Back in Gib
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Mon 4 Jul 2011 15:37
|
36.08.97 N 005.21.23 W
Back in Europe after a week in Africa. Popped back
to Gib to get our Stainless work done so we have come to the Marina Bay Marina,
there's a lot more cruising boats here and plenty of liveaboards too. The
marina is surrounded by restaurants and bars to one side and the airport on the
other, thankfully Gib only gets around four or five arrivals a day though.
Actually although we are handier to everything here I prefer Queens wharf, for
one thing it is cheaper. But secondly it's a floating pontoon - Gibraltar
still has over a metre of tide so the concrete piers at Marina Bay are a bit of
a pain. Once around the corner we won't really have to worry about tides
as the Med is pretty much immune. There's a fairly constant flow from the
Atlantic into the Med to replace water lost by evaporation so the Med is
rteluctant to give any back to the Atlantic at low tide. The tidal flow
then in the straight is predominantly Eastward, so getting out again is somewhat
slower than the sailing in.
Derek from the rally invited me out for a dive which was
fantastic. The dive was not great but it was fantastic to be invited and
good to be back in the water. We went out on Albany and had a dive below
the 100 ton gun, in Rosia Bay which is where Nelson's body was landed after
the battle of Trafalgar. Nelson, having been killed by a sniper
during the battle, was brought ashore and put into a barrel of rum to
preserve his body and then taken back to England.
It seems that we finally begged enough to be worthy and
now have a shiny new outboard crane and boarding ladder attachment
points. Metal Micky and Matt from Gib Stainless have done a great
job. Finally we are free to leave and so into the Med we go. 2
months onboard now and only a single night at anchor, as we head into the Med
the marinas get more and more expensive so we hope to reverse the
statistics. Bring on the warm water too.
The girls have been playing with Samantha who lives in
the marina, and also Mia. Mia (the hoola hoop champ) was on the rally
with us, her Dad popped by with Mia on a jetski - spotted us and hey
presto, a play date.
|