Sundowner II log – 2005 update 14 – Culatra to Gibraltar


Wednesday night 1st June
Well it's time to go on the move again another landfall and possibly another country with a return to Spain, Cadiz. It will be with a lot of sadness to leave Portugal with it's friendly easy going people and reasonable cost of living also friends made hopefully to see later. With a few more days at our favourite pool beached on Culatra the boat is now in tip top shape looking and feeling the part, funny we weren't sure when we last changed the oil it looked pretty clean and it was only when Sandra checked the log book that we found it was last done just a few engine hours away back on the 8th of December in the marina in Portimao and there was us thinking it may have been back in Sada La Coruna. Even though the old fears of the open sea, weather and fishing nets etc have to be confronted again they are a small price to pay for the freedom and experiences gained. One being the great time we had over the last weekend starting on the Thursday when we went up the Ria Formosa to Faro where Status Quo was put ashore in the yard. We anchored overnight in a deep pool in the drying small river in a small area five meters deep it was funny to see the look on the faces of the passing fishermen, it was as though no one had ever anchored there before. After a stroll around Faro and some shopping we retraced our gentle row back to Sundowner and set off on a swallows and amazons trip to Praia de Faro. It was all into the unknown as most of the estuary is not charted and after a few scares we arrived opposite the bar we had visited four months earlier when we dropped Mair at the airport, it was decided not to do the “put it on the beach” trick at the front of the bar which meant when the wind changed direction later we dried out on a sand bank at a rather steep angle forwards -oops. We all had a nice walk along the sand bar come island with it's various one storey bric a brac houses. Buddy enjoyed meeting the numerous local dogs until it came to a large type of wolf who made it quite clear that we were on his territory by baying and howling in a hammer horror movie kind of way. The next morning we retraced our tracks through the marshes (it is quite a wide river actually but very shallow with just a narrow deeper channel snaking through taking the outside of the bends much the same as most rivers particularly the Trieux that we had navigated in France). Upon meeting the entrance to the sea in the main channel the genoa sail was hoisted and we sailed all the way to Armona passing Culatra on the way and over some pretty shallow sand bars on the way, it also meant sailing right up to the beach before turning down the deeper channel to the anchorage opposite the beach where we all swam Buddy included. With just the short passage between the islands to Olhao to complete the circumnavigation of the Ria Formosa and a perfect few days there is bound to be someone who would want to spoil your day and he arrived in the form of a petty off duty official waving his badge to inform us we were illegally anchored in the main fairway which we weren't and this splendid piece of advice on seamanship coming from a squirt at the helm of a very small speedboat packed with possibly ten people a lot of them kids hanging on the foredeck and not a life jacket in sight - oh well when you are the stature of hitler it must be of some comfort to have a big shiny sheriff's badge to flash around in front of family and friends.

Thursday 2nd June
6-30 pm open sea between Olhao and Cadiz pretty bizarre we now have waves going both ways, not too uncomfortable just strange to see them heading towards us and also away in totally the opposite direction. We are now under genoa sailing with 9 knots of following wind from starboard after motoring for six horrible hours into seas from ahead lets hope the prevailing southeast current now overpowers the westerly waves that must have been left over from the Levanter (easterly winds that pass through the straights of Gibraltar from the Med). The forecast was for north/northeast winds of 4-5 Beaufort scale, 11-21 knots perfect for Sundowner but we got easterly 2 knots and we are heading east It is times like these you wish you had followed one of your instincts one being to stay for awhile and make our way along inside the sand bars up to Tavira but we couldn't avoid the inevitable and must move on it was sad saying goodbye to Karl Julie and Buddy that last morning in Olhao and with so much to say we quietly left cos big boys don't cry.

Thursday 9th June
Here we are again sat ready to leave the marina in Porto Sherry opposite Cadiz where we have been for the last 3 nights sheltering from the South Easterly winds. It's been pretty uncomfortable rocking against the pontoon and we would have been better at anchor and safer too. Especially yesterday when the engine failed on a large yacht as he came into the marina, with the wind at 30 knots they hit the fuel pontoon head on sliding along hitting the cleats on the way, slammed the pile then just missed all the boats (us first) before hitting and going aground on the rocks on the edge of the marina. Yachtmasters – don't you just love 'em Ya!. All this for the princely sum of 20 euros plus 50 percent - 10 euros for having 2 hulls. The main reasons for moving in here were getting a Spanish sim card for our phone which meant going ashore which is rather difficult now as someone stole our dinghy when we went to Cadiz by ferry. We didn't receive much help from the locals so Dennis had rather a long swim to the boat and then up anchored and fetched Sasza at the marina. We always wanted a sailing dinghy so now we have the incentive to build one, going to make it in two halves though to be able to put it on the foredeck where the weight will help with our trim more so if we have some metal goalposts made for our solar panel which will go on our stern. We have had to repair the flexible water tank that leaked into the flotation chamber again. The inspection cap is reseated due to the fact that when it was installed the circular hole was cut too big so it was just sitting on silicone which in time failed. It's not all been doom and gloom, we had a few good days at anchor and made some more friends on a big catamaran, German and Eric from Brittany and Albert from Marseilles, he's pretty cool and after studying for 5 years as a graphic designer he decided that he did not want to spent the rest of his life looking at a computer screen so he stopped and now wants to live on a boat with his artistic girlfriend – definitely a bob in the making. They invited us aboard for some pastisse last night, I don't think they meant us to drink the whole litre and half bottle but it happened and a good evening was had too. With a bit of a hangover we awoke at 7 to find the pontoon sinking - it's all pumped out now. With the wind still blowing it was time to confront the marina office, with no arguments and a determined no to their 50 per cent we paid at the standard 8 metre rate, unsure of their powers etc we were not sure what the outcome would be but got away with being told not to return again – suits us sir!

Tuesday 14th June
Another couple of nights at anchor which was really nice a completely different motion swinging and floating instead of snatching and rubbing against the pontoon. Most of the day was spent cleaning the fenders ropes and the side of the boat which was cleaned effortlessly due to Sandra's high polished finish. The trip to Tarifa started well sailing away from the anchorage and gently crossing the bay but as we turned on course for Cape Trafalgar things started to go a bit wrong. Maybe we had upset the karma gods with the marina hassle but the variable winds going westerly force 4/5 which would have been perfect for Sundowner turned south easterly with north westerly waves which were forecast but due to change later. There were a number of boats all making the same course all under motor around midday with the wind increasing it became too uncomfortable slamming into the large waves (all the other boats headed inland and we were to learn later that this is the better way to go with kinder wind and seas) so with both main and head sail reefed we tacked off to the south west and then tacking again due east into the land. After a few hours with a pretty wet boat from the waves washing up over the weather bow it became clear, with only a third of the journey covered that we would be out until very late so we sent a text message to Manta saying we would see them in the morning and they said they had a force 5 easterly in progress – well that would again be directly towards us when we rounded the cape into the Gibraltar Straights. We have had worse seas and bigger waves but it was just terrible and a change of course straight back up to Culatra was tempting but never a serious option, also a quick run back to safety in Cadiz a definate no so it could only get worse and it did. With the motor back on the seas over the shallows by the cape were not nice but it could only get better - it didn't and when Dennis put his head down at 3am to get 5 minutes rest there was a shout from Sandra “we've got 23 knots here and the GPS is down!” well the wind going over 25 knots isn't normally a problem but with the sea state as it was and the likelihood of the wind increasing the reefed mainsail had to come down which it did but only after a few minutes of being banged around pulling on the wrong rope in the dark as the moon had only made a brief appearance earlier before being covered in cloud. Due to our tacking and sailing we were well clear of the cape and out into the sea and must have been very close to the actual battle ground at Trafalgar all those years ago and in the dark half expected a few ghosts to appear. It's at times like these that you do question what the hell you are doing and with fatigue taking over every fear and question enters your head and just a simple thing like a little rubber alternator belt disintegrating could add a lot of trouble because with no engine no power and no electric meaning no GPS and for some reason all our rechargeable batteries were all flat so even the back up hand held GPS would have been useless (but we do keep Euro shop special batteries in reserve). The worse case scenario would be to just inform the coastguard raise a small genoa head sail and head out to sea away from the land but as we were now near the busy shipping lanes even that wouldn't be without some danger. So you just close your mind and keep your course into the darkness. We do have a new name for a new type of wave in those conditions it's called a hisser because you just hear this hissing noise then splash up it goes illuminated by the running lights so some times they are green and sometimes red depending which bow they decide to explode against like a glittering Christmas tree but it's a bit difficult to spot the fairy on top. The white ones you can see 100's of meters or so away if they are illuminated by the big cargo ships 2 or 3 miles away in the distance. After we had passed the shallows on the bank a few miles from the safety of the anchorage in Tarifa things quietened down and we could relax a little. As we were entering the harbour just for a final little giggle the fog started to come down but not enough to diminish the leading lights so at 6am we turned and dropped the anchor that we had raised only 21 hours earlier and then had a large ration of our arrival vodka – with that sleeping was easy until 10 and after a text message to Massimo and Isa they appeared from the inner harbour to share our anchor then anchored themselves and a good day was had with a few scoops in the nice town. Jessie cooked a great meal aboard Manta before we collapsed once again for a good sleep. We had a call from our friends this morning, Simon and Orit aboard Taulua, on their way to anchor near Gib. They had left Olhao the morning before and had a good run down the 130 miles in the time it had taken us to do 73! What a difference a day makes. Massimo and Isa called by and later we may have boat cleaning party as Manta is a little overgrown and dirty after a winter in the fishing harbour. Our plans have changed again and after visiting Taulua in La Linea and hopefully Andy Dave in Gib, we may visit Africa which at this moment is in view 8 miles across the Straight. All the way up through the middle of the shipping lanes are all manner of whales and dolphins particularly Orcas (who delight in stealing 2 metre tuna from the lines of fisherman as they are about to be pulled aboard tired – he he!) are in abundance. Karma.

Saturday 18th June
It was fun seeing Massimo Isa and Birbo again and the anchorage was fine in the westerly winds we had to move on again on Wednesday as the levanter was due again. We had another great meal on our last night to celebrate Lawrence's 40th birthday, Jessie again excelling. We had in the afternoon gone for a birthday sail aboard Manta which was fantastic, Massimo taking us in and along close to the shore and right through with dozens of kite surfers who relished in coming as close as possible and performing their tricks. One day in Tarifa a small boat came in and tied to the harbour wall right next to the large naval patrol boat which made us chuckle. For a bit of fun we rigged and hoisted the cruising shute and slowly sailed out of the anchorage only only for the fast cat ferry identical to the Weymouth to Guernsey one to come charging out of the inner harbour a quick pull on the snuffer and we were back with Manta. We again hoisted the sail and made our way to Gibraltar with the aid of the tide pushing us along we made up to 6 knots with 5 knots of wind. The small boat had also left just after us and motored alongside to enquire where we were headed and we passed over some harbour chartlets to the crazy dude Erwan in the crazy boat Little Fish. It was pretty inspiring as we approached the tall rock of Gibraltar and we made our way through the huge cargo ships at anchor on our way to La Linea and it was nice to see Taulua sat at anchor and Simon waving from under it's smart new roof he had added in Faro. We were soon aboard having lunch then Little Fish arrived and Simon lent him an anchor as he only had a small type a fisherman had given him he had also all his gear on deck stolen in Morocco including his wind kite and surfboards can't imagine what would happen if he actually caught a thief nice lad but well handy. We then all went ashore to do some shopping the post office and a couple of beers in the town the evening finished of with a meal aboard Sundowner. Due to the fact dinghies get stolen all the time we now have quite a system to get every one ashore which involves a lot of planning and whistling and today Sundowner had 3 dinghies tied at the stern while various nationalities went ashore. Simon has even rigged up a mooring buoy for when we are all ashore which allows his dinghy to be pulled back to the shore while everyone else's dinghies are tied to their boats making it look like they are aboard. The next day was nice as we made the trip across the border to Gib in search of AndyDave who we hadn't seen since he sailed down here three years ago. We were informed in the marina office that he had radioed in earlier and as they were full would be anchoring but we did meet Sandra the wife of Kev, the assistant manager of Weymouth marina, they had just arrived with their family on their new boat which is berthed along the coast in Estepona they are on holiday for two weeks and nicer people you couldn't wish to meet - small world innit! Later Simon cooked a great Thai curry and in a good mood all went ashore it was a little hard to relax worrying and checking the dinghies but it had been a fairly heavy week or two and the company was good. On the way we did pass the private marina in the hope we could leave our dinghies in the secure area and maybe a beer or two in the club bar only to be warned away by the security guard we can only presume there must have been some kind of hassle between the boats at anchor and the private members only club (Club Maritimo Linense). We arrived back at the shore Simon and Orit having retired a little earlier, there were some lads sat chilling out near the landing spot who informed us that some other lads had just taken a dinghy and pointed to where they were headed down past the marina to round the long breakwater, at this Erwan ran jumping and climbing, clearing the 3 metre gate into the club marina, I took the easier route around the club and down the breakwater past a security guard with a big wooden baton. Erwan must have covered the ground at breakneck speed as shouting could be heard, it was then that two terrified looking lads came running out of the darkness as if their lives depended on it. An outstretched arm would have stopped them dead with the speed they were travelling but some instinct took over and they sped past hopefully to be apprehended by the two security guards. An enraged Erwan appeared out of the darkness with his dinghy and a very wet and frightened thief. The security guard was not too pleased at being barred from entering his hut while Erwan discussed the pros and cons of acquiring things that don't belong to you. The police duly arrived and we declined their offer of form filling down at the local station and they took the smartly but wet dressed victim away he was so poor and misunderstood that I am sure that there was a tear in his eye as he unsuccessfully tried to reactivate his dripping mobile phone. Erwan had the long row back to the landing spot while I walked back passing the big stick on the way which promptly fell to the floor as a right and then a left bounced off the side of the head behind it, not the smartest thing to do at any time but needs must. The head was soon bawling and screaming as it ran away off into the distance with flapping arms in distress. It was a long walk back along the breakwater knowing that soon the police would arrive with a larger number of sticks and more practiced in the art of beating but worse things happen at sea don't they? On reaching the club the other guard enquired as to what had happened to his by now totally manic bleating colleague I did offer my hand in forgiveness but just received more bawling and screaming accompanied with throat cutting gestures now knowing both these so called security guards have full knowledge of the loss of dinghies right next to their club and had made no attempt to stop the getaways it was tempting to take them both out but being more worried about Sandra and a bit relieved the police hadn't been called it was time to go. Erwan later explained how he had ran and ignoring the rocks dived down at the dinghy connecting a blow with one hand and grabbing the dinghy with the other then one of the guys jumping over him to escape. I can't imagine what went through their minds as this screaming Breton came flying out of the dark sky white shirt and blonde hair shinning like a huge owl swooping down attacking it's prey. One things for sure they won't be phoning their social worker by mobile.