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 lots of locals and felt very authentic.  Emma had some lovely freshly barbequed sardines.

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