"35:26.40N 06:27.68W"

 

 

Here is the happy band this evening, taken with Alex’ swanky camera.

 

We trundled  along the south coast of Atlantic Spain this morning, passing Tarifa and Barbate, turning left off Cape Trafalgar which has a square named after it in London but probably not in Madrid.  A poignant memory is the small Trafalgar cemetery on Gibraltar itself, where many wounded men were brought after the battle, only to die as far from home as they would have been if they had fallen in the battle.  And some were only 16 or 17 years old.

 

Our course was dictated by the wind direction, the strong tides in the Straights and the fact that there is a zone of separation between E and W traffic; the busy lanes allow a crossing only at 90 degrees so we had to go out to the west to avoid being knocked back by the tide. 

 

A pleasant lunch on the water, about 8 knots over the ground and T-shirts all round.  A few days ago I went to the Pets at Home emporium in Camden and bought 8 plastic dog bowls with non-slip bottoms.   I half thought that the girl at the till would ask after my 8 labradors but she just took my money and I pedalled off with them in my saddle bag.  They are now on the boat, a creative suggestion from Mike and Judy to use instead of plates or ceramic bowls.   We have had them in use for every meal.   I suspect it will be quite difficult to get back to regular plates when the trip is over.  We have a special crimson one for the skipper, the cannon fodder get black or white.

 

 

 

Shepherds’ pie made by Mr G Cooper in St Martins Lane WC2 in December 2012 and maintained at –17C ever since.  Frozen peas by Morrison's of Gibraltar

 

We are now moseying south at about 1500rpm and the boat has quickly settled into a rhythm of watches, meals together, and snoozing in bunks, all dictated by Mike, the Man with a Plan - a complex table of who is doing what for the next few days, pinned up in the galley. 

 

Cries from mosques all over the Islamic world will have greeted a full moon rising in the north east

 

 

 

and a few more pictures

 

 

Note the matching life jackets

 

 

 

toodle pip

 

Roger the Cabin Boy