Last hop to Gibraltar - 9th Nov

Kingfisher 2013
Peter Smith
Sun 10 Nov 2013 15:47
We left Marina del Este at 1245 on the 9th Nov and found ourselves motoring into a head wind (again!). The wind strengthened and dropped all afternoon and night but towards the end of the day it veered and allowed us to sail and occasionally motor sail comfortably in to Gibraltar. The main events, apart from a huge amount of shipping were having dolphins playing with the boat for hours and Alex cooking a most excellent beef stir fry which hit the spot at around sunset and set us all up for a good night. The entry to Gibraltar was entertaining - lots of ships at anchor, moving slowly (and apparently randomly), hammering out into the straits and generally getting in the way….we were also checked out as drug runners by a police rib that closed on us at around 30 knots without lights, span round the stern, lit up and then sped off into the night. Charming welcome to our little bit of Britain in the Med.

We moored up at about 0300, spent an eternity checking into a ludicrous immigration control computer programme and eventually turned in at about 0400. We woke up to more sun and headed into the quayside for a light full English breakfast (with some well kept Guinness for health reasons). A wander around the town allowed us to just about join in with the Remembrance Day celebrations here and we came back to the boat to say goodbye to John Foster (who has just flown past our berth on his BA flight) and to start the laborious job of cleaning up the boat to be ready for our new arrival tomorrow. The boys have suddenly become "house proud". You would love it…..

Breakfast with the locals

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