36:08.940N 5:21.304W

Today we went and explored part of Gibraltar. It’s not a very large place so we wanted to pace ourselves.

First of all we had to negotiate our way onto dry land. Gibraltar has a tide of about 0.9m and this morning we were lower than we were last night. So our paserelle (board that goes from the boat to the shore) was at quite a step angle. Our cunning plan of using a halyard to raise and lower our “drawbridge” seems to work ok. Once we were onto dry land we headed to the chandlery to arrange for some engine work to be done (we have finally worked out where the water leak was coming from in the engine room). We came away with a worksheet filled in and the promise of someone coming to inspect the engine tomorrow. We also purchased 3 new pilot books for Greece, Turkey and the Balearic islands.

After dropping off our purchases back at the boat, we went deeper into town. First stop was the tourist information center to pick up a map. We spent a few hours exploring the centre of Gibraltar including a stop for lunch. We also found M&S and stocked up on some new underwear!  We then found Morrisons and bought a few English items we are missing – an interesting list; Shreddies, Alpen, Mature Cheddar Cheese and Fresh mushrooms. I’m not sure what this says about us!

Later in the afternoon we returned to the boat to let the cats out to play. Koshka went plane spotting (he’s getting very good now staring up at them). Yoyo has visited the boat next door – we have now purchased some netting to act as either:

a)       An object that stops Yoyo jumping ship

b)       An object for Yoyo to play with that makes it even more fun jumping ship

We will let you know the answer in a few days. We are now taking bets on how long it will be before Yoyo finds the paserelle.

This evening we went out for a bit of a walk and a beer.

Wandering Dragon berthed in Gibraltar

The runway is rather close to the marina. Koshka is getting quite good at spotting planes now.