So, our long term winter berthing in Cartagena had come to an end and it was time to move on, the obvious destination from this point is the Balearics Islands, Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, at their closest point to the mainland approx 86km, from a marina anything between 100-130km, the closer the marina is to the islands the more expensive it is to stay.
We left Cartagena on Saturday morning and motor-sailed to Torrevieja at about 6hrs away and stopped overnight then left the next morning just as the sun was coming up and arrived in Altea mid-Sunday afternoon.
We have decided to make our base mainland Altea as the marina is reasonably priced and is only a 12hr sail to the islands, a great little town, with a great historical centre, and the marina has a hoist and dry storage and is very central to an area we know very well. This position means we can do little runs back and forth to the islands at our leisure and always have a base back on the mainland, rather than having to find a safe anchorage to ride our the quite frequent and less predicable winds that hit the islands from time to time during the summer months.
Altea’s “old town” is very quaint and pretty, although a little touristy, has great restaurants of all types and is crowned by the “Nostra Senyora del Consol” with its blue-tiled dome, which can be seen from all around Altea
Altea also has great communication with trains via Benidorm to Alicante and the A7/AP7 motorway to either Alicante or Valencia airport.
Both the Lads had an excellent trip, this being Danko’s first seafaring adventure was a little more subdued than his normal ebullient self, spent more time than usual asleep downstairs or cuddled up in the cockpit, Jake, however, assumed the position of captain for most of the trip and kept watch when we were both relaxing.
