36:08.1N 05:21.2W

Well we have arrived in Gibraltar at the end of leg 1 of this years trip and we have sailed 2015 nautical miles since we left Fox’s Marina in Ipswich.

Having said that the more notable Capes en route had presented little or no problems (apart from a bit of fog at Cape St Vincent),

both Cape Trafalgar and Tarifa gave us a rough ride. Despite timing our departure from the Bay of Cadiz to get the best out of the tides,

strong headwinds slowed our progress and we encountered 35+ knot winds and short steep seas as we approached Cape Trafalgar. We later learned that another boat had been dismasted in the same area and had to call on the rescue services!

With the Navtex forecasting worse to come around Tarifa we cut short the passage and prudently put into Barbate and joined a number of other crews and the locals to watch Spain beat Germany 1:0 in the final of the European Championships.

With the wind at its strongest Tricia decided to put her head over the sprayhood and take a video of the huge waves breaking over the boat. With Murphy’s law in play she did this just as the largest wave broke over the bow, sent 100’s of gallons of sea water crashing over the deck and funneling between the sprayhood and the bimini and flooding the cockpit. She got some great video footage but the after effects were hilarious.

The following morning we set off early in windless conditions only to have the wind build very quickly to 30+kts. We decided to press on as sea conditions were not as bad as the previous day and made our way around the Cape at Tarifa where winds are said to blow at 30kts for 300 days of the year. Once around the cape and into the straights of Gibraltar conditions improved quickly and we made good time arriving at Queensway Quay marina in the early afternoon.

We have a few days here now to get the boat back into as new condition before we fly back to the UK to see friends and family.