En route: Cabo de Gata to Aguilas/El Hornillo

The cala looked innocently beautiful when we got up yesterday morning and had some breakfast in the cockpit. Nothing in the nature around us showed evidence of the winds of the day before. The water was calm and there was no wind.

We slowly got ready and picked up anchor at 9 ish. With no wind we motorsailed the entire stretch to Aguilas. No one got seasick, the sea was calm and the kids played downstairs with their toys and built a blanket fort upstairs in the cockpit.

At 6 pm we arrived in the bay just north of Aguilas and looked forward to anchoring in our favorite spot behind the rock island El Fraile. (We even spent the entire day gently ‘racing’ another boat to make sure they didn’t get there first! Ha! Until it turned out they were going to the marina of Aguilas instead.)

Unfortunately we found upon arriving there that the anchorage was now filled with white fishing buoys. Bummer! (I guess that other boat knew something we didn’t!)

Reluctantly we anchored in the other part of the bay between ‘a rock and a hard place’. That is to say, between a rock and a ugly ass pier they built in the water for reasons unknown other than to be an eyesore and a local hangout spot for loud Spanish youth at night.

 

We actually had to re-anchor as during dinner we were suddenly dragging. And we had rain! All evening and night we kept a digital anchor alarm and woke up in the middle of the night when the alarm went off.

We raced outside and found we had not dragged fortunately, but had turned (again) as the wind had changed (again).

At this moment everyone is still asleep and I’m having breakfast and tea. In about an hour I’d like to pick up anchor and keep going north to Cartagena and spend a couple days there.