Heading South

We've cleared the Straits of Gibraltar and turned to the south aiming for Isla Graciosa a small island of the North coast of Lanzarote. The course takes us parallel with the African coast, past Casablanca, before continuing out to the Canaries. Our position at 3.50GMT is N35deg 17' W006 50.

We left Gibraltar at 8.50 this morning (20th October) - we had intended to leave a little earlier to make the most of the tide in the Strait, but we took a while untangling ourselves from our berth. The marina used "lazy lines" which run at right-angles from the pontoon out into the murky water of the marina. We tied the bow to the pontoon then attached the "lazy lines" to the stern.

During our stay we'd taken off the push-pit (the rail along the back of the boat) to have an arch for the solar panel contructed on top of it. Only when we were about to leave did we realise that we'd re-attached the push-pit with the lazy lines inside the rail, so rather than simply cast off the stern lines we had to untie the horrendously muddy and horrily tangled "lazy lines" and re-tie them outside the rail. I had a heart-stopping moment when I thought we´d have to take off the push-pit again.

Kika without push-pit

Farewell then Gibraltar, it was easy to be put off by the fish-and-chips on offer round every corner, the terrible puns (eg a pub named "Penny Farting") and the lines of duty free shops, but once we escaped Main St there was much to be recommended not least, the historical associations, stocking up with difficult to find groceries in Morrisons and boat bits in the well stocked chandlery , catching up on UK news via a re-broadcast BBC radio 4 and most of all to meet up with Robin and Heather.

Currently the wind is NWerly 3-4, sea is smooth, and the moon is so bright its almost like dawn.

Mark and Nat on Freespirit set off from Lagos bound for the Canaries this morning so we're hoping our paths might converge or least we'll be able to keep in touch over the SSB.