Welcome to our log. Here, I recount the voyages, adventures, and challenges we've experienced aboard the "Azul".
Ceuta to La Graciosa Passage We departed on May 20, 2026, at 07:20 and arrived in Caleta de Sebo on May 26 at 12:00. 583 nautical miles in six days. We had planned to leave Ceuta on the 12th. Our contracted berthing time was up, and Juan had arrived on the 9th with that idea. However, a persistent ...
Ceuta, Between Two Continents We arrived in Ceuta in mid-November 2025, after our stay in Melilla. A day-and-a-half crossing brought us to the Strait’s threshold; this time, a calm crossing. The cleaning of the diesel and the tanks we performed in Melilla was effective. Initially, our plan was to...
Melilla, distant and lonely. We arrived in Melilla in mid-May of 2025; it attracted us because we had never been there. Unlike Ceuta, which was many times a stopover on the way to Morocco, Melilla lay far away. We came from Almerimar. A complicated crossing: barely 130 nautical miles, but the eng...
Bound for Melilla: Between the Diesel Bug and Seasickness El Azul set sail from Almerimar on May 12th bound for Melilla. On board, besides myself, were my partner Eli and my friend Juan, a seasoned sailor whose 67 years of experience would soon prove invaluable. The southwest wind (SSW) didn't allo...
Almerimar Almerimar is a development that belongs to El Ejido, about 20 km to the east. The buildings are modern and not very pretty, but it enjoys a privileged location, right by the sea. El Ejido is the area of Almería with the most greenhouses; however, from Almerimar you can't see them: it's li...
Bound for Almerimar, a Pleasure Voyage We had been in the Mar Menor for a few months, anchored day after day, swaying in that dead calm of the inland sea, when the time came to set sail. It was early November and we had already weathered a couple of storms — the kind that make you wonder what the h...
The Mar Menor: School and Refuge Our playground, our testing ground. We left the Tomás Maestre at the beginning of August. We wanted to spend a few days anchored in the Mar Menor; those days turned into three months. Time flew. It was a great school: life with the dinghy to go get water and supplie...
Heading to Torrevieja, the Haul-Out April 2024. We have a date at the boatyard in Torrevieja. After the propeller incident and our stay in Alicante, the Azul needs to come out of the water: a thorough inspection and a deep clean. We chose Torrevieja because they let us work on the boat ourselves. L...
La Manga We’re from Alicante, not too far from La Manga, but it was always a place off the main route. Perhaps the fame for mass tourism, urban sprawl, I’m not sure, but it always gave us a bit of resistance. It wasn’t a place to go—at least for some Levantines. Yes, I suppose they could call it pr...
Crossing Alicante – Club Náutico Tomás Maestre Two years in San Gabriel ended with a crossing that almost didn't end well. We were ready for something new — two years of getting to know the boat, of working aboard the Azul, and slowly settling into this new life at sea, though, as she told me later...
