Saturday 31st July
This morning we braved the hot sun and walked into town
to get provisions and to visit the Oratory of the Santa Cueva (the
Holy
Cave). It’s an 18th
century church where a subterranean cave was discovered in 1756. This was subsequently enlarged to form
an underground chapel. This contains a graphic sculpture of the crucifixion,
some pews and candles and little else but very cool and peaceful inside. The
upper chapel is by far the most ornate and contains three frescoes by Francesco
de Goya beneath the walls of the domed chapel that I particularly wanted to
see. They are depictions of
biblical scenes – one of which shows Christ and his disciples at the last supper
sprawled on the floor, Roman style.
Back out in the sun, we stumbled upon the local market while looking for
a supermarket. It was huge,
crowded, noisy and colourful with smells of fruit, fish, meat and cheese. We had
a lovely time picking out the fruit and veg we wanted, along with olives and a
piece of fresh Corvina for Paul.
After visiting Carrefour opposite the market to buy drinks and bread we
were weighed down with shopping so stopped at a bar near the taxi rank for what
turned out to be the most expensive beer so far – 5.50 for two small beers. The passage to
Gibraltar will be roughly the same distance and time as
the previous one. We set off - after a late lunch and a shower - at 6pm with the sun shining, the sea calm and a
refreshing cool breeze. Paul put
sails up hoping the wind would increase but had to take them down again when it
dropped lower. We passed the spot
where the battle of Trafalgar took place after an hour or so. Nelson’s body was taken to
Gibraltar where a 100-ton Victorian gun marks the spot
where the barrel they’d preserved him in was brought ashore. We watched the sun go down before I
heated up the potato and onion tortilla we’d bought for dinner. It began to get choppier just before
Paul took over from me at midnight. The
autohelm was struggling to keep on course so I had to steer manually while Paul
did the log, course etc.
