Rota was a short hop and an easy sail , wind on the beam , everything up and a gentle crossing , the entrance to the marina was a little confusing from sea ward (apparently) but we got in without scraping bottom .
Rota marina was half the price of Cadiz marina which is set in an industrial zone near the great city , there is a ferry that goes from Rota to Cadiz all day every day and costs just €5
Rota has some beautiful houses , with amazing tiled court yards that have flower displays, this is a city that is prospering - mainly from the american naval base I suspect .
There is evidence of "Americanisation" with some shops and bars catering for captain America and his naval buddies, we liked Rota and could happily have stayed longer .
Cadiz is a beautiful city , steeped in history , draped in culture and loved for its architecture , rightly so as well , we walked for hours around this city , I filled a camera card with shots of churches and alley ways that for years have attracted tourists .
Spot the cruise liner
There in lays its only problem for me ..... Tourists , bloody loads of them YES I am a tourist of sorts , but for the brief time I was there , I lived in Cadiz and wanted it to myself .
Dead bugs on the windscreen
Sailing to Gibraltar - preparations were made to head for Gibraltar , we were going to stay in La Linea marina on the Spanish side as Gibraltar's marinas were more expensive and gib is just a short walk across the runway from La Linea.
So we left Rota with an out line plan of stopping over night in Barbate, once we were out the wind slowly filled and we were trundling along nicely at 5.5 knots , a good cruising speed for us. We were so much "in the groove" we decided to keep on going for Tariffa or if time allowed directly to Gibraltar.
We had our first sighting of Africa and revelled in the knowledge that we had sailed a (T) rusty old boat from the Uk all the way to Africa, at the closest point we felt we were there , sadly the dog prevents us from visiting but we will come back this way in a few years time.
The Straits of Tariffa were a BLAST...literally , the wind slowly filled to 20 knots we were making a steady 6.5 with the wind astern of us, the main was rigged on a preventer and the head sail was left loose footed ( no pole) .
We rounded Tariffa just out side of the traffic separation zones and away from the ships trundling in and out of the mediteranean , we were 5 miles from Gibraltar when the wind went from 20 knots to 36 knots - INSTANTLY - no warning - no signs on the water - no extra noise.
We were now making 11.6 knots over ground, we rode it for a while but I knew I really needed to reduce the main or better still drop it out the way, so it was that I spun the wheel, buried the toe rail, listened to all those tins of paint and crockery moving as we turned to wind and dropped the main.
We weaved our way through the vast assortment of anchored vessels and found our way into La Linea and its solid concrete waiting berth - solid concrete - I mention this as I scrapped the bloody pulpit rail on it - sigh - fender boards out for the first time too.