Down to Gib. (Almerimar to Gibraltar)

 

On the boat, our house batteries had begun to show little signs that they were on their last legs: low volts, the sound of boiling acid... and the signature smell of hydrogen sulphide in the air - that’s bad eggs if you’re not familiar with it.

Having checked how much the local chandlery were hoping to fleece us for some new ones, Chez managed to find some excellent replacement batteries online. They come in at less than half the price quoted at the Chandlers, an added bonus is that they provide ‘‘free’ 24hr shipping’.

Well they did eventually arrive... after a long and frustrating week waiting around - not exactly 24 hrs!

I can’t not write about it, but sorry to have to put the words down; Cheryl’s lovely little mum, Audrey unexpectedly passed away after a short time in hospital.

This has left a heavy dark cloud over everything since, and makes all else seem rather trivial.

We finally got away from Almerimar. We were glad to be leaving there, not the most inviting of locations, and a place that will forever be soured by the news from home.

Once we were free anchored again just outside the marina, we re-raised the genoa sail and headed on down the coast.

After the week we’ve had, it’s the kind of day we needed: Little swell, sufficient breeze, clear skies and temps back down into the twenties.

We made it a days sailing down the coast, and although it’s an unprotected shore, with the strong possibility of a rolly night, our anchorage turned out to be the best and most peaceful sleep we’ve both had in a long time.

The coastline around Almerimar is dominated by greenhouses, which Google helpfully advises: ‘grow peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, watermelons, melons and beans, and Almeria has the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world’

On our way down and along to Gibraltar we saw yet more flying fish - and where I’d previously been amazed that they could zip across the surface for 10 meters or so, these ones were going 20 30 40 meters on glass clear water, and changing direction mid path - absolutely amazing.

I also managed to catch another tuna with my new lucky rod. This takes the rod’s total to 7 casts, 6 fish, 1 log. 3 dinners - not a bad result.

We spent another quiet night outside the buoys on a beach between a disused cement works and the tower blocks of Malaga, followed by a good day sail down to Marbella, not much to report on the changing scenery as the coastline has a uniform makeup of: beach, palm trees, 2 storey bars, 8 storey rectangular whitewashed hotels that slope up towards imposing forested mountains with bare rock peaks.

The sky remains hazy with bush fires along the coast, which we occasionally whiff.

Now within sight of Gibraltar, we overnighted just off a golf course, then made an early start for the last few miles to the rock.

Although not far now, the rock is almost fully obscured by cloud as we approach... it’s as if it’s Englishness has automatically drawn the grey gloom :)

There’s a lot of ships as we head in - large tankers and container ships all plodding along on their way.

We head to the Fuel dock where, fingers crossed, I’m due to pickup some parts for the boat - and hopefully by doing it as a ‘vessel in transit’ I am avoiding having to pay €350 in VAT. After a short wait, the parts did indeed arrive, and we made our way into our booked Marina on the Spanish side (all rooms at the inn being taken on the British side).

Once checked in, we headed over to our actual berth for the next few days.

Here, I’m fitting a Hydrovane to our stern - for those unaware, think of it as a second rudder that you can set to the wind - this makes it great for long passages, where using the autopilot would use too much battery power.

Throw myself into the install, and after a day and a half of sweat, grease, doing up nuts in tight spots (and one impromptu swim to grab a plastic sleeve which I dropped in the water) the Hydrovane has replaced the passerelle on our stern.

On Saturday, we head over the border on foot to the rock... Getting the first stamps we’ve had in our passports for a while.

What to say about Gibraltar: Pubs, chip shops, signature red phone boxes and post boxes.. and so many varied accents. Not the prettiest architecturally, but well worth a visit.

Sunday morning I treat myself to another impromptu swim after one of our elderly neighbours dropped their keycard in the 3m dock - I enjoyed the dip, and was awarded a bottle of plonk for my trouble!