Late January 2020
Well, we made it to Gibraltar before the end of 2019, and had a lovely Christmas and New Year break in the very sheltered and hospitable Queensway Quay Marina. We made new friends, afloat and ashore, and enjoyed getting to know this far-flung British enclave.
Before the first month of the new year was out, we’d already begun this year’s cruising, in the company of our enthusiastic daughter, who basked in the unseasonably warm, dry, sunny weather out of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea proper, beginning to work our way up the Spanish Costas. She accompanied us as far as Málaga, from where she flew home and to where her brother arrives this coming weekend for a few days.
We expect to remain in our comfortable, reasonably priced marina in Fuengirola whilst we wait for any Winter to pass through. With convenient transport links to Málaga city and airport, plans are afoot to explore inland: Ronda, Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada for the Alhambra Palace, making the most of cooler temperatures and fewer tourists.
Once we resume cruising, we’ll continue Northeast along the Spanish coast, and hope to explore extensively the Balearic Islands: Ibiza, Formentera, Mallorca and Menorca, during the Spring. We already have our first confirmed booking of visiting crew for the Eastern areas of that archipelago during Easter, which we are eagerly anticipating.
We expect to return to the mainland around Barcelona, and then head into France, where we have a provisional date to meet friends near Juan-les-Pins at the end of July. It is yet to be determined whether this will be before or after a possible figure-of-eight passage around Corsica and Sardinia.
The plan is to sail loosely Eastwards as far as we are comfortable doing this year, perhaps reaching Greece by next Winter. Over the next couple of years, we would love to complete a circuit of the Mediterranean as we did the Baltic Sea in 2018, but it all depends on politics as much as weather…
so as usual, nothing is definite: check the blog regularly for updates, and come sail with us: enjoy your very own ‘escale’ on our beautiful l’escale wherever and whenever you can