Coasta del Sol, Spain
N 36 deg 35.7 min
W 04 deg 30.5 min
After a whirlwind trip through the Coasta del Blanca we are spending a few days in a real marina - this of course represents both a treat and an opportunity to take care of some needed issues on the boat before crossing the Atlantic in a few weeks.
The Coasta del Blanca was beautiful. At first, i had anxiety about what appears to be many exposed anchorages - and few that are very protected. I am leaving the coast longing to come back to spend more time at the beautiful beaches and small towns that line the coast. Shawn and I did learn while sailing on Vancouver Island that there are not many sandy beaches where storms hit the coast. Rightly or wrongly, i suppose we could assume that these wonderful, although exposed, beaches would be safe for the night. Fortunately the weather is accurately predicted these days and a prudent sailor would find appropriate shelter at the first sign of too much wind for their anchor.
We have met a ton of individuals while sailing through the Mediterranean. All of them leave us with something that defines their spirit. While anchored in San Jose just 3 days (and 100 miles) ago, we met a man named Giuseppe who departed Italy in April of this year and was sailing solo around the Med and planned on crossing the Atlantic as well to the Caribbean. We had a difficult time understanding his Italian and he our English (Especially Ross who, from the UK does an amazing job butchering the language we have perfected in the US). That said, he was diagnosed with in-operable cancer and decided it was time to set off for an adventure. We have a lot of guesses as to what he said, but believe he has two children - one from two women that lived together? and one who is living in his home in Sicily. We think he worked on watches big in small - including replacing cogs in "big Ben." Sadly, we received a bounce back from Giuseppe's e-mail (i guess he can't write in English either) so we will likely not know the rest of the story. Good health, fair winds, and a following sea to our new found and very brave friend. Oh-and on a side note, while touring his boat we noticed he had a full leg of prosciutto in his kitchen!
Speaking of Italians - we are days away from meeting our own Italian! From here we have one more stop before the Canary Islands (an 800 mile sail from Gibraltar). Antonio - our 6th crew member will be flying in this Saturday to help with this upcoming sail. This will be the longest leg so far that we will have made on the Amaris. As the weather is now dipping down to the 60's at night-we are looking forward to a bit of "change in latitude."
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