Bobby Murdoch
I'm anchored under the Rock of Gibraltar on the Spanish side of the border, been in the Marina on the rock for the last few days and came out this morning to head off across to Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast tomorrow morning on the tide.

Anchored at La Linea on the Spanish side of the border.
Gibraltar feels very much like home for me, I visited here many times in my younger days and worked here for a spell in the late nineties, so this is my first visit for 20 years!! It's changed quite a lot, as I'm sure I have, Christ hopefully eh! still a big bit of rock but with stacks of high rise flats everywhere now, just like Hong Kong, they cant build out so the only way is up.....
For those that don't know, Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory on the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean, one of the ancient pillars of Hercules ,ha ha! It must piss the Spanish right off having little Britain stuck onto the bottom of their country but they do the same in Morocco, so who am I to judge!

So, just a wee bit of history, the rock was captured for Britain on the 21st of July 1704 by some 1900 former colleagues of mine and their
Dutch counterparts (this was just a wee bit before my time mind you!)who sneaked in under cover of Naval guns pretty much where the marina is now and laid siege to the garrison who surrendered on the 26th (when they ran out of cigarettes, wine and chrorizo apparently) and it has belonged to the British ever since. And due to its strategic position at the entrance to the Med, they'll not be in a hurry to give it up!

View from the top of the rock
In my past life Gibraltar was a regular stop if you were deployed onboard ship, the tradition was for everybody to run from the dockyard to the summit of the rock so I ran it a few times during my visit, good to know I could still drag my fat arse up there, ha! It was the first time I had ever done it without a hangover! The powers to be would always give you shore leave the night before the run, there was always a few characters blowing chunks on the way up after one or two rums too many the night before, you have to be careful at the top, there are lots of monkeys up there, or Barbary Macaques to be more precise, wee bastards will be away with your hat, sunglasses, and phone if your not careful.

Cheeky Monkeys....

Mediterranean steps at the back of the rock, I'll be honest, I was breathing out of my arse running up these!

Fog rolling in......
Super Interesting place, kind of a mix of Portsmouth 300 years ago, a bit of Blackpool thrown in and of course Spain, if you're a history buff you'll love it, it's a little tacky in places (hence the Blackpool mention) plenty of Union flags and fish and chip shops.
One of my favorite Places was the Trafalgar cemetery( we will talk more of Trafalgar once I have sailed past it) some great write ups on
the headstones....

This chap suffered "several weeks with Incredible patience and fortitude" after the Battle of Trafalgar before he popped his clogs

and read this one, he must have been a real good egg......tremendous!
The journey down from Valencia was pleasant and pretty non eventful, I was giving most of the tourist areas on the Costa's a body swerve, haha, flew swiftly past Benidorm.

Under the rock at Calpe, had to stop here for the dentist, man, I was in pure pain, turns out it was a wisdom tooth trying to make its bid for freedom, there's a heap of expats live here so finding an English speaking dentist was easy, sorted me out quick smart, thank f.....goodness.

Above the anchorage at La Azohia

La Herradura
I also stopped at Marbella but it was blowing a hoolie and rough as guts so nae photos, smashed it down to Gibraltar the next day as the
swell made all the anchorages on that stretch of coast untenable.
So the plan?......as I'm and Australian boat, I can only be in Europe for 18 months before they want me to pay tax on the boat so I need to
get out of Europe for a day, I was going to go to Tangier but Morocco but it is still closed, so as Ceuta is outside of the EU VAT zone, I'll go
there and hopefully all the chaps at customs will be good to go. ha, famous last words....
All In all, so far so good, Confidence is still floating, I can still run to the top of the rock of Gibraltar, the sun is still shining, and people who have jet skis are still wankers!!
Stay safe, wear yer mask, keep smiling.......
