07 Dec. 2018; Cartagena, Spain.

This Cartagena in Spain gave the name to Cartagena in Colombia during the days of the Spanish expansion into South America. Cartagena itself comes from Carthage, the once mighty City State across the sea which made the life of the Romans very difficult until they destroyed it. The great roman general, Scipio Africanus then renamed the place in Carthago Nova and eventually it became Cartagena. That is what I remember from my school days. More can be found no doubt on the internet.

We followed today in Scipio’s footsteps and sailed into Cartagena Bay at 06.30 hrs. This port is a favorite for many captains as it is so nice and sheltered. The break water keeps the swell out and the surrounding mountains are quite good at keeping the wind out. Both things they did today although there was not much wind out there to start with. We had a beautiful Spanish autumn day. We were also the only cruise ship in port and that made it even better.

Cartagena as per Google Earth. (Thank you) We are docked at the inner L shaped pier. And there is this large East /West Breakwater which keeps the swell out.

Cartagena is not only a cruise port, it has a large marina located inside the Cruise pier, and there is also a large naval presence and a shipyard which specializes in expensive yachts. There was one under construction right in front of our bow and I suppose it had to resemble a sailing ship but the hull was clearly constructed for a lot of luxury. Not my taste but if you have money to throw away at such things then why not, it supports the economy of Cartagena. I always consider owning a boat as if being married to two women; and the boat is often the more expensive one. I cannot afford to maintain two wives let alone deal with two mother-in-law’s, so I rent a boat if I feel the need.

I am not an expert in Sailing and motor yachts but I doubt if you can buy this one for under $ 50 mln.

There is also an outer harbor, sheltered by a large breakwater and this is the oil and cargo port which is even larger than the inner port where we are docked. But this port is a very good port to be in and if Holland America would ever consider this a port for an overnight stay then you would not hear me complaining.

Cartagena is totally different to Malaga where we will be tomorrow. Malaga has a very deep harbor but is also much more exposed to the elements. To protect the harbor they built a very long breakwater which doubles up as the cruise terminal. We are scheduled to dock all the way inside at the cruise terminal close to the city unless the Harbor master changes his mind.

To get to Malaga we have to sail for a night along the Spanish coast, and we have to stay a considerable distance away from that coast. Much more than what is needed to get from A to B, via the shortest distance. A number of years ago there were a few near tanker & other ship collisions in this area, mainly caused by ships who tried to cut the corner as much as they could to save fuel. Spain was not in the mood to have their beautiful beaches polluted by this corner cutting so they moved the shipping routes completely offshore. There where there is ample room to stay clear of each other and if something would happen the authorities would have sufficient time to take action. To make sure that everybody follows this compulsory route, there is a VTS monitoring station that makes a lot of noise if you do not behave.

Please note the blue dotted lines on the chart. That is the route we also have to follow, it is basically the regular route to Gibraltar. The Spanish Coast Guard is watching from a Radar Station close to San Jose at the cape and we are only allowed to  leave the route once well clear of the corner.

Long time ago in 2001 I was here with the old Noordam and we listened to a Chinese tanker being advised in Spanish that they were following the wrong course. Well Spanish is not high on the list of languages for Chinese citizens to learn so nothing happened. But also Spain has boats with guns on it, and it did not take long before a Coast Guard vessel came speeding out and went alongside this Chinese tanker. We were too far away to see if they really boarded but the Chinese must have gotten the message as my navigator advised me that the plot of the ship on the Radar screen was changing and the tanker was making a 90o turn to the south. Closely followed by the Spanish Coast Guard.

We might not speak Spanish but we know the rules and thus we will be good boys (and girls as we also have a female navigator) and sail nicely along the dotted line until we reach Malaga early tomorrow morning.

Weather for tomorrow: Very sunny with 66oF /19oF, no wind and 2% chance of rain in the afternoon.