A Forced Stay in Gibraltar

The Fates reared their ugly side in Gib! While helping to ship our dinghy on the foredeck, the Admiral pulled a muscle in her lower back. This on top of the knee recuperation was enough to knock her out of action for ten days or so. We were anchored in La Linea bay when it happened, and so the next day we docked in the nearby marina Alcaidesa so that Nancy could hobble off onto the dock and at least have a short walk. . Here's a pic of the anchorage:

And here's JFK driving the dinghy back from La Linea (with the marina entrance over his right shoulder)....

.....after visiting the local market for all kinds of goodies.

To go with Spanish Rioja wine you need a good selection of olives:

Buying fish and then ....

....having a latte with fresh crispy roll and pate.

In the marina we had the Rock astern, backing up our Stars and Stripes.

After six days in Alcaidesa we moved into Gibraltar proper, berthing at the Queensway marina, which was a pretty place, even at night. In the above pic the big powerboat is hiding the hull of the 135ft sailboat with the illuminated mast - I guess about 160 feet high.

Of course Nancy's back and knee did not stop her from visiting the shops in Main Street, Gib.

And so after spending 17 days in Gib, Nancy was finally fit enough to contemplate entering the Med.
And that is exactly what we are doing in this pic: as we round Europa Point on the Southern tip of Gibraltar, we are officially in the Mediterranean Sea.....

...and so we end this post with one more Atlantic sunset, and send our love and best wishes to all.

Nancy and John

Well Beaten Path.....

......but new stops along the way.  At the border river Rio Guadiana dividing Algarve, Portugal and Andalusia, Spain we went for the first time into the town on the Spanish side, Ayamonte. What a pleasant surprise!  Excellent marina, and a charming small town bedecked with palm tree squares....

...like this one, with its ornamental pagoda in its centre.

Admiral Nancy was quite upset to discover the lack of shearing scissors on the boat! Quite why they had been packed and shipped back to the States is a mystery beyond the comprehension of this scribe. So off we went on a mission to find hair-dresser scissors. What did we do, as we could not possibly explain in our non-existent Spanish? We went into a barber's shop, pointed at the scissors and got out some Euros: The young barber understood instantly, but had no scissors for sale: instead he directed us to the beauty shop around three corners and voila! Here is a happy Nancy flourishing the new weapon she will use on the skipper's mangy locks.

Arriving late into an anchorage - which Nancy claims is all too often - the routine once anchored securely is to have a cocktail and then a fast food dinner out of cans: this was the same old story played out in the Rio Guadalquiver, which leads ships all the way up to Seville. Here is bowtie pasta with Spanish canned mini hotdogs and a can of excellent French ratatouille, garnished with some black olives, sliced green beans, and a pot of sprinkling cheese for Nancy.

And another surprise awaited us: the Moorish town of Rota, in the Northern end of the Bay of Cadiz, was simple, clean and a glimpse into the past. Tight little streets and alleys, with a kempt and charm that even had push bikes instead of Vespas. And no, that is not John on the bike.

Local fresh fish in the refrigerated display: we had the "shark" second from left and it was grilled perfectly.

And after ordering glasses of semi-sweet digestif oloroso Sherry - it was Sunday lunch! - John was keen to tell everything yet nothing about it.

Nancy was intent on showing you this pic: our dinghy newly converted into an amphibious vehicle!  look closely and you will see the grey wheels John has just installed astern, which, when the motor is lifted up in its out of the water position, makes it relatively easy to drag the dinghy up a beach. And when in the water, the wheels lift up and lock. Crafty, eh?

So - finally we hear you cry - a pic of us sailing: downwind on jib alone, through the straits of Gibraltar. Look far left and you can see the Rock beginning to appear, and in the haze on the far right is just visible Africa - the mountains of Morocco....

...which are adorned with the ubiquitous windmills, seen behind this westbound ship.

Here is a closer look at the Atlas mountain that is due South of Gibraltar. The Atlas Range goes some 1,500 miles across North Africa, with the highest peak being Toubkal, at 13,600 feet, in Morocco.

And so in the evening sun we arrive in Gibraltar: This was after a long hop of some 86 nautical miles from Rota. The original plan was to sail just 50 nm to Barbate. But as we rounded Cape Trafalgar (Rule Britannia!) we were having a good sail.  Admiral Nancy was asleep, and so after some quick mental arithmetic the skipper sailed past Barbate, and onwards some 32nm to Gibraltar.
Luckily for him we arrived at 21.18 - twelve minutes before his forecast of 21.30 and still in broad daylight. Which was just as well as no less than six ships decided to leave as we sailed the 6nm into the top of the bay and dropped the anchor exactly where we had picked it up last July.





The anchorage in the Rio Gualdalquiver could have been in the Chesapeake Bay: and so we leave you with our love and best wishes,

John and Nancy
S/V Adventuress
Gibraltar

Sailing is Fun....

...when a new season starts and everything still works! At the risk of jinxing Adventuress, we are happily surprised to report that, after spending ten months at Nave-Pegos yard in Faro, Portugal, the boat is ship shape. We launched on Friday, and here we are on Tuesday, at anchor in Culatra, and ready to go sailing.


So here's a few pics of the re-commissioning:

Note the framed stands and strap downs on the concrete hard standing, which when we first saw them immediately sold us on the Nave-Pegos yard. Also prominent are our three solar panels above the cockpit. One of "Bruce's" men is just finishing up cleaning and polishing the sides, now gleaming, and a couple of hours later we were splashed.

Usually we would stay on the boat for a few days before launch: but with Nancy's new knee it would have been difficult for her to climb up a ladder twelve feet to the boat. So instead we rented an apartment in Faro, which had this view over the town and the Ria Formosa natural estuarine habitat.

Last year we discovered the small fishing village at Culatra: this time around we were not yet provisioned in the galley, so that was an excellent excuse .......

.....to indulge in the local sea harvest.  Here we have a plateful of squid and chips, and believe me those squid are just as tasty as they are ugly! But wait! There's more......

.......next day we tried a Portuguese fish stew, and this is towards the bottom of the feast: hence the already empty wine glass.

Some folks just don't know when to quit: here's Nancy having a fancy dessert, a truffito", with a glass of Liquor Beirao over ice, and an espresso. OK, well, the photo was staged a bit: the glass and espresso belong to John.

And what would our first blog posting of the year be without a pic of the dinghy skipper and Adventuress astern? Note that this was just two days after launch and the decks are clear, the sails are up, the dodger and bimini installed and about twenty checks and tasks completed below decks.

And so we start our 2019 adventure afloat, and we are truly blessed.

Love and very best wishes,
John and Nancy