In the Blink of an eye

IDEA Sailing
Idea Yacht Racing Ltd
Fri 21 Jun 2013 10:56
And just like that, in the proverbial blink of an eye, the island of Faial, and our quaint little Portuguese village of Horta is behind us.

It was a very quick stop, but productive. All the necessary jobs got done. Some rest was had during a night without motion, and now it's time to get back into the ocean.

Gibraltar, our next port of call is just over 1100 miles away to the East and slightly Southish.

GIbraltar, the Pillars of Hercules, The Rock. The Northern landmark for the Straights of Gibraltar, and our entrance to the Mediteranean Sea is another interesting bit of land along our way. There is a tremendous amount of history there going all the way back to the writtings of Homer. A major military strategic point, and an important intersection in the traffic of cargo.

For those of us who have been there one of the most amusing aspects of Gibraltar is the airport. The runway of which also doubles as the bridge to the main land (Spain). Several times a day they close the airport and open the barricades and all kinds of people will walk or drive across the runway to get to and from Spain.

It's a tiny little island, a rock really that can be walked from one end to the other in less than an hour. Or if you climb to the very top of the hill (I'll take the gondola lift personally) you can visit with the monkeys up there. The monkeys are quite bold and will come right up and mug you. Literally. They will take your bag or anything else you happen to be carrying, so make sure you don't take anything you don't want to lose.

All of that is still a minimum of 4 days away, and more likely 5. According to the weather forcast we will have a very slow start with light wind. This will build to a very comfortable 15 knots in a bout 24 hours and then further build to 20 knots before dropping off again as we approach the coast. In short, a slow start, a quick middle and then a slow end.

The tracker has been turned back on and we are off into the not so wild blue yonder.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
IDEA