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10th September
Ian is still worried about the engine leak and the rattling that has developed and at last he has sounding boards to bounce ideas from. We all agree that the best way forward is to make our way to Gibraltar, where Ian has made contact with an engineer who will look over the engine as soon as we arrive, without stops if possible. On the way, if the weather is suitable, we will try the spinnaker(s) and possibly the twizzle rig, which Hallahalla can’t wait to put his hands on. He is really excited about this.
The wind for once is favourable and not on the nose and we had a lovely day sailing until the wind dropped and we had to put the motor on in the early evening. With now with the engine rattling, and some help and advice from the 2 Richards, the boys go through all that could be wrong with the engine and settled on the possibility of the rattling having something to do with the propeller rather than the engine. To put the theory to the test, we anchor in a small bay at sundown with the intention of sending Ian overboard to have a look at first light (Enseda de la Fuente).
11th September
Ian’s first job after breakfast is to dive down to check the propeller, see if he can find a reason for the rattling. Off he went armed only with a tough brush. He went down a few times and cleaned as much of the prop as he could. Hopefully this will be the end of the rattling
We set off once again aiming for Gibraltar. The wind is again in the right direction and we even managed to sail the asymmetric spinnaker for 2 hour in the afternoon with was lovely. We also got used to relying on Emiliano, our wind steering system, it does take a while to make the best of it only using the balance of the sail. It worked beautifully with just the Genoa up. The autopilot has been christened too, he is Bob.
The wind is steady and it is nice sailing, it also last for the whole next 24h without the drop we have been experiencing at night. We had some dolphins cavorting around us, early morning and late afternoon and we saw some pilot whales too, or we think they were.
The night watches are much more fun with some company, had a brilliant time chatting and sharing jokes. The highlight was to have dolphins following us for a while and jumping in the moonlight. First time we saw them at night.
12th September
The waves have gone bigger still, and we are in the typical med situation where they are not coming from the direction of the wind. It is a bit all over the place. Another nice day sail with loads of chatting and discussions about the boat and what will need doing whilst we are in the canaries. The clouds have gathered on the horizon but we escape the drenching, the menacing clouds just evaporate as soon as we have put on our wet weather gear. The first watch at night is fairly calm apart from a few lights, obviously boats far away which we discuss for hours to pass the time.
!3th September
I was woken up to great noise on deck. It would seem that the wind strengthened and at come forward, so once again we are beating into the wind, and the working Genoa had to be put up, too much wind for the roller furler. The waves are now breaking on the bow and the boys are just sopping wet…still the first thing I saw when I put my head at the hatch is 2 beaming wet Richards….they are obviously having a ball! Just like the good old days on Moonshadow.
Meanwhile, down below we have water lapping at the floorboards, not sure where this comes from, although we suspect that it is the sink in the staff accommodation. So the next hour is spent clearing the water from the bilge… add this to the list of things to investigate and repair.
The wind is still strengthening and we are not making headway. A look at the electronic chart shows that in 6 hours of beating and tacking trying to get somewhere, we only covered 4 miles… ridiculous….we could have been tucked up in Marbella dancing the night away!
A tired Ian can only take the joke so far. We are still making no progress over the ground and the places to stop are now getting scarce. The weather forecast predicts more wind, up to force 8, in the same direction, i.e on the nose, so it won’t be so much fun. Ian decides to put up at Fuengirola.
We are there by lunch time and after sorting the boat out we get to the showers, which was lovely after the night we had. Snoozettes on deck and then a bit of a walk around town for us. Not much to see really, a typical holiday resort with loads of high rises and a big beach under the rain.loads of shops restaurants and bars. It is a bit bizarre after not having heard so many English accents to be able to follow every conversation around us. We did find a local bar and has some tapas, which was nice.
14 September
Next day we set off quite early, if the wind plays ball we should only have a day sail to Gibraltar. Of course the wind does not play nice and we end up having waves and wind against up. We tried to cheat it by staying close to the coast but we had to bite the bullet and set off across the bay directly toward the Rock that we can see quite clearly now, along with the coast of Africa.
So on we went, the wind got better soon enough and we were able to sail, although we had to keep the engine on as the waves where stopping us dead in our track and we were not making the progress we had to. Richie had to catch a plane early in the morning we had to make Gibraltar tonight. And we did, we approached the rock at sunset, all around us were huge tankers and other vessels at anchor, never seen so many in one place and definitely never saw them so close up. Between this and the dolphins swimming around, this made for a memorable arrival to Gibraltar.
Night soon fell and we had to navigate the entrance to one of the busiest port in the western world in the darkness. A lot of huge boats were at anchor but some weren’t and it was an exciting entrance, complete with pilots and their big light zooming around the place. As for the tanker emerging from a wall with us realising quite late that it was moving , that was exciting too.
We finally made it around midnight to the Ocean Marina, right by the airstrip where we moored up next to a super yacht. Ian had to do the customs declaration there and then whilst we cleared up the boat. The temperature had dropped dramatically and we all opted for hot chocolate with Cointreau to warm us up before we went to bed.
!5th September
Richie took off in the early morning by foot to the airport which we could see from the deck. They were actually cleaning the runway when we got up. Ian had arranged for the mechanic to meet us at the other marina Queensway quay, nearer the town and probably quieter being far from the airport. So we set off early morning. Glad we did, the marina is far better looking there and less commercial. All the chain of restaurant you can find in the UK are all around the Ocean Marina, complete with a floating casino…not quite our scene. Queensway is far more low key and much more agreeable. Especially if we have to have the engine out and stay for up to 2 weeks there.
Hallahalla’s plane is in the evening so we have all day to explore Gibraltar, although Kevin rung and wanted to see the engine straight away so we made our way back to the marina and had lunch while Ian conducted business. He came back with a big smile, it did not sound like they were going to have to lift the engine out and the leaks would soon be fixed. Monday morning first thing things would be in train.
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