Some years ago they diverted the river and converted the river bed into 23 kms or so of park land running through the centre of the city. Alongside this they have attractions in fantastic architectural buildings, a science centre, music auditorium and an oceanographic centre. We decided to visit the latter. I don’t agree with captive dolphins and the like but we went along for the day as the funding seems to be put towards conservation projects in the wild.

The cycle in with the city in the distance

The dried out river course now a park and walkway

Some old hams in the central market

Independence day!

Check out the bonnets in the background, very Passage to India.

Paella for two at lunch having just given the bikes back

Whilst in Valencia we had some maintenance to do on Camira.

I had to adjust the stern gland which meant taking the batteries out, bit of a palaver, and since they were about to total anyway after 7 years use, I decided to replace them.

Camira then decided that if she was getting new batteries she also wanted a new alternator. The local engineers, whilst reasonable for the batteries, wanted the GDP of a small country for a new alternator.

A lovely Spanish couple berthed at the back of us we had been having a nodding acquaintance with stepped in and organised their friend to get me one far cheaper. All the way down we have generally met people who go out of their way to be helpful. I am sure this couple postponed their last day of sailing to help organise our replacement. In addition they signed us into the Yacht club pool, which wasn’t open to visitors.

Needless to say we ended up on their boat to drink the cava we had bought them as a thank you.

This seems more tiring than Billy & Jaynes!

Executive shower on Camira at end of the day

Victoria and

Manuel

We had a day cycle out of the city to Albieira National Park. On Sundays it seems that most of Valencia drives out here to the arrocia restaurants to pack away copious amounts of Paella. I suppose it’s a bit like heading down to Luss followed by a fish supper…..eh maybe not. Not quite a fish supper – but it lived in the sea

Armed with my trusty map we headed off for an extensive tour of the city centre. It is a fabulous city and one that we would go back to at some point. If any of you out there are thinking of a city break then put this on your list.

As you can see the cycle pathways go everywhere I have probably too many photographs on the blog but is hard to winnow them down.

The bull ring and………………. of course

The bulls, who are named and shipped in from all around Spain.

Not a lot of you may know this but Louise comes froma long line of Bull Shippers

The Train Station

I am that Weegie, a legend in my own mind

We climbed this tower some great views from the top but check out Louise’s face at the bottom – she wasn’t keen on the spiral staircase .lol

No doubt I’ll get pelters for this one!

Being quite far out from the city centre was not a problem they have great cycle routes into and all around the city, it’s fantastic.

We hired bikes for the week and set about exploring the city, so I wore my explorer tee shirt of course

The first outing was just to find our way around, here are some pics of our outing:

The central market more of the inside later. Bet you can’t wait eh?

I loved the graffiti

You can tell Louise did too. Lol

(Captain Chaos taking his turn of the blog here)

We filled up the tanks with fuel at Denia Yacht Club before heading off about 10:30.

Originally the plan was to head for Gandia but we soon picked up a steady 18-20 knots and had a nice beam reach so decided we would push on further North up to Valencia. At about 16:30 the wind really freshened and the sea state was moderate becoming quite lumpy at times. We shortened sail, Camira was still flying (for us flying is 7 to 8 kts mind you!) and finally entered RYC Valencia about 19:00 in what we were told had been a force 6. Our main wind instrument is not working and sometimes we just can’t be bothered going below and back up again with the hand held when updating the log – perhaps it’s just as well!

Our 1^st day in Valencia we walked to the other marina a round trip of about 8 miles , we could’ve sailed there in an hour max ! This was where the 32nd Americas Cup was centred. It all seems a bit ghostly now with big warehouses lying empty. Must have been something though during the races. Even the water covers in the pavements show the extent of the investment.

The 1^st day promised some architecture to follow

The Formula One race circuit is here and apparently a berth in the Marina costs upward of a £1,000 per night. Some of the existing public road is part of the circuit and other bits are blocked off. No point in hiring a go kart then!

Suitably knackered we returned to the boat for our 1^st night, but not before Louise pointed out our journey so far.

PS Maybe the big black spot is why it’s called the black sea?

We left Greenwich marina after two days and were looking forward to reaching Denia.

I had suggested this place to Diane for her and Harry and until Harry took not well, they loved it. Albeit, I spent five days there, I didn’t get to see anything other than the hospital so was looking forward to seeing it as a “tourist”.

The wind was on the nose all the way with a moderate to rough sea and a big swell, so it was get there as quick as we could, I even had on my harness at one point. Who says there’s no wind in the Med? We have encountered some quite exhilarating sailing since arriving.

On arrival at Denia it was chucking it down, that together with the mountainous scenery I once again, thought I was back in Scotland.

In El Portet marina we were directed to a berth. Par for the course, for us, there

was a problem with the lazy lines so we were told we would need to move but only once the rain went off. Three hours later, the Marineros got this nice Spanish couple to move their boat, put us in their vacated spot and moved them two berths up……”Why couldn’t we just have gone the two berths up we asked the couple?” The lady just shrugged, smiled and said “Welcome to Spain”.

Like Altea, Denia didn’t disappoint us. Nice frontage and beach with a lovely old town to it as well. There was a festival on while we were there so every street you walked up had bands playing and people dancing. The festival was to do with Christians defeating the Moors for which they put on a mock battle up at the Town Hall. The noise was unbelievable!

Diane’s Flat

While we were watching the Battle we bumped into Chris and Lorraine a couple we met in Lagos. They were leaving their boat there for the winter and were heading home in a few days’ time. It was nice to have a couple of drinks and catch up with what each other had been doing since Lagos.

Diane and Harry met a lovely couple, Lynn and Gerry who live out there now. They were good friends to Diane while she was there and helped her out a lot when Harry had to go to hospital, even picked me up from the bus station and came to see me off when I went there. So, as promised, we looked them up and went out for a lovely meal and some great company. What nice, nice people, and hopefully we will meet up with them again.

Best Moors I’ve ever seen

On returning to the boat we found a bag hanging over the bow. I had a look around to see if anyone had left it there by mistake – but it was for us. The Spanish people on the boat which was moved, because of us, had left us a lovely walnut cake with a note welcoming us to Spain. How hospitable and welcoming is that? Denia was lovely and we will hopefully go back there some time. We have really enjoyed this last part of Costa Blanca and should be heading over to the Balearics now. However, as we are so much later than we intended to be and slap bang in the Spanish holiday month we are heading up to Valencia in Costa del Azahar to wait out August before hitting Ibiza or Majorca.

The next day we were moving on to Altea, albeit we had to get out of the marina first! We had to get the Marineros to tow us out from our corner berth due to the wind blowing us onto the wall and some machinery connected to this wee bridge thing that was also next to us – hemming us in, but all went as planned and we were soon on our way.

I remembered from my trip on the bus up to Denia that the landscape changed and became more mountainous once you reached Benidorm. It’s such a pity what they have done to Benidorm as it is such a lovely bit of coast and is so much nicer than the coastline before here.

However, with the mountains there seemed to also be a change in the weather. At times we thought we were back in Scotland, except that it was still really hot.

Turned out to be a fairly breezy day so had 1^st reef in on Genoa and the main, a great sail initially, Camira was flying along at 7 kts, which is good with all her extra cruising gear! It kicked off a bit later on which wasn’t forecast, but we are getting the impression that the forecasts are a bit like that here.

We arrived at Altea and had been looking forward to staying here, however, there was no room at the inn, so we carried on another seven miles to Marina Greenwich where we eventually got a berth after standing by hopefully, circling for 45 minutes. It’s called this as it’s apparently the only port on Longitude 0 Degrees, we’ve now crossed over to East of the Prime Meridian.

We really fancied Altea so we jumped in a taxi one night and headed there for dinner. Found a Himalayan restaurant that I had read about on someone else’s blog which didn’t disappoint, nor did Altea. The newer part down by the sea is nice but the old town up in the hills is gorgeous. Full of narrow alley ways and cobbled streets with a very bohemian feel to it and a great place for people watching. The views down to the newer part of town with, Benidorm away in the distance were fabulous; we were also treated to an amazing sunset. Very much a place I would recommend and go back to.

Next stop Torrevieja some seven miles further on. On the way we passed Campoamor and Cabo Roig, where friends David and Anne Marie had been holidaying earlier. We had hoped to get there to meet up. However the best laid plans and all that, at least we got close into shore to have a wee look at what we had missed and as it turns out we may not have had enough depth for Camira to go into the small marina there. Maybe some other time Anne Marie.

We arrived at Marina Salinas in Torrevieja, a bit of a palaver getting a berth. We sat around the visitor pontoon a while waiting to be directed to our berth and it was blowing a hoolie! Once we were just about settled we found it had a dodgy lazy line so had to move to another – but very helpful marina staff and it was a nice marina. Across from us we met Nigel and his wife Barbara who had both been with BA, he had been a training Captain and test pilot. They used put out a wee cocktail pennant which meant the bar was open and they were ready to receive guests…….well it would have been rude not to.

We also met up with John whom we had met a few years before on a flotilla holiday in Turkey, he had mentioned then, if we ever did this trip (which was only in the planning stage then) to give him a buzz as he has a place out there. We couldn’t actually remember exactly where his place was and it was pure coincidence that we all got in touch when we arrived in Torrevieja as that is where his house is, well just outside it. It was lovely to catch up with him and maybe next time we will be able to take him up on the offer of a stay at his house.

Torrevieja is a very busy place, but I suppose most places are in August, loads of restaurants and bars, it seemed to be mainly Spanish people there on holiday which was nice change to most of that coast which is overrun by British tourists.

Leaving Torrevieja for Puerto De Campello 31 miles on, we started out motor sailing but after three hours the wind got up and we had a lovely sail with full main and genoa the rest of the way, passing Alicante which didn’t really appeal to us as a stopping place.

“Peggy” our third crew member.

We tied up in the Real Club Nautico Campello which was quite a nice wee marina, our berth was away in a corner with the walkway to the sailing club right next to us so plenty of people watching going on, whether that was us watching them or them watching us I’m not sure. Anyway, the town was very pleasant, again a typical Spanish holiday resort with quite a buzz about it.

We left Cartagena on the 9^th August and headed to Puerto De San Pedro Del Pinatar about 40 miles further along the coast. Originally we were going to Thomas Maestre marina in Mar Menor but we decided just to push on a bit further. It was a long day, with a bigger than forecast swell, roughly 1.5 to 2 metres and windy enough for a reefed mainsail and genoa. We beat to windward for about five hours out by Cabo de Palos hoping for an easterly wind shift which didn’t appear till much later so motored round Cabo de Palos and pushed on to our destination.

It was a nice wee marina where we would have liked to stay a few days, but it was a bit out of town and would have needed bikes. The very friendly marina staff did offer to lend us one but we obviously needed two. We only stayed one night but would visit again on the way back.