Cartagena, Gibraltar, Andalucia

Our passage across from Ibiza to the Spanish coast took 3 days. We had a light easterly wind behind us, so we sailed most of the way. Once again we had some glorious sunsets, so I was busy with my camera.

Cartagena was a lovely old city on the SW coast of Spain 240 nm north of Gibraltar.  A long promenade ran along the harbour wall lined with parks, restaurants and an impressive museum. We stayed in a very posh marina built 6 years ago for super yachts but due to the recession have had to downgrade and off er berths to cruising yachts at a reasonable rate 60 euros a night 9cheap for that part of the Med; there are some marinas that charge 300+ euros a night!

We arrived at Gibraltar early in the morning on the 17th August. We had 3 days of good sailing in light winds however on the last day the wind died so we were made the decision to motor the last 24 hours as there was a 2 knot tide against us and we wanted to arrive at Gibraltar before the strong westerly winds forecast on Friday arrived .Thankfully we made the correct decision as some friends from Adelaide on Tralfamador were flattened by 50+ knot winds in the Bay of Gibraltar.It was mayhem as some of the big ships were dragging their anchors.

The last few miles we were juggling between large cargo ships which luckily we could see on our AIS as there was a heavy sea mist.

I took a photo of the AIS to show all the boats around us. Makok is the circle in the middle and the lines running near her show possible collissions. The cluster of boats on the top right hand side are all the boats anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar.

It was quite eerie to see the rock emerge from the mist in the early morning light. We had made it and had had a very comfortable passage so we felt very pleased with ourselves. Sailing into Gibraltar Harbour was amazing. Huge tankers and cargo ships were moored waiting to be refuelled by small tanker boats.

It was flat calm when we motored into the Ocean Village marina which is situated right next to the airport runway.

We thought that this may have been a real problem but  as there were only 5 flights a day and the noise was far from deafening it added some interest to our berthing.

We were intrigued to see this Hercules at the end of the runway being loaded with provisions(probably bombs).It was surrounded by a fire engine and big cargo tractors. After an hour it took off , we guessed to Libya to help with the disposal of Colonel Gaddifi.                                                                                                                          Our friends from Tassie Graeme and Jan Dineen joined us the day after we arrived. We did the circumnavigation of Tassie rally with them on their yacht Seaesta in February 2009

We spent the first few days organizing the various jobs we needed done on Makoko; a headsail repair, the generator and lifeboat checked, the water maker and Immsat phone reinstated, and the anchor chain counter repaired. We used a local guy Marcus Henshaw who is a jack of all trades to help us. We managed to get everything done except the fridge;the door had rusted and has fallen off a few times;  a new one has t come from the UK so it is being sent to Lanzarote. 

Gibralatar is so English; all the pubs and restaurants serve chips with everything and buffets and Sunday roasts are a big hit.The High Street is full of duty free shops selling electrical goods, jewellery, cheap spirits and cigarettes. Gibraltar Day is on the 10th September so the streets and buildings were decorated with red and white flags.

We were told that people dress up in red and white and march across the border into Spain to make a point and aggravate the locals.

As we were not inspierd by the local Gibraltan cuisine we walked across the border to La Linea to enjoy some tapas and typical Spanish food.

We had a fabulous meal at this seafood restaurant on the beach, the fish was cooked on a barbecue in a wooden dinghy filled with sand. A succulent squid entree was followed by a tasty paella. The meal including beer, 2 bottles of wine and desert was 110 euros for the 4 of us.

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 While the work was being done on the boat we rented a car for 3 days to explore the sights of Andalucia. We drove through the High Sierra to Ronda. On the way we stopped at some of the traditional villages with their sparkling white painted houses with black wrought iron verandas

  Ronda was spectacular sight set on top of a steep 120 metre gorge.

The buildings reflected the interesting history of the Muslim and Christian occupations.

We had an interesting afternoon exploring the old town, wandering the narrow cobbled streets, admiring the Arabic architecture intermingled with the European.

Alhambra at Granada was our last stop on our short trip. We arrived at lunch time and were mortified to find after standing in a long queue in the hot sun that there were no more tickets available to the palaces that day so we walked back down the hill and bought some tickets for the next morning, found a hostal to stay the night and then collapsed in a bar and had a long cold beer. Dave, Graeme and Jan went back to their rooms for a sleep but I went off exploring. It was very sad to see that the financial crisis had hit and many shops and restaurants were closed.

 Dave and I last visited Alhambra it in 1975 and were equally impressed; they are doing a lot of restoration work and in particular the fountain of the tigers in the central courtyard of the Alhambra. We were lucky to visit early in the morning as it was cool and the gardens were fragrant and the reflections in the water pools, gorgeous.

Tom and Claire arrived on Saturday for a long weekend; sadly Makoko was still in bits so we did not take her out. Luckily as there has been no summer to speak of in the UK they were happy to relax and soak up the sun so we walked a km to the beach on the eastern side of the rock; the water was surprisingly cold compared to the Baleriacs. It was thirst quenching work so we enjoyed a beer or two in the sports bars on the quay.

It wasn't all play;Tom and I hoisted Dave up the mast so he could replace put a LED globe on the mast head

Today the 4^th September we left Gibraltar 3 hours after high tide (10.30am) and motored in a light westerly  through the tidal eddies of the Straits to Tarifa, the southern most bit of Spain, a half hour ferry ride to Tangiers in Morocco. The wind was on the nose and so we didn’t sail as we wanted to get to Tarifa before the tide turned; at one stage we were only making 3 knots as there is always a strong current flowing into the Med from the Atlantic; interestingly the Atlantic ocean is one and a half metres higher than the Med. We are now in a marina at Barbate, enjoying our last night on land before we set off to Madeira