Jun. 25th 2005 - Gibraltar to Puerto Benalmadena
Posted at 4:06 PM, Saturday, June 25, 2005
It must sound like we are alchoholics but after arriving early yesterday into Gib, we heard on the radio from another Rally Portugual yacht - the Moody Grenadier 'Jem'.
This 47 foot ketch is owned by Lousie and Mark, and they used the rally to get down to the Med, and for the next 12 weeks have a hectic guest schedule that will see them visit Spain, the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia, maybe Italy and then hopefully Tunisia and North Africa, before heading out and SW for the Canaries - to then go over to the Caribbean with the ARC in November.
So yet another nice evening out - this time for tapas with M & L - and some nice late wine in their cockpit.
We stocked up on fuel / water / gin yesterday in Gib, and left 0800 this morning for the 53 mile hop up the east coast. It was blowing F 5 out of the west - lovely direction for us.
Leant one new trick on departure.
In Queensway Quay we were moored stern to a jetty with long lines fixed to the seabed holding the stem of the boat, and two lines aft to the pontoon. As the wind was across the boat and we had another right alongside, I used the bowthruster to keep our head away from the other yacht whilst we slipped and dropped our three lines, to power out.
Halfway across the marina on low throttle, we suddenly came to an abrupt halt and I knew immediately what had happened. The bow thruster had sucked in the mooring line we'd dropped! It had not sunk fast enough to the bottom - and it felt for one second we were going to be held stationery. i had momentary visions of us swaying back and forth across the marina and as a result would certainly have clobbered other boats.
Surprising at what speed the options run through your mind at such times!
Can't repeat the internal language to myself for being so stupid as to allow this to happen.
But fortunately they must use very weak tatty rope for these mooring lines - for suddenly we felt the boat come free again to motor out. When out of the marina area and into the main harbour I tested the thruster - and it seemed to work fine in both directions, and raised and lowered itself OK into the in-hull housing.
So hoisting our sails, we cracked off on a broad reach, bimini up, and were soon rounding Europa Point to run away before the breeze on our journey north east towards Denia.
Looking over the stern about 2 miles up our track, I noticed we were still trailing a piece of Queensway Quays mooring line off our rudder! It was not jammed in, and was quickly freed to sink.
I'll owe the guys in the marina a drink when we go back to Gib - so sorry Queensway you'll need to send down you diver and rig the mooring line up again! I suggest if you have idiots like me in you stick with your use of weak / tatty rope.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. Bimini down when we felt chilled in its shade. Bimini up as we boiled in the sun. We had the benefit of the east flowing Atlantic to Med current to help us along, the wind stayed in, and again just under white sails we wooshed up the coast at between 7 and 9 knots SOG.
Benalmadena harbour was entered around 3 pm. It is a large marina development with what can only be described as moorish styled apartments, lots of diversions with bars / shops / aquariums etc. Not my style of place but not bad to experience either (just once mind).
Reasonable price of 37 Euros for one night - the taps all have handles missing and the power connections need a 64 amp plug. We existed on own resources.
Very helpful marina staff saw us parked bow to into the breeze which was still F5 - and once we sort out and see Robbie off tomorrow early for the trip to Malaga airport by cab - we may well amend Swagmans route plans and simply sail non-stop the 300 miles from here to Denia.
If we maintained 7 knots and left tomorrow at 0900 - we would make it by the early hours of Tuesday morning as opposed to our orginally planned late Wednesday evening.
We'll decide tomorrow as it will all be down to the weather. But a strong breeze at our bum should not be wasted; Swagmans full of water and we hardly used any fuel today; and any worry I have with beer volume can be rectified by a trip to the supermarket this evening.
Cheers
JOHN