Blowing hot and cold, that about sums up Gibraltar at this time of year. We've had full on monsoon strength rain, force 8 through the marina and consequently not much sleep (and a ripped off fairlead). Daily temperature is 20c and about 10c at night. If only it wasn't so windy!

We are 15 miles, downside and downwind of Tarifa, the most southerly point on mainland Europe. Statistics says it blows 30 knots for 300 days of the year. This makes it a haven for kite surfers and a nightmare for anyone, like us, wanting to head west. However, forecast is for a break tomorrow so, with a Spring tide we head out at 7:30 and hope we get one of the 65 days its not blowing in our face.

Cadiz is the goal and we might just take Friday off to head for Seville to see the Easter celebrations. There's a procession every night here in La Linea this week. The outfits are kind of weird, especially to someone that worked in South Carolina for years.

We've spent the day provisioning and doing some final boat maintenance. When we left Almerimar we had a problem with the masthead light. It wasn't working. However, as we were likely to be motoring all night with our all round nav lights I wasn't too bothered. Having got here I started getting the gear out to go up the mast and see what the problem was but first decided I'd check behind the switch panel to see if anything had burst into flames.

Having unscrewed the panel and had a look (about the extent of my electrical skills) I was screwing it back in place when I spotted the SWITCH!

We have a 2-way switch with a neutral "off" position and guess what..... It was off! Problem fixed. That's the difficulty with not having been sailing fair 5 months. You forget what goes where. Hopefully we can actually remember how to sail the damn thing tomorrow morning.