All Stop!

Net around the prop

After leaving the Mar Menor, we broke the passage up with an overnight anchor just outside Alicante. It was a pretty good sail up. We motored offshore for quite a way, leaving La Manga in the distance, and headed to the North side of a huge Fish Farm. From there we had a good angle and decent wind to sail at 7 plus knots for a good deal of the way, and even deployed the cruising chute as we got nearer to Alicante.
Eventually the wind died and we motored to our waypoint. It was Neil on Plane Magic that found a nice spot so we all tucked in just outside a small marina.

At anchor off Alicante. (Picture courtesy of Stephanie Sprigings)

 
The next day the three yachts motored in the calm conditions up the coast. Ourselves and Nautilus decided to do a drive by of Benidorm, and Plane Magic continued towards our intended destination.
It was during this period when motoring that a sudden change in engine note occurred, and we slowed right down. The throttle was put into neutral and we drifted slowly. It was evident we had caught something below. We radioed Nautilus who were nearby, and they came over straight away. In the meantime we popped the GoPro under water and saw the nightmare of a fishing net wrapped around the prop.

Fortunately for us Ian has a mini dive tank on board, and with great skill he managed to free the offending net. We are very grateful as we would have found it almost impossible to remove it ourselves.

Able to continue on our way, we sailed into Benidorm bay.

Benidorm has the most high rise buildings per capita in the world! It looks incredible by day and must be more so at night.

And so we headed on and up the coast towards one of our favourite anchorages from 2013, El Portet, known locally as Paradise Bay.