A steady stream of traffic along the dock at Gibraltar brought an interesting assortment of crew seekers from geeks to hippies and more. Luckily for us, Dean from Melbourne asked if we could fit his bicycle on board and on discovering he'd spent the last two years cycling 20,000kms around Africa we figured someone who could do that would probably be a handy crewman. And so he is. Dean was a fitter and turner before he left Australia travelling five years ago and in three days of hard work he and Phil have cleaned up much of the to do list. Fitting the strong points to tie down the flexible fuel tanks was a particularly challenging and fiddly job requiring the headliners (the ceiling) to come down, blocks to be resined into position under the decks and fittings attached. Everything came together and we finally left Gibraltar Friday evening to a slow start punching a 20knot wind through the Straits. Once we turned the corner of Africa the new asymmetric gennaker went up, our sp eed increased and we settled into a great downwind run, albeit still dodging traffic. A beautiful sunny day with 12-18 knots gave us our first day's run of 158 nautical miles. We are loving being out here and really sailing again. Day 2 was excellent. We caught our first fish ever on Songline and had two nice fillets. The sailing was wonderful. In fact we felt so chuffed about everything we decided to leave the asymmetric up for the night as we thought we'd had enough practice getting it up and down quickly and gybing the boat in general. A couple of exhausting hours later, after unwinding a wine glass (where the asymmetric wrapped itself around the forestay) and untangling the lines on the sock that douses the sail we've decided not do that again. Day 3 was much quieter. The shipping traffic is starting to thin. Heavy fog covered the sea for most of the morning and then again in the evening so generally there wasn't much wind and we motored much of the time keeping our daily average run around 155 nautical miles per day. Day 4 dawned cloudy and still. However, we're not purists, the engines are running and we should make Lanzarote late this evening. Interesting sightings have included several whales, lots of dolphins and also flying fish.

We were sad to say goodbye to Almerimar. It's a great place for yachts to stopover and we made some good friends there during our visits. Happily we have three new 140watt solar panels on the boat for lots of power. Regis and his team did a fabulous job with the stainless steel as usual. The 2x1.5metre array doesn't seem obtrusive above the davits and provides an excellent tender cover! We also picked up a SSB receiver and a great new asymmetric (gennaker) which we love! The new asymmetric has a sock (rather than a furler) and is heavier than the old one so we can fly it happily in 20knots. On our test run down to Gibraltar everything went smoothly so we're very happy. Now we wait here in Gib for the flexible fuel tanks to arrive from Australia. We've bought 2x150L and 2x100L heavy duty deck tanks from TurtlePac for the trip home. We can fill the deck tanks with diesel before a big passage then roll them up into a locker once the fuel is used. Who would have thought buying in Australia and shipping to the other side of the world would be the way to go! Best prices and quickest deliveries! We've also sourced a chartplotter part from Australia. It arrived 4 days following ordering after we had been given a 4-6 week wait by Raymarine anywhere in Europe. It's sad to be saying goodbye to the Med but we're excited about the next stage of the journey. There are so many wonderful memories here we're sure we'll be back to do it all again.

Thankfully we had some warmer weather so we enjoyed staying nestled at Isla Espalmador, swimming and walking for a few days. The beach crowd is thinning but still fun to watch as the superyachts ferry their passengers ashore for beach visits with much pomp; and the big fast sailing day cats disgorge their troops to frolic after the excesses of the party night culture. The beach is reminiscent of the Whitsundays and the anchorage packed with boats from all over the world. Sadly, a Brazilian yacht chaffed their mooring line a couple of nights ago and ended up on the beach where the locals got together to assist with the salvage. Happily we always have a second line attached to mooring buoys with our bridle, but most yachts seem to only have the one line. Then with the prospect of 20knot easterlies we headed out and had a smooth ride to Almerimar where we'll stay for a couple of weeks to get solar panels added to the boat, catch up with some friends and get organised for the next leg of the journey. The weather is now cold and rainy so summer is really over.