Although we had wind speeds of 15-20 Kts overnight and around 15 Kts for most of the morning, we still had a horrible countercurrent of 1.5 Kts against us, which meant we had to continue to motor-sail on one engine at a low RPM to keep our speed up. However, by 1500, the countercurrent had subsided, the winds had picked up again to 15-20 Kts and we were sailing again at last!
Besides Elaine not sleeping too well on both her off shifts last night and Roy almost suffocating himself, after putting his pillow over his head to drown out the noise on his second off shift, we both managed to catch up on our sleep during daylight hours.
Additionally, Roy mopped up water in our starboard bilge, having no idea where it came from and we both finished reading our books.
We’ve certainly had a few unusual occurrences on this passage, though. In particular, we’ve never heard a MRCC (Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre) calling yachts to lookout for migrant boats. Today we could hear Arreciffe Radio on Lanzarote Island and Las Palmas MRCC on Gran Canaria Island calling various yachts, which was a little disconcerting, as we really didn’t want to encounter anything like this, especially at night and run the risk of colliding with one of these boats.
Additionally, we’ve heard numerous warships too; American, British, Spanish and Moroccan. In particular, one occurrence was a securité broadcast on the VHF radio from an American warship requesting traffic to remain 15NM away from a stated location, since live ammunition was being used in an exercise; really! Furthermore, the British warship was informing a vessel to cease operations and leave British waters immediately. For all we know, World War III could have erupted and we’d be none the wiser!
During Roy’s first watch of the night tonight, he had to wake Elaine to jibe, which set our final course for Graciosa Island, located just north of Lanzarote Island. He also had to restart one of the engines because the countercurrent had raised its ugly head again and the winds had dropped to below 15 Kts.
By the time Elaine came on watch, with the moon rising much later, it was a very dark night initially, but, by 2300, a waning gibbous was lighting our way as we soldiered on with less than 80NM to go.
Roy came back on watch around 0700, following which Elaine clearly needed a few extra hours of sleep, given that she only woke up at 1100, rather startled after thinking she’d fallen back to sleep instead of doing her watch.
Some fruit, a cup of tea and a few biscuits settled us into another day at sea before Roy checked the oil levels on both engines and saildrives. Weather he’d downloaded while Elaine enjoyed her beauty sleep, indicated that the winds would pick up later this evening. Fortunately, though, by noon they arrived, although not enough to switch off both engines, but we were happy to be motor-sailing on one engine, at least.
A surprise of this passage, though, has been the constant stream of cargo ships along this coast; it’s been endless, with numerous ships crossing our bow or passing port to port within a nautical mile of us and that after forcing us to alter course on more than one occasion.
The incessant inappropriate babble on the VHF radio has also continued; swearing, singing, burping, playing music, reciting the Quran, shouting out various derogatory phrases etc, an occurrence we’ve only ever experienced in this part of the world and can only conclude that there are some very immature individuals around here.
Before Roy’s first watch of the night after he’d enjoyed an afternoon nap and before Elaine’s bedtime, we phoned Elaine’s mom to sing Happy Birthday to her, much to her surprise and delight. Our timing was perfect since the rest of the family were participating on the Zoom Family Get-Together to mark the occasion, something we knew we’d miss, unfortunately, being on passage.
A very Happy Birthday to her and we wish her a fabulous day!
Under a waning gibbous we continue south, having passed the halfway mark around noon today.
Aside from numerous cargo ships for company, there wasn’t much else to entertain us and, after an hour into Elaine’s second watch, she was definitely wondering what she was going to do to occupy her mind; she’d checked the chartplotter and the radar at regular intervals, she’d filled in the Deck Log for the hour, she had posted our blog and answered a few emails; replies to messages sent earlier, in addition to enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Other than continuing to stare out the window, there was precious little else to do and she still had two hours to go! Writing this part of the blog, however, helped pass a few minutes before she pick up her book, one she hadn’t read in months. Fortunately she still remembered the storyline and didn’t have to backtrack. Roy had the same challenge on his watch, but had to start reading his book from the beginning again.
Once Roy woke from his slumber at around 0700, we had breakfast, following which Elaine trundled off to bed, woken only by a fly at around 1000. Resigned to getting up, she served some fruit and a cup of tea for both of us before it was Roy’s turn to trundled off to bed, since he was still short of a few hours of sleep, but not before he re-lashed the dinghy and put out a slither of the headsail, in the hope of adding something to our SOG (Speed Over Ground) in hardly a breath of wind. For some weird and wonderful reason we had a nasty current against us, which was contrary to the general current flow in the area, but we soldiered on regardless at 5.5 Kts; a far cry from yesterday’s speeds. Thankfully, though, it was much warmer than yesterday without the icy wind blowing; can’t have it all!
After downloading the weather, we knew we’d be in for a slow day until the slightly stronger forecast winds kicked in later. This was something we’d expected anyway when doing our passage planning. The trick was to get out of Gibraltar before the next band of unfavourable weather conditions arrived, which risked pinning us down for another week. Instead, we decided to accept the strong wind conditions getting through the strait and around Cape Spartel yesterday in order to progress on an improving weather window. It was the residual sea state associated with Storm Agnes that had prevented us from leaving sooner. We had to pick our poison again; calm winds and high seas or strong winds and moderate seas. We picked the latter.
After a lazy day of lounging around the saloon, reading and trying to take a nap, the latter pointless, since we’d both caught up on our sleep, Roy noticed a strange, but beautiful sparkle on the water to our port side. It didn’t last long, but neither of us had seen anything like it before and have no idea what it was.
Before we knew it, though, it was dinner time and time to start our night watches again. With that, Elaine trundled off to bed again, leaving Roy on watch until 2200. Other than one cargo ship that didn’t give an inch, forcing Elaine to change course until we’d passed port to port, her watch was uneventful too, thankfully, bringing our long day of motoring to a close. Unfortunately the forecast wind never arrived, but the nasty countercurrent abated for a few hours this afternoon.
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.
While Roy took his last walk to Morrison’s to get a few last minute provisions and clear us out of Gibraltar, Elaine started preparing for our departure from the marina. Since the gate, which closes off the entrance to the marina is only opened at 0830 every morning, we decided to anchor off in the Bay of Gibraltar today to allow for a sunrise departure tomorrow morning and by 0930 the plan was coming together.
With the day ahead of us, we could take our time in completing the final preparations for our penultimate leg of our circumnavigation. Activities included stowing all the fenders and docklines, rigging the last of the jacklines and lifelines, clearing the cockpit, stowing the transformer, undertaking a final check of the oil levels on both engines, as well as checking the saildrives, lifting the sunscreens on the saloon windows, washing the saloon louvre windows, lashing the dinghy, unzipping the stackpack, finalising the floatplan and sending it to our shore contacts, etc.
By 1700, after having a nap this afternoon, we were ready. All that remained was to catch up with family, which included a chat to Keenan, Elaine’s mom and her sister in South Africa.
Receiving photographs from Keenan of their completed backyard and the grandchildren enjoying it, including the twins now swimming unaided, ended the day on a special note.
On Monday, after a well deserved sleep-in, we were back on weather watch looking for a weather window. Roy also started on his Pre-sail Checklist activities, including starting the generator, after checking the RACOR filter, to ensure it was working, backwashing the watermaker, filling the emergency water jerry cans and confirming the clearing out procedure for Gibraltar. In the process he happened to meet the cruisers off Lost Abbey, Lu and Jeff, who were tied to the marina wall in front of us, resulting in a dinner arrangement.
While Elaine got started on her Pre-sail Checklist activities, including charging all the electronic devices onboard, as well as those in the grab-bag and taking the opportunity to check everything in the grab-bag too, finalising our emergency contact list and adding these to our satellite phones, then compiling the draft floatplan, to mention a few activities, she discovered in the process that our secondary EPIRB had fallen apart. Curiosity got the better of Roy in deciding to strip it further, only to find that the new battery we paid to have replaced recently on our primary EPIRB, which cost us £189, was, in fact, nine CR123A batteries packed together, each costing only $2. What a ripoff!
Dinner was enjoyed with Lost Abbey at the Rendezvous Char Grill on the waterfront and turned out to be a fun evening with plenty of laughter. It was simply lovely to have the opportunity to socialise with fellow cruisers again.
After a great outing, Elaine completely forgot her methotrexate day again and was scrambling at 0400 yesterday morning for her tablets. Thankfully she went straight back to sleep, but woke up feeling absolutely dreadful; the worst side effect reaction to this medication in a long time and had no idea why. Regardless, that resulted in a very lazy day and doing as little as possible until the nausea passed. Feeling a little better as the day progressed and after a nap, though, she downloaded and backed up our latest photographs and rearranged our various marina bookings for an earlier arrival date, while Roy returned to Morrison’s in the hope of getting the fresh produce we needed to cook our passage meals. Although it was still Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, with numerous empty shelves, he managed to scrap together what we needed and got the ingredients to prepare a delicious roast dinner.
After dinner, Roy had another flurry of activity and rigged the spinnaker sheets and guys, filled the water tanks, tied down the diesel jerry cans and stowed the emergency water jerry cans.
This morning he was up early to walk to La Linea de la Concepción in search of his favourite biscuits, but returned empty-handed, although he did find delicious, freshly baked bread rolls. While he was out, Elaine waved goodbye to Lost Abbey, but still feeling off, she enjoyed another lazy day and a nice long chat to her brother in South Africa, while Roy prepared our passage meals in the afternoon.
Having enjoyed an early anniversary celebration in Ireland with family, a very special night indeed, today was low-key, but busy, as we continued our preparations for our departure from Gibraltar, starting with our weather watch for a suitable window, then enjoyed a delicious Sunday morning breakfast at the Rendezvous Char Grill on the waterfront.
Yesterday, after breakfast, though, we started our bulk provisioning for our Atlantic Ocean crossing, getting as much as we could here in Gibraltar to make life easier once we get to the Canary Islands. We were surprised at the items we couldn’t get, though, like nuts, dried fruit, paper plates, to name a few. Regardless, that meant Elaine spent today organising all the ingredients for each of our chosen meals, by week, marking each item and stowing it in the relevant bin / bilge, one area for each week. With Justine and Paul joining us, this effort was somewhat different to past years, but, by day end, Roy had also completed the provisioning for our passage to the Canary Islands and Elaine had sanitised and stowed all of those items too.
Yesterday’s provisioning efforts, however, were interrupted with efforts required to clean, stage and take high resolution photographs of each area of Paw Paw’s interior, in preparation for listing her with a broker, assuming we don’t get her sold privately before we reach the Caribbean. This was our last opportunity to get these photographs taken before Paw Paw is stacked to the hilt with provisions and crew, following which we reviewed and collated a master catalogue. Besides an exhausting undertaking, because so much had to be moved around to stage her properly, it was a tad frustrating that the taxi details we were given by the marina office on Friday to get back to the marina with all our provisions, was incorrect. Truly we have no words for the level of incompetence we’re dealing with on a daily basis and have to figure out a way to react differently to this “new world” we find ourselves in, in order to preserve our sanity! It didn’t help matters that it took nearly half an hour to actually get a taxi, after Elaine stood at the Morrison’s Customer Services desk for fifteen minutes before someone appeared. Of course, by then, a long queue had formed behind her too, then the taxi service didn’t answer their phone for another ten minutes as it just rang. The corker was the taxi driver then just standing watching us load all our provisions, not offering a single morsel of help.
It hasn’t been all work and no play on Paw Paw, though, since last night, as tired as we were, we walked to the closest Irish bar to enjoy the World Cup Rugby match between the Springboks and Ireland and what a match it was, as both teams battled it out to the very end. It was a remarkable game! Congratulations to Ireland on their win. Unfortunately Elaine hurt her foot after tripping down a step entering the bar, but thankfully it’s feeling a lot better today.
Our celebratory dinner tonight was a takeaway Sunday roast, both too tired to cook, but we’re delighted that the majority of our tasks are now completed. To mark the occasion, Elaine decided to raise our World ARC flag, along with our Irish and South African flags. What remains are our usual Pre-sail Checklist activities as we now wait for a suitable weather window.
