POS 36:9.487N 5:21.979W
Sunday 1st August
At 3pm I was woken by crashing and banging as things began
escaping from lockers and shelves due to the height of the waves throwing us
around. Paul said the wind had got
too strong for it to be safe so he’d turned the boat around and we were headed
for a port called Barbate to wait for things to calm down. I went up to see how
things were and was surprised that it was still quite warm despite the wind,
rain and rough sea. Getting into
the harbour was quite a smooth affair despite their green light being out of
action. Picking the correct lights out in the dark can be tricky when so many
around are twinkling and flashing.
Once berthed on the visitors’ pontoon it all felt quite surreal. At 4 30 in the morning the marina was
deserted. We were surrounded by what looked like huge empty warehouses and there
was one man in one of these – he looked like a silhouette or a shadow in the dim
light and the distance and was walking up and down aimlessly. Very loud house
music was booming out from somewhere nearby but we couldn’t see anyone and then
two officials appeared on the wall above and asked the length of the boat. Paul explained we just needed to stay a
couple of hours until conditions at sea improved. They said we’d need to pay
them three euros - then disappeared and never came back. We had a couple of
brandies after this and sat listening to the house music (which was great) and
watching the solitary man waving his arms around. It felt a bit like watching and being
part of a Chemical Brothers video.
We set off again at 10 30 after a couple of hours sleep and discovered
that the warehouses were canning factories and that the solitary man had
probably been fishing after spotting others fishing there as we passed
it.
The waves were still quite high and there was a fair bit of wind – which
steadily increased to 25 knots.
Paul said we’d have to go back to Barbate if it reached 28 knots. Simon couldn’t cope with the steering so
we had to hand steer in half hour turns. Progress was very slow due to going
against the current and into the wind. Sometimes speed dropped to less than one
knot so that we veered off course - it was one step forward and two back but I
was keen to keep going. Despite the difficulty I was quite enjoying battling
against the elements and we were hugging the coast so weren’t as at risk as in
an open sea. The coast towards
Tarifa has a rich history of sea battles, Roman, Greek and Phoenician journeys
and pirates. It was beautiful, too
– lovely sandy beaches and pretty houses with lots of elegant wind turbines
turning behind them. It was also
very exciting to see the North African coast appear and the ferry for Tangier
pass by us. We got to Tarifa at
3pm and had lunch once safely anchored
(no mean feat in 26 knots of wind).
The anchor came out after a while and we were drifting backwards so
rather than re-anchor we decided to head on for
Gibraltar.
It took four hours – most of which was in strong winds and rough seas but
it was worth it to see the rock of Gibraltar looming out of the sea –twinkling
with lights in the dark and
magnificently huge.
We anchored on the Spanish side in a place called La
Linea. Anchoring was a long and tricky process in the
dark and it was 11 30 by the time we were able to relax. Paul made us an
omelette and we sat in the cockpit watching a midnight firework display across the bay.
