Report No. 1 from Solent Venture en route for the Med.

We landed in Faro at 8.00pm on Wednesday the 15th, hire car to Portimao where Solent Venture spent the winter after last year's epic voyage from the UK.

Our plan was to launch on the 16th (since June SV has been ashore in the boatyard) then on the 17th set off for Cadiz.
Plans of course are just that and reality has a habit of making a nonsense of such things.


The launch went well and motor started for short trip up river to Portimao Marina. First glitch was that the marina where we planned to spend the night of the 16th was full of racers preparing for the Med Cup series so we spent the night on the town quay. A tad noisy!

Following major foraging sorties to the hypermarkets, the hire car is returned and boat is prepared for sea. Damn! The engine won't start!!!
I try all of the obvious whilst Jane and the two girls (Leanne - Jane's daughter and friend Michelle) take off to the beach, none too happy.

Still can't figure out the problem so I phone a local company who did some work for us during the winter. They have an engineer who will arrive on Saturday morning. Another noisy night on the town quay and next morning a very unhappy harbour master to whom we had made a promise to be gone by yesterday because we are "too big for my quay". He sees the light when I explain that we have engine problems and a push start really isn't an option.

Engineer arrives at 10.00am Portugal time (mid day in any other currency)and fixes a bad earth on the starter. By 3.00pm we are ready for sea again and this time almost everything works except the sea talk system (on board computer network) which means that the autohelm won't be auto helming on our 117 mile overnight trip to Cadiz. We'll get that fixed in Cadiz as we need to vacate this place before the harbour master really does push start me into the sea.

A great sail overnight to Cadiz with a three hour piece of magic sailing in a force 4 doing about 8-9 knots. Jane and I alternate during the night, hand steering the boat 2 hours on and 2 off. 9.00 am we pull in to Cadiz Puerto America marina. Who should meet us in the dock but Paddy who we had a great time with in La Courunia last year. He's been here for weeks and he seems not too inclined to depart very soon. The journey from Portimao to Cadiz took Paddy 3 months, we have just done it in a 18 hours. Needless to say he stopped several times on the way.

Paddy says that Cadiz town in magical and pulsates to the beat of flamenco, we are in Andalucia which is the flamenco capital of the world. Apparently even the fish sellers in the market clap out flamenco rythms, beats whistling eh?

Tonight we are going to visit a few bars that Paddy knows well. Heaven help us!!!

More later.
Colin



Arrived at Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the NE coast of Morocco at 14.00 yesterday.

Having left Cadiz the other day we sailed for 31 miles passing cape Trafalgar to Barbate for an overnight stay prior to navigating the currents and tides of the straits of Gibraltar.

Whilst we were in Cadiz Paddy had told us of strong easterly winds forecast for Thursday so the last place we wanted to be in an easterly was in the straits where the prevailing current is easterly from the Atlantic into the Med to replenish the water evaporating from the Med. Wind against current can be choppy! That's why we only spent 2 days in Cadiz and then headed south on Tuesday.

Talking of Paddy, we had a good two days in Cadiz which is a beautiful place still largely untouched by tourism and steeped in history. Apparently the oldest city in Europe, having been established by the Phoenicians 3,000 years ago. We did visit a tapas bar or three and found our way back to the boat at 3.00am having been entertained by three local Cidizians who took us to a couple of bars after the tapas bars had closed at 1.30am. Much dancing in mock flamenco style was done by Jane to the considerable entertainment of the locals!

The trip down the coast from Cadiz to Barbate was uneventful but interesting as it is necessary to thread a course amongst reefs to avoid the contra current running further off shore. We left Barbate at 8.30 am to catch the start of the south going current that would carry us through the Straits of Gibraltar. If you get the timing wrong then you can be sailing or motoring forwards but due to the current and tide will be standing still. The combination of current and tide in the straits runs at 5 knots maximum in spring tides. Fortunately we had done our passage planning correctly and carried a fair current/tide all the way. At one time we were making 6.5 knots through the water and 10.5 over the ground, meaning that we had 4 knots of favourable tide/current under us.

Ceuta has been our first experience of Mediterranean mooring bows to the quay with a rope out astern into the harbour. The tide here is only 0.4 of a metre between top and bottom. The town is bustling with retailing being the main (perhaps only) economy. There's no VAT in Ceuta so ferries from Algecerias bring hundreds of day trippers over here for the shopping. It's only about 8 miles across the straits and you can see tthe rock of Gibraltar clearly.

Today has been a chill out day which we spent in an aqua park literally next to the marina. The place must have cost millions, it is spotless, has acres of water pumped from the sea and cleaned, beautiful gardens, restaurants, bars etc. etc. Jane says it was designed by a famous person who has designed others in the Canaries and other places. It is certainly spectacular and very cheap, 4 euros per day plus 1 euro for a parasol. Lunch of beer and tapas cost us 4 euros!

Last night we had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant up in the hills overlooking the harbour, a spectacular view, the meal was equally spectacular and topped of by mint tea which I last had in Tangier in 1977. I'd forgotten how much I love mint tea!!!

Tomorrow we might move on to Smir which is about 10 miles south and in Morocco, from there we plan to take a trip to Tetuan which is up in the Rif mountains.

More later.

Solent Venture in Africa.


We've spent the past three days in Marina Smir which is in Morocco and 10 miles south of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. The weather has been hot but misty. Sunday was spent on the beach and we had the chance to try out our new body board in some very big breakers.

On Monday took a taxi up into the Rif mountains to visit Chefchaouen, the famous blue village. In Chefchaouen on Mondays there is a Berber market when the Berber people from the mountains walk with their donkeys into town and set up their stalls in the souk or market place. Naturally there was the odd joke at my expense suggesting that I was decended from the Berbers and with a name like Barber maybe this is possible. This was an experience, each stall literally consists of a sheet on the ground on which they spread out their wares, usually cactus fruit and herbs. We took lots of photos which we'll email when we get the chance.Report No. 1 from Solent Venture en route for the Med.

We landed in Faro at 8.00pm on Wednesday the 15th, hire car to Portimao where Solent Venture spent the winter after last year's epic voyage from the UK.

Our plan was to launch on the 16th (since June SV has been ashore in the boatyard) then on the 17th set off for Cadiz.
Plans of course are just that and reality has a habit of making a nonsense of such things.


The launch went well and motor started for short trip up river to Portimao Marina. First glitch was that the marina where we planned to spend the night of the 16th was full of racers preparing for the Med Cup series so we spent the night on the town quay. A tad noisy!

Following major foraging sorties to the hypermarkets, the hire car is returned and boat is prepared for sea. Damn! The engine won't start!!!
I try all of the obvious whilst Jane and the two girls (Leanne - Jane's daughter and friend Michelle)take off to the beach, none too happy.

Still can't figure out the problem so I phone a local company who did some work for us during the winter. They have an engineer who will arrive on Saturday morning. Another noisy night on the town quay and next morning a very unhappy harbour master to whom we had made a promise to be gone by yesterday because we are "too big for my quay". He sees the light when I explain that we have engine problems and a push start really isn't an option.

Engineer arrives at 10.00am Portugal time (mid day in any other currency)and fixes a bad earth on the starter. By 3.00pm we are ready for sea again and this time almost everything works except the sea talk system (on board computer network) which means that the autohelm won't be auto helming on our 117 mile overnight trip to Cadiz. We'll get that fixed in Cadiz as we need to vacate this place before the harbour master really does push start me into the sea.

A great sail overnight to Cadiz with a three hour piece of magic sailing in a force 4 doing about 8-9 knots. Jane and I alternate during the night hand steering the boat 2 hours on and 2 off. 9.00 am we pull in to Cadiz Puerto America marina. Who should meet us in the dock but Paddy who we had a great time with in La Courunia last year. He's been here for weeks and he seems not too inclined to depart very soon. The journey from Portimao to Cadiz took Paddy 3 months, we have just done it in a 18 hours. Needless to say he stopped several times on the way.

Paddy says that Cadiz town in magical and pulsates to the beat of flamenco, we are in Andalucia which is the flamenco capital of the world. Apparently even the fish sellers in the market clap out flamenco rythms, beats whistling eh?

Tonight we are going to visit a few bars that Paddy knows well. Heaven help us!!!

More later.
Colin



Arrived at Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the NE coast of Morocco at 14.00 yesterday.

Having left Cadiz the other day we sailed for 31 miles passing cape Trafalgar to Barbate for an overnight stay prior to navigating the currents and tides of the straits of Gibraltar.

Whilst we were in Cadiz Paddy had told us of strong easterly winds forecast for Thursday so the last place we wanted to be in an easterly was in the straits where the prevailing current is easterly from the Atlantic into the Med to replenish the water evaporating from the Med. Wind against current can be choppy! That's why we only spent 2 days in Cadiz and then headed south on Tuesday.

Talking of Paddy, we had a good two days in Cadiz which is a beautiful place still largely untouched by tourism and steeped in history. Apparently the oldest city in Europe, having been established by the Phoenicians 3,000 years ago. We did visit a tapas bar or three and found our way back to the boat at 3.00am having been entertained by three local Cidizians who took us to a couple of bars after the tapas bars had closed at 1.30am. Much dancing in mock flamenco style was done by Jane to the considerable entertainment of the locals!

The trip down the coast from Cadiz to Barbate was uneventful but interesting as it is necessary to thread a course amongst reefs to avoid the contra current running further off shore. We left Barbate at 8.30 am to catch the start of the south going current that would carry us through the Straits of Gibraltar. If you get the timing wrong then you can be sailing or motoring forwards but due to the current and tide will be standing still. The combination of current and tide in the straits runs at 5 knots maximum in spring tides. Fortunately we had done our passage planning correctly and carried a fair current/tide all the way. At one time we were making 6.5 knots through the water and 10.5 over the ground, meaning that we had 4 knots of favourable tide/current under us.

Ceuta has been our first experience of Mediterranean mooring bows to the quay with a rope out astern into the harbour. THe tide here is only 0.4 of a metre between top and bottom. The town is bustling with retailing being the main (perhaps only) economy. There's no VAT in Ceuta so ferries from Algecerias bring hundreds of day trippers over here for the shopping. It's only about 8 miles across the straits and you can see tthe rock of Gibraltar clearly.

Today has been a chill out day which we spent in an aqua park literally next to the marina. The place must have cost millions, it is spotless, has acres of water pumped from the sea and cleaned, beautiful gardens, restaurants, bars etc. etc. Jane says it was designed by a famous person who has designed others in the Canaries and other places. It is certainly spectacular and very cheap, 4 euros per day plus 1 euro for a parasol. Lunch of beert and tapas cost us 4 euros!

Last night we had dinner at a Moroccan restaurant up in the hills overlooking the harbour, a spectacular view, the meal was equally spectacular and topped of by mint tea which I last had in Tangier in 1977. I'd forgotten how much I love mint tea!!!

Tomorrow we might move on to Smir which is about 10 miles south and in Morocco, from there we plan to take a trip to Tetuan which is up in the Rif mountains.

More later.

Solent Venture in Africa.


We've spent the past three days in Marina Smir which is in Morocco and 10 miles south of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. The weather has been hot but misty. Sunday was spent on the beach and we had the chance to try out our new body board in some very big breakers.

On Monday took a taxi up into the Rif mountains to visit Chaouen, the famous blue village. In Chef Chauen on Mondays there is a Berber market when the Berber people from the mountains walk with their donkeys into town and set up their stall in the souk or market place. Naturally there was the odd joke at my expense suggesting that I was decended from the Berbers and with a name like Barber maybe this is possible. This was an experience, their stall literally consists of a sheet on the ground on which they spread out their wares, usually cactus fruit and herbs. We took lots of photos which we'll email when we get the chance.

After visiting Chaouen we then went to Tetauan where we had lunch in a 300 year old restaurant in the Medina (the old walled city)this is a warren of narrow alleyways. Again some amazing things to be photographed including the baker who works in a very small cellar next to a wood fired oven. People bring their bread dough and meals from their homes to him to cook for a small fee.

Naturally carpets and leather goods were bought, from the family of our taxi driver/guide!

The Souk or market was another experience and many photos were taken to bore you with.

Due to the mist and forecast of stronger winds on Wednesday/Thursday we decided to leave Smir on Tuesday and make for Gibraltar.
Leaving Smir was a typical Moroccan paperchase when passports had to be checked out ships documents checked again and all of this took the best part of an hour whilst we sat on the boat next to the harbour office in temperatures that the thermometer in the cabin registered at 30 degrees C so it must have been over 40 in the sun.

The first half of the journey was uneventful just motoring along in zero wind and mist. After passing Cetua heading north to Gibraltar we encountered a pod of dolphins. About 20 of them played around the bow of the boat for 10 minutes much to the enjoyment of everyone aboard. Later we saw a pod of pilot whales about 20 metres away on our starboard side. Then the wind picked up so up went the sails and we enjoyed a great sail across the Straits into Gibraltar with 18-20 konts on a close reach one reef in the main, 2/3 of the headsail and 8 to 9 knots on the speedo.

We entered the bay of Gibraltar as dusk was falling (can dusk fall??)and on radioing Queensway marina were told that it had closed for the night so we would have to anchor. We headed to the anchorage which is north of the main runway and dropped anchor. Planes are landing and taking off about 200 metres from us. Noisy or what! Still there were no night flights and it's now 10 am local time on Wednesday morning and the sun is shining, the thermometer is registering 25 degrees in the cabin and we are soon to up anchor and motor round to the marina. The girls are flying back tomorrow so today is sightseeing and monkey viewing day in Gibraltar.

Cornfalkes first then we will do something nautical.

Talk to you all later.

Colin, Jane, Leanne, Michelle.


Leanne and Michelle left us on Thursday last and took a flight back to the UK from Gibraltar. Just to clarify, this was pre arranged and not the result of any disagreement!!!!

Jane and I intended to leave Gib on Friday but due to a very strong Levanter (East) wind we decided to stay put. In fact we were woken at 6.00am on Friday morning by the sound of the wind screaming in the rigging and the boat bucking to a headwind of 35 knots in the marina. I jumped out on deck to tighten up the head ropes (we are now doing Med moorings with stern to quay and bows held by twin head ropes anchored to the marina bottom). Many other folks were out doing similar rope tricks including the people on the next boat to us, a beautiful 12 month old Amel 54. Jane and I have been lusting after an Amel for years but they are way out of our price range. Doug and Sally 'Amel' are from New Jersey USA and had been holidaying on their boat during a trip from La Rochelle in France to Gib, a journey necessary to maintain their VAT exempt status as the French customs have now decided that the Channel Islands don't count as a non EU state any longer. Their boat is now bound for the British Virgin islands and over dinner they asked us if we knew of anyone who could deliver it for them. I envisage many right arms will be offered for that trip. You know the saying, I'd give my right arm to ..... etc etc. I might even offer my limb for a trans Atlantic crossing on an Amel 54.

Due to the geography of Gibraltar and the height of the rock itself, when an easterly wind blows from the Med a cloud forms on top of the rock putting everything on the western side of the rock (and that's just about everything, town marinas etc) under a cloud. All the time we were there it blew from the east.

Gibraltar is a strange place, it's a little piece of England with palm trees and higher temperatures. Marks & Spencer and Mothercare in the Main Street, English money, although they do drive on the right continental style. I guess that if they had decided to follow the British convention of driving on the left it would cause mayhem at the border crossing!

The Levanter continued to blow and so we sat it out in Queensway Quay marina. On Saturday we visited Safeway (now Morrisons) for groceries. Just about everything you would expect to find in the Canterbury branch was available in the Gibraltar branch of the store. Now booze in Gibraltar is duty and vat free so the Main Street is well endowed with shops selling every brand of spirit you have heard of and then many more you have not. To give you an idea of prices, a one litre bottle of Havana Club white rum cost us £3.55. This snippet of retail information brings me neatly to BBC Radio Gibraltar, a station broadcasting in English of course and carrying the type of announcements you would expect to read in a parish magazine. Funeral announcements were regular items as were notices of meeting of the theatrical society and alcoholics anonymous (although they referred to it as AA) but as I didn't see one yellow van on the island and given the price of booze I arrived at the logical conclusion.

The weather forecast at the marina office continued to tell of strong winds with a window on Sunday and Monday where the speed was forecast as a mere 25 knots increasing on Wednesday to 45. So on Sunday morning we departed Gibraltar and headed for Europa point to turn east into the Med. You may have heard on the news of a collision between two large freighters just off Europa point, well I can report that one of them has now partially sunk as we passed close by it on our departure. Apparently Gibraltar is a very popular place to bunker ships (the term goes back to the days of steam when the fuel was coal and was loaded into bunkers) nowadays bunkering still takes place but the fuel is oil. Whilst we were there you could count up to 20 ships in the bay with smaller fuel tankers tied next to them. The skipper of one of the ships in collision was apparently trying to escape paying for his fuel by leaving the bay at night without lights, a decision I'm sure he now regrets!!!

Sunday evening found us in Estepona on the Costa del Sol, not too far along the coast but now out from under that cloud. It's now 11.30 am on Monday and we are motoring in zero wind towards Malaga for the night. The sun is hot, the sky clear and the sea blue (with apologies to those reading this at work).

Well I'd better sign off now as this was supposed to be an email not a novel.

I'm posting another position report on Yotreps.

Cheers for now
Colin & Jane

PS we've had a couple of emails from friends who believe we have set off on a round the world trip, not so, we are going back to work next week!!!!

PPS While waiting to send this via the short wave radio we've just seen a pod of 5 dolphins traveling west about 20 feet away to starboard.

Well what a few days we've had since our last report!

After leaving Estapona we motored past Malaga and found a bay to anchor in that could have been a bay on a Greek island. We had left behind the concrete and neon of the Costa del Sol and moved eastwards to the coast area south of Granada which is so much different. Cliffs that come down to the sea, small coves and secluded beaches which can only be accessed by steep cliff paths. We had anchored off just such a beach and it was perfection. The water was so clear that while snorkeling we could check that the anchor was doing its thing correctly on the sea bed 4 metres under the boat. There were about 20 people on the beach but around 7.00pm they started to move off and made their way to the path for the climb up to the road, We were looking forward to a pleasant night gently rocking to anchor. Jane spied what she thought was a deer sneak down to the beach with a calf, on checking the book of the area she found it was a Spanish Ibex which are a protected species. I didn't see it but I did smell it!

Soon after the Ibex disappeared a 4x4 drove down to the beach and out stepped a park ranger, at least that was our assumption judging by the insignia on the side of the vehicle. He took a good look at us with his binoculars and then proceeded to shout at us making it very clear that we were to leave. No doubt he was from the Spanish Ibex protection squad.

Not wishing to cause a diplomatic incident or upset any Spanish Ibex we gathered ourselves together, raised the anchor and motored 2 miles further along the coast to anchor off the beach of a holiday resort for the night. A quiet night passed but there was an uncomfortable swell which rocked us from side to side.

When we had left Gibraltar we had seen a forecast of strong winds for Wednesday through to Monday in fact we had not encountered any wind and resorted to motor to make our progress eastwards.

Wednesday morning was fine and sunny and we had 34 miles left to go to our eventual destination of Almeriamar marina. The first half of the trip was done under motor but in increasing seas with a swell of 2-4 metres in height. There was some wind but of course it was blowing from exactly where we wanted to go.

By about 2.00pm the wind had picked up appreciably making forward progress under motor difficult so we unwound about 1/3 of the headsail and tacked upwind with motor. The wind increased to about 25 knots so the mainsail was set with 2 reefs. Big swells, wind now gusting to 30 knots and joy of joys the furling line on the genoa decided to part resulting in all of the sail unwinding, now this is not ideal to say the least!

I'll spare you the details of the ensuing 15 miles but this included the tender deciding to make a bid for freedom from the davits on no less than three occasions, the furling genoa needed to be dropped and stowed on the rail, not an easy process and I spent some time kneeling on deck up in the bows with considerable quantities of the Mediterranean sea washing over me. The wind increased to 40 knots and the storm tri sail was set only to become shredded due to old age. Still at least we won't be relying on it when it's really blowing.

It gets dark around here at 8.30 pm and by 8.00 we had the marina in sight about three miles away but due to wind and swell had to make big tacks to reach it. Wind speed was now a genuine gale force 8 gusting to severe gale force 9. It was a little noisy!!! and very wet.

We eventually arrived in the marina at dusk and tied up against the fuel berth of the marina. Our genoa was partly in the sea and torn, our storm jib was set but flying in several directions at once and we had managed to get a rope around the rudder on the final approach making steering difficult. That night we were the talk of the marina, people appeared with cups of sweet tea and offers of food and solace. All I needed was some sleep! I'd spent half of the day out on deck with harness and life jacket getting very wet whilst wrestling with several bits of boat that had no intention of giving in without a fight the whole drama played to the music of a full gale. Jane was convinced she was never going to sail again and wanted to catch the next bus home.

On Thursday morning we moved from the fuel berth to our allotted mooring (with some difficulty due to steering problems)and then we proceeded to sleep for most of the day. On Friday I broke out the scuba diving gear and one of the three air tanks we carry and went over the side with trusty divers knife between teeth, well to be honest the knife was in it's sheath strapped to my left leg. It took a good 30 minutes to cut the rope away from the rudder as it had jammed between the skeg and the rudder. There was also a length around the propeller. On surfacing Jane hosed me down with fresh water, you can't be too careful in marinas! I'm so glad that we have our scuba kit on board and as we are both qualfiied BSAC Dive leaders we know how to use it.

There's much more to tell but I've promised to keep the full story of our summer adventures for an article I'll be writing in the Moody owners magazine.

Just to conclude though by saying that despite the sail failures the boat coped with the conditions brilliantly and at least Jane has now experienced her first full gale at sea. Not an experience one should invite but one that is necessary to go through at some stage.

We were going to order a new genoa anyway!!!

Signing off

Colin & Jane