Gibraltar to Sotogrande
Altea
Tue 20 Aug 2013 15:08
20 August 2013
Spend the morning with Sean, a rigger from Sheppards. The new rigging installed in Ipswich needs tuning. He takes in quite a bit on the backstay and the forestay, and tightens the forward lower. He does a good job and spends time telling us what to look for in the future.
After filling with water and sorting ourselves out generally we get off at about 15:00. We get the sails up round the impressive rock of Gibraltar and have a pleasant sail towards Marbella, where we are aiming to meet up with Ted. The boat is trimming much better with the tweaked rig.
We decide to anchor at Sotogrande. A bit of a roll and memories of Arrifana lead us to experiment with the kedge anchor to get us head on to the swell, as Altea is lying to the current across the swell and rolling badly. The experiment works well (after a few glasses have gone flying) and we have a pleasant and stable dinner on board. Later on the kedge comes up as the wind strengthens and sets our nose into the swell.