Mar Menor and Continuing up Costa Blanca

On June 7 we arrived in time for the 2PM bridge opening to the Mar Menor. The Mar Menor is a unique feature on the Costa Blanca coast. The Mar Menor (minor sea) is actually an inland sea 12 miles long and 6 miles wide separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow band of sand, the La Manga. The area reminds you of Cancun with it’s lagoon and hotel row facing the ocean. The Mar Menor is very shallow – in fact barely deep enough for Lone Star, and in heavy winds, which we were experiencing the day we arrived, extremely choppy. We had planned on anchoring out however looking at the chop we decided that didn’t look like any fun so instead we pulled into Puerto Tomas Maestre Marina for three days. From that vantage point we were able to enjoy some of the many restaurants along the Menor and took a dingy ride clear across the Mar Menor on the third day once the winds had subsided.

The last evening we were there we met a British couple, Denis and Sadie from Gurnsey in the Channel Islands who had just pulled in on GRACEFUL, a Moody 54. As it turned out, like us they were headed for Alicante the next day so we decided to sail together and left on the 10th in time for the 10AM bridge opening. After a nice 6 hour motor sail we were safely tucked into the Alicante marina. This place gave us our first taste of “in season” Med marina prices with the bargain overnight price of 107 euros. Ouch! The town, however, was inviting with a beautiful promenade that challenged your equilibrium.

That evening we had sundowners and snacks on LONE STAR and learned that a number of years ago Denis and Sadie had completed a trip across the pond to the Caribbean and back and then a complete circumnavigation with (at the time) their young children. They also kept a boat in Greece for several years and are very knowledgeable on that area. Needless to say we were impressed.

The next morning we had planned to sail on to Denia but instead, because we were enjoying their company and the pictures of Calpe were beautiful, we decided to sail with Denis and Sadie to Puerto Calpe and spend one more day together. During the sail a momentous event occurred. At 1416 we crossed the Prime Meridian. At 1507 we arrived at Puerto Calpe and since the marina staff was on siesta we side tied to the hammer heads on the dock and were feeling quite good about our good fortune to be in such a lovely location. After our traditional celebratory docking/anchoring beer (meaning that no fiberglass was damaged) we walked into town to do a little exploring before the marina staff returned.



About an hour later, we came back to the marina and learned that we were being kicked out because the hammerhead docks had to be left open for safety reasons and only one other slip was available for Dennis and Sadie. As we considered this new piece of information we remembered being kicked out of entire countries (those of you from our Tales of Seabbatical days probably remember our story about Guadeloupe) so this was no big deal. We were preparing to leave when Denis and Sadie came to the boat and said they were leaving also and why don’t we all just go anchor out at El Rinconet Bay five miles east.

Our misfortune at Calpe turned out to be a good fortune. El Rinconet was a beautiful, idyllic spot with gorgeous waters. Craig commented that he would not have anchored so close to land if Denis was not leading the way. We anchored in sand about 100 meters off the shore and were shortly in the water swimming for the first time in the Med. and checking on what kind of plant life our boat bottoms had picked up since leaving the Channel Islands and France.


We met for sundowners and appetizers that evening on GRACEFUL and eventually took our dingy to shore and had a nice (but a bit expensive) dinner at a local restaurant with fabulous views. Based on the price of the meal, we also paid for the views!

The next morning Craig finished removing the unwanted plant life (scrubbing the bottom) and Jan took off in the dingy for her first solo drive. In the afternoon we reluctantly bid farewell to Denis and Sadie. We headed on to Denia and they planned on spending another night on the hook before sailing to Ibiza. We really enjoyed the time we spent together, said we would keep in touch via email and hoped our paths would cross again.