10th & 11th June - Cabo da Gato and onwards

I was on deck just before 2 a.m. and Fenix was sailing along under full main and a single reef in the headsail. Malaga was clearly in view to the North. We were beating to windward in 15 knots of wind and the barometer was stable again at 1019 millibars, but our course was gradually taking us away from our destination or waypoint. This situation did not last long and the wind dropped off again whereby we were back under engine and full main by 5.15 a.m.

The outline of high mountains were visible prior to dawn this morning and by the afternoon they were graduallly replaced by more gentle slopes intensively farmed judging by the acres of polythene covering the land as we approached Punta de Sabrinal.

There were also reports and chatter aboard of fish striking our line this morning at about 9 a.m. However, just after noon and as we crossed the Banco el Seco de los Olivos, a seamount where the sea rises quite steeply from 500 meters to 72 meters another fish hit the line, causing a lot of line to run out. At this time of year the bonito and tuna are running into the Mediterranean and given our average speed of 8 knots, only the bigger and fast fish were going to be capable of taking our lure. We had a tactical change of fishing line in Gibraltar and were now using an immensely strong man made vectran fibre; there was a general reluctance to touch the rod and line for fear a finger might get snagged and lost! In any event we were slow throttling down and the fish made away with our valuable and "best" lure.


Despite persistent attempts to catch fish, which included having two lines out the back almost 24 hours a day and using an assortment of lines and lures, there was an ominous feeling developing aboard that we would not land a catch on the trip. So much so, the odd wager was being made and as the barren hours and miles passed the beliefs became stronger because not even the trusty wayward, and smelly, flying fish was to be found stranded on deck. I add the above image because at around this time I found a few small fry on the deck early in the morning and they indeed turned out to be the only species landed.



After passing the Golfo de Almeria and rounding Cabo da Gato the coastline changes dramatically. Most notably it is quite sparsely populated with little or no development for miles and from the shores the land rose again steeply to pointed hilltops with ranges of mountains behind them. This portion of the south eastern coast, despite its distant and difficult terrain, is quite distinctive for its system of hilltop forts or lookout towers located intermittently along the coast just within sight of each other. A closer inspection of the the charts on board confirmed this and the extent of the fort system as it extended northwards towards Barcelona.


Similar structures that would be familiar are the Napoleonic Martello towers along the coastlines of Ireland, England, and the Channel Islands. While taller and narrower in form the Spanish hilltop towers were probably used for a similar purpose. The Royal Naval vessels certainly targeted the Spanish coastline for a period during the early 19th century, but the necessity of these forts probably arose in reaction to a more persistent and long term threat; the Barbary Pirates raided this coastline sacking villages and enslaving the people from the 17th to the early 19th century
causing havoc, and these towers would have served well as an early warning system against such seaborn attacks.

Light winds and calm seas dominated Wednesday 11th June as our passage took us north eastwards towards Cabo de la Nao, passing Cartagena and the Murcian shore, and later past Alicante and the Costa Blanca. We rounded Cabo de la Nao under engine and full main in the evening around sunset knowing that by sunrise we would be somewhere due east of Valencia and closing in on the Catalan city of Barcelona.