Costa Blanca Revisited

Monday 13th May to Thursday 23rd May 2019


After heading out of Javea marina on Monday evening, we had no definite plans of what we would do other than revisit the coastline between Javea and Calpe.  We headed over to Cala Sardinaria, where we stayed until Wednesday and then headed off to explore.

There were a number of spectacular views and highlights during our ten days, but these are the ones worth a particular mention.

Not quite Jaws!

Heading towards Isla de Descubridor, which is just south of Cabo de la Nau we disturbed what we think was a shark, basking in the sun. Mark had spotted it and told me to have a look through the binoculars  and tell him what I saw. I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There, laying in the sun without a care in the world was a shark!  We were lucky enough to manage to get within 20 metres of it before it turned lazily and dived down.

Another highlight was the afternoon we spent on a bouy at Cala Granadella, just 1.5 miles west of Cabo de la Nau.  It was a beautiful little cove, with a tiny beach and a few houses and a bar.  It was a very hot day and with clear and crystal blue water, we took our first swim off Offbeat and tested our new swim ladder, which worked perfectly. Unfortunately as the cove is easterly facing and we were expecting a 1 metre easterly swell, we reluctantly left before nightfall.

First swim off the back of Offbeat!

Calpe

We sailed along the coast, down to Calpe, to see the rock. Seeing it bathed in sunshine was amazing, with the spectacular cliffs framed by the mountains.  It really is amazing how that stretch of coast remains relatively unspoilt, but once you hit Calpe, it's all high rise hotels.

Montgo peeking above the cliffs

Tuesday we headed back to Javea. We planned to stay in the anchorage next to the marina on Tuesday evening and head into the marina first thing in the morning as there were a few last minute jobs before we headed off to Formentera on Thursday.

As we motored across Javea bay, I spotted a fire on the hill.  The smoke from the fire was clearly visible and as it's mainly woods, can soon get out of control. We then spotted a firefighting plane drop water onto the fire.  As we watched the plane, it headed towards us and picked up water from outside Javea harbour, where the wind and sea were very calm. The second time it picked up water from only half a mile ahead of us and passed very low directly over us.  It felt like it skimmed our mast as the plane was struggling to gain height with such a heavy load of water. The fire fighting must have been successful after that load of water as the plane headed inland. We saw a helicopter drop a small load of water and then the ground crew took over, presumably.  There was no more signs of smoke, anyway.

We picked up a buoy around 19:00 to the sound of church bells calling the faithful to mass, feeling that we had done justice to this spectacular part of the Costa Blanca.