Florian:Gibraltar II – Regenerating
We are in Gibraltar waiting for the right winds to depart for the Canary Islands. It´s about 600 nautical miles – about 5 – 7 days. What we need are consistent notherly winds; they usually are created if there is a strong high pressure field over the Azore Islands.
It´s an amazing atmosphere here in the marina of La Linea. Most of the ships are waiting for the right winds. There are some who are participating in the ARC 2013 (Atlantic rally for Cruisers), an organized crossing of the Atlatic (about 250 ships) that became also a race – even though thats not the reason for this yearly event but rather to cross the Atlantic in a crowd.
We are getting our ship ready for the crossing to the Canary Islands. I check the ventils of our motor, check and add the oil of the motor, clean the cooling liquid, check all sails and the mast. Buy new charts for the Canary Islands and Cap Verde Islands as well as the Carribbean (in Austria and have it shipped via UPS to me, since they are not really up to date in Gibraltar or Spain and its cheaper to have it sent rather than to buy it here). Our Ham Radio is still a source of problems and does not work properly; even though I have finally got some weather via our pactor modem; a device that transfers e-mail messages to request weather information into short range waves – amazing, but tricky).
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| Our marina in La Linea |
Well we are ready for departure. All work is done. All we need is to buy some food for the crossing and we can depart. As it looks today this could be on Saturday, October 5th. Others have already departed or leave on Thursday or Friday. We rather wait for another day or two until the weather has stabilized itself towards a consistent northerly wind situation.
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| the way we have to go |
Today – after being up in the mast and checking everything up there – we had time to visit Gibraltar. Since Martinas knees and hips dont like long walking, she was with our bike and I with my running shoes.
Gibraltar is a very nice and scenery city. We walked up to the High Rock – the highest point in Gibraltar. I guess I was the first one to bring a bicycle all the way up – in order for Martina to be able to ride down on the bike and not use her knees and hips. Three hours of running all the way around in Gibraltar – plus the high rock (getting the bike up there) – is quite a difference to the usual work every day on bord. It was nice and now I am tired; legs are sore enough for a week at sea with no running.
We are anxious to get started. Next stop Canary Islands. See you there!