Off to North Africa...

Thursday August 25

Off to North Africa and the Spanish colony of Ceuta in Morocco! Around 15 miles crossing so we expected to take around 2 hours to do it. Sharron was busy plotting the route across, and I watched on taking some mental notes on all the processes. As ever, there were several factors to take into account, the current, tide wind direction and speed all having an impact on our calculations. Leaving Gibraltar at our usual mid-morning time (we were clearly not an early morning crew!) actually coincided well with the most optimal tidal conditions for making the crossing.

Heading out from the relatively well protected bay we were suddenly in choppy seas with winds up to 25-30 knots fairly powering us along. I took the helm for the first half of the crossing, which was a superb experience. As ever there was a considerable amount of shipping in the Straits and fortunately all of the container ships respected the law of the sea that sailing ships have priority, making the necessary course changes.

We had a westerly coming through the straits and with the current and tide pushing us eastwards it was important to maintain a pretty tight line close to the wind as we were always going to lose ground because of the tide/current. Essentially this meant setting a course for landmarks west along the course from Ceuta knowing that should take us into port.

I handed over at the half way stage to Sharron to take us onwards and used the opportunity to take some film and photos as we closed in on North Africa. Admittedly on a considerably smaller scale than last year, I was actually completing another transcontinental trip – in two hours as opposed to the three weeks the other one took! Coming in to Ceuta, the wind shifted slightly around to the south, though predominantly still westerly owing to the impact of the coastline and mountains. This made for probably the most challenging conditions of the crossing as we had the waves pretty much to stern and the wind pushing us forward. It brought back memories of some of the trades and I took over from Sharron from the run into Ceuta and the harbor.

And to a first experience of mooring a yacht! It was surprise to be asked, which was probably a good thing as I didn’t have chance to consider the potential damage a botched parking could entail! And it all went nice and smoothly, watching Sharron practice two days before had clearly paid dividends.

Having arrived in the early afternoon we had more than enough time to enjoy the wonderful outside pool in Ceuta – the complex was huge and we swam and relaxed there for a few hours.

In the evening, we explored Ceuta, checking out the fort and enjoying some tapas in a couple of Graham’s haunts.