Going from Motril to Gibraltar so filled up with fresh water and headed off over the night, 15 hours and 100 nautical miles, and we motored all the way into the wind. It was very, very cold at night. I didn’t have much warm clothing as I prepped mainly for a very hot summer in Turkey and Greece. I put as many layers as I could possibly fit on and then wrapped a blanket around me also. The cockpit at night seemed to get quite wet even without rain. It seems that surfaces warmed up in the cockpit during the day, but at night they condense and evaporated night, causing everything to get damp and cool down. Didn’t even have foul weather gear as I was going to bring it to the Canarys for the main Atlantic trip after I returned home.
We got hailed on channel 16 by the Spanish Coast Guard requesting us to lookout for a burning boat. We think it was a huge container ship we saw at night all it up in orange lights and not on fire.
About 0600, Karin woke me up from cockpit floor as we approached Gibraltar and right above me in the night sky was a line of Starlink satellites from Elon Musk. Very cool, all stretching out just after launch.
Just as we got below Europa on Gibraltar, two dolphins join us and then disappeared as we rounded the corner into Gibraltar harbor at the end of the Mediterranean. It was as if they were escorting us in and making sure we exited the Mediterranean safely. It was kind of cool to see, very touching.
Queensway Marina was such a nice place with helpful people and good drinking water. Washed the boat down and then explored Main Street looking for warm weather clothing: fleeces, pants and sweatshirts. Lots of great pubs and nice shops. A real english vibe.
I felt very comfortable, and it felt like home there. We arrived a few days before ‘National Day’ and there was a lot of flags and bunting on display, which made Gibraltar even nicer. Unfortunately, it was also the day just after the Queen of England passed away. That put a bit of a downer on their celebrations.
Provisioned at Morrisons grocery store and got some great English Grub, even a few small jars of Vegemite!
DESTINATION: Gibraltar!
In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It became an important base for the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars and World War II, as it controlled the narrow entrance and exit to the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, which is only 14.3 km (8.9 mi) wide. This choke point remains strategically important, with half the world’s seaborne trade passing through it.
On 31 January 2020, the UK and Gibraltar left the European Union. In December 2020, the UK and Spain agreed in principle to a basis on which the UK and the EU might negotiate terms for Gibraltar to participate in aspects of the Schengen Agreement to facilitate border movements.
