April 2016

In which we spend longer than planned in Gibraltar and Algeciras.


We started April at Marbella, with 10 days to spare before having to be back in Gibraltar for my periodic flight back to Scotland.   An old work colleague, Richard, lives in the area and showed us around.  It is on the list of places that we might consider settling down in the fullness of time and it was good to have a closer look.  We took Richard and his son out for an afternoon sail, which turned into a motor as the wind died.  The wind then blew up, making our return to our stern-to berth almost impossible.  We managed with the help of a couple of helpful neighbours but it took two hours of effort to get the moorings in a state where I was prepared to leave them in our absence.

Alhambra Palace

My daughter, Melody, is travelling Europe and I hadn’t seen her since the previous June.  She was doing a clockwise circuit of Spain so we agreed to meet up in Granada. AirBnB found us a nice apartment in the centre of the city and we had a pleasant couple of days, seeing the cathedral and, of course, the Alhambra palace.  Unfortunately it rained for much of the time but did dry out for our visit to the Alhambra.  Mel, who is allergic to boats, surprised us by agreeing to come back with us and actually remained on board for our trip back to Gib.  We did this in 2 easy stages: a motor down to Sotogrande in light airs on Thursday 7^th, followed by a sail down and motor round on the 8^th.  On arrival at Sotogrande, we initially anchored off and, it being a pleasant afternoon, I decided to have a dip to check Ruby’s bottom, including the anodes.  One section of the propeller anode had not gone on smoothly when I replaced it last October, so I thought that I would check that it was firm.  A little extra torque and – disaster – it sheared off.  I now had 2/3rds of an anode around the prop shaft and a stainless bolt jammed in a bronze casting.  There was no practical way of sorting this in the water so a lift out was required. We were having maintenance done in Gibraltar, but there is no lifting capability, so quick calls were made to arrange this in Algeciras for the following week.

Daughter Mel, staying with us for a few days.

On arrival in Gib, we met with the electrician, fabricator and sailmaker and on Sunday 10^th I flew back to Aberdeen, leaving Elsie in charge.

 If anyone thinks that sailing away is key to a stress-free life, they are bound for disappointment.  Maintenance is not only costly, but frustrating.  The parts that you want / need are unobtainable or out of stock; deliveries terminate in hidden depots and boatyards are long on promises but short on delivery.

Knowing that Ruby would be parked for a week, I had arranged for a large chandlery order to be delivered and spoken with (and emailed) Sheppards, the boatyard.  The latter had been invited to meet us at Marina Bay on our previous visit to confirm details but failed to turn up.  Despite being charged for Fedex service, our chandlery order was sent by ParcelForce.  It spent a leisurely 48 hours at Gatwick and then, on arrival in Gib, disappeared.  It seems that they considered their job done and sent a card advising its arrival to Marina Bay. This was filed under ‘don’t care’ and its existence denied in 3 phone calls.  It was left to Elsie to physically check their pigeon holes to find the card, seek out the ParcelForce office and lug 25Kg of goods back to the boat.  Included in this was a wind generator.  One of the major jobs to be done was making a pole for this to sit on and installing it.  With a week to go, Sheppards informed us that their fabricator was on holiday but, on the Friday, they did manage to get an independent contractor, and he (GibStainless) turned out to be very good.

We had a small tear in the mainsail, so this had to go away for repair with a request for a couple of other reinforcements to be made.  It was promised for return within 4 days.  When it was eventually returned, nearly 2 weeks later, the essential repair had been done and one of the reinforcements. Sam had also taken upon himself to make two modifications to the sail (to batten pockets and slide attachments) which were unwanted and potentially dangerous.  

We needed to be lifted for the prop anode bolt and decided that a job planned for the end of the year, replacing the time expired saildrive seal should be done at the same time.  On Monday 18^th, we motored across the bay to Algeciras and were lifted out at Isla Verde.  Supposedly this was for 2 days but no-one was surprised that we were on the hard for a week.  While here we took delivery of a solar panel, planned for months and ordered 4 weeks earlier.  Of course, when it arrived it was wrong and a replacement had to be sent which, fortunately, arrived in time.  This was a replacement for an earlier one which had disintegrated and I was able to fit it myself.  At the time of writing it is working well, which is more than can be said for the wind generator which seems to be producing a fraction of its advertised power. [Edit – now working – hurrah]. Also included on the list of non-urgent jobs was a periodic check of injectors and valves on the main engine.  If any adjustment or replacement was required this would involve a delay of several days.  So, predictably and despite my entreaties, the specialist engineer did not appear until all other work had been done and we were ready to leave.  Cue boatyard manager looking disappointed at my impatience.

Ruby out of her element again.

Ruby was re-launched on Tuesday 26^th.  The winds were light but we had missed the best tide of the day for re-entering the Med, so just motored back across the bay, this time sampling the marina at La Linea.  Very pleasant (and cheap) with shops to top up our cooking gas and food.

An early(ish) start on the 27^th, to catch the tide and we were back on voyage.  The plan was to day sail back to the Marbella area but the forecast for the following week gave 36 hours of following winds and then nothing favourable for at least a week.  We decided to go for it and headed well out, to catch the wind, using just the genoa for the first 24 hours.  Unfortunately, the wind died after 24 hours leaving us with no handy suitable port so we motored, then motor-sailed the last 50 miles, arriving in Garucha at 1800 on the 28^th.  I managed to sleep on voyage and Elsie ate, so we are definitely improving. 

The following day, we had a moderate NE’ly wind, which gave us an excuse to try out our ‘new’ stay sail.  The owner of a similar boat in Gomera reckoned that he found his ideal for sailing to windward and I managed to find a second-hand one which fitted perfectly at reasonable cost.  This cost was almost doubled by needing new cars for the jib sheet track but our experiments with the storm jib between La Graciosa and Madeira made us hope that it would be worth it.  First attempts were not promising.  Possibly, the inner stay was not tight enough; possibly we didn’t have the correct sheeting angle but we found that we could not point as high as using genoa alone.    We sailed 27 miles but only achieved 13 miles up the coast to Despena perros for our first night at anchor in over a month.  This was a lovely bay and would bear closer inspection, but I suspect that it is not cheap!. The shelter from the swell was not as good as we had hoped but both slept well.

On the 30^th, the wind started very light so we motored for a couple of hours.  It then picked up and we had a pleasant beam reach to within a few miles of Cartegena.  There are 2 adjacent marinas near the centre of the town and, according to the pilot book, they are desperate for custom and eager to assist.  2 radio calls elicited no response.  We made our way into the newer marina, negotiating a dredger on 4 point moorings and a regatta of local craft using lateen sails.  No sign of marinieros.  We moored next to the fuel dock and asked people painting boat bottoms on the hard.  They pointed to a notice with a telephone number. This was answered by a man who asked me to call on the radio.  The same man answered and then appeared 2 minutes later.  It transpired that although we were in the basin for the new marina, he belonged to the old one and directed us back past the dredger and sailing regatta to our berth.  It was only 4 hours later that we discovered that it was party night with an open-air disco playing trance music until the not-so-small hours.  Ear plugs are wonderful things but could not prevent April ending with thudding heads.

And last place in the sailing race goes to...

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