.
At the peak of the health care crisis, the country united together on their balconies to sing the new national anthem for COVID-19, Resisteré. As we sheltered in place on the boat in the marina alone, a large ferry boat across the water would sound his horn at 8pm and then play the song serenading the people across the street out on their balconies playing the same song while singing and dancing along. It was really nice to be part of such a show of unification. And the government eventually put in place and communicated a solid plan for restrictions as well as the phased opening. The results were indisputable as the daily infectious and hospitalizations curve turned downward and has been under control as of the time of this writing in the first week of July. Everyone pulled together to wear their masks, stop the spread, and assist each other through the crisis.
As a result of being in one place for three months, we became lifelong friends with the marina owner, Roberto, the Guardia Civil Chief, Javier, and many others in the community. We also were able to dive into some boat projects requiring me to get my sewing machine out and Peter to get his creativity on.
