Mainland Spain

We arrived in Torrevieja on Friday, November 18, 2005. Arriving to mainland Spain marked several accomplishments including sailing through the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian, 0 degree, is the longitude line from which the Eastern and Western Hemispheres are separated. In addition to arriving to the Western Hemisphere, Jeff was given the dubious honor of being named Captain of and repairing “Quest’s” inflatable and outboard motor. Given the name “ReQuest,” Jeff calls it “WeeQuest.” We were in need of winch and mainsail repair. While Chris and Louise were busy with repairs, Jeff brought Jane and I ashore to find out about travel arrangements for Mom to get home. We were lucky to find an internet station in a Marina Bar and thankfully one of the two computers worked. With a few Euros and in one hour we booked Jane a ticket from Alicante to NYC via a Dublin layover. She departed on Saturday.

Saturday evening we went grocery shopping. We marched roughly 20 kilometers up hill backwards in January in a snowstorm through the local marching band and fireworks exploding to get to and fro the HYPERMERCADO. The Hyper Mercado is equivalent to Target, Ralph’s, Home Depot, Marshall’s, combined into one. HUGE! It is also connected to many smaller feeder stores; you would consider it a mall of sorts. Shoppers around the world would dig it.

We made way Sunday from Torrevieja to Cartagena. We had winds steady 20 knots and waves 6-8 feet. We made way through tunny fish pens. Perhaps tunny is tuna, either way it was a challenge to keep away from the pens. We also closed in on two large freighters off our starboard bow. We thought we were going to alter course however after a few minutes we realized they were at anchor off the coast. It would be the only time to sail in front of vessels that large!

Cartagena is a huge harbor with a US Navy amphibious assault ship in port. We noticed the other American flag on our way to the dock. Jeff and I met some US Marines when they walked by our boat in the harbor. They commented how they liked our American flag; we told them we liked it too. That started a conversation off with “Are you Americans?” Yes, we answered. They are on their way to Iraq. They are deployed from North Carolina, but the ship is from Norfolk, VA. They are going to Iraq for a security detail for the upcoming December elections. We found out there are about 500 Marines aboard and 500 sailors aboard ship. We wished them safe travels to get them safely home from Iraq.

We are expecting to stay here at least one to two days; storms have been the biggest determining factor on this trip. We are making plans to get down the coast to Gibraltar in the next weeks time. The goal is to get moving to the Canary Islands and onward across the Atlantic by mid-December.

Oh yeah, with all that is happening in with Sinclair Sailing in Europe, we forgot to mention Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy your turkey and all the fixings; eat a few bites more for us.