5/15/23 Ibiza City, Ibiza, Spain

I was up early to get the boat ready to sail. I looked at the weather forecasts and decided today was the best day to cross in spite of being single handed. The wind was about 15 knots from the NE, but expected to die off and shift S by afternoon. This put my destination, Denia, Spain, on a lee shore. I was standing at the marina office door at 0900 so I could pay and get going. I was pleasantly surprised, 109 euros for 3 nights. I had not asked the price as I had no choice, but to stay here.

With the wind on my nose, it was an easy departure. It was a 5-mile motor south to the pass between Ibiza and Formentera. The wind and sea were moderate. I made the pass and turned NW toward Denia. The sea was running about a 1 to 1.5 m swell from the North putting it on my beam. The wind was good so I unfurled the jib and main and the boat was on a comfortable reach. I had 60 miles to go and wanted to arrive before sunset, which at this time is about 2100. I was making 7 to 8 knots over ground with the help of the current, so I settled in for a rolling ride. With only one set of eyes, I had to be extra vigilant. The positive result of that was a lot of dolphin sightings. These were small dolphin that were surfing the swell and jumping for my entertainment.

Leaving Ibiza

The wind died down around 1300 so I furled the jib and left the main to steady the boat. The sea was pretty obnoxious, but at least the main was not slatting, for now. I could see my destination as Ibiza faded from site. The Real Club Nautico was tucked way into the harbor and well protected. With a slight breeze coming out of the slip and a boat on either side it was pretty easy to guide Raffaellesco in and tie up. It was a 9-hour trip, but happy to be back on the mainland and away from the predicted weather in the islands.

For the most part it was a quiet night, but about 0130 the wind started to howl on my nose so I got up to check my lines, all good.

5/16/23 Denia, Spain

Well rested I decided to go for a walk and check out the water front. There was an Accostalege Diffusion, my favorite chandlery, a la West Marine. Stopped and picked up some hardware to better fasten in some of my gear in a rough sea. I walked through the town and up to Denia Castillo. As you approach the castle the streets get very narrow and the row houses looked like they could date back to the early days of the castle. You really could take yourself back to that time. The entrance through the castle wall looked Moorish. Inside there were terraces with grape vines planted behind the ramparts. Denia is famous for its raisins. All the tour signage was in Spanish and Catalan so I did not get much of the story on the castle, though it did date back to the 13^th century.

The alley next to the castle

The grape terraces

View of Denia south of castle

View of the port

The original plan

Up at the highest rampart I stepped up a high step to peer over the wall. All of a sudden, a huge seagull flew from behind the wall right at me making a ruckus. I stepped back, but the thin air did not support me. Landing hands, elbows and ass, the concrete did support me. It was not the fall that hurt it was the sudden stop! The seagull was still coming at me, must be a nest. I brushed myself off and walked away, this is going to hurt tomorrow.

Back at the boat it was time to head out. The day was warm, so shorts and a t-shirt were in order. The wind was on my nose so I dropped the stern lines, eased forward and dropped the bow, easy departure. Squared the boat away and prepared for a 6-hour motor north to Valencia. I had a reservation in Valencia for 5/21 to 5/25 at the marina where the cup races were based in ’07. I contacted them to see if I could arrive early and they said yes. This way I could get a train back up to Barcelona to help Suzette, though she seemed to be doing fine so far. Lots of rest and another checkup where they said she was making good progress.

The ride to Valencia was into a small swell and into a dying wind, so fairly smooth. It was turning into a hot sunny day, a good opportunity to erase some tan lines and do some reading. 6 hours later I was pulling onto the check in pontoon. The wind was blowing me onto the pontoon making for an easy landing. The wind was not so helpful when I backed into my birth. It was blowing pretty good on my beam and no windward boat to block the wind, only a port side boat to bump into. It all worked out thanks to a strong bow thrustor and assistance on the dock from the marina’s sailor. With the wind it took a bit more time to get the boat settled.

There are always interesting people on the dock. Met a Frenchman, Oliver, who was single handing his boat back from the Caribbean heading east to his home in Toulon, France.  Another guy, Derek, was heading to Sant Carles, which is where we will keep our boat for the summer. We will probably see him in the fall when we return.

Some dinner, sundowner and I was down for the count. Very quiet night.

5/17/23 Valencia, Spain

Slept in, 0800! Time to think and plan today. Lots of chores as well.

Installed pad eyes to bungie the folding wagon in place. Fixed the loose kitchen faucet and cleaned the cabinet under the sink. Stitched the leather on the hand hold on the dodger, a clothes hangar had broken the threads. Glued in the soft closures in the cabinets, they kept falling out of place. Reworked the way the deck shower stows so it works more smoothly. Lubed some sticky latches.  Cleaned the top sides. Started going through cabinets to see what was not needed and going back home with us.

Suzette had a checkup today and all went well, the reattachment is a success. One more appointment on 5/30 to be sure the gas bubble has properly dissipated before flying home. She will continue to convalesce for a couple more days in Barcelona, then take the train to Valencia to reboard the boat. We will stay in Valencia until the 25^th, then work our way up to Sant Carles where the boat will sleep for the summer.

A quiet evening; dinner and cocktails for one.

5/18/23 Valencia, Spain

Woke up to rain, wind, thunder and lightening at about 0430. It only lasted about 1 hour, but I was up. So what do you do in the wee hours of the morning on a boat; you make fancy knots to use as pulls for all of the pelican hooks on the boat. Cleaned up the cabin and got ready to head to the chandlery with my short list for today’s projects.

Suzette called and she was feeling much better and wanted to come home early, but did not want to deal with the train. I rented a car and by 1400 I was heading north to Barcelona. It was a beautiful drive along the coast and I arrived by about 1800. I knew Suzette was feeling much better, she wanted to walk and have dinner.

We walked the Carrer de Muntaner almost to the water. The city is beautiful with its ornate buildings and grand boulevards. Back at the apartment Suzette made a great salad along with bread and cheese. We were cleaning up the groceries I had bought earlier in the week. After dinner we took advantage of having a TV and Netflix!

5/19/23 Barcelona, Spain

It was a leisurely morning; coffee, biscuits and packing the few things she had brought. We decided to go to Sant Carles where we planned to leave the boat for the summer. It turned out to be a great stop. I had reached out to a few suppliers ahead of time, but I did not get a response from them. This was an opportunity to meet some of the people and arrange for some work on the boat and someone to care for Raffaellesco over the summer.

First stop was “4boats” where we managed to schedule a meeting with Thomas and Ania for later in the afternoon. We visited the marina and checked out our slip, the yard and the facilities. It all looked great, swimming pool, great bath house and very helpful people. We enjoyed lunch at their restaurant on the water. At 1500 we met with Thomas and Ania to discuss our needs, they were familiar with our boat as there was a similar boat in the marina that they took care of. We really appreciated their approach to things and felt like we would be in good hands. We were also able to arrange an appointment with a guy to do some custom stainless work for us.

On the way out of the meeting the owner of the Jeanneau 51 like ours was in the store. Introductions were made and the next thing we know we are headed to his boat for a beer. His name was Derek from the UK and his wife is Chantel from France, the boat is Coco. They cruise 6 months out of the year and live in Cannes, France the other 6 months. It was great to compare notes on what we have done to our boats, likes, dislikes and cruising. As the afternoon progressed the sky was looking stormy and we still had some stops to make. We exchanged contact information; I think we will see them again.

We scouted out the hotel I had reserved for our disembarkation. It is easier to clean and put away the boat when you are not living on it. It turned out the hotel was too far away to walk so we cancelled it and found a room closer to the marina. The storm did not really materialize and we made it back to the boat safely. Suzette whipped up a pasta dinner with artichoke and…bread and cheese. We ate in the cockpit and enjoyed a concert that was playing on a stage across the harbor from us. The band was Hombres G and they were celebrating 40 years of making music together, Evidently they were a very popular band here in Spain in the 80’s.

5/20/23 Valencia, Spain

We were up late so it was a slow start to the morning. We took advantage of having a car and toured the city for a bit. After returning the car we walked the old part of the city taking in the sites, bull ring, train station, several churches, beautiful apartments along the grand boulevard and ending up at the Mercat Central de Valencia. This was not just and incredible structure, but a grand food market. Suzette was determined to bring home a whole Jamone Iberica, mind you this is the whole leg of a big pig. The butcher said that she would not be able to take it back to the US, but she was sure that she could. After tasting several kinds and levels of quality I was relieved that she decided that a 700 euro ham was probably not practical. She bought some slices to take back to the boat.

                            Train Station Ticket Booth, 1917

                                            Train Station, beautiful mosaics

Suzette sampling the Jamone

The dome in the center of the Mercat

The Marcat

We had lunch at a little café on the side street. It must be the season for weddings as we saw many groups of ladies celebrating with the bride to be. Some of the groups were in silly costumes, the bride was always in her white vale and they would sing and make fun. After lunch we walked to the Park de la Canaleta. They had taken what was once a canal through the city, drained it and made a beautiful park out of it. You were below street level and could see the old canal walls. There were foot paths and bike paths, beautiful trees, playing fields and picnic areas. We walk east through the park for several kilometers until we reached Ciutat de las Arts. This is a series of ultra modern building surrounded by aqua marine pools housing various art and science displays. The buildings were huge and seemed to engulf you in a futuristic utopia. We walked the grounds in awe of the intriguing architecture. Perhaps we will find time to check out the science hall before we leave Valencia.

There is a cable stayed bridge across the complex the likes of which I have never seen. The main support was so tall I could not get it all in the picture, but, in essence, the bridge is supported by one tower at one end of the bridge. All of the cables lead off in one direction. I love bridges and I always wanted to build one, but Roebling I am not.

                                                Cable stayed bridge, like a giant harp

Another 3 kilometers had us back in the neighborhood of our boat. This area was the venue for the 2007 Americas Cup, which provided for an amazing revitalization of the water front. I would say that we walked about 9 kilometers today and I am happy to report that Suzette was feeling good. Her eye is still dilated so she needs to wear her dark glasses, but otherwise she is feeling good!

                                                  2007 America's Cup Base, America's Cup Boat

5/21/23 Valencia, Spain

Slept in on a beautiful Sunday morning, sunshine, warm with a light breeze. The weather prediction was for rain starting Monday and going on for a week. This meant today was the day to get some things cleaned and put away for the summer storage. I cleaned, polished, covered and stowed the grill. We plan to be in marinas for the balance of the trip in case we need to make a run to the doctors and to keep things calm for Suzette to rest and recover. That means that the dinghy was no longer needed. I cleaned and stowed the dinghy, it rolls up into a very neat package for a 10’ inflatable. Since there would be no dinghy I cleaned and serviced the retractable davits and stripped off the line and blocks to stow them below.

My last chore was to see if I could fabricate some hatch covers from some blue tarp I had left over from the last layup in Gibraltar. It looks promising, but it needs some work. Time for Sunday pizza so it would have to be tomorrow’s project.

Suzette was feeling a bit run down and her eye was bothering her in the bright sun, so we darkened the cabin so she could rest. She did rally for a little stainless steel polishing, an endless task.

5/22/23 Valencia, Spain

Awoke to gray skies and drizzle as predicted. The drizzle cleared and the sun tried to shine so we decided it was laundry day. The laundry lady had been on hiatus, so the pile was pretty big. Laundry is a bit of a project as we have to find enough places to hang everything to dry. The admiral prefers air drying rather than using the dryer. 2 loads later we were maxed out.

We walked to the grocery store to pick up a few things to supplement what we had. We are definitely in the mode of being creative to use up the food on the boat. As we walked the dock, we could see that we were not the only ones doing laundry. The grocery stores were small city stores so it took 3 stops before we had filled the shopping list. Back to the boat to stow and let Suzette rest. I worked on making the temporary covers for the hatches so the hatches would not get scorched in the Mediterranean sun over the summer. I will make real ones at home from Sunbrella for the next layup.

Having perfected my make shift cover size and shape it was off to the chandlery to buy what I needed to complete the task, there are 9 hatches to cover. I also wanted to install a water filtration system for when we were connected to the city water. They had the filter housing, but not the filters, so that will be a project for another day. By the time we returned to the boat it was time to fold laundry and make dinner. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the days pass and now it does not get dark until after 2100.