Month: September 2013

Which calls for a journey to the top of the Rock by cable car             At the top over hanging the 1,200ft drop               But not as the locals do                 Don’t we know each other? If the ape lifespan is as they say we may have met a couple of times before             You can see where evolution went too far. Perfect arms for lashing the sail and winching, great legs for climbing the mast, but

Some of Gibraltar’s star attractions The border is operating again             Across the runway             The Botanical Gardens                           Nelson’s dockyard             100 ton gun (a Victorian gun capable of launching a 2,000 lb shell 5 miles, today painted by the Army). The barrel was split by the then over eager management pushing the cycle time design from 3 minutes to 1.5.                    

In La Linea marina waiting for exhaust parts. Not too bad a hike into town and a very quiet marina with little change over. Not too bad a view.   Stern to Med mooring                     La Linea town                      

After leaving Cadiz we motored into a steep sea and as we thundered into the back of the waves our speed fell away to 3 knots. The engine seemed to be down on power as it was a struggle to reach 5 knots. As we turned toward Trafalgar Point we fell of the wind and raised the sails tanking along on a close reach at 7.5 knots (which may be 8.5 but we need to think about recalibrating the log) in 18 knots of wind and we started over taking the other 2 boats on our course. The first slipped

Some sights from Cadiz Security lights at the marina mean wehave no idea if it’s day or night Cadiz city walls Main Street       City Centre at night with a little FX Navigation round town is tricky given the narrow streets  A tower is a must have! Protests over unemployment but actual attendance is very low Swinging a cruise liner through 180 degrees in Cadiz harbour during a F8 gale

A word on cruising reality. Food shopping usually involves a 2 to 5 mile round trip which when you add in getting lost in the latest town having heard a rumour that there’s a supermarket somewhere to the north then you get some idea of what it’s about. We often leave around noon and break up the shop with a bit of lunch returning around 5 to 6pm. Sometimes we find shortcuts but often not. Weight is evenly distributed across the crew and one of our key shopping criteria is how much can we/do we want to carry? Approximate round

Firstly – yippeee it’s high tide and we can get internet from the nearby bar, our only option, and only at high tide is our antenna high enough to get a sufficiently strong signal for blogging. Posting can take a few hours spread over a number of days. Far from being on broadband we are on ‘occasional if the wind is in the right direction, the tide is high, nothing massive has berthed in the way and the bar windows are open’ band. As it’s approaching spring tides our blogging window is getting wider. So we are currently trapped holding

After fighting the battle of the bilges we thought why not really punish ourselves and raise the cruising chute – another hot, sweaty deck job in high humidity which takes a good half hour…each way     Quick take pictures. Cut for the trade winds in the 15 to 25 knot range this sail is bigger than it looks. This is the first time that it has set well and it has clear potential, however after putting in the physical work to organise lines and raise the sail the wind died again about 4 miles later so all hands went

It all happened 24 miles, and about 4 hours out, south east of Faro….. We have bilge alarm sensors mounted to starboard in our sump tanks yet the extracting filters are all set to port. When healing It all happened 24 miles and about 4 hours, south east of Faro….. We have bilge alarm sensors mounted to starboard in our sump tanks yet the extracting filters are all set to port. When healing it is common for our bilge alarms to sound and the crew usually silence them whilst hopefully announcing which one(s) have been set off so the sumps

The island south of Faro has about 3,000 inhabitants: The anchorage with approx. 50 yachts The fishing port  The High Street One of the most creative front gardens A decorative house The supermarket – tractors are the only transport Town centre   The lagoon where some sailors have spent over a decade   HUGE Tuna nets just offshore