35 35.5N 6 13.8w
Libeccio
Sun 5 Oct 2014 19:09
After keeping to the North side (so Spain) of the Straits of Gibraltar we continued westward until we saw a reasonable break in the traffic to make our dash for the southern side. We has 4 different ships coming from the east and we managed to get to the middle of the traffic zone leaving the last tanker about 500 m behind us. From the East we had 3 different ships coming towards us- two were straight forward in that we contended our course, the third was a little different in that we turned to the west and ran parallel (but, in opposite direction) until we passed the tanker and then turned south to finish the crossing. In all, it took us about 6 hours to get to Cape Spartel and out of the narrower bits of the Strait.
The wind was (as usual, it seems) coming straight on our nose and so we have had to motor for most of the day. Thankfully, the waves have been well behaved and so it has not been too bouncy.
While in Gib, we bought a bread maker and so with the smell of fresh bread firmly lodged in my mind, I set about the tricky task of putting the ingredients into the machine- fortunately we still had phone reception so I was able to google (how may cups of flout is equal to 600gms) and with the exception of using real milk instead of milk powder and water, we had all the right stuff. I chose a traditional white bread which, according to the display, would take 3hr and 30 mins— food thing we were motoring or it would have run a good part of battery power down. Imagine my dismay when it came time for the “reveal” only to have what looked like a pile of flour on top of a soggy doughy mixture. What could have gone wrong— must have been the ingredients.. unfortunately no— Jane took one look at it and asked innocently— Did you put the mixing paddle int? Much to my embarrassment, I had not! Oh well, we will have to try again tomorrow.
Once we left the strait and turned to follow along the Moroccan coast we had almost no fellow travellers and so it has been pretty straight forward. We got excited for a while and raised the main and genoa, only to have to take them down after about an hour and a half as the wind died down completely.
The chef du jour was Andy (Tivenan) who provided us with a triumph for the taste buds of Spab Bol and a crisp green salad- covers all the major food groups.
Anyways, good day all around- not much traffic around us. Looking forward to an uneventful night.
Hope you all are well.
Kevin