Friday 30, Saturday 31st October
Bamarandi
David & Donald
Sun 1 Nov 2015 14:37
We've had a technical hitch of some sort with our Satmail so our postings have not been sending - we've switched to another iPad on board and are hoping this will work. The position log is from yesterday - we will update again tonight and you will see how far down the African coast we have come. It was interesting seeing we would be passing by places like Casablanca in due course.
We approached Gibraltar in the dark seeing in the distance the famous Rock rising up out of the sea with its northern end having the features of a face looking like a cross between a snowman and Mr Potatohead. The top was covered with an eerie covering of thin cloud giving the appearance of hair, a mane and a rail making the Rock look like some sort of strange beast! We experienced some very strong currents on the way.
It was 11pm by the time we got to the harbour entrance and very dark. The large harbour had lots of bright lights making it very difficult to judge distance and perspective. We had been given a tip that anchoring in front of Alcaidiesa marina was the best place to be as it put is an ideal position to refuel the next morning and get the 2 sets of engineers on board we had organised en route.
Despite the challenging conditions and navigating our way around a new location in the dark Donald managed to get the boat to the right spot with the usual expertise. Our anchor took first time which was good news after our long trip down from Antibes. Arriving at Gibraltar was the first leg of our trip completed.
Next morning we were on the fuelling dock at 7.45am and at 8am started fuelling up. We took in 2366 litres of diesel in our tanks and the fuel barrels strapped in the cockpit.
The 2 sets of engineers arrived promptly and fettled one of our Volvo engines and our electronics. After a short sea trial and a further engine reset by the Volvo engineer we were on our way. We had originally planned to spend another night in Gib but we could see the weather forecast worsening significantly for the area so we headed out into the Straits on the next leg of our passage.
We kept to the shipping lane and then were out into the Atlantic to see 5 large grey warships dotted around us. After about 15 minutes we were hailed on the radio by a NATO warship "requesting" that we kept 5nm away from the ships as they were engaged in a minesweeping exercise. We immediately altered course only to find one of the ships alter to the same course making the exclusion distance requested impossible. We waited for the first warning shots across our bows but none came and we made our way south.
We have made good progress and managed to keep ahead of the weather seeing pods of small dolphins leaping out of the water circling round the boat to get a good look at us.
We have had our fishing lines trawling out of the back some of the time when we are going slow enough but so far have only managed to lose the entire line off one reel and the rather expensive lure we bought in Antibes with it. New line has been put on with the knot of all knots meaning it cannot happen again - we hope.
The food has continued to amaze and exercise and a strict diet will definitely be needed after the voyage!
We have found a flying fish and then a squid on the transom during today - we are in a very very large swell of 5-7 metres with some much bigger waves periodically in between! A real roller coaster ride. We went through the night with some rain showers that helped wash the boat down and some very black threatening clouds. We could see large bouts of lightening too and we're glad that we had watched the weather forecast closely and not stayed in Gibraltar. It is this weather that is causing the large swell we are seeing now we are further south.
All goes well and everyone is fine.
Donald and Glen ate all the Pringles.
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad