Calpe, last stop before the Balearics

 After a couple of days waiting out some weather in Torrevieja, we decided to set sails towards Calpe for we decide would be our last stop on mainland Spain before hitting the Balearics.I do not typically enjoy sailing close to the wind, as it makes the boat heel and life onboard becomes unpractical. But the sea was perfectly flat and Polar Seal was flying above the water without too much heel, which made for a perfect day at sea!Torrevieja was originally a salt mining and fishing village before it turned into a British expats hub. Its high number of UK residents owed it the nickname of "Costa del Yorkshire". The winds died off a few nautical miles out of Calpe. We had to pull the sails in and start the engine to finish the passage.Approaching Calpe, both the winds and the sea state started to pick up. It didn't worry us, but it made the last nautical mile of the passage less comfortable than what we'd had all day.Once arrived at the anchorage, the winds had picked up to 15 knots. We decided to drop the anchor anyways, but we got caught in waves that with really short periods inbetween, transformed Polar Seal into a "bucking bronco".5 minutes later and a failed attempt to drop the anchor, the winds were now up to 22 knots. We finally managed to drop the anchor, but ended up being bashed in the waves and had rocks right behind us.We thought we may reposition the anchor farther away from the rocks, before realizing that being anchored in such sea state was a really, really poor idea, and we retreated to the other side of the rock.We had a really bumpy ride to the other side, which made us both really nervous. We had to push our engine way more than we normally do to give Polar Seal enough power in this very confused sea state.We were worried that the other side of the rock wouldn't be any better. We also knew that the winds were going to shift during the night which was going to make this side exposed to wind and waves as well.Fortunately, the other side of the rock turned out to be calmer. Even if small waves came clapping against Polar Seal's hull she was at least stable.We admired a beautiful sunset in a sky troubled by the weather system and went to bed a little stressed about the wind shift that was going to occur at 2 AM that night.Right when we expected it, the wind shifted, keeping us up to make sure that our anchor was holding (it was). We got bounced around in 20 knots of winds the rest of the night.When we woke up the next morning, we overweighed returning to the other side of the rock to drop the anchor. But the wind was going to shift the same way it had the day before and we simply didn't know what to do with ourselves.In what we felt was a no-win situation, we decided to retreat to Calpe Yacht Club for two nights until we'd cross to the Balearics. There will probably be days, sometimes ahead of us, when retreating to a marina won't be an option. But that day it was, and we decided to enjoy the opportunity.We started the engine and 15 minutes later, Polar Seal was comfortably docked in a slip.Immediediatly, the mood onboard improved and we decided to go explore Calpe, starting off with climbing that big rock that we'd been cruising around for the last 12 hours.That big rock by the way, is named Peñon de Ifach and is the smallest natural park in Spain.The 1h30 hike starts with a very clear and defined path leading to a tunnel. 100 meters passed that tunnels, hikers are met with this sign.One shall be warned.From there on, the path becomes a lot more challenging. A set of chains installed along the hike help the hikers climb the sharp rocks, steep cliffs, and narrow paths. Calpe's rock is the habitat of many birds and towards the top, seagulls and hikers get in close contact. After I mistakenly wandered off the marked path, a seagull reminded me of whose territory I'm on by nearly attacking me.Towards the top, the proximity with seagulls became almost scary, as hundreds of them were tending to their babies right along the path.I thought to myself that it was odd that tourists were allowed to climb all the way to the top during mating season. Although we weren't climbing the rock at the peak of the day, we passed at least a hundred tourist on our way up and down.At the top of the rock, we were rewarded with the most amazing views over Calpe.On the photo above, you can see the anchorage where we had tried to stay upon arrival (between the two jetties) as well as the marina where Polar Seal was docked.On this photo, you can see the anchorage where we retreated the first night.The views were worth the challenging hike, and we are glad we got to have this experience before setting sails towards Formentera!