Lagos to Gibraltar

Lagos - Portimao

Intended to leave Lagos by midday at the latest and keep going but like all boating journeys things didn’t go to plan. Firstly we didn’t get up as early as we should have so by the time we had got the boat packed up and moved to the fuel pontoon it was just after 1.30pm. Checked out of the marina but couldn’t get any fuel till the fuel man came back from lunch at 2.00pm. Fuelled up, cast off at 2.30pm, out into Lagos harbour, sun shinning, just enough wind to keep forward motion, ie about 2-3 knots through the water, so at the point we decided we’d go as far as Portimao and anchor the night. Although we didn’t go far it was an extremely pleasant few hours on the water. Getting the anchor down was interesting as Mark and his anchor went though their usual love- hate relationship. One of the holding pins had corroded. Eventually we were secure as the sun went down and gave us beautiful skies over the waters of Portimao. So a grand total of 6 ½ nautical miles covered today. Hope we do better tomorrow.

1-3 Dec Portimao - Gilbraltar

Hauled anchor and left Portimao around 9.45am. Sunny but little wind – 5 knots. Motor sailed for a couple of hours till the wind died, took in the genoa, there’s not enough wind to fill it. Very still hazy day with lots of thin cloud cover and poor visibility. However what we could see of the Portuguese coast was littered with small sandy beaches and lots of caves carved into the high cliff sides. Atop the cliffs is almost a never ending maze of buildings, mostly modern, probably all for the tourist trade or overseas owners. From a distance it’s not unattractive, however the price the local people have paid for all this building and modernity is probably high.

The day passed without any excitement, however the sunset deserves a mention. When your 360° view is water the sky becomes a perfect dome and sunsets and sunrises can be quite beautiful. This evening the sun slid down behind a bank of stringy clouds and as it did so it lit up all the clouds pink and mauve around 360° just above the horizon. Where the sun had sunk below the horizon the clouds in the immediate vicinity were a fire glowing red. Absolutely spectacular. With the growing darkness a new beauty emerges, the stars slowly appear and the phosphorescence in the breaking water around the boat brings a new beauty to help while away the hours as we slowly trundle our way across the water towards the Straits of Gibraltar.

Overnight bought some wind and we sailed peacefully for about 6 hours, the only hiccup was trying to dodge a fishing boat while trying not to unintentionally gybe – not good when you’re on watch by yourself. Other than that we had stars, half moon to light the way and it was a pleasant night at sea.

In the morning we were approaching the straight, after rounding Tarifa we were close to the coastline and it’s not unlike the Scottish coast between Tarifa and Gib. I can understand why the waters can be treacherous around here; we sailed over a patch where the undersea terrain is as mountainous as the land, rising from over a 120meters to just 10 meters within a space of ½ mile. On a calm day like we had the effect as the current carries a body of water towards a mountain side is to create what looks like circles of water nearing boiling point. I recognised this as we’ve seen it round the bottom of the Isle of Mann. Moving away from the boiling water the seas then is confused for a couple of miles and boat bounces about for a while. We should have been able to see the African coast at this point but as the day was so hazy clear visibility was down to less than a mile. What we could see was a constant stream of large ships in the traffic separation zone going out the other way.

Mark decided he wanted to go into Gib as we’re here, we hadn’t planned on doing so. It isn’t out of the way in terms of where we’re going so we went in. Approaching the entrance to Gib is ‘interesting’. There are large container vessels and fast ferries coming from all directions, all trying to enter the harbour – not for the faint hearted. We radioed into the first Marina – Queensway – and were told they don’t have any berths for boats under 23meters!! So we moved onto the only other choice – Marina Bay.

Marina Bay is part of a massive new property and marina development in this part of Gib. It’s scruffy and surrounded by the noise of construction and to top it off the airport runway is a 100 yards away!

Yes that's us in the Marina right next to the runway!!

Berthing is bow or stern to and we’re bows to as the pontoon is really high so disembarking is somewhat of and art for someone with my short legs. I’m half expecting to go for a swim before the stay is over.

We went for a short walk after mooring up and so far for the life of us we CANNOT see why anyone would want to come here. Today we’re going to have a better look around and go up in the famous cable car and see if our opinion changes.

Later same day. We’ve found out that the main income for the Rock is tourism so we’ve done all the touristy things. Been to the top of the rock, seen Europa Point, been to St Michaels Cave, seen the famous apes, been down the Great Siege Tunnels and been shopping in the Tax free Shops. St Michaels Cave is a dramatic natural grotto with the most spectacular stalactites and stalagmites and well worth the visit.

Mark makes new friends

The Barbary Macaques (apes) are amusing and very tame but the most interesting was the Great Siege Tunnels, where civilians then soldiers tunnelled into the rock side, designed cannons that would fire downhill and provided Gibraltar with its infamous defences. The naval history of the Rock is undoubtedly the most interesting element of the place, the rest we could leave. Our opinion hasn’t really changed from arriving. It’s very much like ‘been there – done that’ and it’s not often we say that about anywhere, we normally find something endearing about a place. Unless really forced to we won’t bother to come back here.

The wind has got up today while we’ve been out so when we got back to the boat, it’s bouncing around, so getting back on over the bow was tricky - even I've got a book going as to whether I go in or not.