19th to 20th June - Diversion to Greg's second home
Everyone was up at one o’clock and, despite it being dark, the departure was made easy as there was little wind and the harbour lit up by the lights of the working port. At first everything went smoothly but, after a couple of hours the wind started to pick up and we were heading directly into it. Also, the surface current was coming straight at us from the Straits of Gibraltar and was extremely strong. As the wind increased, so did the waves and we now were barely making 4 knots, so with it being a 90 mile trip, there was no way we were going to make La Linea within the day.
I then made the decision to divert to Estepona, which is up
the coast from Gibraltar and it would then only be a short trip the following day. Greg said that it felt like going home as he
and Suzy have a house nearby and Greg keeps his own boat in Estepona
marina. So we thought that, with his local knowledge,
we would be having a particularly special evening.
Estepona marina |
On arrival the first thing that had to be done was to wash
the boat down as it was covered with salt from having to bash through the
waves. This led to the crew having to
undertake another man-overboard drill when Emma failed to attach the broom head
properly when cleaning the side of the boat.
Greg managed to retrieve the broom and bring it back on board with a boathook, which is not a technique I would recommend for a recovering a crew
member.
Greg then called Suzy and together they identified a number
of nice Spanish restaurants for dinner in the marina. Unfortunately, it being Monday, they were all
closed and so we ended up in the aptly named Black Sheep, where we had possibly
the worst Faulty Towers meal imaginable.
The Polish owner clearly had no restaurant experience, the chorizo
starter was just a sausage, the bread rolls were half a burger bun and Greg’s grilled
fish never turned up because “don’t you understand” it takes 40 minutes to
grill a fish. We left and, as Greg had still
not eaten, Emma and I went with him to Haloman Bar which, despite being
established in 1982, was a place he had not been to before.
Emma and I had an excellent cheesecake and Greg, for some reason, a burger
off the children’s menu.
We left the next morning to complete the 26 miles down the
coast and around Gibraltar to Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea. It was sad to say goodbye to the Mediterranean
but there was a good wind and far less current by the coast, so we managed a
good sail for part of the way.
Alcaidesa Marina with Gibraltar in the background |
The marina is very pleasant and we eventually got into our
berth after some scary moments in the cross-wind. Now that we are out of the Med we will be
back to side-to finger pontoon moorings and, after 15 years away, it is going to
take a bit of time relearning the berthing techniques.
Cousins |
We chose Alcaidesa so that we didn’t have to deal with the customs
formalities of arriving in Gibraltar. However, it is only a couple hundred metres
to the border crossing and Richard went across in the evening to meet a friend. Greg, Emma and I ate in the marina restaurant
where the meal was far superior to the previous night. The restaurant was filled with
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