We arrived back in Gibraltar Lat: 36:08.95N Lon: 5:21.24W around 1600 hrs on Sunday, lovely sunny day, and we all immediately got down to more jobs! 

Our safety inspection was to be on Tuesday at 1600 hrs so we had a lot of checks to do and drills to go through so that we all know what would be required of us if we had a man overboard situation or a demasting or were holed in the hull for instance. Although I now know what should happen, I am not super confident I could do all of it on my own. We all have different responsibilities and for my part I am mainly responsible for provisions, safety and medical matters.  Since our course on survival at sea I have double checked all our life saving equipment.  The 8 man life raft is brand new and fit or purpose.  Our EPIRB is also new and has now been programmed correctly with all the Blue Water Rally personnel emergency numbers.  EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon and is an important part of the Global maritime Safety System.  It is the simplest means of providing a way to alert rescue authorities and we have a 406 MHz model.  Our Dan buoy and horseshoes are ready to deploy on the aft rails, our jackstays are at the menders as they are a bit frayed and the grab bag is pretty much ready.  I still need bags for each of us to keep warm and a 25 litre drum of water strapped to the back of the boat to take with us if need be.

However, the life jackets and safety lines have been a real worry – we had 6 life jackets on board but discovered that three of them did not have an inbuilt harness or crutch straps and were in need of new gas canisters.  These items are not available in Gibraltar at short notice.  Three of them did have an inbuilt harness and good canisters but no crutch straps. (When I was in the pool without this strap, after a while the life vest rode up and if I put my head forward actually closed behind my head and pushed me forward)  Four of our safety lines (which attach to the harness at one end and the boat on the other) were no longer approved!  In fact the navy has lost men at sea as they literally open when put under stress at a certain angle!  So back to the chandlery to buy three new jackets to replace the ones with no inbuilt harnesses and four safety lines – they had the metal hooks but not attached to a line!!  So the local sail makers are stitching them on for me…….. what a palaver!  And I still need three crutch straps……..

Monday morning, 9.30 briefing at the Yacht Club, some boats with more storage space have fold up bicycles but it is a fast 20 minute walk for us……. The agenda covered our sailing strategy to Lanzarote, our two weeks there and a lot of information about the Panama transit.  I think the West Indies will be covered in more detail in the Canaries. 

We still have far too much on board so we all had another clear out and more items are destined for the homeward journey!  In the meantime the men have completed 101 more ‘jobs’ including taking out all the fixed windows and replacing them as they were a bit leaky, replacing some of the blocks and sheaves, checking the batteries, getting the ‘Hydrovane’ wind vane operational etc,   Each job inevitably entails pulling bunk beds, mattresses and floor boards upside down and with five on board it all gets pretty stressful at times. 

Monday at 1800 we joined ten people off the other yachts (maximum allowed15) to go to the Lower St Michael’s Caves.

This is something I have wanted to do for many years.  During World War II excavations were being carried out at St Michael’s Cave to provide an additional entrance for the cave which was intended for use as a hospital. It was during this time that another system of caves which would become known as Lower St. Michael’s was discovered. The cave has an enchanting underground lake and is still ‘alive’. Amazing stalagmites and stalactites are still growing and it has such a feeling of splendour – almost cathedral like. We donned our smelly damp hard hats (for which we were soon extremely grateful) and swung through the caves on ropes for 3 hours!! The lake was as incredible as the tiny weeny  ledge around it which we all traversed without falling in!

Michael was literally steaming with perspiration by the end!  Paul shimmying down the ropes gives you an idea of the challenge.

What a fantastic experience…………..

Tuesday we had our safety inspection which I think we were all happy with and then all toddled off to meet Lord and Lady Foulton (the Governor of Gibraltar) for a drink and canapés!  Very nice too – I popped my crocks (shoes) under the chaise lounge and teetered around in my Moroccan diamante specials – but I was very pleased to get them back on again to walk back to the boat.

Today I spent 400 GB pounds on provisions – no booze, we will be a dry ship at sea – mainly tins, staples, cheese, some meat, tea, coffee, milk etc. Oh and over 100 nutritious mini bars for the grab back (5 bars each – max 5 days at sea??!!) It’s a hard decision to know how much and where to draw the line……..

Bennett cooked a great meal tonight – pork with butter and brown sugar with lots of gravy and veggies – Moroccan mashed potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes – yum yum – Michael did the washing up so I had a real night off.  It is Halloween eve so lots of tricking and treating going on with the little ones off the other boats – 3 days to go……..