36:08.940N 5:21.304W

The weather here has certainly improved and we had another warm day. It is now getting to the point of being too hot to work in the afternoons on deck.

Anne went off shopping to get the last few items we wanted from Gibraltar. Stephen carried on wrestling with the pipe work in the forward heads. Koshka and Yoyo slept.

The owners of the boat next door arrived today much to the dismay of Koshka and Yoyo. They don’t like exploring when there are other people on “their” boat. They are leaving tomorrow – Yoyo will be upset as she never did climb up their wooden mast (aka tree to Yoyo).

In the afternoon Stephen continued with the pipes while Anne helped when required and made changes to the pilot book when not needed.

This evening it was Christmas again with Pyxis. It’s a long story:

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Pyxis very kindly shared their Christmas pudding with us on Christmas day. Our Christmas pudding kindly sent to us by the Hollinscloughs was “delayed in transit”. The journey it eventually took was: UK to Gibraltar (container ship to Morrisons) , Gibraltar to UK (sent to UK instead of to us in Portugal due to a big mistake by the post office), UK to Portugal (correctly delivered to us in Portugal) and finally Portugal to Gibraltar (sailed with us!).

We felt it was only appropriate to wait until we met up with Pyxis to share our Christmas pudding. We missed out on the Christmas dinner as it was so hot, so after nibbles we had Christmas pudding, complete with real cream and flaming brandy. We even used their newly installed microwave. We finished the evening with the obligatory game of Scrabble.

Gibraltar as seen from Spain