From Barcelona to Sant Carles de la Rapida are great stretches of golden beaches with towns between the beaches and majestic mountains towering behind.
Many of these towns are Spanish beach resorts and were busy, but there were so many beaches that they never seemed to be overly crowded.
Our trip to Barcelona from Arenys by train was not as easy as we had hoped!
The journey there was OK, but the return trip was awful. The metro in Barcelona was so hot and crowded and so was the return train, with no seats available for most of the one hour journey. Poor Sprocket was as good as gold, but it really wasn't fair on him and he was glad to back at the dog beach in Arenys just next to the marina and swimming and splashing about in the sea!
The marina here has a huge swimming pool, which was just as well as it was very hot, though Mike didn't like it as it was a sea water pool and he's just too delicate 😆wimp!
Whilst here we decided to do some planning, novel for us! And decided to try to reach Mallorca before the end of the season. To do this we would need the help of another, as I wouldn't do an overnight crossing with Sprocket, and would be happier catching the ferry.
It was agreed that a friend from Portugal would come over to help and his wife and I would meet Ramukanji in Mallorca.
With this in mind we planned to head to La Rapida marina via Barcelona and Taragona and Mike and Andrew would sail from there.
The marina at Port Forum Barcelona had also agreed to a charge of 40 euros per night, so it was decided to go there to visit Barcelona better.
Best laid plans.....
Unfortunately due to work commitments and the sinking of 'The Bayesian' creating wobbles, Andrew had to cancel his plans. This was totally understandable as it had all been last minute and we were starting to have some freakish weather, with a huge storm causing chaos to some yachts also in Formentera!
Forum turned out to be a good choice. The facilities weren't great and the bars and restaurants were a bit bizarre, but there was a great park and beach next-door and it was a quick bus ride into the centre of Barcelona. Most of the other boats were either Airbnb or superyachts... so there was plenty to see.
I have to say, Barcelona isn't my favourite city, but the Gaudi stuff is very interesting , if not a bit odd.
There has been much in the media this year reporting the backlash against tourists in Spain, and especially in Barcelona where it really is far too busy and the tourism has definitely ruined a lot of the genuine feel of the city.
Spain does however at the moment have the best economy in Europe, mainly fuelled by tourism, and there has to be some debate around this rather than slating all tourism, in my opinion.
Casting off from Port Forum, we tried not to think of all the Airbnb boats we were surrounded by and the likelihood that few of them had holding tanks onboard, and even if they did where did they get emptied??? ewwwwww!
Next stop Taragona, at a Sporting Club down below the city and with another lovely swimming pool and good dog beach.
I can see why people choose to live in this part of Spain, fabulous beaches so accessible and the mountains right behind too, and all with a great climate.
Taragon is fab-u-lous!
Such a pretty and charming town with every street in the old town worth a picture.
The cathedral was extremely interesting with lots of Roman discoveries, Mike however was suffering from ABC...!
(Another Bloody Cathedral/Castle/Church)
A little deflated after the Mallorca news, we thought we had better look at where our final destination might be.
Mike had done some research.......
If we sailed as far as Denia , a crossing over to Ibiza would be doable in about 9 hours, and this would be good for the two of us and Sprocket.
Should we go for it?
The decision was made, and we set off with new ambition, aiming to stop at La Rapida, Valencia and Denia. There would be other stops along the way and these would be determined by wind and sea state.
To get to La Rapida there is a huge sand bar to sail around and the seas can be quite shallow. We had an overnight stop in a little fishing port called L'Ametlla de Mar, which was very quaint with a superb swimming calla and a sweet little restaurant.
At about 0400 we realised that we were in a very busy fishing port!
The river Ebro deposits vast amounts of silt into the bay area and a large sand spit has formed, the area is very rich for fishing and the many boats seem to arrive back in port quite early!
Hence we left bound for San Carles de la Rapida quite early for us and had a good sail around the delta.
La Rapida is a modern marina, and we were considering it as a possibility for overwintering Ramukanji.
Our mooring was quite a walk from the excellent facilities and looked over rice fields which was novel.
There was space for us to leave Ramukanji over winter if we wished, but our plan was still to get to Ibiza and so we did not make any firm booking, we like stressing about things at the eleventh hour!!
After much research (there's a theme!) Mike had realised the calorifier problems were due to a slight engine overheat, and so used the time here to fix the problem whilst I lounged around the pool 😊
Another option for overwintering was Borriana Nova down the coast towards Valencia. This was to be our next destination, but I had tread a recent entry on Captains Mate about a pretty port called Peniscola. This was pencilled in as a lunch stop and we nearly didn't stop as the wind had picked up and we though it unlikely that we would swim.
Thank goodness we stopped, as this was definitely one of our favourite anchorages.
It was very sheltered and so lovely to swim from the boat, and not at all crowded, though it was still August, what a gem of a place!
Sprocket loves water, but is not overly confident when out of his depth with no shore in sight. He learned that jumping off the boat was allowed whilst wearing his life jacket, and would happily jump in for balls with the life jacket on. This also allowed us to pull him back onboard , he needed to swim to keep cool , it was still really hot!
So lovely we decided to stay the night, headed into town, pulled the tender up on the beach which got a few stares from the sunbathers, and went up into the castle area for a drink.
Tomorrow we would head to Borriana Nova as we had read it may be a good and cheap marina for overwintering.
There was a swell all day on the trip to Borriana, the weather was becoming a bit more stormy and the weather forecasts not always that reliable. The Mediterranean is known for changeable forecasts, and the sea temperature this year has been so warm that there have been a few freak occurrences.
Borriana Nova was uninspiring, but friendly and cheap and marked as a possibility to overwinter, we would not be staying on the boat so just needed somewhere safe and reliable.
Valencia was next, I had been so looking forward to visiting , having heard nothing but good reviews of the place!
And it didn't disappoint, it is a vibrant city, a great mixture of modern and ancient !
It should definitely be on peoples' wish list as a city destination. Again, for those living here it combines the city with miles of golden beaches and a picturesque mountain backdrop which is also great for hiking.
Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, it has a large commercial harbour and marinas for pleasure craft to the north and south.
Th weather was starting to change, we were experiencing some squalls and the sea had a big swell with little wind to account for it.
The Marina Real Juan Carlos 1was built for the 32nd Americas Cup races and then taken over by a consortium. This was also another possibility for us to leave the boat, but whilst we were there we were informed that the marina was being taken over by another company and they could not give us any reliable information as to costs or spaces available!
Anyway it was certainly very cheap, at 17 euros a night! I suspect this price will change with the new owners!
It is beside a lovely park and a vibrant beach resort area so we were quite happy for a couple of days, though the facilities were in need of updating.
It was an easy Uber ride into the ancient city for us and Sprocket to explore, loved it!
Originally a Greek settlement, followed by the Romans in 139BC, it then fell to the Barbarian Goths in 413AD, the Moors in 714, and became an independent kingdom in 1012. It prospered under the house of Arigon for the next 400 years until 1808 when there was up rise against the French and it suffered much in the following wars and rebellions against the Spanish crown. During the Spanish Civil War it was the seat of the Republican Government of Spain... wow what a history!
Sailing all along this Spanish coast we have realised how important the Catalan influence is at the moment, with Catalan being the spoken language above Spanish. It is a wealthy area of Spain as it also has much of the industry and the move towards independence is a huge political debate.
Whilst we had been travelling the self-exiled Catalan former leader had reappeared in Barcelona,
'He shouted "Long live a free Catalonia!" before saying he had returned "to remind you that we are still here".
"Holding a referendum is not and will never be a crime," he added.
Mr Puigdemont then disappeared.'
There were road blocks and a big hunt to try to capture him.
Europe is facing many changes, travelling for such a long period allows us to try to understand problems facing different countries, and how difficult solutions may prove to be!
We decided to also give the other marina a try, as they may too be able to help us overwinter. It takes a good hour to sail around to the entrance, the marina is large and has a vast area built for larger boats and super yachts. For some reason we were berthed here!
It was a nice marina with several bars and a couple of restaurants , but lacked a vibrancy or soul. It was also a good distance from the centre with limited public transport, no taxis willing to make the journey and a complicated bike ride.
It did have lovely sunsets though!
The following day we were heading to Gandia, about 5 hours away. The weather was again a bit squally but we had looked a several weather forecasts and we decided that it should be an OK sail.
Mike called the Gandia marina and the lady on the other end of the call seemed surprised that we were leaving as it was very windy in Gandia!
The forecast was again studied and we still decided it should be good.
Well that was a mistake....... Turns out Valencia Mar marina is very well sheltered!
The sea state wasn't good and it was windy, it was uncomfortable. We sailed out to deeper waters to see if the waves subsided but they didn't and we didn't fancy 5 hours of this. As Valencia Mar was a bit soulless we thought we would just sail around to the previous marina.
Well that was a mistake.......
There arrived a storm, wind and rain and unpleasantness indeed. Sprocket and I went below where we felt safer and Mike battled with the sea, realising that we were on a lee shore and so couldn't enter the other marina...aghhhh!
Three hours later we arrived back at Valencia Mar, well that was fun...NOT!!
The weather calmed down and we had a lovely sail to Gandia the next day. Gandia is a busy seaside resort, not very upmarket but not awful, and there was a lovely festival going on which was fun to get involved with.
Whilst here Mike managed to loose (sorry mislay) all of our boat papers and passports!
Whilst he was on a senile hunt for them , I had a visit from the local police jabbering away in Spanish! My Spanish isn't great but I finally realised that a member of the public had found the papers and handed them in to the police station. The confusion had been with me explaining that Mike was at the police station , but the two of them had obviously passed each other not knowing who was who, and now it all fell into place.
The papers retrieved... we left the following morning for a short trip to Denia, from where we wet set sail to Ibiza 🙂
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