Gibraltar to Rota

We stayed anchored in front of La Linea marina longer than we planned. But it really wasn't bad, we had some nice evenings with pretty sunsets. Unfortunately the sea temperature was not high and we didn't swim much.

On Wednesday it looked like the best day to sail West was Friday. So on Wednesday we dinghied to Sailing Club where we left the dinghy (for 6 EUR) and made another long walk to Gibraltar. I like the way they made the car garage green.

We walked all the way to Queensway Key marina and met with Sue and Tony of Spindrift - they were  our neighbours in Otranto in marina. We had a great afternoon together and it was more than worth the long walk there and back.

On Thursday we finally sailed over to Gibraltar and took fuel. We didn't sail to Tarifa, after hearing from our friends of Stabo that it is not a very calm anchorage. So we returned to La Linea and made a plan to get up really early, at 5.30 to make a good use of favourable current through Gibraltar strait.

In the afternoon on Thursday the wind was already from East and The Rock got a funny white hat.

Later in the evening it got a grey scarf.

In the evening we prepared the boat and tried to get to bed early. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night because the boat was rocking violently. We both ran outside and saw what looked like a racing boat with engine roaring, speeding through anchorage without any lights. We watched in disbelief and when it came closer the second time we saw the Guarda something written on the boat. So it was a police or some officials, and they were circling every boat and checking the beach. What they were looking for we don't know, but if they wanted to be in stealth mode without any lights, they had way too loud engine and the way they made waves and made every boat roll, they woke up everybody anyway. We were really mad, it was one after midnight and after they were gone we had a hard time falling asleep again.

We still got up at 5.30 and sailing out of Bay of Gibraltar in the darkness was quite exciting. Between all those big ships anchored in the bay they were some that started to move, then there were couple of fast ferries and couple of service boats, diving boat and even couple of sailboats. We were both very busy with watching the radar and AIS, but got out of the bay without any problems. Captain took the first watch and I gladly accepted and went to bed. There was almost no wind, so we were motoring, but the sea was flat and I could sleep.

Captain photographed the sunrise...

...and lighthouse at Tarifa.

At the beginning there was a light current against us, but later it started to turn into our favour. In Gibraltar strait the current mostly runs from West to East, because the water mostly runs from Atlantic into Mediterranean, due to faster evaporation in Mediterranean. So only couple of hours after high water the water runs out from East to West, and one has to keep near the North or South coast to benefit from it the most. Couple of hours later, when the current started to turn back, we were already well out of the narrowest part.

We had a nice English breakfast, a bit different - with toasted crumpets, butter, lemon curd and home made orange marmalade made of my own oranges.

Wind was very weak and from behind, so we were motoring most of the time, even when we tried to sail we were too slow. It wouldn't normally bother us, but we had to make almost 75 miles that day.

I was hoping to see a whale, turtle, or at least some dolphins, but except for some usual birds we didn't see anything. Until in the middle of the day this flock of beautiful big white birds flew almost over our bow.

I couldn't figure out what they were, they were the size of egrets or swans, but their necks were stretched out and not folded like with egrets and they were slimmer than swans. Some time later I did some googling and researching and concluded they must have been Eurasian spoonbills (Žličarke), none other birds of this size are so white and fly with their necks outstretched. I was so happy to see them, it almost made up for no whales or turtles or dolphins.

Near Cadiz we sailed into an army shooting practise area and I was quite nervous since we had some encounters with Spanish army 8 years ago when we were here the fist time. Then they flew a helicopter over us when we were sailing from Mar Menor to Garrucha and they tried to direct us to go back East, because there were a couple of army ships doing some exercises. And couple of days later they directed us out of shooting practise area between Rota and Mazagon by changing our course to get out as fast as possible, and they started shooting the moment we were out (you can read the whole stories in the archive of 2011 September and October). I would maybe even consider sailing around it, especially since we were hearing the shooting whole afternoon, but the area is almost 20 by 20 miles big and stretches all the way to the shore, so it is way too far to go around. But luckily this time nothing bad happened, we kept relatively close to the shore and there were even some fishermen there in boats. It would be nice if they would broadcast such things on channel 16 and also in English.

Last miles wind picked up and we were able to sail, which made Captain happy. We tied to visitor's pontoon shortly after 6 in the afternoon, after more than 12 hours of mostly motoring.

This is Heron in her berth.

Already on the first evening we walked to a nearby bar in hope to get some internet, unfortunately there is none in marina. We had a couple of beers and tapas and a very interesting conversation with a local, that didn't speak any English (we don't speak any Spanish), but somehow we managed to talk for 15 minutes about our sailing trip, his life in South America and Africa etc. Was fun.

Right the next day we made a trip to Cadiz, just across the bay. We sailed, but not Heron. We took a ferry that is running conveniently from our marina and stops right in the centre of Cadiz. Captain wanted to check everything out on the ferry, even if he wasn't driving it.

I liked this unusual lighthouse near Cadiz - it looks like an arm holding the Olympic torch.

Cadiz is one of the oldest Spanish town and is very beautiful. These interesting roofs we discovered near the Roman Theatre.

Roman theatre is smaller and not so well preserved as in Cartagena, but there is no admission fee.

We strolled through the town, and saw many old churches and palaces, this might have been the biggest one.

Without a real plan we got to the fresh produce market and it was fabulous. It was crowded and loud, but the variety of vegetables, fruit, meats and fish was amazing.

There were also plenty of stalls with all kind of food, but usually specialised to only couple of products. So we had to find a bread stall to buy some rolls, beer stall for drinks and fish stall to get fried tuna pieces and fried anchovies. The hardest was to find a table with two chairs, and we did, but it wasn't entirely in the shade, but we were happy anyway. It was a great lunch, super fresh and pretty cheap too.

After lunch we walked some more, we saw the town beach...

...some enormously big ficus trees...

...pretty decoration...

...Ančka street (Ančka is slovene female name)

...and funny door handles, among other pretty things.

And when we got a bit tired and hungry again, we stopped at the pastry shop.

Afterwards we did some more walking, maybe not as enthusiastically as before, we were slowly getting tired.

We sat on the bench in front of the tobacco factory with the monument of girls rolling cigars.

We still had some time before departure of our ferry, but we decided to go into the port and buy tickets, we expected the ferry to be full since it was Saturday. In the port we saw an Argentinian sailing ship and it turned out they were having and open-door day, so we made a quick tour of it.

Unable to walk any more we spent the last half of hour before departure in waiting room on ferry dock. But even that was ok, they had a really fast internet so we weren't bored.

On our ride back I was able to make a photo of this new Cadiz bridge as well.

When we got back we walked into Rota to the store and bought some bread and fruit for the next day. When we returned to the boat we were really tired.

Next day Captain wasn't feeling well, he had some fever, so we are staying in Rota until he is better. And Rota is not a bad place to get stuck in.