Saying goodbye to Trudy and Joop
Today was the last day of the mini-learning-holiday of Trudy & Joop. They were leaving tonight back to Amsterdam from Alicante. We decided to go to Santa Pola Marina. It’s only 10 min. to Alicante airport by taxi. The weather today calmed down and the sun was shining again. We left already at 8.30 without any wind. At around 14.00 we could set the’ red beast’ our giant spinnaker. I Love this sail. When the sky is blue and we have our mainsail and the red spinnaker set it looks so nice! Perfect for a postcard picture! We arrived in Santa Pola end of the day and we had to say our last goodbye to Trudy and Joop. Not after we drank a few white wines of course haha! It has been a fantastic great mini holiday! Nice to have people around with whom you can share your thoughts, have a good laugh, have a good drink, who love food and so on. It was great to know you both a little better than before! Thank you so much for taking all the effort coming to the MED to sail with us! Hope you will enjoy your new Astrea 42 as much as we enjoy Eight! Have a safe trip back home!

Santa Pola – Marina Miramar
This is really a very nice marina I must say. It’s very big but for me looks very friendly when sailing in. Of course, the Marineros are there to help you berthing the boat. This marina has a lot to offer. Paseo Miramar is the new leisure area of Santa Pola, next to Marina Miramar. It has terraces, attractions for the youngsters, open spaces and playgrounds. The design of the area has received the first prize of Urbanism and Landscape awarded by the Official College of Architects of Valencia (COACV).
The ladies at the reception are really very very helpful. Calling a taxi to go to the airport, make reservations for restaurants or whatever you ask. Really nice! We just strolled along the walking area. On one side of the Marina, there is a sailing club. We had look there. Quite a lot of boats! I can recommend this marina to you. Not cheap but reasonable. We thought that in wintertime the prices in Spanish marina’s would be much better than in summer but this is not true. Most of the Marina’s in Spain are so-called Puerto Deportivo (I think they are all government properties, not sure) and they all have more and less the same prices all over Spain.