Thursday 31 December 2015

Gibraltar - the BIG wait..

Gibraltar is the logical stop for everyone exiting or entering the Med, I followed the trend and here we are.. My expectations were that we would be in Gibraltar for a week or so, as I had ordered a number of items expecting them to have arrived or in the process of arriving shortly after I arrived. I couldn't order too much in advance as I was scared that they would  be returned, should I be delayed..  These were the items that I was expected (Dates are Ordered, Expected/Received).

  1. EPIRB -   21/11/2015, 3/12/2015         
  2. Ditch bag -  Dispatched 15/12/2015 - BIIK
  3. Satellite Phone - 16/11/15, 17/12/2015
  4. Storm Drogue - 27/12/2015, 18/12/2015
  5. First Aid Kit - 26/11/2015 - BIIK
  6. Bits and Bobs - Oct 2015, 29/12/2015 - this one arrived, got sent back and Derek, resent it.
  7. Boat Registration Documents - 5/11/2015 - BIIK
  8. Spare Alternator - 13/11/2015 - 17/12/2015
The BIIK items are somewhere, in transit I' just don't know... So right now we are waiting on the three items...  

The boat is ready, this time there has been little to do other than a few improvements.. 

Earth strap - this thing has seen better days and was just not properly done! I could not get this braid, but I managed with the help of Hire-U, to get a welding cable (with a lug kindly soldered on by the owner of the shop, who is also a sailor)

The first ones became obvious some time back - the storage space under the seats in the saloon, don't have a flat bottom, so it's impossible to stack any cans or anything else other than bags of flour.. So I bought some marine grade plywood and set about doing some chippy work... I added floors to all the storage spaces and I divided the larger bins. I also made a separate compartment for the flour - the one on the left..
Flour bin and storage space
 One of the sources of annoyance before was water flowing into the cabin, even with the companionway closed.. So this is my solution... I put a smaller washboard in place, so that will raise the level of entrance a bit and added two perpex doors, which should reduce the amount of water flowing in. The two swinging doors are removable..


With the greeting of old friends and the chippy work out of the way, we set about exploring Gibraltar, the first outing was exploring the old fortress and the World war II and great siege tunnels.. The great siege tunnels were constructed some time back, when the Spanish with the aid of the French thought it a bright idea to take the Rock back, they were not successful!



Homage tower
View as one enters the tower


This tower was the last refuge, should the city walls fail - this tower was built when the Moors held Gibraltar.

Next stop was the World War II tunnels - these were built in preparation to withstand a siege of 18 months for 25,000 people (If I recall correctly).  Initially the tunnels were being built rather slowly, by just chipping away at the rock, this process was extremely labour intensive and hard on tools. The Canadians came offered assistance, in building these tunnels - they used dynamite, which sped up the construction of the tunnels. A nasty side effect of this blasting was that the rock was fractured - which then allowed water to infiltrate the tunnels..


 View from Jock's balcony overlooking the runway and the Spanish coast.

Then we went to the great siege tunnels, these
Gun barrels are original, carriages not.
 These tunnels prevented the Spanish from amassing on the cliff side and also allowed the defenders a better view of Spanish movements. Below are the views these tunnels allowed the defenders..




Christmas was spent on the boat with the new crew - Irina, Mihau. Irina is from Russia and traveling around and Mihau is from Poland, he too is traveling, both will be travelling with us till the Canaries. \
Casemates Square on Chrismas Day

Main Street
After Christmas, we decided to go and do some sightseeing. Ronda was the chosen destination. This city has been around since before Roman times.. It is also the home of Spain's oldest bull fighting areans (I guess it would be worth visiting in the bull fighting season). We approached from the southern side and crossed the new bridge

looking west

looking east

 Standing on the new bridge, looking at the river to the east.
New bridge
 On to the one of the oldest bull fighting arenas..
 Onwards along the path, looking towards the west..
 Then back down one of the main streets..
 We had lunch, a meatfest - four cuts of meat, which was nice... Then  on for a walk, down the escarpment to look up at the town..



 At the bottom of the gorge, with the town behind us.. Then walked back down the river and another l view of the town

 Then we went to visit the bullfighting arena.

 Ole - inside the arena... There is also a bull fighting museum/exhibit
Some of the bull "motivators"
 I guess two of the not so great bulls - apparently if the bull puts on a good enough performance, he gets spared and the idea is for him to end up on a stud farm - should he fail, he will be in people's bellies!

 His and her clothes...
 From the nosebleed section looking down..
 Two of the most notable matadors from two of the illustrious families, one at each side of the entrance..

 Then for more of a stroll around Ronda...



 We left Ronda at about 1600 and drove to Alguiceras to have a quick look.. We walked around for an hour or so and then headed back to "The Rock".

This tree was outside a house, and the interesting thing about the truck/s is it seems that they are a number of trees making this shrub..
After returning the rental car, we went back across to the boat.

This brings us to new year's eve...  All we are waiting on is the first aid kit, ditch bag and goodies and boat papers, then its a weather window for us to continue our trip.

Russell and Ingrid kindly invited us for a roast Chikin lunch. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternon /evening meal, with great company - thanks.
View From Russel & Ingrid's Place

So I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year and I will update the blog as soon as I have more info...

Update - 4 Jan

Happy new year.. Still waiting on the ditchbag and its contents, first aid kit and originals of boat papers.. I had to post the routing on the boat documents as right now those things are pretty much well traveled (Morroco - WTF!) Now I'm England... 

Update 5 Jan

Today we said goodbye to Irina and later in the day we will welcome Marie.

Also today, we were lucky enough to track down he Ditch bag - the one that had been detained at customs... It had been there since the 21st, all they required to clear it was an invoice - so we now have a ditch bag (with most of the goodies) 

Another bit of good news, the boat papers are also in Gibraltar, I get them tomorrow... I guess they were tired of travelling and chillin with the garden Gnomes...

All that is left now is he first aid kit and good weather!!!

Update - 11 Jan

After a quick talk with Derek, last Friday, I decided that we have to move on. The only outstanding item is the First Aid Kit, I ordered on 26 Nov and am atoll waiting for. The last status I have is "Departed Barajas, Airport 27 Dec".. No further information is available! Numerous attempts have been made to get further info -but these have been fruitless. The main reason for the apathetic state of affairs is twofold, the Christmas period, followed by the Spanish 3 kings festival, which means today is the first really work day for them.
Last know what about of First Aid Kit


On Friday night caught up with Phil and Russell and the plan was to go and see Tarifa on Saturday.. Well the plans of mice and men were certainly trashed.. We ended up going across the border to Mexico(as some locals are printer to calling it) to an Argentinian Tapas restaurant for a great Saturday afternoon meal..

The remainder of the weekend was didn't in lazy mode. Today we finished the last but of prep work, we packed the ditch bag. The weather is pretty miserable today so most of the day has spent indoors. Tomorrow we get our fresh produce and meat and cast off at high water +2 hrs so we can be in the strait at high water +3 and get the current helping us on our way..


Sunday 20 December 2015

Gibraltar

15 December

With a favourable weather forecast, we left Almeiramar and off to Gibraltar..
Farewell Almeirmar
 The Med at it's calmest, not even a puff of air at points during the day...
 We were treated to yet another spectacular show by the Sun - having done it's bit for the day it put on a parting show..
That night at about 2300, I heard a splash - but assuming I was hearing things, I ignored it... A short while later I heard it again, so I investigated.... We had a pod of Seadogs tucked in just behind the bow on the starboard side... The were just swimming along with the boat - occasionally one would drop off and you could see them swimming under the boat from port to starboard and tucking themselves in again.  I woke up Evelyne and Phillip see the show...  The rest of the night went on without a hitch, we had 10-15kts of wind slightly off the transom so we couldn't throw out a lot of sail without it collapsing and tugging at the boat..  The following morning we were treated to a sunrise...


 The wind died down to about 10kts directly behind the boat, we could either alter course, adding another 5NM to our distance and sail at about 4kts (or less and potentially run into more current against us adding about 2-3 hours to our journey) or motor on directly - I chose to motor, as I wanted to arrive in Gibraltar at a decent hour...

We arrived at Gibraltar at about 15h30 and took quite a few pictures of the Rock - we were greeted by Vanessa, who had put two BIG South African flags on their balcony and she was outside jumping up and down..


We motored past a jumping Vanessa and on to Ocean Village marina..  Before we docked, I filled up with with diesel and it was free - 70l of diesel - 20 quid!!!! *CHEAPEST* fuel *EVER*!!!

 Phillip and Vanessa came to welcome us on the boat and took us out for dinner and a brief tour of the city...  The following day we were again treated by Phillip and Vannessa to some awesome company, awesome food and a view to match....
Having arrived at the start of the real trip, we will spend the next few days waiting for the remaining equipment that I ordered, very minor maintenance provisioning the boat and some RNR.. Philipp has also left us and now we are searching for two crew members....