Wednesday morning we managed to find somewhere to print out our tax returns, sign them & post them to our accountant back home-BORING-but it has to be done! We then hit Morrisons supermarket to stock up on canned goods for the Atlantic Crossing. We filled 2 shopping trolleys with canned soups & chicken, pasta, rice, cereal, cup a soups, flour, baked beans, coconut milk, milo, hot dogs & lots of other stuff. The wheels on the trolleys were nearly buckling! We then had to push them for 30 minutes back to the boat up & down gutters in & out of traffic. It took us a couple of hours to stow everything - cans are stored in the bilge & most other stuff in collapsible crates in the forward berth until we get to the Canaries. Morrisons no longer has canned chicken after our visit! We returned the trolleys & had a walk up Main Street checking out all the thousands of British tourists that had flocked there after disembarking off the 3 cruise ships in town. Treated ourselves to a pint of draft at the Red Lion pub - Steve was not impressed at the beer temperature! Ange had forgotten to warn him that the beer is not served cold in Britain. We also lashed out & bought chicken and chips for dinner from a lovely Indian man in a small takeaway nearby.
Thursday Steve hit the bureaucracy trail again. On Tuesday he didn't have a barcode from DHL in our paperwork so this was emailed to us & we printed out for our second try at retrieving the import tax on the water maker. After a couple of hours - walking across to La Linea, catching the bus to Algeciras & being sent from office to office - Steve returned with still no result. It looks as though we will not be getting a refund! We will try in the Canaries, but don't hold much hope. Ange bought some more groceries from Eroski for the Atlantic crossing & also went back to Morrisons to stock up on some canned goods for our trip down to the Canaries. We spent the afternoon going through lockers & our 'junk room' (the forward bunk berth) getting rid of items we haven't used in the last 7 months - extra pillows, blankets, spare wet weather gear etc that were taking up valuable space. These were placed on the pontoon in front of the boat for others to take if they wanted - we got rid of it all & now have plenty of space for items to be packed for our long ocean voyages. Over a couple of beers we decided to head out of Gibraltar tomorrow & venture out through the Straits and up the coast towards Cadiz in Spain. Our neighbour, Dave, offered his pilot book to have a look at & mentioned a couple of nice spots to visit.
Today we filled water tanks & fuel tank and said goodbye to Gibraltar. As we motored down the Bay of Gibraltar the phone rang & Jeremy said G'Day. He & Susie had arrived at Marina Bay last night and had just seen us leaving the fuel dock. It was disappointing that we hadn't been able to catch up but hopefully they will join us in the next couple of days & we can sail to the Canaries together. Travelling through the Straits of Gibraltar is interesting -we are motoring through as I write this! The water in the Mediterranean evaporates more quickly than the rivers can replenish it so there is a difference in height from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean of 3 metres in the Straits. Therefore a current flows from west to east and with tidal flows it can reach up to 7 knots. So picking your day to pass through is very important when you have a boat that only travels at 6 knots! We left the Marina Bay about 1 hour after high tide so we could motor through the Straits & be assisted by the outgoing tide as much as possible. We also are very lucky that there is no wind today - very welcome as Pannikin approaches Tarifa Point which usually has 30 knots plus blowing 300 days of the year! Northern Africa is so close! It is very mountainous with a cloud of red Sahara dust hanging over it!