Leaving Ayamonte

Back in Ayamonte we prepared to leave for Gibraltar/La linea in order to have Dark Tarn Surveyed (full out of the water survey) for insurance purposes, Dark Tarn being 30 years old when her insurance renewal was due next year. During outr last days in ayamonte we decided to visit a slightly obscure tourist attraction, the tidal water mill out on the salt marshes.

Turned out to be a nice walk, however we were slightly dismayed when arriving to find the building locked up, Lynne had done her due diligence and pronounced it should be open. Just then the curator arrived having popped out for a sandwich for her lunch.

She was very helpful and it seemed once again we were the only visitors.

The water mill has recently been restored and the exhibition explains really well how a tidal mill works, free energy, how eco-friendly is that?

In its hey day it ground a lot of cereal for the surrounding area and now makes an interesting diversion from a walk around the salt marshes.

Our last few days in Ayamonte coincided with a festival of sorts (not to mention the World Cup)

We enjoyed the town immensely and I for one was sad to say goodbye, or was it the Guadiana I was missing?

No time to dwell as we set off south, the winds were great putting us on a beam reach once we had cleared the banks and bar at the mouth of the river, soon we were sailing strongly at 6 knots.

We had planned to split the 135 mile passage into three days but as it turned out the wind was consistent and I decided to just sail on into the night and most of the following morning in order to reach Gibraltar. We had an interesting time off Cape Trafalgar with a fishing fleet who were invisible on AIS but were circling around us constantly in the blackness, we then decided to cut in through the treacherous banks off Trafalgar and emerged beyond them into a very grey and cold dawn with visibility down to a half mile or so. The weather gradually improved however and we were soon going full tilt into the straights of Gibraltar with a strong westerly known locally as the Poniente, we had planned to anchor in Tarifa but Lynne discovered from the amendments to the pilot that this wasn't allowed anymore so we continued on the 15 miles or so to Gibraltar bay, we sailed in company with a Moody 38 (British) and having failed to catch us passed us under full sail as we rolled away our genoa, something at the back of my mind was saying this is a notoriously windy spot and I wasn't surprised when the Moody came back towards us heeled over alarmingly tryin to reduce sail. We ourselves having a full main were seriously overpowered, the wind speed rising quickly to over 40 knts but we were still able to enter the bay and find a quiet spot to lower the main in control. We never saw the Moody again.

Soon we were preoccupied with negotiating the huge volume of traffic coming in and out of the port.

ferries, container, bulk cargo , tanker , Cruise ship, you name it we could see it, we also had no idea where exactly La Linea marina was but careful pilotage produced results and we found our way to the small bay anchorage, anchoring behind the breakwater is now actively discouraged (presumably to encourage you to berth in th marina) so we found a spot off the beach.

Great views of the rock and crystal clear if somewhat chilly water. There was another OCC boat in the anchorage an Oyster owned by Peter who we had last seen up the Guardiana river. He soon dinghied over and informed us about where to not leave our dinghy ( everywhere, apart from the yacht club which charged 5 euro ) and a tale of smuggling, gunfire, and a body found on the beach that morning. We were after all in La Linea the drugs smuggling capital of Europe.

Ho hum. we resolved to stay at least overnight and were woken at four in the morning by high speed RIBs (inflatable boats) dropping something off on the beach which was being picked up by motorcycle riders and spirited away. We decided that the marina would be a better and quieter option.

The marina is very new ( opened 2010 ) and is very efficient, we booked in and arranged our lift out for survey purposes, there is nowhere with lift out fascilities in Gibraltar.
Armed with our passports we went to see the hard border between the EU and another country. Of course we realise that Gibraltar is a pretty unique place, thats evident the minute you cross the border and then proceed to walk across the main airport runway , assuming no planes are due of course!

Its a kind of British stubbornness meets Spanish health and safety, bizarre but utterly workable cludge. Pointers to Brexit anyone?

Of course its de riguer to have your photo taken, possibly the only chance you will ever get.

Weirdly just about the only place you don't get a good view of the Rock of Gibraltar is in fact Gibraltar. It quickly becomes apparent that, space is at a premium on the rock, building is an obsession, and those new buildings are constrained by 18th and 19th century fortifications. One of the first squares encountered is the Casements, above....

This leads onto Main Street and a short detour leads to Irish town, important for us as we were trying to locate a dentist for Lynne to have a wisdom tooth extracted.

We found it eventually and unlike the UK we were seen pretty much immediately and Lynne was given an appointment a few days hence after a course of antibiotics to clear an infection that had been bothering her for an extraction.

we had a few days to kill before both Lynnes tooth, and Dark Tarns survey could reach satisfactory conclusions so we busied ourselves with small jobs and exploring this strange borderland.