or Captain Hugh and The Reluctant Navigator
The Voyage of Vega

Crossing the Straits

Sunday September 13th

Apologies for the lack of recent blogging, from me anyway.  I could blame the lack of WiFi [or wiffy as it’s known here], but mainly it’s just not quite getting round to it. Too much sailing, sightseeing and the general stuff of life.

The last time I posted we were about to leave Gibraltar, which we did at dawn, as I was reluctant to cross the Bay of Gibraltar again in the dark, although there were still plenty of cargo ships to avoid. Early, so we could catch the tide as it turned to go west and also to arrive in Tangier before dark. We retraced our track, going west back out through the Straits of Gibraltar and past Tarifa, the town on the Spanish side of the Straits. We had hoped to have the wind with us, an easterly wind known here as a ‘levanter’, but we had a light westerly wind against us. Strangely the tides were not what they should have been and we ended up battling west against both wind and tide until we passed Tarifa, and some 4 or 5 miles after this we turned left and headed across the shipping lanes for Morocco. We by now had the wind on our starboard beam [ie on the right side of the boat] and had a great sail in force 4 to 5 winds all the way across to Tangier.

I had hoped to download some video that I shot during the crossing so that, from the comfort of your armchair at home, you could share the thrill of sailing with us across the Straits of Gibraltar without the risk of feeling in the slightest seasick. Unfortunately the wiffy connection is so poor here that I’ve been unable to download it. Hopefully later. So a few photos for now:

 

We are now in Mohammedia, a port about 150 miles south of Tangier, and will be leaving around midnight to continue south. I’ll try to get more up to date over the next few days.

 

 

 

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6 Comments

  1. The Jetski

    September 21, 2015 - 6:36 am
    Reply

    Looks very busy with all those freighters. There must be another out of shot by the looks of Hugh’s face and the way he’s gripping the wheel! Maybe though, having read his blog, he’s just contemplating using that damn pole……sounds quite a trying piece of equipment.
    Not blog worthy, but been on the high seas ourselves, passing Protaris and Fig Tree Bay and heading up towards the Green Line taking great care not to get too close whilst viewing Famagusta from the sea. Light winds, no genoas or poles and 40 or so knots here and there. Something called a Red Cobalt with a lovely sounding V8.
    Hopefully now Hugh will find using the pole a lot easier having read my mini blog and probably feeling quite ill!
    Keep the blogs coming, do enjoy them.

    • annie

      September 22, 2015 - 11:34 am
      Reply

      Congratulations if you managed to read and understand Hugh’s post on The Pole. I must admit that I find the idea of the Red Cobalt and 40 knots rather appealing. Especially as we have two long sails, each of over 200 miles, to look forward to. At 4 or 5 knots. xx

  2. Jerry

    September 21, 2015 - 7:41 am
    Reply

    Your trip gets more and more exciting! It’s starting to get a bit nippy here in Blighty, so how about making us all even more jealous with an update on the temperature where you are? xx

    • annie

      September 22, 2015 - 10:48 am
      Reply

      Having a heat wave. A tropical heatwave. No, only high 20s. But plenty hot enough as one has to dress here with a degree of modesty. How the more traditionally dressed women here cope with the heat in their all enveloping outfits I can’t imagine. xx

  3. Steve

    September 21, 2015 - 4:41 pm
    Reply

    That ship looks very close!

    • annie

      September 21, 2015 - 8:15 pm
      Reply

      It was! But fortunately its anchor was preventing it from going very fast, tee hee xx

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