A hard slog up to Gibraltar...

Wednesday August 24 2011

A day of changing aims! One moment: destination Ceuta; the next destination Gibraltar, and then finally no destination whatsoever as we battled upwind westwards! Leaving Estepoma mid-morning we seemed set fair for making good speed towards Gibraltar, but as we sailed along the winds shifted to blowing pretty much from the direction in which we wanted to go.

Soldiering bravely on, we embarked on a series of long tacks out into the straits and back towards the coast. Though frustrating this was a useful exercise, demonstrating the importance of not ceding any ground we made up. At times, we didn’t quite manage this, ending up seeing the yacht actually lose ground vis-à-vis the coast…

It was at this point that we wondered whether we would actually reach Gibraltar, let alone cross the straits and after some considerable discussion we decided to cut our losses and settle for Gibraltar. Using the engines to make the final run up to the Rock, we rounded the point for a second time and caught a better breeze to take us across to our evening mooring on the western side of the bay.

Mooring not, however, for the last sailing of the day. After enjoying dinner and the sunset in the bay, another exercise awaited us, and in particular Sharron.

As part of her day skipper course, she had to do some night time sailing. Of course, I have done a lot of this in my various trips but nothing quite on this scale.

Instead of the deep starry nights of some of my other night sailing, Gibraltar bay was awash with a panorama of lights, a veritable kaleidoscope of colours from Gibraltar to Algerciras and the factories between them, to all the shipping lights on the bay itself. Sharron was given a series of landmarks to find and we set out across the bay; it was very difficult, akin to looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The most interesting part was entering Algerciras harbor and following the various navigation lights along the channel. While initially a confusing scene, we eventually saw how it all came together.

Making the trip back to Gibraltar bay and our home harbor, we were all happy to finally get the yacht tied up to the pontoon – especially me as I had a struggle with the bowline on the quayside! Hitting the sack past midnight, we were all looking forward to crossing the Straits.