STORMY Weather On Our Way To Gibraltar | And Life On The Rock | Ep. 43
We had a lovely morning with a pretty sunrise and the sea was still calm. This did not take very long unfortunately… As soon as the sun was up, the sea became very choppy and the wind picked up. That was the beginning of a very bumpy ride.
The waves hit the boat so hard in the front that the water sprayed all the way over the boat. We would have been soaking wet if it wasn’t for the enclosure.
Just after lunchtime, a thunderstorm surprised us in the Gulf of Cadiz. Even though we checked the weather regularly and we were listening to the weather reports given out by the coast guard none of it mentioned the dark cloud mass we saw approaching. It started with wind gusts and heavy rain and a little later we saw lightning in the distance. It looked like the darkest clouds weren't going to pass over us so we kept our course in the direction of the thinner, lighter clouds. Little did we know that that was not the end of the storm yet but there were some more dark clouds following, filled with electricity and soon we were in the middle of a lightning storm. It was a bit of a scary moment but there wasn’t anything else that we could do at that point than to wait and ride it out.
We were very happy to see Gibraltar in the distance and as we approached we were welcomed by a lot of dolphins, a beautiful ending to this rough ride.
We arrived after sunset and since we didn’t know our way in the Bay of Gibraltar it was all a bit confusing, there were a lot of lights everywhere and it was hard to see which ones were on land and which ones were on one of the many cargo ships that were anchored in the bay. Thanks to our AIS system, which clearly showed where the cargo ships were, we managed to avoid them easily. It were the smaller moving ships that were a bit harder to dodge but Sven did an amazing job navigating in the Bay of Gibraltar.
Queensway Quay Marina is a very nice place with a very friendly and helpful staff. We had to tie the boat up with lazy lines, which came as a surprise to me. They also call them slime lines because they are underwater most of the time and therefore full of Marine growth which makes them slimy and filthy.
We had a stainless steel arch made for the back of the boat. This construction would carry the solar panels and would provide some shade for the dinghy. The arch was made and installed by Pritchards Marine in Gibraltar. The solar panels we installed ourselves later.
To store the solar energy we bought a huge battery bank. Getting the battery onboard and installing it was a huge challenge, the weight of the battery is 164 kg. Thankfully the Queensway Quay Marina has a very helpful staff. It took some measuring and strategic planning to get the battery in place under the bed.
To get to the border from Gibraltar to Spain you have to walk (or drive) across the runway, we definitely wanted to do that. So we decided to visit La Línea de Concepción, the Spanish border town. Because of the Covid restrictions we were only allowed to visit La Línea just over the border for a few hours. So after a quick but nice visit, we returned to Gibraltar.
At least once a week we went out sailing in the Bay. It was there that we tried out our spinnaker for the first time and that we finally saw our beautiful, large, blue sail.
It was beautiful to see Gibraltar from the water and sail all the way to the other side of the rock.
While exploring Gibraltar we discovered some great places, had some amazing food and met some nice people, like Michael, a true Gibraltarian who we could ask for anything we needed to know about Gibraltar. Michael was so kind to take us on a private tour around the rock.
He came to pick us up with his car in the morning and drove us all the way up and around the rock while showing us the most important landmarks and telling us all about the history, geography and demographics of this since 1713 British overseas territory.
It was fascinating to learn about Gibraltar from someone who has lived there his entire life. Thanks a lot, Michael! We had a lot of fun and it was very educational.
Next week we’ll show you some more amazing places in Gibraltar and of course, we’ll take you out sailing with us again.
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00:00 Sailing to Gibraltar
02:15 Stormy weather
04:36 Entering the Straight of Gibraltar
06:31 Queensway Quay Marina
07:23 Victron Quatro 10kW Inverter
08:35 Installing 2000W of Solar on a Lagoon 46
10:00 BYD 15000 Watt Battery
10:58 Border of Gibraltar is a runway
12:50 Testing the new Asymmetrical Spinnaker
16:49 Baby Monkeys on the car
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