“36:11.06N 5:55.98W”

1,620 Miles since leaving Sandwich

Cadiz and Barbate waiting to start the final part of this chapter in our travels

It is 07:00 on a Wednesday morning and we are sitting in Barbate awaiting the tide. Remember those things, I haven’t really had to take them into account since leaving the UK as time of day and a pleasant day sail has been the greater priority. Now we are heading for the Gibraltar straights and with tidal currents running up to 3 knots we really want that pushing us along rather than holding us up. I’ve checked the high-water times for Gibraltar and by my calculations if we leave here shortly after 10:00 we should have a reducing current against us for a couple of hours and then five hours of current with us which should get us into La Linea in plenty of time for tea and medals before bedtime. Now the big question is, what on earth am I doing up and about at 07:00 when we are not leaving until after 10:00? And the answer is, no idea I just couldn’t sleep.

I have had a recurring tooth ache all summer and finally with an Atlantic crossing looming decided that I really should get it looked at. After a bit of cuffuffle we found a dentist and booked myself in for 1600. The dentists spoke about 20 words in English which unfortunately was spread amongst five of them and so there was a lot of hand signals going on while I tried to speak around a cotton bud and probe. I was given two x-rays of the offending tooth and then a whole mouth Xray after having my head clamped in a rotating machine and finally the dentist had another right good poke around with sharp instruments. The end result, no cavity and no abscess, their suggestion was an intensive clean up etcetera which would take several visits over a period of time. Unfortunately, time in Chipiona is not a luxury that I have, and I will have to leave that until later in the journey. I was expecting a bit of a battering when it came time to pay but the total bill was €25!!! A UK dentist would probably charge you more than that just for speaking to the receptionist.     

Arrivals pontoon in Chipiona

Chipiona down to Cadiz was another motor sail in calm seas and at only 19 miles we were in and settled by 1300 having run the gauntlet of three Spanish warships who crossed our bows as we started the final approach. I doubt they even broke a sweat plotting their courses to avoid the little sailing boat, but I do like to dram it up a bit.

The Spanish Navy out of Rota on manoeuvres

We were lucky that the marina office had someone in attendance when we arrived on the entry pontoon as their opening hours in the winter months are best described as employee generous, I would say.

1000 – 1330 and then 1600 – 1730 apart from Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons when they are closed.

Actually, we were met by a very friendly and helpful dockmaster who allotted us a choice of two berths and asked us to radio him up when we were moored to let him know which one we had chosen. No sooner had we arrived at our berth of choice than we were greeted by the resident UK sailing community who happily took our lines and welcomed us to Cadiz. Three yachts were stuck in here awaiting spare parts or repairs of some kind and all of them were experiencing different stages of cabin fever. At least this time none of them had Orca damage it was all mundane, self-steering problems, engines playing up and furling gear not furling. Unfortunately, with most of these guys having support networks back home they could not utilise them to the full as ordering parts from the UK for delivery to Spain is a nightmare. Much worse that Portugal (who have the same rules) Spanish customs seem to be taking a very hard line with any imports, to the extent that at least two chandlers that I know of will not send anything to Spain anymore. That wouldn’t be much of an issue to be honest if only the local suppliers were a bit more proactive, remember the freezer delivery times that I was quoted from a Spanish dealer for Isotherm, 6 weeks for one item and March for the other!!!  A UK agent or as I used in the end a German one had 48 hours despatch times and 5 day delivery.

Getting anything done here can be a laborious process but Ho Hum it’s all part of the rich tapestry of cruising life.

Cruise ship entering Cadiz on the morning of day 2

Marina Americas is right at the end of the harbour which is very secure but does mean a 2Km walk into the city, hand in hand of course. Actually, it was lucky that we were holding hands because Norma had what could have been a nasty fall on the way and ended up bruising her leg. That aside we had a very nice couple of days in Cadiz and did the tourist thing to the max, we even brought tickets for the jump on jump off tourist bus and had a guided tour.

Norma’s bruised leg, anything to get out of doing the washing up.

With Cadiz cathedral climbed, the museum visited the only thing that I missed from my itinerary was the Camera obscura and so I will have to do that the next time. One thing that caught us by surprise was when we turned up at the allotted time for the bus we discovered that our clocks were out by an hour as we had got the daylight saving time and move from Portugal mixed up somehow. How on earth I managed to make the dentist appointment will remain a mystery. We devoted the third day in Cadiz to boat maintenance and a right proper tidy up. I reattached one of the forward hatch covers which I had managed to partially rip off by forcing it shut with a line caught in the hinge, the self-incrimination was lengthy and the language industrial I can tell you. That finished I dropped the foresail and shortened the halyard by half a meter. This moves all of the rubbing points along a bit extending the life of the rope which is part of my get ready for the Atlantic preparations. While I had the foresail on deck, I gave it a good check over and found no problems, happy days. The final job on that was to change the sheets for thicker ones that I carry as spares. These aren’t as comfortable to use when sailing but much stronger and harder wearing for the days and weeks of down wind sailing to come. Finally, I put up the spinnaker pole and readjusted the guy ropes to fix the pole in a better position for extended downwind sailing. The last job was to extend the sheets to make it easier to put the spinnaker pole up when the foresail is already out. I extended one of the sheets using a thinner line but I’m not very happy with the results and have stopped that job for now to see if It works the way I want it to before tackling the other sheet and that was quite enough for one day.

Norma sets the rules at Cadiz museum

We left Puerto Americas at 0830 on Monday morning and wonder of wonders we had a favourable wind for a change. We soon had all sails up and were bowling along at 6.5 knots thoroughly pleased with ourselves. Two highlights of this 40-mile leg were the Spanish air force dropping bombs inshore of us, which scared us half to death the first time one went bang, and another mini scare when we thought that we saw an Orca in front of us. As it turned out the suspected Orca was a semi deflated black dinghy, but we did have a precious moment or two before we identified it.  Turning left at Cape Trafalgar the tide and swell all aligned in our favour and we were soon touching 8 knots over the ground on the final run into Barbate, happy days indeed.

Cape Trafalgar the most southerly part of mainland Europe

Entry into Barbate marina is easy once you have identified the entrance and we were soon motoring along the inside of a long harbour wall. The swell here is quite noticeable and the harbour wall, even in the benign conditions that we experienced, created a wave break that had spray shooting over the top with a hiss as we motored along. That said very little swell found its way into the harbour which has a winding entrance and several dog legs to cancel out the swell. As we pulled up alongside the arrival’s pontoon Norma stepped ashore with the mooring line in hand just as the dockmaster zoomed up on his electric scooter. He said how many nights? To which we replied 2 and then he said welcome come around the corner pick any berth you want. Norma still with the mooring line in hand stepped back on board and we moved on, pretty slick if I say so myself. Just around the corner a line of big empty berths came into view and in no time at all we were moored up on a 30-meter pontoon and had the kettle on. Again, the dockmaster was extremely helpful, happy and accommodating. He gave us directions to the town, suggested places to shop and told us to pay before we left before speeding off on his scooter again.

We have had a couple of days in Barbate now and having found a decent sized Aldi and Lidl on the edge of town our freezer is a little bit fuller. With our minds now looking forward to the Atlantic crossing each shop includes extras for the big trip. Apparently, Gibraltar boasts a big Morrisons supermarket which should get us everything we need for the final top up before we head out. 

That’s killed a bit of time and so I will call it quits now and go get Spectra ready for sea.