We have now reached Gibraltar the gateway to the Mediterranean,
since arriving we have seen more clouds in the past three days than we did the
whole time we were in the Algarve, but I suppose the weather had to change at
some time, though it is still quite warm.
Our last few days in Vialmoura with Madeline, Steve Sophie and
Harry was packed full of fun, Steve treated the Kids (Kevin included) to a go
on a Jet Ski, as usual Kevin got the duff one and therefore was unable to give
it some real welly, as they came back in they all appeared to be smiling and
all thought it was great fun, although Sophie said she had a few dubious
moments.
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| Sophie and her old uncle |
Another day we sailed round to the beach we had gone to on
our first day together, we started off by having a dingy race, boys versus
girls, the person rowing was blindfolded ( goggle's had tissue paper in) and had to be guided by the other
member of their team. The boy’s team was Harry rowing with Steve giving instruction,
the girls team was Sophie rowing with Madeline giving instructions, the girls
won by two minutes.
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| The boy's team - Stephen & Harry |
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| The girl's team - Madeline & Sophie |
It was then off to the beach, Steve, Sophie and Harry swam
to shore, whilst Kevin rowed to shore with Madeline and myself, I sat at the
front and Madeline was at the back with strict instructions to keep the bags
dry. As we approached the shore the waves started to get bigger, Steve started
to wade out to help us in. As I looked back at Madeline, I saw this huge wave about
to break right behind us, the next minute we were hurtling towards shore
completely drenched, but Madeline managed to keep the bags dry.
That night Steve treated us all to dinner as it was Madeline’s
birthday on the day they flew back.
Our final day with them all was spent lazing around the Pool
at Steve and Madeline’s hotel, it made a nice change from swimming in the sea,
and at one point we nearly cleared the pool as our game of ball became a bit boisterous.
At night we said our goodbyes and a few
tears shed all round, both Kevin and I so enjoyed our time with them all, and
have certainly missed their crewing skills.
The following day we headed off to the Spanish Boarder and
Ayamonte, which is a village of Greek origin, the Marina was lovely and quiet,
a big change from Vilamoura, and the small town with its cobbled narrow streets
was bustling, we really liked the place. On our way into Ayamonte we were
stopped by the Portuguese police, the first time this had happened to us as we
had been informed it was a usual occurrence when sailing around Portugal, all
they wanted to see were ships papers and passports. We had intended to sail up
the river but we couldn’t find any charts indicating the depths and as we were
aware the river contained some sandbanks that we could get stuck on we decided
not to take the risk.
We then moved on to Chipiona, the pilot book said it was a well-run
marina, backed by a pleasant holiday town, both of us would beg to differ and
were quite happy to move on to our next destination in Cadiz.
Cadiz is an ancient city and has links with the Phoenicians,
Romans and the Moors, it has long been a major port and until recently yachts
could not be accommodated but this has all changed now. The marina is set amongst
the giant docks and isn’t particularly nice, the walk from the marina into the
old town is desolate and uninspiring. The
city itself is vast and could not be covered in a single day, so we took a walk
along the sea front into the town where we saw some really beautiful and
unusual old trees.
The Cities Cathedral looks very Moorish and very big, unfortunately
we decided not to go and have a look, on hindsight I now wished we had.
From Cadiz it was on to Barbate, we only stayed here one night
before heading of for Gibraltar nick named “The Rock”, at one point on the
voyage to “The Rock” we thought we could see some islands off to our starboard
side, but it was actually North Africa we could see, at one point we were only
eight miles away from the African coast.
The mooring in the marina is stern too with what’s called a
lazy line at the bow, this was the first time we had attempted this type of
mooring in our boat which we managed without difficulty, (we did have some assistance
from one of the marina staff). Our mooring in Gibraltar is right next to the
runway so we get to see all the planes land and take off at close range, one of
which included a Hercules. Apparently the Easyjet is not allowed to moor
though.
Whilst in Gibraltar we have done the touristy trip and
walked to the top of the rock, although it was cloudy it was very hot and
humid. First we visited St Michaels cave, which was full of stalagmites and stalactite’s
it was truly magnificent, and apparently they now hold concerts in the largest of
the caverns.
It was then off to see the Barbary monkeys, which varied in
sizes, there were quite a few mothers walking around with their babies clinging
on. There are numerous notices telling you not to touch or feed them, but we
saw lots of people ignoring this request, and we had no intention of sharing
our chocolate bar with them.
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| Caption competition - who can send us the funniest |
Tomorrow we head off around Europa Point into the Mediterranean,
so in preparation we took a trip to Morrison’s, where we have stocked up on
several of the items we can’t get anywhere in Spain, and Kevin has treated
himself to a few cans of one his favourite bitters whilst for me it was a big
bar of Cadbury’s chocolate.
Total distance to date: 1945 Nm (2238m)
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