GRAND TOUR PART 2
After a week exploring the mountains of Andalucia by car, we are now picking up the rhythm of life on board again. During our absence, I’ve arranged for Azura to be cleaned and the water filters replaced. The day before we arrive, the cleaning company calls to warn us that a rainshower carrying red dust from the Sahara has made a mess of their efforts. But at least the omnipresent salt is gone. We hadn’t realised the salinity of the Mediterranean is even higher than the Atlantic so that by the end of every outing the hull is covered in a thin crust of salt. Back in our home waters of the Baltic, Azura’s hull rarely needed cleaning due to the constant rain, but the teak needed scrubbing to keep the algae at bay. Here it’s the other way round.
After the lush green countryside of Andalucia, the bare, brown rocks of the coastline look like a lunar landscape. The traces of urbanisation are also increasing as the buildings become denser, taller and uglier the closer we get to the tourist hotspots of Alicante and Benidorm. There is little maritime charm here and even the marinas seem to be large, modern and impersonal.
It takes a bit of luck to find an oasis in amongst this urban desert but that is exactly what we find in Marina del
