After our strong wind sailing escapades
getting to Fuengirola we all slept extremely well nestled behind the protection
of the harbour’s breakwaters and woke to a glorious, warm sun filled day.
Summer is definitely getting closer. It was shorts and t-shirt time at last.
We pulled the outboard off its
mount on the stern rails and onto the dinghy for the first time in almost six
months for the short trip to the beach. We were off for a bit of Fuengirola
exploration. The combination of the Easter weekend and warm weather saw the
beaches become very popular very quickly and by mid morning the whole place was
buzzing with locals and tourists alike.
The first thing we discovered was
a series of very elaborate sand sculptures. A different artist seemed to have
staked a claim on each beach and had created their own masterpieces hoping to
attract donations from admiring passers by. We definitely had no qualms about
dropping some change in the tin for the opportunity to admire and photograph
such unique works.
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| There was even a fire burning in the fire place. How good is that. |
Our next job was to find a nice
café. Of course it had to have Wi-Fi so Marc could down load his London
newspapers, Karen could down load the latest weather forecasts, and feed the
animals in her I-pads virtual zoo of course, and for Rob to upload the latest
blog before catching up on his zoo, the world of facebook. Oh! The café also
needed to have coffee of course but the quality of the web access does rate
higher than how good the coffee is. We do look a little strange at times
walking to the door of cafes with I-phone in hand checking the strength of
their Wi-Fi signals before we bother to check their menus. We did manage to
find a very suitable establishment right on the beach and set up our temporary
office with two I-pads, one laptop PC and an I-phone all logged on within
seconds of our arrival. |
| It must be Easter. |
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| Rob hard at work in the office posting the latest blog. |
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| Promenading is a national pastime in Spain. Marc and Karen take in the sights. |
Business completed and a couple
of coffees later we were all energised to stretch our legs with a walk along
the esplanade. It seems to us that every Spanish town on the Mediterranean
coast competes to have the best, wide, paved, beachfront promenade. Most are
very, very nice and Fuengirola’s is certainly up there with the best of them. We
think these may be the Spaniards’ attempt at counteracting the ugliness of the high-rises
that line the other side of all seafront roads. Every town’s version of the
promenade does include one common feature that was most likely never part of
the architects’ plans. That is tens if not hundreds of Africans of suspect
residency status trying to flog knock off handbags, sun glasses, CDs, t-shirts
and, of course, genuine Rolex watches. They must be genuine because he told us
they were and for 20 Euro surely they wouldn’t be fake.
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| Great prices on genuine, original copies of whatever you want. |
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| Our calm anchorage just off the beach ar Fuengirola |
By the time we’d been for our
long walk we’d built some pretty good appetites and chose a waterfront café for
lunch directly in front of where our boat was bobbing gently in the water just
a handful of metres off the beach. Seafood was the order of the day and Karen
enjoyed a huge salad and a plate of the big sardines Spain is known for that
were barbecued on an open fire in front of us. Marc went for a nice fillet of
hake while Rob feasted on spicy octopus cooked in a local fashion. Add breads
and a bottle of wine and the bill was still only $43 for the three of us. Try
that in Australia.
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| Karen's feed of sardines being barbecued. |
We had planned to spend just the
one day in Fuengirola but once again the early season weather isn’t quite
playing the game. The area along the coast to the east that we’re sailing to
next has been experiencing some very strong winds so we have elected to sit a
couple of extra days in our calm little harbour until it settles down a bit.
Our time wasn’t wasted however as we researched all the cruising guides and
completed the passage planning of all
our intended hops and stops along the coast all the way to Barcelona. All the
forecasts are now indicating a couple of days break coming up so we expect to
head off tomorrow morning (Tuesday) with a plan to anchor out for the night and
along the coast and then get to the marina at Almerimar the next afternoon
before the bad weather returns on Wednesday evening.
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| Tucked in behind the harbour walls has been a great free anchorage in Fuengirola |
Check back in a couple of days
and we’ll let you know how we went.
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