Gibraltar - La Linea - Ronda

Actually, we are in Alcaidesa Marina at La Linea in Spain, on the border with Gibraltar. The marina is only a few years old and as we had previously stayed in Marina Bay in Gibraltar a while back when on a sailing course, so we decided to try somewhere new.

The prices are very reasonable although, electric and water are metered and we don't have the final bill yet. There is a good laundry on site with a large capacity washer for only 4 Euros a wash. We are on a finger pontoon rather than a Med mooring, but this is probably the last time this will happen from here on in.

Many people will know that Gibraltar is famous for its population of Barbary Apes that reside at the top of the rock. Legend has it that when the Apes leave, so will the British.

Is it just us or can you too see the face of a Gorilla in the picture below? Spooky or what?

Faces in the Rock

If you look a little closer, you can also make out a 'human' face above the mouth and below the right eye with an upturned mouth. OK, so maybe the local Vino Tinto is a little stronger but you had to be here to see how realistic it looked!

The local town has several supermarkets but we mainly used the Mercadona as it was only a 15 minute walk away. We are still struggling a little with recipes so if you are missing familiar stuff from the UK and want to cheat, you could always nip over the border to Morrisons. We have many cook books on board and need to study these in a little more detail, as both of us need to branch out and get more creative. Salads are fine and prawns are always welcome at any mealtime but seven days a week....

It was a bonus to attend the opening night of the Alcaidesa Lounge Bar at the marina, just a stones throw from our pontoon. Free drinks and tapas went down very well and we both wish this venture every success for the future.

One of the other Rally boats, Plane Magic arrived this month. We had not seen Neil and Hilary since Lagos and it was really nice to spend some time chilling out together. We even enjoyed a session of ten pin bowling at the King's Bastion Leisure Centre in Gib (unlimited bowling on 'Thrifty Thursday' night between 7pm and 11pm for only £10 per person).

We are also incredibly grateful to Hilary for organising some VIP tickets to the very first Gibraltar Music Festival featuring Ali Campbell's UB40 and Jessie J amongst many local acts.

Neil and Hilary of Plane Magic

The setting was very opulent indeed as was the guest list. it is not every day you get to meet a former Miss World!




The very beautiful and charming Kaiane Aldorino with a very happy Steve!

The festival was a sell out and UB40 were particularly good (Lynne was very happy as they are one of her favourite bands and she enjoyed having a singalong and a bit of a boogie). We are very grateful for the experience, it was Plane Magic!




A packed venue



Jessie J

From one major even to another...  Just a few days later we once again nipped across the border, this time to attend Gibraltar National Day, dressed appropriately in red and white (the entire population turns out in the colours of the Gibraltar flag).

Casemates Square was packed with standing room only.



Gibraltar National Day 2012 in Casemates Square

The atmosphere was amazing as this clip hopefully shows.




A few days later we met up with Vaughan from the Rally boat Viking, who was having a short stopover in Gibraltar at Marina Bay.

Marina Bay Apartments, you need deep pockets here!

We had a meal in the local Casino - a 2 for 1 special offer (well we are cruising folk) and took the time together to swap adventures since parting company in Lagos.

Vaughan

We wish Vaughan well and hope we will meet up again next season.

About 10 days into what was turning into a packed social life, our friends Tim and Tina flew in from the UK to spend a week with us. It was an emotional farewell leaving them in Plymouth and equally emotional catching up with them again.

As it was their first time here we did the usual sightseeing which included a trip up the rock with associated stunning views.  We took one of the organised 'Rock Tours' on a mini bus, which takes you to the Pillars of Hercules, St Michael's Cave, The Monkey's Den and The Great Siege Tunnels.  This really is the best way to see the sights as the roads are very steep and narrow, which makes it a tiring walk.

View from near the top of the Rock looking towards La Linea and our marina base. The runway separates the border



St Michael's Caves

 

The Great Siege Tunnels

 

















The Pillars of Hercules





Tim & Tina by the Pllars of Hercules



We think Tim and Tina enjoyed the day!

Tim and Tina also did a dolphin watching boat trip but we opted out as we had seen so many dolphins on our journey here.  They saw several large pods and even got to see a dolphin calf with its mum, which really made Tina's day.

For our final evening together we pushed the boat out (well walked across the road actually), to the most fabulous restaurant called aQa.
What a find. The food here is simply divine. If you have a special occasion or just want a great meal out and worry about the cruising budget another time, you should try this place. The starters are huge, so make sure you have a big appetite!



The restaurant is upstairs and the bar/cafe downstairs



After Tim and Tina left we set about getting the boat ready for our next voyage along the Spanish coast.  Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas! A huge low pressure was due to pass through and we are always cautious so we decided to stay a little longer. This delay just so happened to coincide with the arrival of Rally boats Katerina and Ravi who were making their way to Gran Canaria to join the ARC.  It was fantastic to see Scott, Julia, Harald, Ragnhild and Svein Inge again.

We had a get together and dinner on Katerina followed by a get together and dinner on Ravi.

Julia, Harald & Ragnhild onboard Katerina





Scott with a vintage box of Don Simon Vino Tinto on Katrerina!







Scott, Lynne & Ragnhild on Ravi



Steve and Scott got chatting and said how much they both missed a good curry. We noticed an Indian restaurant, the Tahj Mahal in La Linea town centre and all decided to give it a go. The boys were keen to introduce our Norweigen friends off Ravi to the British tradition of beer and curry. (they also do a take out service and will deliver to the marina)



Scott, Ragnhild, Steve, Lynne, Julia & Harald enjoying  curry



Whilst we were waiting for the bad weather to pass, we decided to take a trip to Ronda. The crews off Katerina and Ravi had made the trip themselves the last time they were in La Linea and highly recommended it.  We got the bus to Algeceiras and then caught the train to Ronda.  The train journey was approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes long and took us through some breathtaking scenery through the mountains.



The train to Ronda



Situated in the far northwest of the province of Malaga, Ronda sits on an outcrop of rock in a basin surrounded by mountain ranges. It is one of the oldest towns in Spain and its cultural heritage and surroundings are Arabic. The views from the Old Town really are spectacular.



Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) built in the 18th Century





Puento Viejo-Puento Arabe (Old Arab Bridge) built in the 16th Century





Platform overlooking the views from Ronda





View from the platform





Ronda 'New Town' taken from the Old Town



One of the highlights was visiting the Arab Baths, dating back to the 14th century.  They are the best preserved in Spain and are the Muslim adaptation of the ancient Roman baths. They consist of the same system of reception, three rooms for bathing, cold, temperate and hot, underfloor heating and heater.



The outside of the Arab Baths





Inside the Arab Baths



Ronda is also home to the oldest Bullring in Spain.  It was the first purpose built space for fighting bulls in the World and is considered to be one of the most picturesque. The first fight took place in 1785 and the matadors were the local born Pedro Romero and the Sevillian Pepe Hillo.



Statue of a matador outside the Bullring



The next photo was taken especially for Lynne's mum who collects wall plates!

Oh well, it is almost time to move on again so the preperations have started for our next leg. We will leave for Almerimar soon but have still not decided whether to head over in one go or, to anchor along the way and take our time. The weather forecast will decide for us.


Until next time..

Steve and Lynne xx





Rota to Barbate to Gibraltar

Rota to Barbate to Gibraltar

After the visit to Cadiz it was time to start the passage plan to Barbate. We normally start with weather forecasts and, with a lack of wifi, the marina office is a good place to start. We also have a Navtex system on board which provides weather and navigational warnings. With a good forecast we get out the paper charts and look at a route. Our Pilot Book provides some good waypoints so we tend to use these, plot them on the chart, and draw a line between them. This allows us to see if there are any hazards to navigations, such as rocks!

When we are happy that the route looks good, we enter the lat and long into the chartplotter and read back the co-ordinates to make sure we have not made any mistakes. This builds up a series of waypoints which we then give names to.

Waypoints are handy tools as our plotter can provide us with useful navigational information between them: estimated time to waypoint, distance to waypoint, velocity made good to waypoint. It also provides our autopilot with a place to head for.

We use the autopilot a lot, perhaps more than we should. But, most of our recent trips have involved motor sailing, so it means that one of us can go off watch and rest, or maybe head for the galley to make a snack, or go to the loo!

With the forecast looking good for Barbate, we slipped the mooring lines just before 7am and motored for a while in flat calm conditions, until the wind picked up enough to get the main sail out, but not enough to switch the engine off.

It wasn’t until 10am that the wind had increased enough to turn the engine off and we un-furled the genoa and settled down for what we hoped would be a nice sail. Sadly, the wind was right on the nose for most of the way, and with the tide against us, we made pretty slow progress.  It made for fairly lumpy seas too, especially when we passed the headland Cabo Trafalgar.



Choppy seas around Cabo Trafalgar

We arrived at Barbate at just after 3pm and headed onto the waiting pontoon which has only enough room for one boat at a time. As we checked in we asked if the weather would be good to sail to Gibraltar the next day. We had heard so may people tell us that you go to Barbate and wait for the Harbour Master to tip you the nod when it is safe to head through the Straits. We are not sure if this is an urban myth, but on the day of arrival all we had to go by was a printout of the next days forecast in Spanish. Duly translated it looked OK and the fog/mist around Gibraltar would lift by lunchtime.

Scarlet Lady in Barbate marina

As it was getting towards early evening and perhaps with more than a little apprehension about tackling the Straits, we decided not to go into town. We topped up the water tanks (this is the last place we will use for some time where water is not metered), and ate onboard before putting the final touches to the passage plan and had an early night.

The Straits have a formidable reputation and not since the build up to Biscay had we slipped the lines with so much trepidation.

Leaving Barbate in glassy calm seas

We left before lunchtime to make sure we got a favourable current for most of the journey. If conditions deteriorated enroute, we knew that we could pull into Tarifa, but we also knew that for 300 days of the year the wind blows in excess of 30 knots there. Great if you like kite surfing! However, we got to Tarifa on what must have been one of the other 65 days of the year, in totally flat calm conditions! Of course this also meant little wind so we continued under engine. A couple of hours later we managed to get some sailing in but it was not long before the engine was back on again.

Tarifa

We were now in the Straits of Gibraltar and it was busy! There were not just huge container ships, fast ferries and cruise liners (thankfully all in the shipping lanes), but all manner of small fishing boats nearer the coastline. It was only about an hour later when we made out a huge fog bank ahead. Gulp!

With the fog bank heading towards us, we realised that if we turned back to Tarifa we would still end up in the fog, as it would probably overtake us. We opted to carry on but slowed down and switched the radar on.

For most of the time the visibility was not too bad and the radar worked a treat, picking out the numerous small boats at anchor and one or two heading towards us. This was the first time we had used the radar outside of a classroom and the MARPA (mini automatic plotting aid) facility is simply amazing. It allows us to track up to 10 targets at a time.

At one stage, visibility was down to about 30 metres and our progress was now down to a crawl. It was really eerie hearing lots of fog horns all about us but not being able to see anything! But, in what seemed like no time at all, the fog started to lift and Lynne caught sight of the Rock emerging out of the gloom and what a sight it was.

Is that the Rock of Gibraltar?

There it is!

As we turned into the bay, the plotter showed so many dangerous targets that it was easier to try and concentrate on what was going on around us than stare at the screen, other than to check the waypoint to the entrance to our destination at Alcadaisa Marina at La Linea. Just before we got to the marina, we saw a large pod of dolphins.  However, they weren't in the mood to play as they were coralling the fish and having a feeding frenzy. As we were otherwise occupied with all the traffic, we sadly didn't have time to watch this spectacle and take photos.

When we finally made it to the waiting pontoon it was with a sense of achievement. Not only given the conditions, but we were now at the Gateway to the Mediterranean and had come along way since leaving Eastbourne.

We will stay here a while as it is very good value for money and we also want to rest for a bit, catch up with the laundry and do some sightseeing. We also have some friends flying out to see us in September for a week which will be great.

In the meantime, we have the most amazing view of the Rock from our cockpit. The marina appears to be secure and the facilities are OK.

Clouds pouring over the Rock (it was blue skies above the marina!)

We will post more as our time here evolves but for now, it’s off for a stroll and an early night.

Steve and Lynne x