We're in the Med!

23rd May

Friday morning we were away from Rota by 7:20am for the 40nm to Barbate, with Red Snapper a little way ahead of us. The plan was to spend a night in Barbate and on Gibraltar tomorrow. As we left the shelter of the marina wall the swell kicked in and although there wasn't much chop the swell was beam on making for a rolly passage.

The wind was from astern and we tried to motor-sail with the genny but the wind wasn't strong enough to keep the sail filled with the swell rolling us about. Better to motor than flog the sail to bits we thought.

It was a fairly uneventful passage towards Cape Trafalgar, flying our Trafalgar penant under mostly blue skies. We arrived at the point where we needed to turn into Barbate after only 5 1/2 hours; a quick calculation, weather check and decision made to carry on - I really didn't want to risk getting stuck in Barbate!


Off Cape Trafalgar

The wind had filled in by now so we tried the genny again and this time it stayed fuller which along with the current we'd now picked up had us doing nearly 9kts across the bay towards Tarifa. Unfortunately the sea state had picked up as well so it was a bumpy ride towards the Straits.


Heading towards the Straits of Gibraltar, Red Snapper ahead, Europe to the left, Africa to the right

The wind funnelling into the Straits had us furl some genny away and we did drop a bit of speed as we approached Tarifa, maybe we had a bit of tide against us too. Past Tarifa, genny back out and we were now doing over 10kts with a F4 to F5 from astern. Marvellous!

We kept a line closer to the shipping lane to keep positive tide with us and soon the the Rock was coming into view with what seemed like hundreds of big ships anchored in the bay. We motored through them, having to do a pirouette as one came straight towards us from behind another ship and then we were off La Linea.

You have to go onto the waiting pontoon to check in before they allocate your berth at Alcaidesa marina. The waiting pontoon leaves something to be desired - a concrete wall with rubber strips that fenders get caught on and no ladder up the wall so we had to balance on the guardwires to get off. Plus a training school boat faffing around on the arrival pontoon had us doing several circles before we got alongside. Our friends Gilly and John from Riverdancer were there to meet us and Gilly asked the marina for some help - at which point a load of marina staff raced up in golf carts which was quite funny.

Into our berth to find Richard and Phillipa from New Zealand next door to us. We met them when they joined in with some Lagos Navigators activities during the winter, but left to go back to their boat which was in Spain, so it was great to see them again.

So we're in the Med! It was a good decision to keep going, we covered the 75nm in 11 hours and meant we arrived in time for John's birthday party. Plus we didn't have to risk being stuck in Barbate!