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| Santa Barbara Castle Alicante |
21st April We’ve
finally left Cartagena. We had very little
wind, so ended up motoring through a sloppy swell for 7 hours to get to
Torrevieja. I had hoped our bouncy winter mooring would help me keep my sea
legs, but sadly not, the swell on the beam soon made me feel queasy, despite
having taken sea sickness tablets. Torrevieja feels slightly depressing out of season, so
we will be happy to leave for Alicante tomorrow.
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| Sandpiper in with the big boys at Alicante |
22nd
April We arrived in Alicante to be told
that the marina is officially full, but they managed to squeeze us in with the
‘big boys’ between two 60ft motor yachts. The forecast for the next few days is high winds and torrential rain so
we’ll be staying put. We did a quick trip into town today for provisions and it
looks like there’s plenty to do here.
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| Santa Barbara's battlements |
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| View from the castle |
24th April We
visited Santa Barbara Castle today, which
sits above the town on Mount Benacantil. It looked like a long walk up so we
took the easy option – a lift built deep inside the mountain. It was worth the
visit just for the views, but we also discovered it has a fascinating history,
including being blown up by the British in the early 18th century after they
tunnelled deep into the mountain to lay gunpowder kegs.
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| Barrio Santa Cuz |
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| Spring colours |
We had a very pleasant walk back downhill through the narrow alleys of the older part of the town, the Barrio Santa Cruz. Many of the whitewashed houses are finished with intricate tiling and their window boxes and balconies are a blaze of colour with the spring flowers. At the bottom of the hill there’s a very different feel to the town. There are big, quiet squares with majestic buildings where you can sit and have coffee in the shade of palms and giant rubber trees.
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| Plaza de la Santisima Faz |
26th April We
bumped into Bev and Kevin from Miss Lilly (fellow cruisers from Cartagena) today and
popped round to their boat this evening for drinks and a catch up on their news.
They are keen to move on tomorrow despite the poor weather forecast.
27th April
We’ve had thunderstorms and hailstorms –
the hail stones were half the size of a golf ball. We couldn’t believe the
noise as they hammered down on the boat and we seriously wondered whether they
would damage the hatches. We’ve just had an email from Bev
and Kevin to say they arrived safely at Greenwich Marina. Kevin described the last part of their sail
as ‘better than a ride at Alton Towers’, but I gather Bev wasn’t impressed!
28th April It’s cool and raining. We escaped into town
and had a delicious lunch in a tapas bar well off the tourist beat, two beers and two plates of tapas cost all of
3 euros!
30th April
We’re still in Alicante but keen to get moving. The weather is finally settling
and it’s looking good for us to leave tomorrow to head up the coast to Altea.
It all looks very picturesque and how interesting - all over the Caribbean we also keep finding places the British have invaded, sacked or plundered. We are in Deshaies, Guadaloupe and this was a sugar port until the attacks by British Corsairs made them give up. Strangely a Frenchman asked us this morning why the British holiday in Guadaluope - I wanted to say " Because we always have!"
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