Cadiz - Barbate - Gibraltar - The Med!!!!!

Thursday 15th October Cadiz

Ali went for a sleep when we got tied up into our berth. The visitors berths as usual are the few that were totally exposed to surge and wash at the entrance of the marina and furthest away from the showers etc - typical! I did ‘school’ with the girls which is always a little more stressful when you are tired from sailing. When we had had enough learning we went off to the pontoon to see what we could find there, the girls found little anemones (or something like that I couldn't find them in our sea life book - if you know feel free to let us know!) that have tube shaped bodies with tentacles hanging out of the ends. They soon discovered that if you prod them with your fishing net the tentacles retract back inside the bodies so we had some fun terrorising the anemones. Ali finally emerged around lunchtime from his bed so we had lunch, went for showers and then a walk into town.

It is a fair old tramp into town as the marina is right out at the end of the breakwater but it is good exercise! The guide book says ten minutes but you can round that up to three quarters of an hour with the girls. The breakwater looks like it has all been done up so that it should have been a lovely place to take an evening stroll but it was pretty manky and with all the broken glass and smell of urine Ali and I decided neither of us would be walking home alone after dark. There was also a huge population of wild cats living in the rocks on the outer side of the breakwater and people had left food out for them which was good as they all looked very scraggily indeed.

The town of Cadiz was great though and completely made up for the breakwater, it is quite small as it has always been squashed onto a small island that became a peninsula. The streets are narrow and full of little shops cafes bars etc, we got completely lost a few times but knew if we headed towards the sea we would be able to find our bearing easily.
We noticed that alot of the streets were named after South American countries.
The history is amazing the city having been recorded since Phoenician times. We wandered around and had coffees and ice cream then we spotted a toy shop so Alisha promptly informed us she had found the perfect place to spend her 20 Euros Granny Rhoda had given her, needless to say the boat has yet another Barbie onboard. Kaylee was a bit miffed not to get anything but she hadn’t taken her money out with her and we are trying to teach them to look after things properly. It was starting to get dark so we found a supermarket and headed back to the boat for tea and an early night as we were all tired and it was back to Spanish time again so we had lost an hour at the end of the day. We tried to see if we could get a TV reception and were surprised to find a few channels showing English films at night and the odd kids programme in English too so the girls were quite delighted to see some familiar programmes again.

Friday 16th October

We got up early deciding we would do all the touristy Cadiz stuff, We got a load of washing done and hung up before we left and had a quick school session.
We walked out along the sea wall then keep going along the edge of the town, admiring the views. We got to the university area with the Parque Genoves and had a nice walk through there, the trees were filled with parrots and the girls were mesmerised. There were also a lot of strangely sculpted cypress trees which we thought we would take a photo of for Davie our next door neighbour who has quite a lot of them and he may get some ideas.

We stopped to have lunch at the park café which was really nice and the girls could just race around playing when they were bored. We were just sitting enjoying the ambience after lunch when a HUGE insect landed on my arm. I have never jumped up so fast in my life Ali was laughing until he saw that it was a four inch long big locust - eek!

That was the end of the botanical gardens for me so we continued our walk to have a look around the Castillo de Santa Catalina. It is four hundred years old and currently under refurbishment but was interesting for a stroll around, it protected the city from attack from the sea by the British. This seems to be a recurring theme in all seafront castles, protection from the British fleets and battles either lost or won against us Brits, we must have been a real pain in the ass in days gone by, oh yeah I forgot we still are!

We headed off along the westwards sea wall and back to the town. From here we went up the cathedral tower where you get a spoken guide of the views you can see, it is very impressive. The tower isn’t hard to climb as it isn’t steps which was lucky as we had to keep up with the girls who were racing ahead as usual. The view is amazing, well worth the money. The ticket also included entry to the Casa del Obispo which is at the other side of the Cathedral. It is an excavation of a 3000 year old site that has different levels including a Phoenician funeral complex, Roman site of worship, and when the moors had control of the city it was used to call the citizens to prayer, all on one spot! It was very interesting and the girls even enjoyed it as there were glass floor viewing panels which they thought made a very good ice rink!We got the girls a haircut as they were beginning to look a little shaggy.

We then had to go back and find the same toy shop so that Kaylee could spend her 20 Euros that had been burning a hole in her pocket. Needless to say there is now yet another Barbie this time the pack included high hells, a purse and a tiara for Kaylee so she has been clip clopping around ever since although we did have to ban the high heels at sea!

We decided since we couldn’t find the supermarket again that we had better eat out and we had a very nice tapas dinner with some quite unusual inclusions such as crab and octopus mustard salad, the girls managed to find a couple of bits they would like to pick at too which is always a bonus. When we got out of the restaurant we realised we had really no idea where we were and the sun had set so we didn’t have that for a reference point either and decided to get a taxi back - therefore avoiding the long seawall back too. When we got out of the taxi we realised that we had been very sheltered in the city streets and a gale was blowing, the strongest wind we had felt since the gale we endured in Falmouth. The run down the pontoon was very bouncy even though every single arm of the pontoons are piled (and we had thought this was a bit overly) We were hurrying as we remembered about our washing which was still out and as we suspected there was a lot less on the line than when we had left. Oops. That’ll teach us to stay out late.

We spent a very bumpy night in the boat being bashed about by the waves and the swell but at least we weren’t losing our sea legs again!

Saturday 17th October Cadiz

The wind was still fairly blowing in the morning and we decided just to have a lazy day, I did the school session, wrote up the blog and we just tidied the boat etc then in the afternoon we headed into town with the laptop to check the weather and decide when we were going to leave as we had a great itch to get to Gibraltar after mucking about in Portugal for over a month. The weather looked like it would be fine for a sail down to Barbate the next day and then wait for the wind to turn Westerly to get to Gibraltar later in the week. We were at an internet café next to a small park with really big old trees in it and the girls raced around having fun. In Spain everywhere we have been in the evening everyone comes out with their kids and the play parks are packed with people, it is really nice. The square was buzzing and the later it got the more kids there were, if you are out at midnight there are still little kids racing around. I can’t ever imagine spending a Saturday night in the King Harald Street play park at home probably because there are only a few nights of the year it would be warm enough!


Sunday 18th October Cadiz to Barbate

We got up early and left for Barbate, we started off with the wind blowing directly from where we wanted to go but not that much of it. We only had forty miles to go so we decided to tack leisurely down the coast. It was a lovely sunny Sunday and all we had to watch was that we didn’t hit any of the little pleasure boats out fishing. The wind did eventually change to a more favourable direction and we put up the gennaker again. We had taken quite a while mucking around tacking so we only passed Cabo Trafalgar as it was getting dusky, I was surprised b how low and flat it was I had imagined cliffs not just a lighthouse out on a flat headland.

As we pulled into our berth at the marina in Barbate we were met by a friendly face waiting to take the ropes - David a Spanish sailor whom we had met in Viana do Castelo then been rafted together in Peniche. They had come down the coast more quickly than us but had been holed up in Barbate working on their boat for the last ten days. They had bought their boat in Vigo this summer but have had loads of problems with the engine and interiors the latest being the discovery of a deep rooted bug infestation so they are ripping out the entire interior of the boat. It is a real shame but David is very optimistic and says at least he will know his boat inside out by the time he is finished.

Monday 19th October Barbate

We got the weather report and the wind would still be easterly for this day so we decided a day at the beach was in order. We had a lot of fun, we had the beach entirely to ourselves probably because the Levanter was blowing about a force 7 across the beach and it wasn’t very warm by Spanish standards.

The sea was really breaking so Kaylee was again in her element. We were not really alone though as there was a big naval exercise going on in the bay with about three big warships and lots of helicopters and smaller boats all milling around. Every now and then the helicopters would come and ‘buzz’ the beach. They also have an annoying habit of buzzing the marina very early in the morning we had already discovered! We could see Africa across the straights from the beach as it was a clear day.

We went into town to get messages and found Barbate to be a bit run down really and we hoped the wind really would change to Westerly’s as we weren’t too keen to get stuck there. At night David and Laura his girlfriend came over for a drink and to discuss boats and sailing etc. We were trying to work out the best time to leave Barbate to catch the tide going around Tarrifa apparently the worst bit of the Gibraltar Straits and to be passed as quickly as possible. We all settled to leave at eleven in the morning.

Tues 20th October Barbate to Gibraltar

We were a bit excited as we were finally going to get to Gibraltar and therefore the Mediterranean (so now what am I going to call the blog?!) We got a new weather forecast and Ali decided it was fine, I thought the rough and very rough later didn’t look too good but at least it was all westerly. We decided to set off earlier to try and beat the forecast stronger winds coming in the afternoon. David and Laura said they were going to stay put as the visibility wasn’t going to be great and they had no radar so we bid them good bye and set off. We sailed along quite quickly at first and even decided to ref the mainsail as we were heeling a lot. The closer we got to the dreaded Tarrifa the slower we got and we realised that we had mucked up the tides yet again and should have waited an hour or so! We went at less than 1knot for about an hour or so very demoralising. It would have been better if we could even see Africa but it was murky as forecast. So even though we were much closer we couldn’t see anything.
What we could see though was the unending stream of big ships using the traffic separation scheme, it makes some noise just a constant hum of engines even though they are a few miles away.

We were wallowing around in the tide and finally decided to put the engine on as the wind had dropped away, which goes against all the advice we had gotten from other sailors who all said that the wind always increased by at least 10 knots around Tarrifa point. The main thing we had to look out for was the fast ferry that goes between Tarrifa and Tangiers in 35 minutes and he really does go. Typically there was one heading for Tarrifa harbour just as we were getting to it to and though there was no danger of collision the bow wave is huge! We had to turn the boat into it to stop from being thrown around.

The wind stayed calm for the next hour or so then as we were coming up to Gibraltar bay it got stronger and the sails went back up and the engine went off. We were sailing down wind by now and had to reef down a twice as the wind got up further (and all after I thought we had got past the bad bit!)

The guide books all say that if you are planning to go across the bay you should call up the Harbour an the VHF and ask if there are any planes coming in or out as the runway protrudes into the bay just next to one of the marina. I duly did and got very short shrift from the duty officer and told to speak to a marina instead.

The next thing was the sheer volume of (VERY LARGE & FAST) shipping moving around the bay. We had to change course several times and spot a gap in the fast ferries to take the sails down all whilst the wind was blowing about a force 6. Add this to the fact we still didn’t know where we would get a berth or if we would have to anchor it was slightly stressful. Ali called up Queensway Quay marina and we got a berth straight away so that was good and we headed towards the wave breakers.

A police boat started speeding in our direction and we thought they were just coming for a look but no they had come to tell us to get out of the way for a warship that was speeding towards the same gap in the harbour walls as we were going through. We speeded up and got out of the way! We then proceeded to the marina and were surprised by our first example of Mediterranean berthing. This would have been fine if we hadn’t had all the ropes and fenders ready for a pontoon, or if there was any room to manoeuvre, or even if the wind wasn’t still blowing quite hard. After a lot of scrambling around and fending off we were tied safely up between two much more expensive boats - phew! We got the bimini up and the gennaker down just before the torrential rain and thunder and lightning storm started we thought it was ironic that it starts to rain as soon as we are back on British soil again!

Wed 21st - Sat 24th Gibraltar

Can you spot Islay Mist???!!!

We had a good few days in Gibraltar it is a funny little place, seriously. The first morning we woke up and put on the TV GBC the Gibraltar Broadcasting company is like Radio Shetland or even SIBC with pictures. The main story of the morning was that the British Governor was leaving his post and was just about to exit the harbour on the warship that had chased us in the night before and there would be a 17 gun salute. Well there certainly was it was very loud! The bit about the whole ceremony we thought was hilarious was the warship HMS Sutherland was just taking him over to Tangiers after all the pomp and ceremony where he would fly home from, his wife having left the night before on the plane from Gibraltar. How quintessentially British is that!

The marina turned out to be very reasonably priced and there were a few friendly people in amongst the other boat owners. We went exploring the first morning and went for a ‘traditional British pub lunch’ which wasn’t up to much but at least the people sitting at the table next to us were lovely. They were a British Canadian couple and the man had been a ships captain, later becoming the master at St John’s harbour. He was full of stories and advice it was all very interesting. We wandered along the main street looking at all the shops selling tax free drink and tobacco Ali was comparing the price of a bottle of Jura in each one. The girls were walking around goggle eyed at everything and ‘I want’ became a big part of the conversation. We went off to Morrison’s supermarket to buy dinner and it was a blast from the past. There are huge displays at the ends of the isles of Heinz baked beans and ketchup or Bisto. It is so funny the only things we had really missed much apart from real tea and marmite but some of the things we saw made us think, ‘Oh yeah they’re so good’ and once again it was lucky we had to carry our shopping back or there would have been a lot more purchased. It was nice to not have to look too closely to see if you were buying shampoo or shower gel. We did notice however that the prices were fairly inflated from those in the UK. In Shetland we think that TESCOS and the COOP rip us off but it is nothing compared to the price hike Morrison’s apply to Gibraltar due to freight costs (heard that one before!) A 240 bag box of Tetley is £6! There is a whole half aisle of just tea as they get all the ex-pats in Spain coming over to buy their British goods as it is much cheaper here now that the old pound is almost worthless……..but not as worthless as a Scottish pound note in Gibraltar. We still had a couple of Scottish notes tucked away and took them out with us and had them accepted in some places and then completely refused, we Asked why and they said that it was only worth 9 pounds for each 10. We were shocked and argued but we found out that the banks in Gibraltar charge people to change Scottish notes 1% or £1 whichever is highest for ordinary people and they charge businesses even more, 10 pence in the pound! Scandalous! English notes or Gibraltar notes are OK but they don’t like Euros too much either sometimes adding a surcharge for paying with those too. Well you learn something new every day.

The next day we decided to do a serious school session and then we left to get the bus up to the WWII tunnels. Getting on the bus became a problem too, the first number 2 bus was full so we waited for the next one. We decided to cross the road and catch it in the downwards leg of the loop and buy a day ticket so we could just stay on as it came back up but it was not to be. We got the most awkward driver ever and he said we were in no uncertain terms allowed to do that so we asked if we could buy a ticket down then back up, no way so we asked how to actually get up the hill he said go back across the road and wait for the next bus, which turned out to be him again and he was too full b one place. He wasn’t going to let us on and we were just about to give up when all the passengers moved up for us and he had a change of heart. We got on got our day tickets and we were off. What a bus route, the streets are so narrow and he had to twist and turn through gaps we were sure he would crunch the traffic around him. I realised that the bus driver was actually clean crazy as when he got stuck for a minute he would start nearly crying and laughing into the mirror. We were relieved to get off that bus.

We walked up to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve which is basically just the top of the rock and you have to buy a 50 cent ticket to walk around. We paid for a guide to take us through the WWII tunnels and spent an hour wandering through them. It was an amazing feat of engineering during WWII up to 8000 people lived in the tunnels. We were shown the ladies dormitory which had to be locked every night as there were far more men than women and a metal gate was the only way of keeping them out! The girl who was our tour guide was very interesting too she is a Gibraltarian and has the funny accent that is a mix between ~Northern English with a bit of Spanish thrown in. She took us to a viewing point that overlooks the Airport runway on the other side of the rock and we watched all the traffic crossing the runway. She said that just the week before the Spanish workers had lit a huge fire at the other side of the runway in protest as they wanted more jobs on Gibraltar. She thought this was unfair as apparently a normal Gibraltarian has problems getting a job because of a work agreement deal signed with the Spanish and British Governments a few years ago. We were quite astounded as at home you never hear anything about Gibraltar and we thought it was all happy and settled with the Spanish but that is certainly not the case at all. The tunnels aren’t all open for the public to go through which is a shame as one would have taken us right back down to town. We left the tunnels by the big guns and we admired the view for a while before heading back down the hill. There are a few bits and pieces of exhibitions that you can go into on the way down the hill. We got back to the bus stop and guess who was driving? Yep that’s right Mr Crazy but he had seemed to calm down by this point so it was a little better, we came to the conclusion that driving round these narrow streets on the same small twenty minute run probably would send you insane after a while.
We got back to the main street and I found an English bookshop which I had been looking forwards too having read most of my books onboard. It was great just looking through it, the girls inevitably spotted some ’Mr Men’ books so I left with a couple of those just as if we had been in The Shetland Times bookshop at home and slightly harassed as I hadn’t been able to get a minute to look at what I wanted to. I resolved t come back later without the kids.

We had a very dodgy Chinese for tea - take note do not go to Kowloon Chinese restaurant in Gibraltar it isn’t very good and the food came as soon as the prawn crackers, never a good sign…….

When we got back to the marina we went up to the bar to use the internet and have a beer. Alisha and I went up first and immediately a little girl came up and asked her to play with her so she was happy. The next people we got talking to were off the boat across the pontoon from us. They had met in with Brian Leask and Marie in Majorca and said that they thought with Shetland being such a small place we would probably know them which is of course quite right. They turned out to be a great laugh and gave us some tips for sailing the med. They have a very big motor cruiser (I wish) with a Jacuzzi (heaven) and a washing machine onboard (now I was really jealous!) We spent a nice evening talking to them whilst the girls played with Millie the little English girl. The marina had quite a social life going on and Millie’s parents were saying we should stay until Sunday to come to the pub quiz and the girls would play again but we looked up the weather forecast and decided that Saturday was our day to leave.

On the Friday Ali went off to Sheppard’s Chandlery and bought a few things like the rearming kits for the life jackets that had been inflated away back in France during the dinghy capsizing incident. After that and the school session we decided to do all the other touristy things before we left. The first was we went to Trafalgar Cemetery which was strangely full of Red Admiral butterflies, weird.

We were going to get the cable car up to the top of the rock but there were two big cruise liners in and a two hour wait for the cable car so we took a minibus tour instead. It was quite good value as the kids were free and Ali and I paid £25 each but that included entry to the Rock and ST Michael’s cave, without all the walking between sites too.

We went to Europa point first and took photos of the pillars of Hercules which the Rock of Gibraltar and the corresponding mountain on the African side were said to be in Roman mythology.

Then it was up to St Michael’s cave which I was especially looking forward too and it didn’t disappoint. It is a huge natural grotto in side the south end of the Rock of Gibraltar full of huge stalactites and stalagmites. The cave’s first human inhabitants were in Neolithic times and there is a replica skull that was found there, all adding to the coolness of the place. It is all lit up and classical music plays in the background, very atmospheric. It has been used for concerts and functions over the last few years it certainly is a great venue.

Next was the top of the rock where the apes were. Kaylee had been dying o see them but was quite scared of them when we got there as they were jumping on people’s heads and the top of the buses. The tour guides all took batons for thumping the monkey if they got too friendly. Thankfully we didn’t have to witness any being hit.

We stopped again near the Great Siege tunnel and we left the bus here as our ticket included entry to the tunnels and the Moorish castle but the guide was going back down to the town. The Siege tunnels were great, they had cannon guns and life like models of what the people would have been doing at each point so you could really see what life was like although I would imagine it was a lot less smelly than when all the people were holed up in there between 1779 - 1783. It went over the girls heads and they just had a great time racing up and down the tunnels dipping in and out of each ‘room’ climbing on the cannons and generally causing mayhem.
The Moorish castle was the last stop on the way back down the hill, it was first built in 1333 by the moors but has always been occupied and modified by whoever had control of the rock in subsequent periods of history, now it has a huge Union Jack flying from it.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants that line the marina quay and it was fine we thought we had better try it since we were leaving the next day. We decided against going to the pub again as we didn’t want to be rough for a quick trip to the supermarket the next morning before we were to leave!

Saturday 24th Leaving Gibraltar.

We got up early got the rucksacks on and headed off to Morrison’s. I had one last look around and bought some things that we have always found to be much more expensive in Spain like toiletries etc. The girls got kiddy magazines from the stand and we got some tea and marmite. It was starting to get very hot as we humped our rucksacks back to the boat and we were glad to get back out on the water after a quick lunch. We went to fuel up at the other marina and were delighted with how cheap the fuel was 40 cents per litre if you take more than 80 litres!

Then we started the long weave through all the anchored tankers to get out of the bay, a lot easier in the clam and sunshine and no fast ferries or warships to dodge either! The sea just around the other side of the rock is entirely full of dolphins we must have seen at least 60 or 70 in the first few hour or so into the med.

There was a bit of a breeze at first and we tried to sail but the breeze died away entirely and by night time it was just motoring.


Ali had slept all afternoon and evening until it was time for tea the sunset was spectacular the sky was entirely orange as the sun set in the straits between Gibraltar and Africa. The mountains of Granada turned purple and the sky was pink the photos do not do it justice at all. It was amazing.


I went off to bed after tea and Ali had a lovely star filled watch until I got up again. Shortly after the start of my shift the fog closed in so I got the radar on but it was full of clutter as someone had been playing around with it last time it was on and hadn’t reset it. I had to get Ali up to fiddle with it I wasn’t sure if it was OK so I spent a lot of time up on deck getting soaked as it was the wettest fog I have ever been in. thankfully it cleared a couple of hours later. The next thing I had to get Ali up for is quite embarrassing but I thought I may as well put it in the blog as he is sure to tell everyone eventually anyway. I had been watching this white light coming towards us from the horizon and remembering the incident in the Channel where Ali saw a white light and finally realised he was overtaking a big container ship I thought something like this was happening. I changed course but the light still seemed to be getting closer and higher through the rest of the mist and I was reminded of our close shave in Lexios harbour so I got Ali up again for some advice. He was incredulous as he exclaimed ‘Have you got me up to dodge a star!’ So there you go folks I was actually changing course to avoid a planet. Ali laughed a lot and I made him promise not to ever tell anyone but I know is not his strong point and thought I may as well get it out in the open! Oh dear. The next few hours of my shift passed by without any more ‘incidents’ and Ali was actually pleasantly surprised to find I had raised the mainsail by the time he got up due to the wind picking up again.

Sunday 25th October Sailing to Almeria

The rest of the day passed very slowly we were sailing at first and getting on OK but the wind died after lunch and we stuck the engine on again. There seemed to be a bit of current against us too which we were surprised at so the speed died down to about 4 knots max which just wasn’t quite enough to get us into Almeria in the daylight. We were treated to another stunning sunset then we still had the bay of Almeria to motor across.

The harbour was fine to get into even though our pilot book didn’t have a diagram, a little annoying and we were directed to a berth just inside the breakwater. There was a slight disagreement between the crew of whether we should berth stern or bows in, I won eventually and we berthed stern to. We got all paid up and papers checked up at the office then Ali settled down for his customary beer, I decided to refrain as I was having an alcohol free week feeling that I needed to after the last few weeks over indulgence!

I posted this in Cartegena where we now are but it has been painful the wifi crashed yesterday and has been very slow today. We are hoping to sail further tomorrow as some more westerly wind is forecast we are not sure where to as yet, better get the almanac out!