SV Lumina Med Tour. Part 1 . Oct 2014.

 

Dear Friends,

We sailed to Anguilas (Spain) and decided to leave the SV Lumina in this nice marina, and left to explore the city of Murcia (old town centre, where back in the days the Moors had their way..).

We couldn’t rent a car in Anguilas, and so decided to go by train. When we finally arrived at the train station (by foot… side note for fellow cruisers: although the marina is nice, it is quiet distant from the city centre and public transport hard to find..). Had to wait a fair bit for the train to Murcia, but we arrived early evening in this nice town. Via internet we had booked a budget priced hotel in the centre of town, and had dinner at their restaurant (very good choice). The next day we explored the old part of town, a wonderful mix of little streets and alleys. In the afternoon we took the train to Alicante. Also in this town we had booked a budget priced hotel (actually this one was a little bit too budget for our liking, but anyway, it was going to be only for one night). We walked straight to Volvo Ocean Race Village. It was great to taste the atmosphere, as the next day was going to be the start of this mega event. 7 racing machines (now all the same built and equipped) are going to sail around the world. The word comfort does not excists on board these vessels.

Later on that evening we had dinner (rather disappointing… in fact our culinary experiences in Portugal and Spain had us choosing for the Portuguese quisine hands down, so far anyway).

Next morning the start of the VOR. Magnificent… Soon after that we took a bus back to Anguilas.

We wanted to leave the next day, but the weather was not helping, so we ended up staying an additional day (spent on laundry, internet etc etc).

With this over land detour, we had gained some time and we could now skip Cartagena and Alicante, and we set sail directly for Ibiza…

Downtown Murcia                                       Recycling made easy in Alicante

 

Central Boulevard Alicante                          VOR (Volvo Ocean Race)

  The Alicante YachtClub (Full to capacity)                         I have one…                       

 

The Brasil 1 turned into a museum                                             Yeah…                              

 

           Cool Keel                                      No comfort inside the Brasil 1

 

  3D street art: Neptune….                                   Crowds at the start of the VOR

To be continued in Part 2..

Be good

Pieter