Water Water....

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 31 Aug 2010 07:30

36:08.15N 05:21.37W

 

Friday 27th, Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th August

 

On Friday morning Leigh and Gill came over from their borrowed villa for a sail and to stay the night. The theme for the day was undoubtedly water and the general lack of it!

 

The water had been turned off to their villa several days earlier and despite various promises they still had none when they left to visit us and they were hoping that all would be well when they returned as they had the place to clean up etc. before they flew home on Monday. We also had a water issue, but ours concerned the height of water (or rather the lack of it) over the entrance bar to the marina. We had made a note of the level when we arrived in our berth yesterday and given that we had only just made it over the bar, clearly there was no point in us trying to leave the marina until we got a higher reading at our berth this morning.

 

Eventually the level crept up to the right number and we cast off and motored out into a silky smooth sea and absolutely nil wind. We motored up the coat to Sotogrande where we inspected a 280ft long super yacht which was at anchor off the town. We decided not to bother with going inshore to anchor for a swim and simply swam off the back of Serafina as she drifted on the slight tide. I took this opportunity to investigate the knocking noise that we were getting now when the prop was turning and found that the bolt holding part of the Spurs Rope Cutter had come undown and was about to fall off! It took three or four dives before I got it firmly screwed up tight again using an Allen key. After lunch we made our way slowly back to La Duquesa managing to sail for nearly 20 minutes in total. We also managed to lay on a sighting of dolphins for our guests and although the dolphins were pretty subdued and unimpressed with our 3 knots, they did at least come over briefly!  What we also discovered was that along this stretch of the coastline the local fishermen lay long surface nets that extend down around 3 metres and are marked at each end by small buoys and guarded by one boat. They are laid at right angles to the shore, in line with the currents and present endless problems for people like us, trying to spot them and work a passage around them all.

 

In the evening we went out for a meal in one of the few Spanish restaurants there and had a very good, but far from cheap meal.

 

On Saturday morning our guests left and reported later that their water was back on in the villa, whilst we headed off out of Duquesa and down the coast to Gibraltar. Endless nets to avoid again, pretty much all the way and this was not helped by a very fickle wind that varied between 5 knots and 20 knots and between north and south! As we approached the rock itself, the wind settled into a 25 knot blast bang on the nose and in direct opposition to the current/tide and so as we rounded Europa Point it was all a bit bouncy and lively.

 

Once we were round the point it was a reach into the bay and Serafina raced into the big ship anchorage at 8 knots before we rounded up, dropped the sails and motored into Queensway Quay Marina. Last time we were in Gib we came to this marina for the final days of our stay as it is very much nicer than the alternative which is Marina Bay. What we had forgotten was that it has a constant and unusual swell running causing the boats all to surge and roll slightly on their moorings. No WiFi that reaches to the boats, but a nice cafe on the quay that has a free connection. Sarah came back on board in the evening in a bit of a grumpy mood as she had also now remembered as she went for her shower that this was the place with the highly unpredictable and fluctuating shower water temperatures!

 

Sunday was spent at work in various ways around the boat and Sarah’s chosen subject today (and for the next three days) was  polishing the gantry. We have an American boat alongside us and they are planning to return to the Caribbean Islands which are their home waters, at the same time as us and from the same starting point in Tenerife so we have been getting lots of useful information from them about where to go and what to see etc.

 

Scott Free set out today from Almerimar and they expect to be joining us here tomorrow afternoon. We have both just bought Fleet Broadband Satellite systems to replace our existing clunky options so we will have fast email and secure internet connections for our Atlantic crossings and onwards from there. We have bought the kit from Mailasail in the UK who have been brilliant with their help and advice so far and the packages have been sent from the UK to us here in Gib, hopefully arriving on Tuesday if the Bank Holiday doesn’t mess that up. So Steve and I will have plenty to do getting this all installed.

 

Our neighbours on the other side have just sailed down from the UK in a Bavaria 38 and by all accounts had a dreadful trip with big headwinds all the way across Biscay and thick fog for the four days it took to come down the coast of Portugal.

 

Sarah had hoped that we could get some cockpit cushions made while we were here but sadly we had not factored in the concept of a Bank Holiday so as the whole place is closed until Tuesday, not much is likely to happen very soon, so we will probably have to wait until Lanzarote – any suggestions anyone?