Cadiz to Gibralter

Had a nice sail across the Gulf of Cadiz to Cadiz, Spain. Nice weather and a 10-15 knot breeze from behind most of the way. We planned on anchoring near Cadiz but the wind had kicked up a bit of windswell so we tied up at the Cadiz marina around 1930. Luckily we missed the marina staff so had a free stay as we left before dawn the next day so we could be in the Gibraltar straights for the high tide. The Easterly currents run at up to 3 knots for 3 hrs before and 3 hrs after high tide so it makes sense to go with them rather than against!!
We motored for a while and when we tried to raise the mainsail realised the main halyard had wrapped itself around the radar reflector. Damn !
We tried a few things to avoid going up the mast but in the end, up the mast in the bosuns chair I went to untangle it. Luckily the seastate was pretty calm so it was harder work for Jenijane winching me up than it was for me…
After we sorted that we had a nice sail, some dolphins came to welcome us to the Gibraltar straights and we cruised through under sail in 10-15 knot Westerlies with 2+ knots of tide at a nice speed of 9-10 knots SOG.

Arrived in Gibraltar around 1600 as the wind picked up to 25 knots, but all went well after dodging the mass of ships we are berthed in Queensway Quay marina in the heart of Gibraltar. Its a nice marina and we step off Sephina onto the quayside restaurants and a few minutes to the main street.

Gibraltar (AKA Little Britain) by me….

Gibraltar is a great place to stop for a few days, the history and sights are amazing, BUT, a few days is definitely enough !

First thing you notice is the English..Everywhere! Well Ok I guess it is owned by England but wow, its like a holiday resort for Poms and everything is very British. The food, the rules ! No dogs, don’t sit on the fence, don’t walk on the grass, etc etc. The main street unfortunately is like a huge outdoor airport terminal with every 4th shop selling cameras and between those, electronics, tobbaco and alcohol and anything else that seems like a bargain duty free (Gibraltar has no Tax, woohoo) but like most airport shops everything is overpriced to compensate. The food as well was expensive, I asked for some fish and chips and the waiter said ‘do you know how much it is?’ . I thought thats an odd question so I said ‘no??’ and he said the small plate was nine pounds. OK thats like $20 for a tiny bit of fish and chips, No thanks !

 

There were some reasonably priced restaurants we managed to find and the chandlery was really cheap as well as the marina.

We bought a few presents for Sephina (new VHF station for the helm and some sailing guides)

The marina was one of the cheapest at about 25 euros/night

The first night we arrived we ate at a nice restaurant right next to Sephina. We ordered lots and it wasn’t till the bill came Jen realised the prices were pounds not Euros ! She was shocked but it was really our first nice restaurant since Alvor and the food was yummy..

 

Did a big grocery shop while we were there at Morrisons. Bloody expensive but it was good to stock up. Made a major shopping mistake though and bought non alcoholic beer !

 

We had organised for some mail to be sent to the marina ahead of us so we were kind of waiting for that as well as it hadn’t arrived (it took me  a few days to realise I had given the Other marina address to the senders) Most of it didn’t arrive so I guess it will be returned to sender after we leave.

Its hard to get some things when you are cruising so we try to order things ahead from ebay or wherever but it doesn’t always work ..

We took the cable car up the Rock of Gibraltar and walked a mile or 2 along the top of the rock. Saw the monkeys and the caves which was the highlight of Gibraltar.

 

We wanted to get out of the marina and Gibraltar after 5 days and catch up with V, Char and Yugi, so we motored over the border to La Linea in Spain where they were anchored.

Nice to catch up with them all and Peter and the boys from Fai Tira as well, and especially nice to be in a nice anchorage out of the Marina. Balrog was stoked of course to be able to swim again. We had a BBQ onboard with them all and played some guitar and drank a bit. V told us he doesn’t get drunk and I think Peter and Jen took it as a challenge to try get him drunk. In the end V was fine but I think Jen and Peter might have been the worse for wear

 

V helped us with some technical things on Sephina (wireless network and solar stuff). It was great to catch up with them all and hard to leave but as usual we are keeping an eye on the weather and planning the next leg of our journey and eventually we decided its time to leave and officially arrive in the Med! (still without mail but,. oh well!)