Villajoyosa A Working Port

In this hub, I want to show you around the Port end of Villajoyosa a seaside town which is on the Costa Blanca in Spain.

I also want to encourage you to get out with your own camera to document everyday life in your own town or city.

I hope as you view the photographs that you will see how easy it is to document and capture some of the flavour of daily life and so preserve some of the things that are disappearing at an alarming rate.

I hope that my photographs of Villajoyosa will show you what a beautiful seaside town it is and that you will enjoy a virtual trip round our small working port. The Port caters for both leisure and working boats in a very picturesque setting.

The Marina in Villajoyosa is home to a variety of leisure craft ranging from small day boats to the large motor and sailing boats costing tens of thousands.

Like many marinas some of the boats that are moored there don't move from their moorings from one years end to the next and others go out quite frequently.

My husband and son can be seen on a friends boat going out for a days sailing in the photographs below.

At the weekends, the fishing boats are all moored up in the Port but weekdays the fishing boats normally leave to go fishing at around four in the morning.

On a quite night or should I say morning if you live in the Town and stand on your balcony around four in the morning when the boats are leaving Port you will be able to hear the low deep hum of the big diesel engines in the fishing boats in the distance.

Where I live, the noise is not audible unless you really listen for it but if you live in an apartment down by the Port, I know from people who live down there that the noise of the boats going out is enough to wake the dead. Either people get use to the noise or they move.

The Port is a very import part of the town’s identity and economy and the boat yard where workers haul boats in and out of the water to work on them, is the heart of the Port. Having a working boatyard, especially one that can work on the older wooden boats, ensures that Villajoyosa Port is still a necessary asset in the region.

The ability to work on wooden boats is a skill that is increasing hard to find these days so a Port that can offer this is sought after. The state of the economy all over Europe at this time means that even well established businesses are coming under increasing pressure just to stay afloat.

I have see business all over town and on the sea front close and workers lose their jobs. The port has not escaped entirely their share of the economic down turn. There are less fishing boats fishing out of Villa these days and the town has seen a reduction in the number of holidaymakers coming to Villa on their holidays.

Owners of leisure boats who moor their boats in the Marina too have less disposable income in their pockets making it that much harder to justify the high costs of having and keeping a boat in the Marina.

Therefore in these economic circumstances it is of vital importance for the port to remain a working port with its fishing fleet and boatyard so that it doesn’t go the way of so many other seaside town ports which are nothing more than a Marina catering for a diminishing number of leisure craft.

Like with all working boat yards there is all the usual clutter and equipment associated with boats and the work necessary to keep boats in good working order.

Finally, no Port worth its salt is complete unless it has cats to keep the vermin in order. Villajoyosa Port not only has a little live in community of cats but the cats are as pretty as the Port.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed me showing you around the Port even if it has been only virtually and I hope this hub encourages you to get out with your camera to document everyday life in your locality before it changes or disappears. Thank you for viewing and reading this hub.