Cartagena
We arrived at the tiny anchorage outside Cartagena at about 3pm, and dropped anchor in the entrance to the bay outside a couple of other boats. We had a sleep to catch up a bit. Later we ate, and then the Customs “ADUANAS” boat arrived from Cartagena harbour, they stood by for a while before letting two guys on board our vessel, this was the first time we had been boarded by Customs! However these guys were very nice and all they wanted to do was fill in their form. They spoke reasonable French which seemed the best way to communicate, one of them said he had a little boy who was seven, he was pleased to see Dan playing confidently on the boat. We then went to the beach as Dan was desperate for a swim. He had had a very boring day, so he used up a bit of energy at the beach and found a Spanish boy about the same age to play with. He towed the boy by swimming with his rubber ring, and towing the boy on his surfboard behind him! They made very splashy progress. We decided to stay the night in the anchorage which was fine and quiet.
The next morning we ran the generator as our batteries were low, at the same time we charged up computer, mobile phones and let Dan watch a film.
Then we took the dinghy into Cartagena to a low pontoon between the naval harbour and the marina, which the Customs people had suggested. Athough the area didn’t look busy we put an extra bicycle lock on the dinghy; we had no problems leaving it all day. We went into town and although you could tell it was an old city, it wasn’t stunning. It was obviously geared up for English people, but it wasn’t at all busy, although we did see a few English wandering the streets. We had a tapas lunch at a working men’s bar for 8.5 Euros including three bottles of beer, an ice cream and three Tapas! It was a hot and still day although 31 degrees wasn’t impossible. We looked around the town shops and then found a playground for Dan. Then we went for some coke and coffee at another bar, and spent another hour trying to walk Dan to sleep in his pushchair. Once he was asleep we found an internet café to catch up with banking and email. Then I stayed there while Nigel went out to find a washing machine shop where he could find out where to get some large diameter ducting to use with our air conditioning. I meanwhile looked up cheap flights to get back to England for early September. The problem is knowing where you will be in four weeks to fly from, and whether to get a return or try for one-way flights returning somewhere else . And the cheapest fares to Guernsey should be booked at least three weeks in advance. All the websites are geared to flying FROM the UK, and I couldn’t easily find cheap flights from Spain, even one-way. The cheapest option I saw was to fly return from Barcelona to London with British Airways which would have been about 200 Euros for Dan and me. Then I would need to get to Guernsey. Nigel wouldn’t want to stay in Barcelona for two or three weeks to wait for me either! When Nigel came back he came up with the idea of planning to be in France by the end of August, so that I could take the TGV to St Malo, then get a ferry to Guernsey. Although the journey would be tedious, it is actually a lot simpler to plan, as it can be booked a lot later and I do not have to return to the same place. I would also be able to pack more flexibly. The total cost of this option is likely to be about £220 return to Guernsey for me, Dan going free, possibly plus a night’s accommodation in St Malo.
Then we went to the marina and the man in the shop there was extremely helpful, he knew someone locally who worked in a large hardware shop and after three phone calls it seemed likely he had something we could use. So we got a taxi to the hardware shop and although we could not get flexible plastic hose we did make do with a galvanised 90 degree bend and some flexible aluminium stretchy tube which were slightly bigger than we wanted. Another taxi back to the dinghy with all this, and back to the boat. We could see in the evening light all the fortifications built around Cartagena harbour, in addition to a few castles there were walls and tunnels and forts everywhere. Cartagena is the only natural harbour on this part of the Spanish coast.
Nigel took Dan for a swim while I made some tea. Dan got to sleep about midnight, as he had had a late sleep in the afternoon. We had a more rolly night but still ok.
Saturday 31st July
Nigel fixed up the ducting for the air conditioning, the most expensive part we found we didn’t need unfortunately! Anyway it now works well. Went to the beach early afternoon and had a cheap lunch. Later I went to get some supermarket shopping, this involved taking the dinghy into Cartagena and
wheeling the pushchair for approx 1 km to the supermarket. Everything else was closed, obviously nothing opens in Cartagena on a Saturday afternoon. It was a good supermarket and I loaded up the pushchair. I was prepared with my passport to verify my identity for paying by card this time. When I had walked back to the dinghy I took off the bicycle lock to find the dinghy floating away! Someone had undone the rope! No other problems though.