We sail from Hammamet to Gibraltar

September 10^th 2013

We decided to top up the fuel tanks as the diesel was more than a third cheaper than even in ‘tax free’ Gibraltar.
But no credit cards here. 

Les checked us out with authorities whilst I refueled. 

“Do you have a gift for the local police?”

It took Les nearly an hour to check out.

Firstly, we had to pay the marina fees - and get our ships papers back. 
Then we had to go to the police station and inform them that we were leaving. There was a lot of paperwork and stamping required! 
The police then boarded the boat and asked if we had a gift for them. 
We had Euros.
We were checked through pretty speedily.

Then we were taken to customs.
They also had a lot of paper work and also came on the boat. They made sure we were leaving with all of the electronics we arrived with. Then they asked us for any Turkish money that we had left. You cannot take Tunisian money out of the country. We only had coins left! Then, we were escorted back to the police station to receive our exit papers.

We had officially left Tunisia!
We were carefully watched to ensure that we DID ACTUALLY EXIT the marina at that moment and that nothing was added to or subtracted from the boat’s inventory.

We were now sailing to Gibraltar.
We estimated that it would take us approximately 8 days to do the 970 miles ‘plus’ – it just depended upon how much tacking would be needed.  The wind was not particularly in our favour but then neither would waiting another week change that for us either. At least we probably wouldn’t be sailing head to wind though.

After 3 hours of sailing we had dolphins on both sides of the boat, a great start.

Then the wind died and we were motoring.
During the next 24 hours we had a mixture of ‘sailing’ and ‘motor sailing’ whilst we negotiated the busy shipping lanes. 
John & Bob both had “Tunisian Tummy.”

The wind direction over the next few days was taking us in a north westerly direction -  towards the Balearic Islands.  This suited us, as we did not want to be sailing by the Algerian coast and we had heard stories (ocean legends!) of yachts being directed north straight out of Algerian space by patrol boats.
We were on a good system of watches. John had worked the system such that we all got one day during daylight hours completely off every few days.  Free! We could go for a walk around the deck or bake a cake, or do just about anything – even sleep all day!

Cathy and I used these days to experiment with baking, which was a treat for all of us.

Typically for most of the sail the wind blew from the North East at 10 to 17 knots.
There was a small swell.

By September 16^th and 150 miles from Gibraltar the wind built to 30 knots and the swell was getting larger. The closer we sailed towards Gibraltar (but still many miles to go) the waves became shorter and higher. The wind seemed to be backing to come from the direction we were heading to.  John started to update the latest weather forecast as this weather had NOT been forecast previously.
The satellite was not working! ..Huh???
The tanker traffic had grown.
We were now motoring through the swell as we were now head to wind. This wind direction was just not predicted.
The next 24 hours was very uncomfortable, The big seas were crashing all over us.

It was about now that we noticed a diesel smell from below. We tracked the fuel smell to a leak from the top flange of the fuel tank. Not dangerous but just uncomfortable.
It was about now that we noticed the companion door was not operating correctly. The door spring seemed to be under stress or something.

It was about now that the incessant aft lazarette bilge alarms started to really get on our nerves! Basically they had shipped enough water to set the bilge pumps working  and insisted on making sure you knew EVERY TIME they turned ON. We thought we had sorted this but the big swell had really put the boat through it’s paces.

It was about now that we discovered the pool of water forming below the solon front windows. Oh no! Where did come from?

This was shortly before finding out that the 110v power supply ring had stopped working.
This was just before we found the 110v power outlet has completely melted.

We later found out that the invertor that generated the 110v had shut down because of the leak!

Finally, we saw the Rock!
It had been a grueling 36 hours. Probably the most uncomfortable we had yet encountered. As if on schedule, as we approached Gibraltar the swell diminished and the sky cleared. It’s amazing how you can forget all your troubles once the sun shines!

As we rounded the Rock into the main Strait a cruise ship called us by name on the VHF radio! Gosh! That’s a rarity. The captain wanted to let us know that he was awaiting the pilot to take him into Gibraltar and to check that we were not about to cross his path.

“Negative! Negative! There is NO room here.”

The entrance to Gibraltar was very busy.  As per normal we called ahead to the marina, ‘Ocean Village Marina’ for a berth (they don’t accept reservations here).

“Negative! Negative! Timeless. There is NO room here  due to the  current weather conditions yachts have remained longer than expected. Call Queensway Marina or La Linea Marina . ”

Queensway Marina also in Gibraltar had been listening.

“That is also a negative at Queensway Marina, sorry Timeless.”

This is definitely NOT what we needed to hear….