Anchored out for the past week or a bit. First was under the Castelo de
San Felipe in a place that has several Escullo / Esculla in it and i
dont' understand the subtle difference/s in Spanish. Nice enough spot.

Then we made our way to a place alongside Islote de Fraile. I thought
this was for sick people that they didn't want on the mainland so they
chucked them there - it's only something like 50 yards across a rocky
causeway. But then I looked up my Spanish dictionary and Fraile is a
Friar so it was a retreat place for monks. A bit rolly so I had to get
up and push the boom around with a little sail on it to shift me back
into the swell. Used my new home-made u-beaut Boom Brake. It was a
great idea but it ended up costing me more that one I could have bought
premade. However, I don't have lines running all across in front of the
dodger and I can use it to haul the dinghy up on the front.

Then we wandered around a place called Cabo de Palos. The approach on
the south is all wilderness, a few beaches with parking areas. Around
the corner and you'd swear you'd arrived in Myrtle Beach!! There is an
inland water body immediately behind all the hotels and apartments so
the comparison is valid. They just go for miles and miles and miles.
Anchored off Playa Levante, which all you Spanish Speakers will know is
the Eastern Beach. Not a bad night.

Left at 9am the next morning for maybe Calpe but we had good wind and
excellent conditions so we decided to head out to sea a bit and go to
Formentera instead, about 120 miles away.

Things were going just swimmingly, nice motion, reasonable miles being
made. A huge pod of dolphins came over to play for a while until they
got bored by us going too slow and went off the get a feed.

After the sun went down, the wind died. Bummer. Here we were on the
Mediterranean approach to Valencia. I've got a big-ass Maersk container
ship coming from my starboard at 19knots. There's another Italian
coming out of Valencia and headed across my bows and god only knows what
behind me. I did the only thing a sane man would do in the circumstances.


I turned the ****ing motor on.
Sorry.

We are now in Formentera complaining about Island Prices like everyone
else here. Pleasant enough. Off to Sant Antioco on Monday I think.
See if the Italians can put up with us for a while.