Almerimar, Costa del Sol

We’ve spent the last four days in Almerimar, a beautiful and astonishingly cheap marina on the Costa del Sol. We didn’t intend to be here – it just happened to be the closest place we could get repairs done on our sickly dinghy outboard.  As luck would have it, we squeezed in next to a yacht named Wraith owned by Vicky and Jeff Vidler, veteran Aussie cruisers of 12 years or so, so we’ve been enjoying their company and their wealth of knowledge and experience of sailing throughout the Mediterranean.

 

With 900 berths and good facilities, there is a very active cruising community here. Many yachts are here for the winter, some locked up but many with their crews living aboard for all or part of the off-season. Lots of pleasant cafes, a range of restaurants and shops and plenty of activities such as quiz nights (Team Down Under managed a creditable second place despite the English bias of the questions), barbecues, trips to markets and interesting historical sites, and of course the daily radionet on the VHF.

Vicki and I had an enjoyable day out at the huge market in Roquetas , successfully negotiating the bus journey and returning laden with new towels (two for five euros), clothes (I bought a dress for ONE euro!), fruit and interesting bit and pieces.

 

The motor is working, the weather is looking good and we’re planning a good long sail to Ibiza or, if the wind holds, onwards towards Pantaleria, between Sicily and Tunisia.