“38:09.48N 5:21.38W”

1,659 Miles since leaving Sandwich

We are in Gibraltar Fish-Chips-pub quiz, Jen has a baby et al - 14 Nov 2022

I got up this morning to find the decks soaking wet and the boat was actually cold, what on earth is going on? Winter that’s it and we need to head further south, if this carries on I will have to wear big boy trousers and socks for crying out loud. Having said that we went out yesterday for a wander about and got absolutely cooked in the Gibraltar winter sun, so I do think I doth complain too much. What have we been up to…….?

Now the good news. If you have read my book, “Share the dream” available on Amazon Kindle and a damn good read in my unbiased opinion, you will remember the amazing Jen from our return trip across the Atlantic. Well amazingly enough Jen has had an amazing baby, and even though she has missed the opportunity to call her Pauline and instead opted for Charlotte it’s still pretty amazing so well done to her and Dave, Amazing!

The sail from Barbate to La Linea was actually a sail which is definitely out of the ordinary. With the foresail poled out, stay sail and mizzen full of lovely wind we were soon bobbing along at 6 knots. When the tide turned as we passed Tarifa we had a steady 7 to 8 knots over the ground which fairly whisked us into Gibraltar bay. The bay itself is an interesting pilotage challenge. Many big cargo ships were at anchor across our path, high speed ferries shot by at 20 Knots and a small fleet of tenders, fishing boats, tugs and pilot boats moved around in seemingly random patterns doing whatever they were doing. Added to that two large bulk carriers moving across the bay heading for Algeciras and the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. We crossed through the first fleet of anchored ships angling against quite a strong cross current before a large ship coming in and a ferry going out across our path caused discretion to get the better part of valour and I started the engine to motor the last 4 miles into La Linea.

Approaching Gibraltar bay with poles out foresails

View of ‘The Rock’ from our foredeck

Our stay in La Linea was rather pleasant and we did the usual round of sightseeing, tapas and beer plus taking advantage of the big supermarket walking distance from the marina we started to stock the freezer up with meat for the big trip to come. One rather sad sight was a Vagabond the same model as Spectra and hailing from Ipswich which was moored at the end of the pontoon. She looked very sorry for herself and definitely needed a Paul and Norma to lavish some love and attention on her. It is amazing how quickly boats of this ilk go downhill once the constant maintenance slips.

Spectra look alike sitting forlornly at the end of the pontoon

Cute little Air BnB holiday village in La Linea inner marina

Before we left for Gibraltar, I needed to get my passport stamped out of the Schengen zone and stop that pesky clock from ticking. The guidebooks, internet, marina and local police all said that all we would need to do is walk over to the Gibraltar frontier post and they would stamp it there and so off we went all bright eyed and full of good cheer. No such luck, the man in the frontier police office said, “No we no stamp here you have to go to Algeciras”. I am used to officialdom enough by now to realise when arguing a point in pidgin English is just a waste of time and with a shrug we headed back to the marina. The marina staff couldn’t believe it and phoned the frontier post who still said “No”. They then phoned the police HQ in Algeciras who couldn’t believe it and phoned the frontier post who said, “No” (same organisation). With no other option we jumped in a taxi and for €50 took the round trip to the docks at Algeciras. On the way the taxi driver called the police check point with the number provided by the marina staff and as we pulled up a man came out and stamped my passport at the side of the road, we wound the window back up and headed back to La Linea, I shrug.  Excellent work by the marina receptionist though.

With that drama successfully resolved we headed out for the epic 2-mile trip into Queensway marina Gibraltar and back into the UK territories. The entrance to Queensway is pretty narrow, to the extent that I missed it and had gone passed before I even realised it. Backtracking rapidly as we had drifted into the military end of the harbour, we quickly identified the two entrance buoys second time around and were soon organising our berth with the dockmaster. Stern to with trip lines running forward was a first for this trip and when combined with having to reverse Spectra down wind into the berth it was let’s say tricky to say the least. Anyway, we got in without any fibreglass splintering which is always a bonus. Simon our new neighbour gave us some top tips on places to go and combined with the very friendly and helpful marina staff we were soon settled in. To celebrate being back in the UK we booked ourselves in for a proper Sunday lunch at the Lounge restaurant which is actually just at the top of the pontoon ramp. When I say just at the top I mean it, the gate to the pontoon opens up between two tables. Being so close has the advantage of letting us poach their wifi when we are on the boat. Credit where credit is due though the Sunday lunch was excellent and created the need for an 18-meter walk from table to boat (I measured it) and a Sunday afternoon siesta to recover. Sunday evening, we went back to the lounge and joined in the pub quiz. All I can say about that was that we didn’t lose, and we did get a mention in despatches for being the only two-person team (billy no mates in other words).

Entrance to Queensway Marina Gibraltar

It is surprising just how dirty Spectra has got over the last week which needed sorted and quickly. While Norma broke out the sewing machine to create a rain catcher and a cover for the generator when we install it on the aft deck, I set to with the scrubbing brushes, sandpaper, and varnish. We now have clean decks, a couple of new canvas things that will make life more tolerable and a shiny new rubbing strake on the port side. After spending a couple of days varnishing, fettling, and generally tarting up Spectra we locked her up and caught the bus across the border then taxi to Algeciras in order to catch the ferry to Tangiers for our 12-day holiday in Morocco, but that’s a story for another day.

New cover for the generator to keep it dry when it is stored on deck for long passages

New rain catcher from an old sail, or could it be a deck bath, time will tell.