Barbate to Gibraltar
Altea
Sat 17 Aug 2013 15:08
36:09:59N 05:21:78W
17 August 2013
The journey to Gib re-started the next day. Off at a leisurely 10:30 aiming to ride the favourable current we soon had 22 - 25 kn on the nose. We followed a French yacht for a while, a big 60ft plus ketch that had anchored off the beach the night before. After a while I was fed up of burning diesel, hammering into a very choppy sea, with the promise of worse to come, so we decided to sail and pretty soon we were making better way than expected, about 6.5 kn, tacking up the coast, plus a shove of a couple of knots from the current.
The windsurfers off Tarifa brought back fond memories of windsurfing adventures in Lanzarote.
We then had a great sail with Africa seeming very close and more mountainous than we expected.
We celebrated as we crossed the line from the Atlantic into the Med, listening to some fun and games on the VHF radio as the Brits warned off a Spanish breaching the Geneva convention and transgressing in British waters. We had already been warned that there was a bit of a spat going on between England and Spain and delays at the borders as a result.
We navigated past numerous massive tankers and cargo ships at anchor, and decided to anchor up in Spanish waters just past the entrance to the Gib marinas and with the cliffs of "the rock" towering in front of us, pushing the Levante wind up into the air and generating clouds like the peak of the Matterhorn does in the Alps.
Sunset with the huge cargo ships and the refinery in silhouette is dramatic. We are also just off the end of the Gib runway, and planes land close by. Drinks on board to celebrate our arrival.
We had spotted Morrisons supermarket on the way past the town so J and L were very much looking forward to a big shopping expedition to restock the freezer. S and I were going to head for the chandleries.