Pictures taken from another boat - of us heading round Cape Trafalgar

Woohoo - this shows you the height of the Atlantic swell that day -we're almost out of view!

Rolling along...

Clouds cometh, we're the blip under them...

We're that tiny blip just to right of centre horizon - enormous sea and sky...

This was earlier when we had one reef in the main ready and waiting...

We're a little blip again, right of centre horizon, I remember that cloud, like something out of the Independence Day movie...

The sea really built up while we were under that cloud, seemed an age before we had it all behind us and were out in the sun spangles once again.

This is one of many lovely surprises at sea, other sailors photograph you. Much later in time ( when they spot you in a Port somewhere) they come along with their Memory sticks or scanned disc or external memory chips and leave them with you to download; returning later in time to recover their property. It's a great way to make friends too. We've had The League of Nations (oops, defunct, read United Nations)   onboard our boat in the last three months. The photographers above are German, Jok and Ushi. The main photograph at top of Blog was supplied courtesy of Jacques from Normandy.

What do you do on a wet Saturday afternoon on a boat in Gibraltar?

For Becks! You marinate Salmon in Mirin and sesame ready for the evening meal ...

If you're Greg you watch Man U beating Arsenal 2- 1 then...

Norwich beating Stoke 1 - 0 then...

 

I sit in my cosy little corner...

 

(For Mark Phillips) Doing the Times Crossword - what on Earth is 44 Across?

And then Greg watches ANOTHER match - West Ham v Man City and he's going to watch Match of the Day tonight as well :O) The sun is due back tomorrow!

 

 

 

Halloween/Samhain evening on our boat

This is tissue paper over our anchor light suspended in the cockpit...

The little lanterns I made earlier - it was breezy on the pontoon so I had to use rubber bands to stop the lanterns blowing off the jars - a freaky bondage thing going on now I look at them...

And expected weather in UK for Halloween. Hope it didn't deter your little trick and treaters, we had ten turn up :O)

 

Halloween/Samhain day time Gibraltar

There are quite a few liveaboard children here.  Today I've been busy making lanterns for our pontoon and buying sweeties!

First British Airways flight of the day - it's quite a spectacle watching these babies head for the Rock...

A little cutie on Main Street...

 

On the trail of Bigfoot...

 

 

I'm not sure if we have these in the UK anymore...

Fags are duty free in Gibraltar!

Onward to Gibraltar

We left Barbate just before sunrise...

Cape Tarifa - reknown for winds in excess of 30 knots most days of the year, also the Windsurfing Capitol of the World. Today a pussycat not a Lion...

So kool to be able to see north Africa and Spain simultaneously. Morocco to Starboard as we entered the Straits...

And the first sighting of the "Rock' in the distance...

 Then a weird cloud - well it is England :O)

Out of the blue ( grey?)  we were hit broadside by a squall, 35knots gusting to 38 - I thought that cloud looked dodgy...headed into it, dropped our sails and bashed across the Bay...

Past several big pieces of steel...

To a blue sky again. One view from our current position...

 And panning to Starboard :O) Now to get out of wet clothes, shower, hot meal and some much needed shut eye!




 

Weather last night

Glad to report no lightening last night just rain and more rain. I thought we had a few hundred Flamenco dancers on the roof! This morning all we can see through the sea mist is that spirit sapping drizzle...hey ho, there is blue sky above it all I know there is.

Holed up in Barbate Marina ( there are worse places to be )

And this folks is the view from one of our windows! Three months of blue skies and now this - at least the decks are getting a good wash and rinse out there. Last night we had a non-stop thunder storm with massive flashes of green lightening : Never knawed a night like it. We lay in our berths consoling ourselves with the thought that our little mast was probably the shortest in the fleet here in Barbate Marina therefore unlikely to take a direct hit. Greg was worried our onboard technology, so carefully installed and nurtured by him these past months, would be 'ZAPPED' with squillions of volts by some stray lightning bolt. The rain has continued all day long, sometimes coming down as it does in the Tropics, and as I type it is making yet another appearance. It's almost midnight so fingers crossed the lightening won't reappear tonight. I love the storms, lying in the boat listening to the mayhem outside is strangely comforting, but I am oh so glad we are not out to sea in it. We hope to have a wind and weather window to head down to Gibraltar sometime this weekend, but if not, there are worse places to be than Barbate :O) Here comes the rain AGAIN...