Sardinia, Mijas & Madeira

After two days at sea on the Voyager, Captain Dag came on the intercom and shared with us the problem he’d been facing since we left Athens. With oil prices at an all time high of $115 a barrel the oil originally earmarked for our transatlantic crossing to Ft. Lauderdale had been sold to someone else at a higher price. It appeared that the only oil available in the Mediterranean was in Gibraltar. So we altered our course, cancelled our scheduled port of Tunisia and made a beeline for Gibraltar. The following morning he again came on the intercom to announce that overnight there had been a passenger accident which again required us to alter our course and stop at the nearest port for a medical evacuation. At midday we pulled into Cagliari, Sardinia a large island west of Italy. The ambulance was there to meet us and the Captain determined that we’d spend the afternoon in this Italian influenced port. With a city map in hand we walked all over the town with its Roman style plazas and cathedrals and its attractive waterfront buildings. It was an interesting stop before heading for Malaga, Spain and Gibraltar.

We had spent quite a bit of time in and around Malaga over the years but had never visited the traditional Andalusian village of Mijas. This picturesque town of tightly packed white washed buildings is located high up on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean and the Costa del Sol towns of Torremolinos and Fuengirola. During our walking tour we saw traditional burro taxis, red geraniums hanging from wrought iron balconies, the 400 year old Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Caves and the Plaza de Toros bullfighting ring. The bull ring is the smallest in Spain, built in 1920, it hosts bullfights every Sunday. Although we didn’t see any bulls or bullfighters, it was fun pretending that we did. After the bullring visit, we wandered around town; we did a little window shopping and art gallery hopping before enjoying wine and Spanish tapas at a restaurant with the best views in town. We both agreed it was a perfect and relaxing way to spend an afternoon in Spain.

The port harbor in Gibraltar was our next necessary stop. An oil tanker was scheduled to pull up next to the anchored Voyager to refuel us, a process that should only take a couple of hours. The next morning we learned that it had actually taken 8 hours and that combined with heavy seas, our arrival time in Madeira was delayed by 12 hours with a docking scheduled for early evening. Because we had spent a full day there in ‘06, riding the tram up and the basket sleds down the hill from Monte, visiting the Botanical gardens and having a special Madeiran lunch (see ‘06 World Cruise Seg.6), we were content to stroll around the harbor and enjoy the twinkling lights of this Portuguese mountainside town. Because we’d missed several ports this segment, it was a bonus when Regent credited us $1000 against our bill or a future cruise. This was our last port before our 6 day journey across the Atlantic to Bermuda.

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