Yesterday was a long day, with a 13.5 hour trip from Aguadulce to Cartagena, starting at 6.00 am. We had to travel that distance to reach a marina with any sort of depth at all and the winds were not suitable for us to anchor anywhere along the coast. It was very interesting to see the coastline without big tourist developments and the majority of it is grey rocky mountains. Every now and then there was a small town of white painted houses and also some ancient watch towers. We started out with a light breeze on the nose but it built to be quite strong in the afternoon and eventually was coming from a direction that allowed us to hold a headsail without the motor! The wind reached 30 knots, allowing us to have a sail much more like we are used to at home, although with waves breaking over the bow and occasionally heavily spraying the back of the cockpit we had to shelter behind the dodger for a while. It was worth it all for the sail.
An attendant at Yacht Port Marina helped us dock, stern to on a floating finger dock, and gave us the paperwork and electrical plugs, but by the time we settled in and I took the paperwork to the office (dealt with most efficiently at this marina) we were all very tired. So we had some nibbles and dinner on board before collapsing into bed. The power wouldn't work again but we didn't let Greg spend any time on trying to fix it. This marina is relatively new and they can take boats our length. Depth is not an issue anywhere as this is one of the deepest natural harbours in Spain and a main port for the Spanish Navy.
This morning a boat electrician came and spent hours trying to work out the problem with Greg; finally he decided we need a new transformer but as it is Saturday he cannot see if the factory has one until Monday.
In the meantime Michele and I caught a taxi to the main local market which had a good range of fish stalls, fruit and vegetable stalls, a few butchers, a couple of bakeries (but not selling great bread) and an excellent stall of all kinds of olives and pickled vegetables. Surprisingly there was no deli, although one of the butchers did have some cheese and jamon. The taxi had waited for us so we then went to a Carrefour supermarket (the superstore type) while he waited again to take us back to the boat. The taxi was necessary because of the distances we had to go and also because it was already more than 30C mid-morning.
There are many historical places to see in Cartagena and the beaches are not just a walk from the marina so I decided to hire a car while Greg was still dealing with the electrician. Our great taxi driver took me to the car hire company, well out of the centre of town and thoughtfully waited to lead me back to the marina.
We were all hot and tired but the boat had to be washed to get all of the salt off everything; the most enjoyable part of this was standing under the hose several times to cool off.
At about 8.30 pm we walked along the attractive waterfront promenade to the main pedestrian street, with the magnificent Baroque town hall in the first plaza. We found the tapas restaurant Ricon San Miguel in a side street and had a range of food - lightly field calamari, croquettes, mussels, cockles, anchovies and slices of salami - plus a jug of sangria. It was a beautiful balmy night to eat outside and stroll back to the boat.