11 October 1993 Gibraltar
Changed the engine oil and fuel filters first thing. Glenys went into town and did some Christmas shopping. I went into La Linea to the hypermarket - I found it this time. It is still very showery weather. The mail arrived today with three nice letters from John Parker, Paul and Jane and Doc Williams. We spent a couple of hours wrapping the children’s Christmas presents – we normally do that on Christmas Eve!
12 October 1993 Gibraltar
Raining again! I talked to Eddie from “Chintoo” who tells me that most of the boats that left during the past week are holed up in either Tarifa or Tangiers. One boat apparently sailed for 3 days towards the Canaries and ended up going into Casablanca. There has been a low coming up from the Canaries and I hope it will be clear behind it.
We are aiming to finish all our jobs today and be ready to go in the morning. I am a little apprehensive about the conditions “out there”. We rushed about all day doing essential jobs and I hosed down the decks just as it went dark. We listened to the UK Maritime Met which said that tomorrow will be W7, so we opened a bottle of wine. (I didn’t make it to Madeira without a drink!) I rang John and asked him to get the computer sent to him.
13 October 1993 Gibraltar
Raining and windy. I went into town to get a few bits. I spent the afternoon doing more jobs. A boat went out at two o’clock in the morning and came back at nine o’clock with a split genoa – it doesn’t bode well. The forecast doesn’t look good for the next couple of days.
One of the good things about Gibraltar are the rubbish skips. There are a lot of very expensive yachts with professional crews which come through the marina. They provision their owner’s boats, replace equipment and get ready to go across to the Caribbean. They throw away all sorts of stuff. We visit the skips several times a day. So far we’ve got various ropes, crockery and I’ve even found a really nice “yacht club” type jacket. I’ve turned into a scavenger and it’s addictive.
14 October 1993 Gibraltar
It was very calm this morning, so I rang the Met Office. They reckon that we ought to wait until the 16th when we should get north or NE winds. I talked to a few other people who reckon the same – so it looks like another couple of nights in Gibraltar. Eddie and Fay from “Chintoo” came for a beer (or 3!) this afternoon.
After dinner I was amused to listen to Glenys explaining the intricacies of “The Beano” to the boys – words like “chortle” and explaining what a “dodge” is – it requires a lot of background knowledge!
15 October 1993 Gibraltar
Fairly nice weather today, but the weather fax shows a big low to the west of us giving strong West winds. I did a bit of admin, writing letters etc. Glenys went into La Linea and bought a staple gun to do her new upholstery. I tidied up the deck and lashed everything away.
Before dinner, I was walking to the showers when I was stopped by a Swiss guy (Chris) from “Wombat” who told me that it would still be bad in the morning. We confirmed this from the UK Maritime Met and then opened 2 litres of Vino Tinto (oh miser!)
16 October 1993 Gibraltar
Raining cats and dogs this morning. The low is slowly moving north. I spent 5 hours sorting out our income tax returns and started to make the modem cable for the weather fax program. The weather may be OK in two days’ time.
17 October 1993 Gibraltar
Showers this morning. The low is over SE Biscay and it looks like it might be OK tomorrow, we hope! We listened to 6230 kHz and heard that there are now 30 boats in Tangiers which are rafted 5 or 6 deep. I went over to the Swiss boat “Baraka” and he showed me faxes for the next 72 hours and it looks like it will be good for the next 3 days.
I finished off as much of the fax modem as I could – I’ll have to wait for John for the rest. Tidied up again! We talked to a chap in a 21ft boat who left here 12 days ago, spent 9 days battling his way down level with Casablanca then gave up and came back to Gibraltar. He’s now going to sell his boat (how sad!)
18 October 1993 Gibraltar to Porto Santo, Madeira (Day 1)
Beautiful blue skies, but unfortunately no wind. However, we’re free of Gibraltar. We narrowly beat the rush of 6 or so Swiss and French boats that are leaving “en-bloc”. As an experiment we are going to run the engine at 1200 rpm. We normally run at 1400 rpm go at 6.2 knots and get 4 litres/hour fuel consumption. At 1200 rpm we get 5.2 knots, but will we save fuel?
We motored until we cleared the shipping lanes and then the wind kindly picked up to NW1 so we put all sails up and off we went! We hooked a big fish with the jelly belly but it escaped (damn!)
There’s a really outrageous amount of chat on VHF67 with Fay from “Chintoo” singing “Road to Marrakesh”, etc. Brian and Dorothy Goring from “Radnor” asked us if we would keep an eye out for any mail for them in Funchal.
We ran over the top of a floating fishing net, which of course, snagged on our skeg and brought us to a grinding halt. It was like a mini tunny net with a lobster type buoy at one end and the fishing boat at the other end. The net itself was marked by orange floats, but we were eating our Moussaka... Fortunately, it cleared itself and we lurched off.
We’ve decided to put the clocks forward 1 hour because it’s going dark at half past seven. At about nine o’clock, we had a close encounter with a fishing boat which deliberately crossed our path causing me to turn hard to port.
19 October 1993 Gibraltar to Porto Santo, Madeira (Day 2)
Beautiful clear starry night but very cold. The wind slowly came round to the north and we made good time. At the start of Glenys’ watch at three in the morning, we put one reef in the main and rolled away some jib. It was a bit rolly with the swell on the beam. A 1ft flying fish landed on the aft deck (scared me to death!). We had it for breakfast which was very nice.
It’s been a beautiful day, blue skies and 15 knot wind which veered to NE. We poled out one jib and goose winged the main in the afternoon. We ran like that until midnight. We didn’t run the engine at all today – it’s a miracle! I’m still feeling a bit queasy because of the rolling.
20 October 1993 Gibraltar to Porto Santo, Madeira (Day 3)
Another clear night. The wind backed to northerly just after midnight, so I pulled the jib back over to port and we had a screaming reach all night. We left the mizzen down and just reached under reefed main and 5 rolls in the genoa. The wind got up to 25 knots, but the Hydrovane handled it really well. I wonder if the mizzen is causing all our problems?
It was freezing last night – I was wearing winter bags, Musto snug, fleece jacket, woolly hat, full oilskins with collar up and hat on and I was still cold! We didn’t see anything during the night apart from one white light, possibly a yacht going to the Canaries. It’s a new moon, so from midnight onwards it is pitch black and oh so boring (zzzzzz!).
By breakfast time, the wind had veered to north east, so Glenys poled out the jib on starboard again. We went back onto a broad reach after dinner. I still felt a bit queasy today, but a lot better than yesterday. We ran the engine for 1 hour to charge the batteries. Glenys produced a magnetic backgammon, chess and checkers set, which Brett and Craig love.