Adventuress Sailing: To the Rock and Back

The spice of life may be variety, but the adventure of life is not to know quite what will happen next. What we definitely did know (at least the skipper did) was that a July cruise in the Algarve would be a splendid sojourn full of sun and happy Portuguese culture. And so it was. We stopped along the way in Baleeira, then Portimao. Onward East we went to Culatra Island, outside of Faro and Olhao, a superb anchorage that was aptly described by our English friend James, on yacht "Hepzibar", as "Chichester Harbour on steroids!"

To get to Morocco was our primary purpose, to avoid a significant EU tax duty on the boat: so we pressed on to the Rio Guadiana and over the border back into Spain. We made five day hops down the Andalucian coast: and after a trying motor-sail against strong winds and chop around Cape Trafalgar, there was the Rock!

JFK in La Linea, Spain, with the Gib-Spain customs buildings over his right shoulder: this was the first time he had ever walked across an international border. And of course that is the steep NE face of the Rock just a mile away.

At anchor in Linea Bay we were greeted by a fun cruising family The Sheppards on "Arctic Fern": here's Caroline with the two girls Olivia and Jessica......

......who promptly made for Nancy two very special birthday cards to help celebrate her birthday the next day!

Howard and Caroline stopping by to see if they could get anything for us from the grocery store. This typical kindness makes them the sort of folks that you cannot help wanting to befriend!

We were keen to get our Morocco trip out of the way: but then...... the day after Nancy's birthday a reply arrived on July 20th from the French Customs. Sacre Bleu! They confirmed that Gibraltar counts for them as leaving the EU, and so we did not need to go to Morocco! So that Friday evening Admiral Nancy was celebrating again: all we needed to do was weigh anchor ( we were anchored in Spanish waters), drive the boat a mile to the fuel dock in Gibraltar, fill up the tank with bargain priced diesel to prove the boat had left the EU, and voila! We were off the hook again for another 18 months of cruising in Europe under a valid "Temporary Importation of Vessel" licence.

And so the next morning found Adventuress filling up with diesel at the Gibraltar "Gasoil" dock: 440 litres (about 115 gallons) at just 54 Brit Pennies a litre!

Then a really big surprise happened: we picked up email and discovered that we had an offer on our place in Marco Island! There were many strong hopes and even fervent prayers for this to happen, but realistically we figured we had only a slim chance of selling in the summer "off season" months.

After 24 hours' negotiation, we had a deal, with a Closing (Completion) date of August 28. Oh boy, we had some fast decisions now to make. We quickly formed an outline plan. Back to Faro Portugal we would sail, where we had already found a boat yard to leave Adventuress for the winter. Then fly to London Aug 3 and see Dad: then London to Miami arriving Aug 7. That would give us 3 weeks to pack up our home and tee up the Closing.

Time to execute, without delay. Thankfully the weather was favorable and we set sail.

Admiral Nancy under a triple reefed Mainsail and the Staysail: Adventuress romped along at 7 1/2 knots in 25 knots of breeze over a fairly calm sea. In spite of another birthday arriving, the triple grin is from
1. No Morocco!
2. Our home in Marco Island now under Contract! We can move from apartment to a house!
3. Having a wonderful sail!

So we had 11 days to sail back to Faro, prep the boat for the winter, and catch a plane to London. Should be plenty of time......and so off we sailed back through the Straits of Gibraltar, and three days later we anchored in Faro. Now it is Sunday July 29, and we have 90% of the work done ready to haul the boat on Wednesday afternoon. So today being Sunday we are resting: took a walk through Culatra.....