36:09.658N 005:21.871W
SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Sun 2 Sep 2018 22:14
On anchor, within La Lines marina ( Spain ), but right to the North of the Gibraltar airport…
For a change, it is quite, no wind…
In front of me — the highlighted Rock…
It has been a long day, which started in a strange way, and has never been planned like that. I was not planning to go to Gibraltar today… It was blowing too much… and the forecast was — it should stop blowing at the late Sunday evening, beginning of Monday….
I woke up in the morning, looked around — and it was too quite…. Much more then usual… I downloaded the fresh weather .grib files, and they confirmed — the weather is much better, the wind should be already lighter then forecasted before ( which it was ), and it is going to diminish during the day….
Tarifa is only 18 nm away… The plan came quickly — if I manage to make the Tarifa today — in a ‘boring, lazy way’, then I can easily make another ~18 nm to Gibraltar…. Also, it was just the time after the Low tide… And the guide ( Imray ) said — it was good timing to leave Barbate to Tarifa…
Another argument for going ‘right now’ — instead of ‘planned cleaning of the boat’, to go sailing…. Guess, which argument wins ? And it is always possible to make some boat cleaning when you are under way, in ‘boring, lazy’ sailing…
To make the story short… We were on anchor in Barbate for too long… And the possibility to start moving again — wins!
To give you an idea how strongly it has been blowing…. The snubber line gave up during the night… Probably the metal hook which connect the 1/2 line to the chain chaffed the line… I do not know… I just picked up the rest of the line… The hook gone…
As I was putting the reef — as a precaution, all books were saying that the wind near Tarifa area was blowing no matter what… the wind suddenly picket up….
‘Ah, just a gust… will go down… let raise the anchor… ‘. ( The option to start cleaning the boat instead of sailing has still been in my mind… and raising the anchor — meant that the choice is final… sailing… ).
To make the story a bit short…
— no, it was not the gust… From the moment the anchor was raised, till about 5 miles after we rounded Tarifa — it was constantly blowing about 25 kts… plus our speed against… ‘ Michael, you always wanted to sail at ~ 30 kts of wind… You dream came true… ‘ Right… But beating against 25 kts…. I did not expect it today… and if I have known that I would had put different sail plan, installed my ‘cutter rig’….
— yes, we were beating all the way to Tarifa, against ~25 kts of wind…
— as arriving to Tarifa — it became evident that there was no so much sense to anchor in Tarifa… There is no real protection from the wind… It was blowing… and despite forecasts — it seemed to picking up, rather then to slow down…. The timing of arriving was ok… regarding the tide and current… I still have about 1.5 hours to go to clean the Punta Carnero and to enter Gibraltar Bay… If I miss — I have a good chances to be propelled back to Tarifa by the current… The advantage to reach the La Linea anchorage today — was appealing, though it means to navigate to the anchorage and set the anchorage after sunset…
— So, we tacked a couple more times, clear Tarifa point, dodged from the few fast ferries… Still blowing — and kept blowing for the couple of miles — but the current finally kicked in… and with some help of the engine — we made it!!!! We were in the bay about 25 minutes after the HW tide in Gibraltar… meaning that we utilised the favourable current to its max…
— navigating through the Bay at night was relatively simple… I’ve read the description so many times, that started to recognise the place as if I’ve been there before… ;-)
— La Lines appeared to be a nice place to drop the anchor… Not crowded at all, good holding ( at least, so mentioned in the books… )…. More I will find out tomorrow… All I can say know — there are probably a dozen of so boats on anchors around… and still — plenty space…
I’m happy to be there, I’m happy to make that leg… It has been a long day, with a few manor ‘developments’, which were rectified, but would be more permanently fixed tomorrow…. Or after tomorrow… ;-)
To my surprised, after preparing to go to Gibraltar in a ‘classical easy way’, waiting for that in Barbate…. We finally made it in a ‘classical hard way’, beating against the wind, dealing with the current… and a lot of tacking…. But we made it… most of the credit goes to the boat… and the reward — an illuminated Rock in front of us…
We are OK. We are relaxing…
Have a great time too, and talk to you soon…
M.