Point to Point

Tuesday 7th May 2019

Punta de la Huertas to Punta de la’Albir

When we arrived at Punta de la Huertas it was a lovely calm evening, with a slight swell from the east.  However, later in the evening the wind turned to a light southerly which meant we had the swell on the beam (the side of the boat) and in Mark's words written in the log book, “rough night sleeping,  Offi rolled like a drunken sailor and still is 12 hours later despite flat calm/light southerly wind and tiny swell from the east".  

Needless to say, it wasn't an early start and we pulled up anchor at 11:30, heading north with calm seas and a slight swell still from the east. Oh, and the engine on!

By 13:30 we were able to raise the yankee and the mainsail but still kept the engine on as it was only just hitting 3 knots with no engine.  Poor Mark, he gets very frustrated having to keep motoring and is known to mutter on occasions “thought this was a sailing adventure”!

It didn’t help that a long stretch of the journey was along the coastline between Alicante and Benidorm, which is just mile upon mile of holiday resorts.  There are mountain ranges behind the resorts, but you don’t really appreciate the beauty of them with high rise hotels in the way.

On we motor sailed towards our anchorage, passing Isla de Benidorm at about 15:00. It's an amazing island, which rises up steeply out of the sea as you approach it from the south and is in stark contrast  to its backdrop.  Little did we know, it was a taster of things to come.

When we had been planning our journey to Javea, we knew that a lot of the coastline was going to be holiday resorts and high rise apartments. So it was totally unexpected, that from that point on the scenery was absolutely stunning, with dramatic rock faces and small waterfalls cascading into the sea.  It certainly made the rest of the afternoon a lot more interesting and put a smile back on our faces.

We reached Punta de la'Albir and our anchorage at La Mina late afternoon.  It was a tiny anchorage enclosed on three sides with very high cliffs and although there was no beach, it was well protected from wind and swell, so we picked up a mooring bouy and sat back to enjoy the view with a glass of wine!