With August nearing an end, we carried on for the mainland of Spain landing in Cartagena. We set the spinnaker and ran through the night with it - a smooth 144 miles. Although Roger was sleeping at the time (and Kim debated whether to wake him up), EQ passed from east to west longitude at 23:08 and is back in the western hemisphere after 12 years in the east!
Cartagena has been inhabited for over two millenia, being founded around 227 BC and it currently has a population of about 200,000. The city had it's heyday during the Roman Empire and much of it's historical weight is due to the coveted defensive port, one of the most important in the Western Mediterranean. It continues to be the main military haven of the Spanish navy and is home to a large naval shipyard (where we went to get our passports stamped but that's another story).
The city contains a number of landmarks such as the Bull Fighting Ring, a Roman Theater and an area of Roman ruins being excavated and preserved in a covered outdoor museum. Other charming features included the wide pedestrian streets, the Art Nouveau buildings, the street sculptures and the landscaping. We rode the glass elevator to the castle on top of the hill and read a short history of the city.
It would have been nice to travel further into Spain but we thought it best to move on to Gibraltar, as we had fair weather to do so.
Once in Gibraltar, the work began in earnest and Roger spent practically two weeks in the engine room or at the Perkins parts dealer. We did manage to get out and about town a bit but other than a trip to the top of the rock, St Michael's cave, and a visit to the Gibraltar museum to see the Neanderthal exhibit, found it rather uninspiring. The English supermarket was a treat though (as in proper oats) and we walked across the airport runway border into Spain (with not a glance at our passports) to go to the mercado and stock up on nuts and dried fruit for brekky.
As it turned out, the Spanish immigration police said we like Americans and Kiwi's, so no worries about staying as long as we liked. They were kind and helpful in Cartagena and stamped our passports anyway but let us leave whenever we liked. But at "the Rock" we could walk across back into Spain and no one cared. So, all the worry about making sure we didn't overstay our 90 days in the EU was for naught. We do like Spain. :)
But the Rock was crowded and busy, certainly a nervous lot, especially with Brexit just happening, and so was time to move on. EQ's inner workings got a major refit; all new hoses on the Perkins engine along with cleaned and calibrated injectors (now she purrrrrsssssss), a new water heater (hot water anytime again), and a new very quiet engine room blower (yipppppeeeee). And so we worked out the tides (we hoped) for escaping the Med out through the Straights of Gibraltar, no easy task mind you. We found a decent weather window for the 4-5 day trip to the Canaries and shoved off at 4:00am. We did swirl around a bit in the eddies but managed to get flushed out to sea. Into the Atlantic we go!!!!!
So, that's the news from EQ, where the seas are full of eddies, the winds on the nose (as usual), and the crew content to be back at sea.
With equanimity and Joy...
