We made it to Spain/Gibraltar!

Wow, Sunflower has finally made it to Europe! Not only another country but another continent!

Sunflower anchored in Spain, looking at Gibraltar

We left Morocco on the morning of Friday 13^th, a bit later than planned as all the formalities and dog sniffing took longer than planned but it was so good to be at sea again. The last couple of weeks in Rabat had been very hot (35-38 degrees) no wind in the marina and lots of mossies, so to be in a gentle breeze with nothing buzzing and clear blue seas rather than the chocolate coloured river water in the marina was lovely. We had no wind so we were motoring but the seas were flat and all was well. We knew we would have to motor most, if not all of the way as the only way to get north at this time of year is to wait for the prevailing northerly winds to die down. We had a brief 36 hour window before they piped up again so we took it.

The trip was uneventful until much later that night. I had just come off watch and laid down at about 3.30 am We were only about 6 miles off shore so there had been lots of fishing boats around. We had the radar on and were closely monitoring their activity. I had just closed my eyes when there was a horrible noise, Sunflower lurched to a halt and started rolling horribly. I scrambled up to see what had happened only to discover we had snagged a long fishing net which had acted as an emergency brake. Alan was struggling to get the main sail down ( we had had it up for a bit of stability) but as the boat swung away from the wind it became harder to do, so we abandoned it at half mast. I rummaged around for our big spotlight and we saw the long net tethered from one buoy to another about 300 meters apart. Sunflower was caught like a fly in a web. We weren't sure if our propeller was snagged or just the rudder. As we were surveying our dilemma a fishing boat came lumbering over with their spotlight, they offered a line to try and tow us off, we had one attempt but as we didn't know what was caught we decided we could break something if we just tried brute force.

Alan waved flippers at them and told them we would dive and see what was going on. At that point they retreated and let us get on with it. The water temp was 17 degrees so I fished out Alan's wetsuit, he gathered his new knife and underwater torch (without which the whole thing would have been impossible) It took a while to get everything organised and finally Alan was ready. We now had the wind on our stern so the swim platform at the back of the boat was slamming up and down into the water, the boat was also lurching from side to side quite badly. Alan tied a safety rope around himself and prepared to enter the cold dark water. I was really worried he was going to get hit on the head by the lurching boat so I sat on the back keeping an eye on him. Initially the net was just caught on our rudder so it could have been cut away quite easily, but Alan thought we might be able to get off without damaging the net. We tried a quick engine burst forward and astern but all that did was get the net tangled in the propeller! Our problem was now worse than before. Alan persevered and finally managed to cut us free at about 6 am just as dawn was breaking. The fishing boat had lost interest and gone away by this time, which was probably just as well as they may not have been too happy about the damage to their expensive net!

If Alan hadn't been prepared to dive under the boat or even if he hadn't bought the underwater torch I am not sure what would have happened. We may still have been stuck there! What a hero!

We carried on up the coast of Morocco but at least it was daylight again so we could see the floats and nets. Then it was time to turn sharp right into the Straits of Gibraltar. This is one of the busiest and most notorious shipping lanes in the world. It is where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean and these 2 huge bodies of water meet in a narrow strip only 8 miles across. The tides here are very strong and the wind also funnels down between the land mass of Spain and North Africa. The trick is to catch the tide carrying water into the Med while also not too much wind funnels out. Great if you can manage it, not so good if you can't! Our fishing tangle had put us about 3 hours behind schedule so we were worried we had missed the tide. The weather forecast had predicted light winds through the Straits but as we turned the corner we found 20-30 knots on the nose! The waves were also big, so we were slamming into big seas with the wind keeping our speed down to 2-3 knots at times (we can normally motor at about 6-7 knots) Huge waves were breaking over the boat and occasionally we would hit a rogue wave which sent shudders through us and Sunflower. The Straits also operate a 'traffic separation scheme' which is sort of like a dual carriage way. East bound vessels must keep to the African side while west bound vessels keep to the Spanish side. We had cargo and cruise ships overtaking us on both sides while high speed jet ferries travelling from Spain to Morocco cut across the shipping lanes at right angles. However apart from the discomfort we had no problems with other ships. Finally it was time to turn left and head for Gibraltar . We thought we would have a good sail as the wind would be on our beam but as soon as we turned the wind died off. Typical!

We cruised past the 'Rock' which I have to say was not a particularly attractive sight as it is covered in high density apartments and hotels of the square box type. Then we passed this little bit of Britain into Spanish waters and anchored in La Linea bay with a lovely view of the Rock. There is a big breakwater protecting the bay from the rest of the harbour and a new marina as well as an older Club Nautico for all the local and fishing boats.

It was about 7 pm on Saturday night by the time the anchor was set so then it was time for a celebratory sundowner and light supper before an early night. It was so good to be on anchor, swinging to the wind, gently rocking from side to side and all free!

On Sunday we just lazed around feeling a bit jet lagged. When we had arrived we had been the only boat on anchor but we awoke to discover 2 new neighbours, a Norwegian and British boat were keeping us company. On Monday we thought we had better 'check in' so we got into the dinghy for the first time in nearly a year and headed to the new marina. It is a massive place and very sparsely populated. The marina staff were very pleasant and told us they had no facilities for dinghy docking,(we had tied to a ladder) but would let us stay there while we tried to find officials to do our paperwork. They suggested the best chance was to head for the Gibraltar border. So off we headed and walked to Gibraltar. 

We went to the Civil Guard office and explained we had just arrived by boat from Morocco. Much discussion ensued and finally they told us just to go to immigration not to bother with the boat. At the border the immigration man wasn't interested in stamping or even looking at passports and waved us through and before we knew it we were standing on Gibraltar! Not quite what we had planned, but seeing as we were there we decided to look around.

We jumped on a Hopper bus and rode into the old city. Gib is a very schizophrenic place. It looks like an old Spanish town but it has English bobbies, and telephone boxes. Marks and Spencers, British Home Stores and lots of British high street chain shops. There are English style pubs serving fish and chips along side Tapas bars. Gib has no VAT, so although it’s not technically duty free, prices on some things are cheaper than Spain where Vat is 18%. We had lunch and then popped into a huge Morrisons supermarket (a British chain which took over from Safeways) we purchased essentials such as bacon, pork chops, cheddar cheese, fluffy bread and bakewell tarts before beginning the long walk home. It was very weird essentially being in England in terms of what you could buy, and if we hadn't just spent nearly 3 months there it would probably have been a much more novel experience.

We returned to the boat without technically having entered either country. Today we are resting again after our big day out yesterday. We have to crank up the watermaker now and have a few other chores to do. Next trip ashore we will investigate La Linea and the Spanish area.

For now we are enjoying the freedom of being back on anchor and relishing the achievement of having got to Europe, I still don't quite believe we have made it!