September

2007

Part Five

September 28, 2007

The Marina at Benalmadena allowed Tenaya to stay on a day to day basis. All the spaces in the marina are owned by other boats and this time of year they start to return for the winter. We still needed to find a berth for the winter and the only one that seemed to have available spaces was Almerimar, about 100 miles to the east. Almerimar operates only on a first come, first served basis with no reservations so we wanted to arrive early enough to insure we had a place.

I considered sailing alone to Almerimar but Katie shortened her stay in California and returned on the 27th. We left in the morning of September 28 and motored the 46 miles to Este Marina.

Este Marina was a very nice, small marina and the people were extremely friendly.

September 29, 2007

We left the next morning heading east to Almerimar with good winds from the west. The wind stayed constantly 15-20 knots from the west and since we were traveling directly east we had to gybe back and forth keeping the wind about 150 degrees off the bow.

The direct route was 46 miles but because we couldn't sail a straight course Tenaya traveled 61 miles in 8 hours. The sea was smooth most of the day and we averaged 6 to 7 knots over the ground with a speed through the water often above 8.

The Pilot book section for Almerimar said, "Approach and entrance are easy except in strong SW winds". When we were about 2 miles from the entrance the winds increased and stayed constantly in the upper 20's to lower 30 knots from the SW! But the entrance was easy and we tied up at the reception dock around 6:30 pm. Something I have noticed throughout this trip is that reading the pilot books often make us nervous as they offer warnings of some sort or other about nearly every harbor. All have been easier than the books made them sound. Only one time, somewhere in Portugal, did we (and every other boat we saw) have a problem with cross-current getting in and out of the slip and the pilot book never mentioned that!

2007 - Bruinisse, the Netherlands to Almerimar, Spain:

June 27, 2007 to September 29, 2007

Total miles: 2021 miles

Countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Guernsey, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco.

Fuel cost: Euro 792.57 (we motored more than we planned)

Marina costs: Euro 2903.61 (average euro 30.00 a night, high euro 51.50, low 24.00)

Charts: Electronic - Navionics: $400, Paper charts: euro 759.85, Pilot books: euro 375.00. We bought charts for every ria in Northern Spain which added to the cost quite a bit. As quickly as we passed through, we would have been fine with the small scale chart and pilot books.

Tenaya total since April, 2006: 3535 miles

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RADAR is great for spotting ships at night or in fog. It also works great in detecting squalls. On our way to Este we made small detours to avoid squalls

Our winter berth in Almerimar

The Marina Captain was very friendly explaining the weather here will be similar to that in San Diego. Also, the Sierra Nevada mountains, with good skiing, are only 2 hours away.

He also told us about the many movies that have been filmed in this area; Konan, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Indiana Jones and many spagetti westerns.

The beach is a short walk from Tenaya and the we went for a quick dip in the warm water celebrating Katie's first time in the Mediterranean.

The cost for staying in Almerimar is very reasonable: for 6 months our cost will be Euro 1592 (a little over $2200 at the current exchange rate with the dollar reaching an all time low yesterday!). It would have been 25% less if Tenaya was 12.0 meters long and 4.0 meters wide, but we are 12.4 meters long, pushing us into the 15 meter category.

Almerimar Marina Website

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Go to October 2007