Sailing from Cartagena to Torrevieja via Mar Menor

An eventful week in Cartagena

After a week in Cartagena, it was time to say goodbye to our friend Marky and set sail towards new Mediterranean adventures. Our stay in the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department was an eventful one, to say the least!During our stay, Marky had just gotten his new boat: Rose Rambler, a Nicholson 35. Rosey is a serious upgrade to Roamer, the McWester wight 32 he previously sailed (remember the video I made about his boat?) In Cartagena, we got to meet Rose Rambler and even try her out at sea.I am currently editing the story of how we ended up being towed back to Yacht Port Cartagena by the fire department, and will soon share the ins-and-outs of our mishaps with you! 

Bye new friends, hello adventure!

We spent wonderful days in Cartagena, filled with boat work, exploring the city and meeting new friends (Hi Martin, Muriel, Davy, Susan and Martin!)But when sailing, one never stays in one place for too long (or... do they? ;)) and when the weather got good enough for us to leave, we cast off the lines and set sail Eastwards. The weather forecast showed North-Easterly winds the entire week ahead of us, which meant we'd have the wind right in our nose as we made way to the Balearics.We then figured we would make stops along the way to make it a little more comfortable (sailing upwind is tiring!), and decide where to go next for each stop we'd make.The day we left Cartagena, we decided to make a first stop in Mar Menor, an inland lake tucked between Cartagena and Torrevieja.This is Rose Rambler, Markey's new boat, as we left the bay of Cartagena.There are many bog ships anchored out of Cartagena, as well as tourist boats and small fishing vessels. Even kayakers venture out of the Port to go explore the city's surounding coast.Markey followed us until we left the bay of Cartagena.We parted way about a nautical mile off the breakwater and continued our passage towards Mar Menor, an inland lake that we'd heard has tons of nice anchorages.The landscape along the coast until Cabo de Palos was absolutely stunning and reminded us of Galicia (minus the fog, that is.)For the first time in a loooong time, we were able to get all the sails out and kill the engine!Cabo de Palos and its beautiful lighthouse.

Landscape change

Passed Cabo de Palos, the landscape changed dramatically, replacing beautiful mountains with... high rise buildings.Entering Mar Menor meant that we needed to catch a bridge opening at its entrance. The bridge opens for 15 minutes every two hours, and we wanted to catch the 4:00PM opening. Thankfully, Polar Seal was rocking 6.5knots on a broad reach and we arrived at the entrance of Mar Menor right on time.Different landscapes for different tastes! :DThe entrance of Mar Menor had us go passed an abandoned marina. From what we've heard, the marina was under construction until the developer lost his permit, resulting in this lovely looking modern ruin at the doors of the lake.Happy Captain = happy life. Trust me on that one.

Lake sailing in Mar Menor

Mar Menor, the inland lake South of Torrevieja, proved to be quite an interesting place, with high rise building on one side, and wild islands full of birds in the middle. We found a spot to anchor right off one of these islands and spent a peaceful night listening to the hundreds of seagulls having a bit of a concert above us.The next day, we decided to continue our journey Eastward and set sail towards Torrevieja, where we could wait for some stronger winds to pass before resuming our journey to the Balearics.I never thought that our sailing adventure would take us in a lake, yet here we were, on the calm waters of Mar Menor!

Onwards to Torrevieja and the Balearics!

The 3 hours passage between Mar Menor and Torrevieja had us sail very close to the wind, something Polar Seal hadn't done in a very long time.The relatively calm sea state made it a lot easier on us to live at a 20 degrees angle, and we enjoyed another beautiful day in the sun. Close-haul baby!!!!Have I mentioned how much I love our new orange cockpit cushion?! They make the cockpit such a cozy space and are much nicer on our tushies than our old ones.We made landfall in Torrevieja at 05:00PM that day. We believe we will be staying in Marina Salinas for a couple of days, after which we may hop directly to Formentera. Or maybe make another stop along the coast of Eastern Spain :)