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| We've really enjoyed both our stays in Estepona and its excellent marina. |
Four different sets of grib
weather files plus the local forecast were consulted to produce a consensus
that for our 30 nautical mile hop from Estepona to Fuengirola on Good Friday the
weather gods would give us a nice 10 to 15 knot following breeze to start with
maybe stepping up to 15 to 20 during the day before dropping out late in the
afternoon as we approached our destination.
Yeah right!
We were all up before our alarms
keen to get underway. We’d planned to leave at 9.00AM but by Eight we’d all had
breakfast and were sitting around looking at each other. Rob went ashore on a
speculative trip to try to find somewhere open for some fresh bread for lunches
and returned with a good news and bad news story. The good news, still hot,
very fresh baguettes in hand. The bad news, the marina office wasn’t going to
open until 10.00am because of the holiday. Do we hang around for another hour
and quarter to get our 10 Euro deposit on facilities access cards back or get
underway. After Karen and Marc had dragged themselves out of bed very
reluctantly in the first place, neither were ever going to vote for wasting
their supreme sacrifice so we donated the money to the Marina and threw the
ropes off.
Once outside the breakwaters we
elected to fly the asymmetric spinnaker on its own to give it full reign
without the mainsail blanketing it in the 12 knot breeze and were quickly
getting along at a handy 7-8 knots. As the wind strengthened a little as
predicted, the sevens disappeared off the gauge with steady eights and nines
quite often popping up. Fast boat speed and almost on the direct lay line. How
good was this?
After seeing 9.3 knots of boat
speed we had visions of a new record high speed for Alcheringa but as the wind
continued to build, we decided discretion was the better part of valour and
doused the kite quick as the wind reached 20 knots. We really didn’t want to
risk blowing our favourite sail to bits.
Then stepped in Ley de Murphy which a sailing friend
assures us is the Spanish translation for Murphy’s
Law. In the few minutes it took us to drop and stow the spinnaker and
unfurl the genoa, the wind died to well under 10 knots and swung to directly
astern. After unsuccessfully trying to
find an acceptable point of sail that would keep the headsail full and provide
forward momentum we furled it back away and resorted to the engine.
True to form, within thirty
minutes the wind started to come back, and back, and back. In fact, in the time
it took us to set ourselves up to raise the mainsail the breeze picked up
enough that we went with a reduced sail area at the first reef straight up
along with a reefed headsail. Within another thirty minutes we reduced sail
further to our second reef point as the wind gauge showed a steady 30 to 35
knots and gusts approaching 40. With the instruments now indicating consistent
boat speed of better than eight knots we were again rocking along and very
impressed with how the boat handled the unexpected conditions.
After a couple of hours of fast
downwind sailing, surfing down waves and steering a slalom course through
endless fish trap buoys, we rounded the
point of Punta Calaburras and the land blanked out some of the wind and all of
the sea state so we enjoyed sheltered waters approaching Fuengirola. The breeze
fell to under 15 knots and we were now sailing in dead flat water. We could
have put more sail up and maintained our pace but elected to enjoy an effortless
four knot cruise for the last couple of miles to the harbour. It was a very pleasant wind down after the
fun of surfing down waves in near forty knots.
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| The Spanish coast is rife with fish trsps marked by buoys like this creating a slalom course for us zig zag through and keeping us on our toes. |
Make no mistake, we are cruisers
not racers and would never intentionally choose to sail in 40 knots of wind,
but, having been there and done that today, we couldn’t help but feel a huge
boost of confidence in both Alacheringa’s
and our ability to handle heavier weather if and when required.
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| We did a bit of zig zagging in the westerly wind. You can see where we came about to raise the mainsail 34.02 nautical miles - max speed 9.3 knots - average 6.1 knots |
There is a small but nice looking
marina and Fuengirola but on entering through the breakwaters we found a wide
and very well protected beach within beckoning us to anchor out. We dropped the
pick in three metres of water and hooked in very solidly to the sand bottom
which proved to be a good thing seeing the wind picked back up to 20 knots soon
after we poured the celebratory G & T’s to mark another successful day on
the water. Any yachty friends who find themselves in this part of the world can
be assured Fuengirola is an excellent anchorage in anything other than an
Easterly wind.
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| Alcheringa. anchored in the well protected waters off the beach ar Fuengirola |
Tomorrow morning we’ll go ashore
and find out what the town has in store for us.
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