Hats, in the scheme of things..

One of the big attractions to a Brit abroad in Gibraltar is undoubtedly Morrisons supermarket, a real taste of home and not stupidly expensive. It also has a cafe and once Lynnes mouth had healed sufficiently she treated herself to pie chips peas and gravy. Fine dining for a Wigan lass!

Our enforced stay was reinforced by the strong westerlies that had set in, this made any passage to the west problematic if not impossible. There is actually a level difference between the Atlantic and Mediteranean about 2-3 metres difference between the western and eastern ends of the straights. The Med evaporates faster than the Atlantic can fill it up this means there is a fairly constant eastwards flow of current, the tidal movement complicates matters further. The winds however do basically two things. blow west , the Poniente, or east, the Levante. As the westerly winds were in charge for a few days we relaxed and explored La Linea a bit, discovering that the local museum never seemed to be open but did have peacocks in the grounds.

Eventually the easterlies appeared and as this wind direction carries moist air there is a cloud develops over the Rock, At home we would say it, "had its hat on ", if it looks as it does in my photo below I now know that the maximum wind speeds you can expect in the straights will be in the order force 5 or thereabouts. You will get gusts and eddies in the bay of Algeciras, but once the average windspeed exceeds 20 knts or so the higher windspeeds will see the cloud detach from the rock and gale force winds can and will be encountered in the natural wind funnel between Spain and Morocco extending into the bay of Cadiz. We would discover this to our cost in a couple of days.

Meanwhile we made a trip across the border to have a look at the Botanical gardens, a green oasis in the heart of Gibralter. The actual real estate value of these green spaces must be enormous given the paucity of building land on the rock. Largely set out by an Italian they are a joy.

On our visit some areas were not open to visitors.

We also spent some time on the eastern side of La Linea on the beach, which is great for swimming if a little cold!
There are some nice beach bars to get a small beverage, the beach is very popular with local families and around 4-5 oclock you can sometimes feel a bit crowded as locals reclaim "their spot".

This cafe bar is almost exactly on the "Line" The photo below shows the remains of a fort on the eastern side of the narrow isthmus joining Gibraltar to Spain.

The origin of the name "La Linea" comes from when Great Britain acquired Gibraltar after the treaty of Utrecht, the Spanish built a line of forts across the narrow neck of the peninsula, hence "The Line"
After we had thrown the French out of Spain in the Peninsular war we decided to blow them up, so as to keep the French from using them against us in the future, politicians lied through their teeth even then!

Lynne had also acquired some new friends as she had started to feed the local fish. Their was soon a micro feeding frenzy around the boat every morning as they appeared as if from nowhere.

On one of our last nights we saw the "Blood Moon eclipse", it made quite a sight along with a red Mars just below and to the right of the red moon.

Not a very good photo but better than most of my friends in Northern Europe managed as it was a bit cloudy on the night..
Well the big day had arrived and we had paid our bill the night before, said farewell to our new friends Tim and his children who had been busy preparing another small steel yacht for adventures next to us.
We motored out of the Marina and into the bay, the sun was shining and Gibraltar was clear, remember what I said earlier? I myself had obviously forgotten, as after seeing some huge Tuna leaping in the bay and some Dolphins, we had been contacted on VHF by the ferries coming out of the fog, and had to make course changes, busy, busy, totally forgot to read the signs and suddenly we entered the fogbank and visibility was less than 50 metres. I am fairly comfortable in fog but what has come as a new experience for me is fog with WIND...…

As we followed the coast west taking advantage of the small counter current taking us the 15 miles or so to Tarifa the wind was constantly increasing until by the time we were approaching Tarifa it was blowing 30 knots. We struggled to reef the genoa having to resort to a winch eventually to reduce its sail area. we changed course to cross the T.S.S. ( traffic separation scheme )

It is essential that you cross a T.S.S. as nearly as possible at right angles to the traffic flow and as quickly as possible. Remember what I said about the currents and tide? well there we were wind over tide making the seas huge, beam on, so we were getting green water in the cockpit, haring along at between 6-8 knots under a half genoa and no main, trying to listen to the big boats on the VHF calling to each other in less than patient terms, contacting them when necessary because thank God we were the same size on their AIS screens. It was getting a bit serious and Lynne was worried enough to sit in the cockpit well, wedged around the binnacle, wet through of course. Dark Tarn was surfing and slamming into waves and I was having to hand steer as the tiller pilot couldn't cope.
It was without a doubt the most intense and serious passage we had made in four years, the boat coped superbly, the skipper and crew possibly less so but apart from Lynne losing her bob hat overboard we survived unscathed. As we approached the African coast and left the T.S.S. behind the wind abated for 30 minutes or so, just time enough for me to sort out the lee genoa sheets which had become hopelessly entangled in the gale force winds . as we coasted along the North African coast the cold fog again descended and with it came the howling easterly wind. We were approaching Tangier and as we tried to put away the genoa two ferries approached us, one coming from and one going into Tangier. At least it showed us where the harbour was. Unfortunately we had no idea where the Marina was located, it had only opened the previous month and information was sketchy to say the least, however we made a best guess, but luckily the marina staff  must have had scouts out or access to AIS because they called us up to inform us we were heading into the fishing dock. We reluctantly went back out into the howling gale and crept along to the new entrance and pulled up at the massive waiting pontoon. There were two fellows there to help with our lines and we were relieved we had made it.
The most challenging and downright scary passage of my time as skipper of Dark tarn.
As we had left the EU we were flying not just a courtesy flag but a yellow Q flag and I duly was asked ashore to clear immigration Customs and the port police. It was all handled very efficiently and after paperwork was done the police and customs officials came to inspect the boat. Luckily Lynne had managed to put some semblance of order back below and we were promptly directed to a berth. We were given one of the few finger berths (most are stern to ) but the wind and the inexperienced marinero line handlers meant we touched our bow briefly on the pontoon and lost a bit of paint but we were soon snugged down, and in glorious splendour, being one of maybe 20 boats in a marina designed for 300+. The marina is superbly constructed and is first class. There are bits that are not quite finished. But we didn't care,we were, to be honest a bit shell shocked.
But we were in Africa, and the exciting city of Tangiers.

That is a day we will always remember, not fondly, but it is a vivid memory, apart from the loss of a hat and the missing cloud one on Gibraltar I failed to spot, there was no loss or damage. Lynne stopped shaking after a few hours. There are no photos because for most of the time there was nothing to see and it was also not even a consideration. Apologies.
To all my sailing friends who are considering fitting AIS, do it now, you wont regret it, it was absolutely essential to the success of this passage. I would also like to thank the watch officers on duty in the straights that day for their skill and professionalism and for referring to Lynne as Madame over the radio, made her day!

Gibraltar

Much like the Guadiana I had very strong preconceptions about Gibraltar, these were, in no particular order, its occasionally windy, dusty, concrete, and full of ex pat Brits. All of which are true.
However it does have a unique vibrant sense of its own identity, it also has some green spaces which are lovingly tended.  This reflects well on Gibraltarians as space is at such a premium.

These photos were taken in Commonwealth Park. The name alone will tell you a lot about Gibraltar's place in British history .It is however along with the Botanical gardens one of the most peaceful and lovely spots to sit and contemplate.

The proximity of the ever encroaching concrete high rise urban building site which is never far away.

This however is my preferred memory. A quite amazing fact is that as we wandered around I naturally assumed that this was a 18th or 19th century throwback that had resisted the developers.
How wrong can you be, the first magnolias were planted in 2013 and the park was opened in 2014.
Not far away is the Cathedral, Anglican obviously but with a very obvious Moorish influence.

Witness the arches over the windows, again it can fool you into thinking its older than it is, its not that old 1840 or thereabouts.

As sailors we recognised the church service pennant.

During our visit we were entertained by the organist practising in the Gods above.

Back in La Linea, Spain ,it was festival week...…..

A weeklong series of events starting with a big parade, with dinosaurs. during which it seemed the entire town decamped to street level and set up tables laden with food whilst children collected sweets from the many floats passing.

I have to admit the dinosaurs were impressive,

Which didn't prevent small children from grabbing their tails!

Later in the week as we visited the boatyard to arrange our lift out for a survey we came across a familiar sight . The Festival of Carmen and taking the statue out to sea to bless the fishermen and presumably us too , as fellow mariners. Unusually this time it was a local yacht doing the honours....

All a little bit chaotic and possibly contrary to every health and safety regulation ever, but this is Spain...

The big day arrived when our surveyor was to inspect Dark Tarn, Ray Johnston was the man and after a quick run over the boat it was round to the yard to be lifted for the ultrasound survey. This basically involves separating the hull into square metres or thereabouts and measuring the plate thickness of each.

We had arranged to be left hanging in slings, luckily this coincided with Spanish lunchtime, or siesta as it has become known, and Ray was left undisturbed to do his ultrasonic thing.

This did involve removing a lot of our precious antifouling but we had prepared for that, what we had not thought about was that the shaft anode ( sacrificial zinc anode ) had become loose and had been rattling around the cutlass bearing. our prop shaft is about 28mm. our friend Marcus at MH Yacht preserve had 30mm and 25mm anodes in stock. Clock is ticking at this point and Marcus very kindly allowed me to use his workshop to grind out a 25mm anode to fit.

Lucky for us siesta had done its usual thing and overrun slightly so I was able to restore two coats of antifoul before we were launched over the patchwork of sample points Ray had scraped away on the ultrasound test.
Ray eventually left at 5 o'clock in the afternoon having done a very thorough survey of  DarkTarn and her systems. In the interests of honesty I had admitted to ray that our tricolour navigation light was not functioning, however I had arranged to return to the yard to have it looked at.
The idea was to come alongside the concrete end of the boatyard adjacent to the lift bay, I was not too keen on this but an Amel turned up crewed by two young lads who had blown their engine. I asked if we could raft against them the following day. They agreed ,

The two lads had bought the Amel for a ridiculously small sum of money in the med, I believe €39,000 and were sailing back to the UK to fill up the coffers and refit the boat. They had bought a Perkins genset online and had it delivered to La Linea ( I think it was from a tank ) the hope was that Marcus's team could cannibalise one good engine from the two.

After waiting a few hours during which I disassembled the deck plug again to no avail.Steve turned up declaring he was no electrician, ( promising start!) He was hauled to the top of the mast by his young Spanish assistant and between us we fixed the problem. It turns out that because of the extra circuitry involved in LED lights they don't just stop working like a filament bulb they blow fuses. Guess what's in our tricolour now? Good old filament bulb. I called up the marina and asked for help with my lines as I returned Dark Tarn to her berth. Lynne was still in Gibraltar having her wisdom tooth taken out.

She returned after a few hours with a very frozen face. Apparently it hadn't hurt in the slightest! The dentist advised rest and care when eating so we arranged to stay for a few more days.

We decided to go and have a look at the southern end of Gibraltar and leave the top of the rock for our return in spring. We caught the bus to the crowded cable car and walked to the battery holding the 100 ton gun.

Normally this has a £4 entrance fee but luckily for us the man in charge had locked himself out of his office so he let us in for free. To be honest £4 is a bit excessive. It's possible to examine the loading room and see a very small exhibition about the 100 ton Armstrong gun, a marvel of Victorian military engineering.

The views over the anchorage are superb, its possible to see that no ship would have been safe from the guns huge projectile. Although I am still unsure whether it was ever used in anger.

This part of the rock has several small beach area that are popular with locals. The beach areas are very small but in typical Gibraltar fashion concrete painted a fetching sandy colour provides a suitable substitute.

The steep cliffs provide an imposing background.

In order to reach the most southerly point in Europe it was necessary for us to walk through one of the many tunnels that riddle the rock. This particular one was dug by soldiers and the regiment involved proudly placed a plaque at the entrance. It's a little damp and spooky to be honest.

It's also quite long.

However yet another surprise awaits at the tunnels end. It's a Mosque used by Gibraltar's Islamic population.  It has a superb minaret which dwarfs the lighthouse on Europa point.

There are the ubiquitous military installations again with state of the art Victorian Armstrong guns.

There is a small exhibition in the gun emplacements describing Gibraltar's pre-history.apparently at one time when the land bridge was breached there would have been the world's biggest waterfall in the view from Europa point.

It was an interesting walk but we decided to catch the bus back rather than risk the spooky tunnel.

I
We had a last look back and saw our next destination in the mist on the horizon. The Rif mountains in Morocco. Africa awaits.......

I was getting quite exited!

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.