Barbate
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Fri 20 Feb 2015 22:17
005:56.014W
Barbate
Bit of a dream of a day which began in the early hours of this morning. Gibraltar was a beautiful ghostly silhouette two hours before sunrise, the flood-lit Bay of Gibraltar and its many anchored ships looked quite remarkable and we picked our way to south as the magic of dawn crept in and everything took shape. We could see our exit down the Straits and were relieved to know we had four hours of tide with us which slooshed us out into the Atlantic the other end.
Off Tarifa, the most southerly tip of today's journey, there was a dramatic tidal rip which threw us about a bit, there is a shallow ridge where Atlantic meets Mediterranean with much fuss, chop, swell and white water. Other than that, it was very straight forward and much relief on board that the forecast was correct and the wild winds of the last week were finally over.
Flat seas greeted us in the Atlantic, and a very pleasant sail up the coast to Barbate where we were five weeks ago. Ashore to the BEST BEACH of the trip, a windy kite flying session, and a lovely relaxing end to the day aboard "Silver Girl" with much thanks to Gill and Peter for a delicious and happy supper.
We are very lucky :-)
On up the coast tomorrow before northerlies kick in for a week.
xx