Cartagena

[johnf]

I am looking for advice re Cartagena and surrounding area. we are based in Almerimar at present and are hoping to have a two week cruise up to the Cartagena area. If the conditions are settled ideally anchoring as much as possible. We have 4 girls aged between 6 and 15 and would like to may be par take of some of the activities at La Manga club- hopefully to give the girls a break from us and vica versa so would like to anchor near the club. We did consider going in to Mar Menor but have heard some stories about lots of Jelly Fish which would be a nuisance and rather put us off this the Menor for this time of year ( any local knowledege of jelly fish habits gratefully received)

Cabo de Palos looks ideal but we are just under 15 metres and draw 1 metre 80 so the guide books say we are too big. But has anybody got in around our size or anchored off. It looks appealing as again there may be more for the kids-.

Any advice gratefully received or any other families sailing up that way would be fun to perhaps meet up. we will leave Almerimar around 2nd of August and should be back around the 16th

 

[Anonymous]

Hi John, got the PM and will reply here....

I'll only mention the places I have personally used in the last 12 months, there are many others.

Almeria - the official anchorage is right down by the yacht club (clearly marked) but there is not a lot of room so you can anchor just seaward of the control tower. Maybe call the tower or just drop the hook - I did the latter. Getting ashore is only possible down by the yacht club as much of the port is under customs control (ships to Morocco).

Cabo de Gata - you can anchor on the west side in a small bay about 3 cables NW of the light itself. Excellent shelter in winds from N to SE. You can land but it is the Spanish equivalent of NT property and you need to show respect for the environment plus the beach is rocky. Fine for rubber inflatable but I did not want to land the RIB.

On the other side of Cabo de Gata you have San Jose but you are too big for the marina anyway, so anchor in the bay. SJ is utterly charming though we were plagued with flies last year /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Tender ashore to the beach. Safe in winds from N to SW.

Garrucha - anchor right down the end of the harbour. It is marked as an anchorage in my pilots, and on C-Map but not all show it as such, I am told. Difficult to find a place to tender ashore but if you do you will find yourself in fish restaurant heaven. Nice evening street market selling better than average stuff and crafts. There is a decent supermarket but you might have trouble tendering much back, depends where you can park the tender.

There are some anchorages around Cartagena but we did not use them as we wanted to explore the town. Quite honestly, Cartagena is all about the town, and you would miss it all by anchoring. Small number of really fascinating antiquities - this is the territory of the young Julius and Brutus. Evocative stuff. Good Eroski supermarket to restock - the first good one (other than Garrucha) after leaving Almerimar.

We are going to try Mar Menor this year - we are told that they are trying to solve the jellyfish problem and in any case there was a major jellyfish problem right up that coast last year and you had trouble wherever you wanted to swim. They are going to employ fishermen to trawl them up, I believe, so Mar Menor might be better than the open sea?

Torrevieja - dodgy anchorage now. Very rude, hostile lot - everyone agrees, this isn't a case of us having had a bad experience. The tender park is now said to be bad news - and we had an update from earlier this year to that effect (2007). Avoid, especially with your two girls - shame though, it was a useful stop.

I think that's probably as far as you want to go so won't go any further. If you and your wife fancy a special night out I can highly recommend the Benidorm Palace - cabaret, really excellent cabaret and dinner to the highest international standard. Either hire a car or take a taxi. I don't think the girls would enjoy it - it would be a waste on them to be honest and they would be bored.

It will be very hot at that time so you really want to be at anchor unless you have aircon. Finally, checking this before sending I realise I have not mentioned watering points - we make our own so I really don't have a clue what the facilities are like anywhere.

 

[johnf]

Many thanks for your prompt reply. I believe there is a choice of marinas in cartagena. Do you have a view on which might be best for our needs. i.e ready access to shops bars activities. We do have air con ( only a basic portable domestic machine but it served well aslt summer) so marina would be ok.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, this year they opened up what was the 'Superyacht' marina to any boats (due to a lack of superyachts? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif) and it is operated by a different outfit to the yacht club. As you approach from the sea, head to the right where the fuelling berth is marked on your chart. We will try that this year. We fuelled there last September and it looks better but I don't have price details or any other experience.

 

[wayneA]

Hi - We were in Cartagena last summer and spent time in the superyacht basin/marina. We have some port notes on our website here, which maybe of some use - it details costs, facilities etc and also includes a small amount on the anchorages we used in the area.

Cheers

Wayne

 

[giolconda]

We stopped for a night in the superyacht basin/marina in Cartagena last June. The service was really excellent, and the berthing fee very reasonable. Barbara was most helpful, and spoke excellent English.

It wasn't open to smaller yachts then but they let us and several others in due to bad weather. We did however struggle with the length of our mooring lines, as the mooring cleats were spaced for yachts of at least 30m, definitely not 10m yachts. The same problem applied with the length of the shore power cable. I don't know whether anything has been altered in this respect. You will also need to be well fendered.

Only stayed one night but still managed to stray into the seedier side of town - beware. That said, we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the place, and would have liked to have been able to stay longer.

Re Mar Menor. Well worth a visit, (we spent 3 nights) but don't spend a night at the marina at the entrance, unless you have money to waste. It was very very expensive, although handy for restaurants.

 

[Grehan]

10/10 all youse - thanks - an excellent thread, this

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
We did however struggle with the length of our mooring lines, as the mooring cleats were spaced for yachts of at least 30m, definitely not 10m yachts. The same problem applied with the length of the shore power cable. I don't know whether anything has been altered in this respect. You will also need to be well fendered.

[/ QUOTE ] Someone came into Almerimar some weeks ago having come down from Torrevieja where they had overwintered, and had just stopped at the new marina in Cartagena, and they updated us then. I don't recall her mentioning problems with cleats, electricity, etc. and she was clear that they had re-opened as a dedicated general marina not a superyacht marina so fingers crossed.

We are planning to go up there in a couple of weeks and if this isn't resolved I will try to remember to either post here if I have internet access or send an email to one of the posters here, whose email I have.

 

[wayneA]

We may have been there when Cloadasmum was there?

We had a stay of about 2 weeks due to a medical problem we had to resolve (of which Barbara the Manager was a god send and very helpful organising doctors, specialist and interperter at the clinic for us in Spanish). While there the SY Basin got quite full due to bad weather, and a number of yachts ended-up alongside the concrete wall outside the basin - here the wash is quite bad and is used for really big yachts and has few services pylons and cleats on the dock. Inside the basin things are clamer and services closer. We had no problems inside, other than the size of the plug to the elctric hook-up, but the Marina staff had made up an number of converters. They were really still getting used to us small boats.

Wayne

 

[Nat]

Hello John.
The jellyfish in the mar menor are the non stinging type (brown) its the blue ones that sting so not really a problem & Lemains right there is a big netting exercise to get rid of them so should be ok. Great spot for the kids to swim.
Cabo de Palos. Ive been in there with a Princess 40 no probs. but entrance is relativly small & there is a dangerous rock right in the middle which must be kept to port. There is also a reef about 100metres off the entrance so needs to be aproached with care. You should get on the harbour wall ok but if its busy you will find turning round a bit tight.
Torrevieja has a very large liveaboard community & is not as bad as others make out. The problem was loads of water gypsys moored in the outside harbour putting nothing into the community & discharging waste into the harbour. One day they just had enough & moved everyone on. Unfortunatly the genuine people got moved on as well. Go & see the harbourmaster armed with a bottle of whisky, If you ask him nicely you wont have a problem. If you want a berth with leccy go & see Shazard in Navicularia. he will sort you out. Not very swish but good repair shops & plenty of decent restaraunts. Unfortunatly the fuel pontoon is closed which is ridiculas for a port of that size. There is fuel for the fishing boats but unless you are buying over a thousand litres they dont want to know. Also not much for kids to do & it can be a bit clique untill they get to know you.
regards..Nat

 

[jerryat]

>>The problem was loads of water gypsys moored in the outside harbour putting nothing into the community & discharging waste into the harbour. One day they just had enough & moved everyone on.<<

They've been doing that at least once a season for at least ten years to my personal knowledge. There were various reasons given, from boats 'pinching' water from the marina (we arranged ours with them and paid for it) and making access to some pontoons difficult, to restricting the operation of the salt ships coming in to load and heads being discharged into the water too near the beach.

We've never stayed there for more than about 10 days at a time, but friends who own a berth in the Tomas Maestre marina (Mar Menor entrance) and live there, tell me nothing's changed, and that everyone shoves off for a few days then drifts back quietly a few days later.

I accept that some boats were anchored there 'permanently' and felt no sympathy for them at all when they were chucked out. It was this sort of mis-use that wrecked it for 'normal' cruising yachts who just wanted to anchor for a few days before moving on.

Incidentally, the jellyfish problem apparently 'exploded' into being a few years ago after the authorities had failed to stop massive over fishing year after year in this lovely 'inland' sea. Presumably the fish ate the 'fry(?) and therefore naturally reduced population.

Each year the authorities make a show of sending about four smallish fishing boats in there to 'pair-trawl' for a couple of days and load the jellyfish on a barge type vessel for hauling out to sea. Needless to say, they can only scratch the surface (no pun intended) but it looks good! The fixed nets that are just inside the entrance help a bit to keep the things out, but all in all it's pretty much a waste of time.

Be careful when swimming. Not ALL of the jellies are the brown, non-stinging variety. There are some of the others and it damn well hurts if you do collide with one - I speak from painful experience!!

 

[johnf]

Mnay thanks to all about the advice. I have spoken to the super yacht marina today who were happy to tak a booking for august and were friendly. the price quoted for a 15 metre berth was 39 euro day. which seemed ok for a short stay in high season. One other thought was puerto deportivo do mazzaron which looks good in the pilot book. Has anyone visited there as it may be a possible stop en route up or down from Almerimar.