With low lying cloud shrouding the Spanish coastline and the Rock of Gibraltar, we made our way towards the Gibraltar Strait and the Vessel Traffic Separation zone. Spotting dolphins coming to play in Paw Paw’s bows was a lovely start to the day and helped put our minds at ease.
By 1000 we’d crossed the westbound lane and had almost crossed the eastbound lane. Thankfully there wasn’t too much traffic to contend with, with the exception of two cargo ships that had forced us to turn to starboard before passing them astern.
With only two and a half nautical miles to go before reaching the northern Moroccan coast and keeping a sharp lookout for orcas, sighted in the area as recently as yesterday, a loud thump scared the life out of us, only to discover it was one of the emergency water jerry cans that had toppled over.
By 1030, in 20 Kts of wind and rather disturbed seas, both behind us though, since we’d turned west, we unfurled the genoa, deployed the pinger and trundled along the coast. We’d barely settled into a groove, however, when a cargo ship decided to cut across our bow, forcing us to haul in the pinger and stop until it had passed.
By 1130 the wind had dropped slightly, but the sea state calmed completely; it was as if we’d crossed some imaginary line. We came to realise that these were the calm patches between the overfalls. Within ten minutes the winds were howling again at 26-30 Kts and we were scooting along the rather mountainous Moroccan coastline at a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 8-9.8 Kts. We were, however, back in our winter woolies, given the wind speed and chill factor.
By 1230 we were leaving Tangier to port and approaching Cape Spartel. This was our cue to roll up the headsail and weather the conditions around the cape.
By 1400 we’d passed Cape Spartel, picking up winds of 30-35 Kts as expected and, by 1430, we’d turned to port, set a course for the Canary Islands, turned off the engines, which were only on to follow the guidelines to transit orca alley and enjoyed a sail at 8.5 Kts.
By 1500 we were well south of Cape Spartel and out of orca alley altogether, at which time we both sighed with relief, hauled in the pinger and continued in fairly high seas of 3-4 metres, with sustained winds of 25-30Kts.
By dinner time, conditions had started to calm down and, by the time Elaine came on watch at 2200, a beautiful full moon was shining brightly, the winds had lightened significantly and the seas had flattened, making for a lovely peaceful sail. Sadly this didn’t last and by 2330, Elaine had to start the starboard engine to keep our SOG at a minimum of 5 Kts. Surprisingly, though, there were numerous cargo ships passing either side of us, something Roy had to contend with too during his earlier watch, but thankfully neither of us encountered fishing boats or nets.
