36:08.08N 05:21.29W Well it's hello from Gibraltar
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Fri 16 Oct 2009 22:28
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Well it's hello from Gibraltar,
We left Almerimar (West of Almeria) at 7pm on
Wednesday 14th oct and motored into a glorious sunset due west. We
tried to sail but in light winds had to motor. The calm evening became an inky
night and Tony and I settled into the night sail.
It was a good opportunity for Tony to re-familiarise me
with the radar and chart plotter functions which we had used on our Mazarron to
Almerimar trip. It was good to feel confident again with the functions while
Tony was asleep and I felt much more confident about the occasional tanker
traffic heading into Malaga and Gibraltar. We motored all night and the next day
arriving 15th Oct.
It was nice to see the Spanish coast lit up at night
, lots of small villages and then Malaga, Torremolinos, Fuengirola,
Marbella, Puerto Banus and then the approach to Gibraltar by day light. We timed
our late evening leaving Almerimar to enable us to approach and enter Gibraltar
by day mainly to negotiate the busy shipping entering the med and
Straits.
The overnight trip was a clear starry night and flat
calm---we were accompanied by dolphins on and off for most of the night. We only
seemed to have two's and three's playing on the beam and bow. You can see
their dot to dot phospherescence at night and hear them breath. I didn't see any
of them torpeadoing us---- we saw a lot of that in Biscay and down Portugal. The
dolphins swim extreamly quickly towards the boat --often at 45 degrees to
the boat or sometimes 90 degrees and then turn sharply towards the bow to play.
The speed they swim disturbs the phospherescence and they create a second world
war movie effect. Most disconcerting the first time you see it---at night----on
watch---possibly alone!!
But the wonderful thing about the realisation that you
have very pleasant company and hear their snatched breaths when they break
the surface---along with a bright greeny splash of light
phospherescence ----is actually quite comforting having
company.
We haven't seen a single dolphin during the day whilst in
the Mazarron area after seeing so many on our trip from the uk. It was nice
to be visited by so many during the night--- and then one lone dolphin just
as we approached 20 hours later Gibraltar. I remarked to Tony that we could
have flown to Australia in the same time !!
I wonder if we will see a whale again as we leave the
Straits for Gran Canaria ?
We will be joined tomorrow by Janet and Dominic and hope
to set off for Gran Canaria. We are fully provisioned for the trip again and the
boat has now gone fully into sailing mode with all homely live aboard stuff
fully and carefully stowed away.
We are mooored in Queens Way Quay a very nice marina near
the town surrounded by nice restaurants and apartments. We actually tried to get
into the other marina --Marina Bay next to the airport and Chandlery but
surprisingly found it full for our size boat. A lesson learned ---book ahead
busy places even out of season. So we fuelled the boat at tax free half price
litres ready for the 703 nm trip to GC.
We have enjoyed Gibraltar more than our visit some
years ago, met some interesting characters, even one who had been living in the
Amazon----interesting I have never met anyone who had lived there before
!!!!
We have been carefully watching the weather as, a low
pressure system is tracking north of the Azores which may have an effect upon
the weather and particularly the wind direction along the African coast.
The predominant Northerly wind which would run behind us might become a
Southerly which would not be great to be beating into (bow into). The forecast
is not for strong winds but never the less we would not set off with this
forecast. Over the past 2 days it appears to be coming in more quickly and
higher so by tomorrow we should see whats happening. It was due by wed of next
week and has already changed , so as of today its beginning to look favourable
for the winds to change back to Northerly.
We will make a decision on saturday.
Next blog either en route to or in Gran
Canaria.
Love to All
Tina and Tony x x x
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