30th Oct 2008 (photos and a few words)

We are now in Chipiona again and the following pictures are :- 9 from Fuengirola, including a couple of Bob & Di on Sheer Fantasy; 12 from Gibraltar, including 1 of us with Fran, Richard, Irene & Mick, 2 general photos of the Rock & Airport, 4 of damage in Marina Bay and 2 of damage in Queensway Quay after the storm force 12, and 3 of the Boat Beastie in Gib; then 1 of Cape Trafalgar, 1 of Cadiz and lastly 10 from Rota.

There have been a mixed bag of people that we have met recently that are either crossing the ‘Pond’ , heading into the Med or making towards their chosen wintering spot and others that are long term ‘live-a-boards’. Pete & Annie on Tigress of Deben who are crossing to the Caribbean and are now in the Canaries; Colin is living aboard in Gib and his boat was quite badly damaged after being caught under the cement jetty (when the surge came after the winds); Erin and Rob will winter in Gib and then explore the Med in ‘Juggler’ ; Dorthe & Jesper (from Denmark) on ‘Pinton’ will winter in Seville and then also explore the Med ; and Martin & Marsha (from Holland) will also go to the Med after the winter (and then possibly the Caribbean). We have tried to pass on the latest information ( as we have found it) and hope it will be of some use to the people travelling to places we have been.The weather windows are happening less now and I think we are ready to be parked up for a decent length of time , and not have to worry about watching the weather and tides so that we can move along to the next place..

26th Oct 2008

OK ! Where are we now ? Rota – at the north end of Cadiz bay.. We have been to Barbate after Gib and then to Cadiz – and the story goes like this…. We had been having small problems with the cooling water (sea water) for the engine before Gib and it looked like a combination of the hose collapsing and cutting off the water supply to the pump and the pump not being as good as it should be ; well we gave the pump a severe talking to and went to the fuel dock to top up before leaving Gib – but there was a queue so we hung off and waited but the inside boat ( a big Oyster 655 “Solway Mist 2”, Royal Thames ‘Blue Flag’ ! ) had sent crew ashore to get shopping from Morrisons – so we waited about 1 &1/2 hours before we got the diesel (too late to catch the tide past Tarifa now…). However there was very little cooling water going through the engine so we had decided to remain in Gib to fix the problem. For whatever reason we were forced to stay in Gib - the entertainment was quite good -- a certain ‘Blue Flagger’ that was chased off the fuelling jetty was hanging about just outside the marina to waste time while waiting for the crew to return with the shopping.. However – they were just off runway and had caused a couple of flights to be delayed in take-off - we tried calling them up on ch16 and a couple of other channels that they should have been listening to but got no answer ; the airport staff were using loudhailers (Tannoy system) ; Port Control calling on the radio - and all got no joy. So eventually they were impounded at one of the off-lying jetties by the port police launch. There was a lot of follow-on to the incident – and all a good laugh (to us) – while I had another look at the cooling water pump and then it checked out OK. So the main talk of Gibraltar had been the ‘Hurricane’ and the yacht that delayed the flights….. We left for Barbate next day ; having a reasonable sail on the way (no engine temperature problems). But then from Barbate to Cadiz we had to nurse the engine with no wind to sail, at about 1500 revs to keep the temperature down. That was a very auspicious day as we were rounding Cape Trafalgar on Trafalgar day -- - there was even the sound of loud gunfire in the air. However it was not the ghost of Nelson and the ships-of-the-line but the firing range south of Cadiz. It was due to stop at 12:30 (utc) so we didn’t have a problem. Arrived in Cadiz OK but had decided ‘en route’ that we would not leave until the cooling pump had been fixed.. so we ordered up some spares via the internet on Wednesday afternoon and waited, went to the office on the Saturday morning and the parcel was there already, the lady in the office said that it had arrived on the Thursday – absolutely amazing!!!

It was also amazing the difference the spare parts made when fitted to the pump - those interested in the technicalities can ask me for the details.

We did not enjoy Cadiz this time as much as the last time that we were here – don’t know why - - maybe because Jaap & Diana are not with us.. We are ready to be moving on, and hopefully not go to the places that we visited on the way out to the Balearics ; although that will be un-avoidable in a lot of cases. So now we come across the bay to Rota which has come highly recommended by all the people that we have met that have already visited. It’s only a short walk into the old part of town ( which we like ) and also a totally new place to us. We’re trying to get the timing right (weather & tides) for going into Vila Real and Isla Canela but hope to get a few days here to explore before then

The next post should be some pictures of the disaster areas of Gib and a few others; and also to bring you up to date with some of the new acquaintances that we have made and where they are heading..

13th Oct 2008

The 50 miles from Fuengirola was done in company with Sheer Fantasy but they only stayed one night in Gibraltar and then moved on to Barbate. Since we arrived here on the 5th Francy & Richard visited with Mick & Irene, they drove up from Vila Real (in Portugal) and stayed in La Linea – and we saw them on both the Monday & Tuesday. We have been to the Gibraltar museum (Monday 6th) which is £2 well spent – the exhibition is very good and includes a 15 minute video of the history of The Rock from its birth, it is easy to spend half a day in there and would be impossible to take in all the information in one visit. Wednesday we walked round to Catalan Bay on the East (Med) side of the Rock and then on the 9th we walked up the Rock to visit the Great Siege Tunnels and the Moorish Castle but you can’t buy tickets for the individual places and must buy an £8 ticket (each) which covers 4 tourist places which are spread all over the Rock and not easy to do if you are on foot.
We had been expecting some bad weather to arrive during the day on Friday and it gradually strengthened until overnight it became storm force 12. Beaufort says that is winds greater than 63 knots and the boat opposite us recorded 80 mph so it was BIG wind, which eventually died down about midday on Saturday. There couldn’t have been anyone sleeping in the marina that night – we were up tending to ropes & fenders to make sure that we didn’t hit the cement wall ( which we were ‘bows to’) or any of the neighbour boats. At times, when the gust hit the side, we were leaned over about 35 degrees and it was quite un-nerving to see it happening to the other boats. 3 boats had their foresails ripped off the forestay and torn with the force of the wind; about 6 or 7 boats had broken the stern-line (big rope, which goes out to a big anchor-chain to hold the boat off the jetty) and several have sustained damage to their hulls and fittings. After the high winds – the swell came surging in and the effect was at times worse than with the wind – and caused the boats to range about with even more force which led to violent snatching on the mooring lines. It was at this stage that one boat ended up with it’s stern stuck under the cement pier for a while. It was a long night – one to be remembered (hopefully not repeated)! However, Marina Bay where we are, did not come out of it as badly as Queensway Quay which is very badly wrecked (and several of the boats in there have suffered (expensive) damaged) it looks like a disaster zone with all access piers (except one) broken and sunk, and the water littered with debris. There is also 1 ship (35,000 tonnes) wrecked on Europa Point which had engine failure, dragged anchor and is now broken in two; and another which dragged anchor and went aground in Algecieras. One or both has resulted in a major oil spill which has now closed the port and marinas (which have oil booms across the entrances to keep the oil out). Apart from the wooden spar in the main front cleat breaking and the wind instrument mast-head unit failing – we have suffered no other damage. Yesterday and today have been spent tidying, cleaning and doing some small jobs – and listening to stories of how no one (locals) can remember ever having experienced anything like it in Gibraltar before.

6th Oct 2008

Arrived in Gibraltar yesterday evening. More later….

4th Oct 2008

A few photos of Pauline & Monty’s visit to Almerimar, going along the coast, Bob & Teo’s visit and some of Fuengirola; and life in general – like checking the engine and hanging out the washing. You will also probably have noticed that I’ve had a play with the blog colours and changed the photo of Balchis; and also on the route - I’ve changed the colours of the marker pins and where we have anchored to a green colour so that it is easy to distinguish between the places on the way out to the Balearics and the ones on the homeward journey. There isn’t a choice of colour for the anchor symbol so I’ve used the ‘arrow & star’ to mark the homeward anchorages.

1st October 2008

We topped up with water and checked the weather ready for the move from Almerimar to Caleta de Velez and Thursday (25th) looked like a reasonable day. We decided to do the distance in one hop (not like last time when we went into Motril to break the journey) but it was going to be at least 12 hours. Arrangements had been made with Nocturne to leave about the same time and at 7am we left the berth, called into the office to return keys then headed off (about 7:15). Nocturne were sailing for Gibraltar and it was difficult to see any navigation lights against the town lights but we managed to make out a couple of boats just before day-break and called up Darren & Vicki on the radio about lunchtime when they were just on the horizon about 5 miles away. It could have been that one of the sets of lights belonged to Sheer Fantasy because later in the morning we got an SMS from Di to say that they had arrived in Almerimar at 7:50am which berth were we on ??!!!!! Apart from the winds being too light for a decent sail everything was fine and we arrived in Caleta de Velez at about 7:30pm (just before the heavy rain started ). Bob & Teo (and Sophie) from Broxburn ( who we first met in Plockton in 2002 ) were holidaying at nearby Nerja with Richard & Margaret and visited us on Friday 26th; it was great to see them all. Thanks Bob.

We had hoped to stay in Caleta de Velez for several days but when I went to pay for some more days at lunchtime on Saturday, they said that we could only have one more night (because of reservations made for the berths). So I said that we would check the weather and possibly leave within the hour – which we did… I couldn’t understand it because it looked like there were plenty empty spaces…. The weather on ‘windguru’ looked bad enough and worse for Sunday – ( f6 & f7 Saturday and f7 – 8 Sunday, but all from behind) so we came along to Fuengirola which we had avoided on the way East. The predicted winds did not appear and the trip here ( about 28 miles) was all on motor (wind 5 knots); but it’s just as well that we made the journey when we did because the wind and rain came with a vengeance on Sunday. Loads of rain since last Tuesday (23rd) but it’s now back to blue skies and about 25 deg C during the day , cool enough for us to be cooking hot meals again instead of living on salads.

Fuengirola is a large holiday area as you probably know but the main holiday season is finished and the town is not as busy as it could be - which suits us. The facilities are good and the price reasonable so we are enjoying slowing down again and will watch the weather for the next opportunity to move to Gibraltar - probably Saturday.