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3rd Oct 2011 - 15th Oct 2011
Heading West – Spanish Andalucía
While we awoke each morning to a view of the Rock of Gibraltar, we were actually anchored next door in La Linea, Spain. We had no interest in seeing the sights of Gibraltar again this fall, having spent several days last year during our passage into the Med exploring its war tunnels, marveling at its stalactite and stalagmite cave, reading of its rich history as a strategic defense location, chuckling at its entertaining monkeys, and walking across its huge international airport’s runway, equipped with a traffic light, on the only land route available between Spain and Gibraltar. This time, we were looking for something different to explore.
But first we needed a few “down days” to repair, clean and relax. Each morning we listened to the “Magellan net” on our single side band radio. This is a scheduled broadcast daily at 10 a.m. when many cruisers, heading to the Canary Islands from Gibraltar, tune in and announce themselves and share information. We heard from the boats that were either:
- in Gibraltar awaiting favorable wind;
- in passage to Rabat, Morocco, a popular midpoint in the trip;
- in Rabat awaiting favorable wind and waves;
- in passage to the Canaries;
- already in the Canaries.
We watched as boats left our anchorage and headed into the Atlantic and as boats sailed in from the east, anchored, and anticipated when they would join the parade west to the Canary Islands and eventually to the Caribbean. As a result of all of this activity, it was easy to meet cruisers and reconnect with those we had met before.
Our friend Kerry from our days in Mallorca anchored behind us with his boat Irene, after picking up two crew members who would join him for the Atlantic passage. We also met an Australian couple, Robin and Suzie, who were planning to leave Gibraltar about the same time we were.
Carolyn Goodlander and her husband Fatty, the well-known author and journalist who writes for various sailing publications, anchored just west of us. I had introduced myself to Fatty in an ice cream parlor in Milos, Greece, three months earlier. We knew their boat, Wild Card, was headed our way, thanks to his reports on the Magellan net. So when we saw Wild Card in the anchorage, we invited Fatty and Carolyn to join us for happy hour. He has lived on a cruising sailboat most of his life and is a great story teller. Carolyn, who had never sailed before they met in Chicago 40 years ago, is his able first mate in both their lives as sailors and in his career as an author. What a wonderful evening that was!
All of us were headed west to the Canaries and on to the Caribbean. The sense of camaraderie was in the air – cruisers from all over Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. biding their time and preparing for the Atlantic crossing.
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Diary Photos
| 3rd Oct 2011 Opti Racing in La Linea |
| The harbor in La Linea is large and well-protected, a great anchorage and also a place for the tiny Opti sailboats and their young sailors to take sailing lessons and hold their races. This year, the La Linea harbor is also hosting Olympic sailing competitors from all over Europe who are practicing their racing in preparation for the London Olympics in 2012.
The anchorage is so popular, in fact, that the manager of the marina which occupies a portion of the harbor feels cheated that he pays rent to the town to have a marina in the harbor, while all of the sailboats anchored outside the marina are there for free. So every few weeks, he calls the authorities of the town and pressures them to go from boat to boat and tell each boat to leave. When this happened to us, we pow-wowed with the other boats also being expelled, and agreed to re-anchor on the other side of the harbor. In this way, we would be out of sight of the marina, but in a location less-protected from the ocean swells. After a few days the swells became a nuisance, and we all returned to our original location as if nothing had happened. There we remained with no further hassling for the rest of our time in La Linea. The skipper of one British boat, which had been at anchor in the harbor for over a year, explained to us that this was the game they had been playing with the marina manager and town officials for quite some time. |
| 3rd Oct 2011 Beautiful Andalucia, Spain |
| I said we were looking for something different. Different from Gibraltar, yes, but we were actually trying to catch the last bit of southern Europe and the Mediterranean before we sailed out into the Atlantic. It was early October, and we couldn’t leave the Canaries for Trinidad until mid-November to avoid the risk of the Caribbean’s hurricane season. So we had some time. We rented a car and headed east to Granada and southern Spain to see the Mediterranean portion of its Andalucia region. We wanted to see what we had missed last year when, after we toured Gibraltar, we headed for the northern coast of Morocco, missing the southern coast of Spain. |
| 4th Oct 2011 Looking up in Granada, Spain |
| We took off on foot after our early morning drive to Granada, which is nestled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. (Amazing how many places in the west of the U.S. have Spanish names.) I was spellbound by the gorgeous rooftops everywhere I looked, but I had to balance my upward gazes with my downward glances to miss the broken cobblestones and dog deposits on the walkways below.
As usual, our first stop was at the tourist information office. There we learned that tickets for the Alhambra, the primary reason that anyone visits Granada, are generally sold out by 9 am each day, and today was no exception. So we purchased tickets for the following morning and spent the afternoon exploring the rest of Granada. But historically, the story I want to tell begins with the Alhambra. |
| 5th Oct 2011 View from the Nasrid Palaces in the Alhambra |
| I will admit that, while I had heard of the Alhambra, I didn’t know what it was or where it was located. I think my familiarity with the name probably comes from Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra. I haven’t read it, but I remember learning of it in some high school or college literature course. The name was associated in my mind with Arabic sultans and colorful flowing scarves, so I imagined that it was located in the deserts of the Middle East or Africa. It turns out my images weren’t all wrong, just woefully limited.
The Alhambra is considered one of the greatest accomplishments of Islamic art and architecture in the world. It was built during the Middle Ages, when Christian Europe was in decline and the Moors (Muslim Berbers and Arabs from North Africa) controlled southern Spain. As the Spanish from the north successfully pushed to re-unite Spain and expel the Moors in the mid-13th century, the southeastern coast of Spain from Gibraltar east remained controlled by the Moors, and Granada was its centerpiece. The Alhambra’s construction was begun by Sultan Muhammad I al-Ahmar in 1237 AD. For 250 years, the monumental complex of the Alhambra was built in a very credible attempt to create paradise, and Granada became one of the richest cities in medieval Europe. However, as it goes with rich and powerful kingdoms with which you may be familiar, the economy stagnated and a violent rivalry for succession developed. Catholic Spain took advantage of the weakness and besieged the towns and devastated the surrounding land, forcing Granada to surrender in 1492. |
| 5th Oct 2011 A room in the Alhambra’s Nazar Palace |
| Sitting high above the rest of Granada on a natural sloped plateau, the Alhambra is huge. The map of its grounds, filled with beautiful buildings and gorgeous gardens, resembles the map of a large town. Because of its size and height above the city, it was impossible for me to take a photograph that captured the entire Alhambra complex. I could easily flood this blog chapter with many more beautiful photos, but I still wouldn’t be providing any sense of the Alhambra. Without doubt, the most memorable spot is the huge Nazar Palace complex, built in the 14th century. Here intricately patterned tile and more intricately carved marble adorn the walls, floors, and ceilings, and still give breathtaking views of the gardens beyond. Here, Washington Irving actually lived for a time, and his book is to be found printed in many languages in the gift shops of Granada. |
| 6th Oct 2011 A ceiling in the Alhambra’s Palace Nazar |
| Bear in mind that much of the carving on ceilings and walls is actually beautiful Arabic script, thus the beauty of the place would certainly be enhanced if you could read its gracefully carved message. |
| 7th Oct 2011 The gardens of the Generalife |
| Built after most of the Alhambra was completed, the Generalife (architect’s garden) is known for its gorgeous well-manicured gardens where the sound and sight of water predominate. There is even a water stairway where, instead of handrails, there are inverted roof tiles on each side of the stairs forming a flume that carries water down from the “Royal Water Channel” in the mountains above. Islamic gardens are known for their sense of peace and tranquility, and the sound of gently running water contributes to that sense. |
| 7th Oct 2011 Monasterio de San Jerónimo in Granada |
| Monasterio de San Jerónimo in Granada
Because of the presence of the Alhambra, Granada is a vibrant city, flooded with tourists – maybe too vibrant for the likes of us. We stayed in a hotel across the street from this 16th century monastery, within easy walking distance of the center of the old city and the Alhambra. A hotel across from a monastery promised to be a peaceful place. Or maybe not. Since our Alhambra tickets required us to be at the gates at 7:45 a.m., we went to bed early, and listened to loud partying outside our first floor hotel room all night long. When we stumbled out of the hotel at 7 a.m. ready to start our day, the partiers were also stumbling as the parties were beginning to break up. In all fairness to tourists, the new day we were greeting was a national holiday, unbeknownst to us, and the revelers were Spanish youth who began celebrating very early. |
| 8th Oct 2011 Ferdinand and Isabella – a true power couple |
| If the date that the Moor’s rule of Granada ended (1492) rings any bells for you, then you will be interested to know that it was King Ferdinand of Aragon and his second cousin and wife Queen Isabella of Castile who, after successfully reuniting the rest of Spain, were responsible for conquering Granada. The couple was so impressed with the Alhambra that they decided to make it their home. And only three short months later, Columbus went to the Alhambra to seek financing for his trips to the new world. I’m sure I must have learned that several times in various history courses, but hopefully this time it will stick! |
| 9th Oct 2011 Bridging the two sides of Ronda |
| On our way home from Granada, we drove to the village of Ronda before heading back to the boat. Ronda was a hangout for Ernest Hemingway, but is mo |
| 12th Oct 2011 A village in the mountains of southern Spain |
| Note there are two more villages (white spots) in the distant mountains. After leaving Ronda, the mountains of southern Spain made our drive back to the boat both breathtaking and painstakingly slow. It also gave us a new sense of Spain’s beauty. It had never been a country that I longed to visit, but this short two day trip enticed me to want to see more of its gorgeous and diverse landscape and its historic towns and cities. |
| 15th Oct 2011 Goodbye Med! |
| After we returned from our tour of Andalucía, we knew that it was time to leave our cozy anchorage in La Linea. Wayne watched the weather daily, sometimes several times a day, to find a time when the tide was close to high and the wind was on our stern. The Straits of Gibraltar are notorious for their strong currents from the west, so small craft like ours need wind, tide, and waves in their favor in order to exit easily. Our time arrived early on October 15, when the wind and waves were both strong and building from the east. There were three other boats leaving with us, and as we nostalgically said goodbye to the Mediterranean, which had been our home for much of the past year, it responded by forcefully spitting us out like a mouthful of watermelon seeds. |
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