Arrived to Gibraltar

Last night at 1 after midnight we anchored in front of La Linea marina, just North of Gibraltar. It took us 5 and a half days and 665 miles to get here. The weather was rather mild with light winds, so we weren't very fast. But nevertheless, while it wasn't very difficult passage, it didn't changed my opinion - I still don't like passages.

We left Arrecife at around noon on Tuesday, after paying the marina, buying fresh bread and finishing couple of small things. This is the fort at the entrance to the port where the marina is.

Our first stop was in front of Costa Teguise, where we anchored and Captain put on scuba equipment and checked the boat hull.

Boat looked good, only propeller was partially overgrown and needed some cleaning.

After two hours we were again on the way. There was some wind, just enough to smoothly sail along the island with 4-5 knots. We had a nice lunch and soon we reached the NE corner of Lanzarote.

We decided that I will have the evening watch, somewhere from 7 in the evening to 2 in the night, and captain would have the night watch. Soon after I took over, the wind got very weak and I motor-sailed for the rest of my watch. There was a very pretty sunset.

I managed to stay on watch a bit longer, till 3.30, because I knew Captain would have a hard time to fall asleep. So he also let me sleep longer in the morning.

After wind died in the night, we were motoring till the morning. Then wind picked up a little, so we decided it was time for gennacker. It was long time since we last used it, so preparations took almost an hour. But then it was all wort it, it worked great and our new bow sprit worked well also. In very light wind we were making 4-5 knots again with main sail and gennacker.

In the evening we pulled the gennacker down, it would be too risky to manage it in the night, too many things can go wrong. I managed to sail with the main and a flock through my entire watch. The sunset was again spectacular.

I woke Captain up at 2.30, and he managed to sail for a little while longer, then it was motor-sailing again. It's not that we were in such a hurry, but the weather was forecast to change in 5 days and then we would have the wind and the waves on the nose. We wanted to avoid that, and we still had enough fuel and we would refuel in Gibraltar anyway.

Next day, on Thursday, there was almost no wind, so we motored or motor-sailed the whole day. The benefit of this was that the sea was very flat, so we saw a lot of turtles and several Portuguese man-o-wars (portugalske ladjice), very venomous jelly fish. But they didn't stop me from getting a quick dip in the sea, Captain only managed in to his knees.

During the day one dolphin came by to say hello. We were very surprised to see a Tropicbird, we didn't know they live in this area. We were usually seeing them in Caribbean and in Maldives.

I did my best with my camera, but the bird was so fast...

It was obviously the animal day - in the afternoon we had passengers, two swallows came to rest on the boat. They would fly away from time to time, maybe to catch some food, and then they came back.

Late in the afternoon only one came back, and even got more brave and came into the cockpit where we were sitting.

At one point it even flew down into the saloon and inspected the front cabin as well. I thought they might have been looking for a place to sleep, but in the evening they were gone.

That evening we had even more spectacular sunset.

Not only were the colour amazing in the West, but also in the East, where the moon was already up...

...and in the South.

In the evening the wind was very weak again, also changing directions, so I sailed with different sail+motor combinations, in different directions. Only right before Captains watch I was able to sail again.

The wind lasted through entire night, but with it the waves came as well and the night was not very comfortable. Captain got almost run over by this ship. Our boat has AIS, the electronic system that would broadcast our position and speed to the ships around us. Through AIS we get the same info about other ships as well. It is a great system, because it not only shows the position of the ship, but also calculates when and how close it will come. Usually big ships change course very early when they notice us and keep at least 2 miles away. But this one ignored us, so Captain had to change directions to avoid collision. It is better to stay safe and alive than to be right.

Friday was rather uneventful. Wind was again light, so we motor-sailed again the whole day. I was fascinated with the wispy clouds...

...later in the day there were also low puffy clouds, that were moving much faster.

I managed to sail on my watch, later Captain was again motor-sailing. Sea was again rather choppy, so it was difficult to sleep. I only managed to get some real sleep towards morning, and I missed the fish that Captain caught. He tried to call me to come out to help, but I didn't hear him.

He caught a beautiful tuna, luckily he remembered to take a couple of photos. 

He got it on the boat and cleaned and filleted it. It was not a small one, so after eating tuna salad for breakfast and tuna steaks in the afternoon...

...there were still 5 portions left. One we put in the fridge for the next day and the rest in freezer.

We again had a bird on the boat - this time one similar to warbler (penica), that kept us company last year on our sail to Cartagena.

It stayed on the boat the whole day, Captain even saw it the next morning, but it kept its distance.

The day got cloudy in the afternoon and we were motoring most of the day. In the afternoon we spotted a bright pink fender in the sea and went to get it.

In the evening I got to sail again for some time. When Captain took over the wind was gone, only erratic sea was left, so it was again difficult to sleep. Later there was some wind, and even quite some rain a couple of times. Captain was glad that the boat was washed.

By morning rain and most of the clouds were gone. This was the sunrise.

But the wind was back and we are able to sail again during the day. We were seeing more and more ships all around us. In the afternoon we came to the traffic separation zone and it took quite some work and a bit of nerves till we crossed the area. We were the smallest and the slowest of the ships, and while by the rules they would need to make an effort to avoid us because we were under the sails, they can't do sharp turns or stop on the spot. So we made an effort to hinder them as little as possible. First we changed direction to the East to let the ship pass in front of us, then changed direction to NE so we crossed the area just behind the ships going West and before the ones going East reached us.

Here are the three ships going West. There's not much space between them, and since we were sailing, we couldn't be sure the wind wouldn't die or grow stronger, so our speed was not very predictable. As a rule, we always let the bigger and faster ships pass in front of us, we never plan on sailing right in front of them. Because if wind or engine dies when you're just in front of the bow of a big ship and they can't stop, you are doomed.

And this is the ship sailing East that we waited to pass in front of us. And Africa on the horizon.

Our timing was good and we had quite strong current with us. But it made for the very choppy sea, it almost looked like it was boiling.

I can see how sea and current like that can be problem for smaller boats and how it could have scared sailors in the past.

But our speed was great. between 7 and 8 knots, and soon we passed the light house in Tarifa...

... and an hour after midnight we anchored in front of the marina. After a bit of Canary rum we went to bed.

We slept till noon and had a really lazy day today, or rather lazy half of a day. It was very windy, so we decided we don't want to sail into marina in so much wind, so we stayed on anchor. We'll see tomorrow if we stay here or in marina or when and where to we'll move on. But fist, one more night of good sleep.