Week 21: Almeria to Gibraltar (167nm)

This post is a little late – my apologies. We have in fact now arrived in the Canary Islands after a great and varied passage. Look out for a guest author post sharing the story of it soon! Until then, please enjoy reading about our final week in the Med with two of my friends from the US.

The stars aligned to allow one of my dearest friends (aka “Snackbox”) to join us in Spain for the last leg of our journey down to Gibraltar. Icing on the cake was that her colleague (aka “Ropeslinger”), who we’d gotten to know when they’d stopped by London a few years ago, managed to get off work at the last minute and came along as well. With 30+ knots of wind on our first day, they had a bit of a baptism of fire, but quickly were won over by Serenity as we explored the Spanish coast and the unusual entity that is Gibraltar.

Note: Our friends have asked that we refer to them by the nicknames they acquired during the week – Snackbox and Ropeslinger. To be honest, I may struggle to ever call them by their real names again, so strongly did these ones stick!

Snackbox (“S” for short) received her nickname almost immediately, as it quickly became evident that she has what appears to be an unending supply of snacks secreted in every bag and pocket that she owns. Granola bars, packs of nuts, kale chips, dried fruit, and myriad other things would appear as if by magic at any given time. You can always rely on her to have something to share!

We discovered Ropeslinger’s (“R”) calling late in the week, only after arriving in Gibraltar, but it makes her nickname no less relevant. Read on for details later in the post 😊.

A WINDY INTRO TO SERENITY

We had a couple of days in Almeria before S and R were due to arrive, which we dutifully used to make headway on the boat job list. We put in a marathon few sessions and managed to finally tick off a few things that had been hanging over us for a while. Most important was a retune of the rigging. We wanted to add spacers to some of the fittings to improve the alignment of the wires and redo the tensioning to ensure it was well tuned ahead of our transatlantic journey. This turned out to be a hell of a task! The rigging is what holds the mast up, and our task required completely undoing each of the wires. This meant using ropes as back ups while the various wires were undone, which ensured the mast would remain upright but left it a little bit wobbly – not pleasant for the person who had to go up it to do the refitting job! Alec drew the short straw on this because he is a lot stronger than me and the wires are very, very heavy. Between periods of strong wind and losing the light earlier each evening, Alec had to go up the mast a total of 5 times. Thankfully he is strong-willed, so despite many setbacks we’d finally got it all sorted by Wednesday lunchtime. It was a huge sigh of relief to have the rigging all fixed and well-tuned (and the mast back firmly held!). It is hopefully a task we shall not have to repeat anytime soon!

S and R had a crazy journey to meet us; their flight got cancelled, the next flight they could get on was also cancelled, and the third was massively delayed! But eventually they landed in Spain, near Cadiz. Options connecting them from there to Almeria were… limited, so they ended up in a rental car driving to us across southern Spain. I think all told they were travelling for 30 hours by the time they stepped aboard Serenity, but despite such an insanely exhausting journey they brought a fantastic enthusiasm aboard! Alec made us egg fried rice for dinner (review: 5 stars!!) and we chatted till the wee hours before deciding it would be prudent to get a bit of kip.

The forecast for the next day predicted the highest winds we’d yet seen on Serenity (albeit behind us), so Alec and I were understandably a little anxious about that as a first day out for S and R. But they were game, so we headed out of port early doors and braced ourselves. Soon, the wind had built as expected, so we had only a little bit of the genoa out and were still making 7-8kts comfortably. We had 2+ metre waves, which meant the autopilot couldn’t cope and we had to hand steer. But, somewhat to my surprise, it felt totally fine. Serenity was happy and completely under control. Minus a little bit of queasiness from the waves, we were all having a lovely time. I’m really glad we went out! I feel so much more confident about being out in big winds now, which is great as I’m sure we’ll get some windy days on our way across the Atlantic. And it gave me a great opportunity to practice helming downwind, which I still don’t have a huge amount of experience doing. All in all, a great first day! Really the only slightly hairy part was parking at the end. We’d hoped that our destination marina would be tucked away enough to have calmer winds, but this was not the case. That meant Alec had to keep the boat speed up pretty high as we came in to park. But, with two extra hands on deck, some nice people from the marina to catch our lines and Alec’s expertise we were soon happily nestled in our spot for the night.

Awkward Tapas

A few naps later, we took a stroll around the town and put our toes in the sea on the beach. The proprietor of the marina had enthused about Adra’s tapas (he claimed the town was famous for them… but, isn’t all of Spain??), so after a celebratory G & T on the boat, we went to look for a tapas restaurant. A significant proportion of places had clearly shut down for the season, but eventually we found La Granja, which had very positive TripAdvisor reviews. Our own description however would be “awkward tapas.” R has celiac disease, which means she can’t eat gluten, so we needed to take that into account when ordering. We quizzed the waitress about which dishes were gluten free and chose accordingly. But when she brought out R’s dish, they’d inexplicably served it on a piece of bread. R is allergic enough that she couldn’t even pick the bread out and eat the rest – total fail from the restaurant! Many of the other dishes were equally perplexing – either oddly small or not what was described. Looking around, we noticed most of the other patrons seemed to be ordering baked potatoes, which again felt weird for a tapas restaurant. R decided to try the baked potato next and confirmed that it wasn’t anything special. So, we’ll never really understand quite what was going on with the place, but it made for a lot of laughs and a good story 😊!

The next day we expected to get strong winds again (not quite as much as the day before, but still pretty punchy) so decided to do a long leg to eat up some miles. We left early for Velez-Malaga, 52 nm down the coast. Frustratingly though, the wind didn’t materialise as forecast so we weren’t actually able to sail at all. But, we did at least get a chance to fish and Alec caught himself another small tuna! I took advantage of the relative calm to do a bit of boat work and even managed to rope the others into helping me scrub gunk off the boom that had been left behind by the decals advertising Serenity’s previous owner. The clouds rolled in as the afternoon wore on, but still no wind. So, when I heard from the marina at Velez-Malaga that they only had very expensive berths left, we decided it wasn’t meant to be and headed in early to a nearer place called Punta de la Mona. It was a beautiful little resort, built around the marina, which acted as the town centre with supermarkets, lovely restaurants, etc. When we pulled up, they even gave us a bottle of wine as a welcome gift. So nice! We had a good mooch around and determined that fate had clearly meant us to stop in this lovely spot and were thankful things had worked out so well!

That evening, we took the opportunity to introduce S and R to the Spanish G&T. Traditionally British, the Spanish have adopted the G&T in the last 10-15 years and really made it their own. It is now one of their most popular drinks, which they typically serve in huge, bowl-like wine glasses. So, we had to have one, you know, so we could experience authentic Spanish culture 😉. Afterwards, I knocked up a Thai fish curry using Alec’s latest catch (this is becoming a go-to Serenity First dish!), and we taught our guests our new favourite card game, Yanif. Inexplicably, I had a storming run and managed to win, which was odd given the last time I’d played with Alec, Liv and Elliott I’d lost pretty much every single hand!

CABIN BOY LARS

In Punta de la Mona, while we were wandering around the marina ogling the other boats, we mused about how large the winches were on some of the big fancy sailing yachts. This is how we ended up inventing the idea of “Lars.” We imagined he’d be the cabin boy that comes in the deal when you buy one of these huge yachts, whose job it is to grind the enormous winches. Apparently, in our world, Lars (originally from Norway, but most recently lived in Germany, where he felt more accepted) sported a blond bowl-cut and his favourite activities, besides pulling ropes, included lifting heavy objects and smashing heads together. We even invented him a partner, Svetlana, who would be the onboard masseuse and “fun boss.” Not sure entirely how we came up with all this, but Lars and Svetlana’s jobs on board would be the running joke for the rest of the trip.

ANCHORING AND ART

Despite a low wind forecast, we decided to try for another long jump the next day, so we could have easier sails for the final two days. Sadly, even what little wind we’d hoped for eluded us, so we had to rely on Mick, the engine, for the day. But, we had beautiful sunshine and so enjoyed a lovely passage nonetheless. We even saw both a sea turtle and dolphins!

Eventually we made it to Fuengirola, where we anchored just outside the harbour. This was our one anchor opportunity, and therefore our only “swim off the boat” opportunity, so we made the most of it – getting out the paddleboard and inimitable inflatable pineapple and donut. After a bit of diving off the boat and floating around, I noticed that Serenity’s waterline had developed a bit of an algae film, so thought I might as well take the opportunity to clean it off. I grabbed a brush from on deck and started making my way around, when very kindly Snackbox and Ropeslinger decided to join me. Many hands make light work, and before long we had the boat squeaky clean. It was just in time as well, because shortly after R spotted a jellyfish, which signalled time to get out! We had a lovely evening barbequing sausages and chicken on the back of the boat before an early night called us all.

The next day, we were up extra early (a couple of hours before sunrise in fact) to start for our next destination, and final port in Spain, Estepona. It has a Sunday craft market that we wanted to hit up, but it only stays open until 3pm, so time was of the essence. Hence, we departed at the crack of. It was actually really nice, as we could introduce S and R to night sailing (and the beautiful star scape that comes with it) and watch a truly stunning sunrise together.

We arrived in Estepona just before the marina office went on siesta, which was perfect as it meant we got shown to our berth very quickly! This left us lots of time to explore the market, which we quickly set about doing. A vibrant spot, it had a whole range of stalls selling everything from jewellery and knickknacks to clothing and bags. The stall that most caught our attention though was an art shop. Many of the paintings were by the proprietor himself, but he also clearly had a keen eye and hosted beautiful pieces by several others. We were totally drawn in, especially to his paintings depicting bulls in the ring. It was a particular pleasure to be able to speak to the artist himself, and eventually R and S decided to invest in a few of his lovely works. I can’t wait to visit them and see the paintings in their houses!

We came back to the boat to show off our acquisitions to Alec, but on our way got to chatting with the people from two boats down on Big Sky, a gorgeous 50-foot Jeanneau. Big Sky’s owners, Tina and David, who hail from the UK, were overwintering in Estepona and so knew the place well. We got the inside scoop on marina drama (several abandoned boats and several impounded for various reasons) and they were very generous with recommendations about the town. About this time, Alec emerged from Serenity with a huge bowl of guac (for what we’ve now termed “guac-tail” hour), so we all went over to our boat for a few G&Ts and nibbles. We had a great fun afternoon hanging out and hearing Tina and David’s amazing stories about their adventures bringing their boat down from France and the unusual crew who’d helped them. Plus, Tina and I bonded over sewing, and she kindly put up with my enthusiastic insistence on showing off my new machine 😊.

Later, we followed Big Sky’s recommendation and trekked to the beautiful old town for a traditional tapas meal. This time we were absolutely not disappointed – no awkward tapas here! They served us mountains of ripe tomatoes, interesting cured meats (minus one or two dodgy bits!), delicious cheese and to-die-for sangria. We enjoyed wandering the town’s streets, each of which has a different colour scheme of vibrant flower pots to help guide visitors (and also looks fab). With such lovely people and such a pretty town, we were quite sad to only be staying one night!

THE ROPESLINGER

The next day we finally made for Gibraltar, enjoying a stunning view of the rock on our way around and even getting a glimpse of Africa in the distance. Once we’d settled in, Alec and I convinced S and R to join us for a visit to Gibraltar’s famed chandlery, Shephard’s. We needed to pick up a bunch of things we’d ordered there and welcomed the extra hands to help us tote everything back. We hadn’t quite appreciated just how much there would be though… in particular the 100m of new anchor rope. It was absolutely enormous and must have weighed +120lbs / 50kg. We were just debating how we might borrow a trolley or get a cab to take it back, when R simply went over to the pile of rope and started wrapping it around herself like some sort of extravagant scarf. Eventually she was “wearing” the entire length of rope, and brightly declared she was ready to walk back to the boat! She was serious, so off we went – right down main street on our way back to the marina! The looks from passers-by were priceless; she drew more double takes than I’ve ever seen. It was a good 1.5 mile walk back to the boat, but she steadfastly and happily carried on (though Alec and I did get in on the action at some point and took a loop or two each to share the load). And thus, we dubbed her Ropeslinger – no mere mortal could carry so much rope so far with such ease!

To reward ourselves for both getting to Gib and doing that crazy shopping run, we went out for the classic British meal of Indian food. Snackbox and Ropeslinger found us this ridiculously good place on the waterfront, where we literally gorged ourselves to the point that I nearly fell asleep at the table… (thus also earning myself the nickname of “Mole Rat,” which is apparently what I look like when I’m sleepy!) This set us up perfectly for the next morning, when we planned to climb The Rock.

THE ROCK

After a quick detour to find a trail map, we set off up the hill towards The Rock. Shortly, we came across a checkpoint, where technically you are supposed to pay to enter the national park part. We had not had the foresight to bring any cash, so we batted our eyelashes furiously until the kindly guard waved us through anyway. Buoyed by this success, we marched on at pace, our walk taking us down the western side of the rock, around the bottom and part way up the eastern side before the climb began in earnest. As we rounded the eastern side, we came to a staircase set in the rock, which would take us to the top. The Rock seems to catch nearby weather and we’ve discovered basically always has a cloud hanging about the top. So, as we began to ascend, we quickly found ourselves in the middle of said cloud, with little to see but the immediate area around us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the higgledy piggledy stairs and really felt like we’d earned it when we popped out at the top some time later.  As we started our descent down the western slope, the monkey count began to climb. Soon, there were monkeys everywhere, and we had to actively avoid them! At one point we even came across an area where the local rangers lay out food for the monkeys (to supplement their diet; there isn’t much to eat on The Rock…), where we even got to see some little tiny babies. We actually had mixed feelings about this bit. The rangers seemed happy to get up in the faces of the mother monkeys to take pictures, and of course the tourists around us followed suit. We didn’t think that was very fair to the animals and didn’t feel quite right. So, we didn’t hang out too long. From there, we descended along the top of a high, narrow wall that you walk straight down the top of. It was a little vertigo inducing, and we had to dodge a few monkeys who’d camped out in the narrow path, but before long found ourselves back at the bottom. I would more than recommend this hike – it was stunning, with incredibly varied views, and a great workout to boot. Definitely worth the trip!!

When we got back down to the marina, Phil, our crew for the Gib to Canaries passage, had arrived at Serenity. We had a great afternoon getting to know him and then decided to all go out to celebrate our last night with S and R. They had done a bit of scouting and found that Gib has a Pizza Express, which is actually a UK chain that Alec and I love! It was a great last meal with everyone together!

All too quickly, it was time for Snackbox and Ropeslinger to leave. We had such an amazing week with them, and I am so thankful to have been able to spend so much time catching up with and enjoying the company of with these two wonderful women. I hope to entice them back to Serenity again soon!

With just us and Phil left on the boat, we turned our eyes to the passage ahead and worked through some final checks to prepare. Thursday morning, all that was left was in fact to leave. So, filled to the gills with duty-free gin and fuel, we cast lines and pointed the bow towards the Atlantic.