Trying to get out of the Med!

La Linea, really is right next door to Gib…it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the border. I had been strongly advised by a helpful cruiser in Cartagena for us not to go to Marina Bay, Gib as it would be very expensive and snobbish. La Linea was soooooooooo much nicer, she had said, and so it was. We walked across the border without any problems on two occasions, once for the tourist thing (one and a half hours in a minibus to do the Rock, the caves, the museums and the apes) and once to get the duty free ( a couple of electrical items and some binoculars)…….cunningly smuggled back across the border disguised as second hand. So that was Gibraltar……… done!

La Linea was obviously meant to be a huge development but I think they have suffered from the current Spanish economic situation and so finishing the building of facilities etc  is on hold. Pity. There are many liveaboards here as it is a very cheap place to stay….only 10 Euros a night through the winter months. The marina has become a home to one small dolphin that had recently appeared with two others who then left him alone….I wondered if there was something wrong with him but the marina staff said he had been given the OK by a conservation group. There were certainly plenty of fish around for him to feed on.

We stayed a couple of extra days here waiting and hoping for suitable winds to get us through the Straits without hassle and in the end, we left when the winds died down to a comfortable westerly force 3, meaning a bit of a slog but still better than crashing into the usual force 6 headwinds which would have been impossible to circumvent. There is a constant current through the Straits as the Atlantic rushes in to replace water lost from the Med by evaporation. So, with unrelenting headwinds and a current to battle against, leaving the Med is quite an effort!

It eventually took us nearly 24 hours to get through the Straits, past Cape Trafalgar (which was unfortunately rather uninteresting to look at or to photograph) and on around to Cadiz. On occasion, our speed dropped to less than one knot over the ground though we were making over four knots through the water. That means having to push through three knots pushing against you of wind and current (for the less nautically inclined) and, if your speed was three knots through the water, you wouldn’t be going anywhere at all!

Cadiz is a lovely place, suffering from some neglect which is a pity, but a very interesting place to see nevertheless, full of history. I read somewhere that it may well be the oldest city in Europe so that’s some claim to fame. The city of Jerez is only 10 miles (or it may be kilometres) away, a must see for me because of the Spanish Riding School there. We were stuck there until the NE Portuguese trades subsided a little so that we could tackle the notorious Cape St Vincent. ……..but weather forecasts change rapidly around these parts…… Hmmm.

We had a day out in Jerez de la Frontera, going via train, very clean and cheap. The riding school was a real treat for me. I could have stayed for hours watching the horses training. If we’d gone the next day, we could have seen the “show” but I think it was far more interesting for me, as a horse lover, to watch them going through their paces……the young inexperienced ones were fascinating to watch especially as they tried to carry out the more complicated manoeuvres…….the capriole for example. It was also the first time I have seen the “Spanish Step”….amazing….and they really stamp hard!!

In the end, we decided to chance it because if we dithered any more, we might never leave at all. So we set off for a two night trip to Lisbon, about 250 miles in all, half of them more or less west and the rest more or less north, rounding the bottom left hand corner of  conveniently square Iberia.

We made some good progress until part way through the night when the tide/current/wind turned against us and we struggled at times to make 1 knot. Cape St Vincent was therefore a complete no no until the weather improved. We ended up battling 35 knot headwinds ( Force 7) and a horrible lumpy sea to get into Portimao, a hopefully sheltered spot and under 10 miles away from Cape St Vincent,  before nightfall. The nicest part of this leg was a spectacular show of dozens of common dolphins feeding, about half a mile away (their prey, probably tuna, leap right out of the water to try to escape). These dolphins then turned towards us and spent the next half an hour or so playing around the bow. I got a nice little video with my camera of their antics. Later that evening when I had just fallen asleep before my watch in four hours time, I was suddenly woken by something landing on my shoulder. It was a swallow that was flying around inside and outside the boat, trying to find a landing spot. The poor thing eventually settled in a corner as it got dark and went to sleep but it died during the night. It must have been exhausted, possibly blown off course by last week’s strong winds. I always hope they will make it safely but I suppose dying in one’s sleep is a better way to go than drowning.

Portimao is a tourist spot on the Algarve so it’s pretty and clean but getting into the marina was more than a little tricky as we came up the river early in the evening towards it with the full force of the Nortada blasting us at 30knots plus, when this wind is usually at its strongest…..I have since learnt all about this NW wind that builds up most days off the Portuguese coast, caused by warm air rising rapidly over the land that heats up in the morning and most common during June and July. Aha…….just as we are trying to sail up this coast…..Hmm. It quickly produces a NW and therefore coldish blast from the sea that frequently gets up to Force 7. We were driven strongly onto the fuel berth by it, where we spent the night….no chance of getting off till peaceful conditions resumed the next morning. Luckily they didn’t charge for this  because the marina berths here are very expensive and one night’s fees were enough especially as the simple meal we had ashore that offered roast lamb at 9 Euros & a bottle of local red at 10 produced a bill of nearly 50 Euros……..Their equivalent of VAT turned out to be 23%. Ouch! Enough of Portimao. Time to move on……..

So now we started to expect the daily Nortada blast and had to plan a strategy to get us around Ponta de Sagres (Where Henry the Navigator used to “hang out”) and then the ever so slightly more notorious Cape St Vincent which so many sailing ships of old have failed to circumnavigate successfully…….no engines you see! This Cape which almost makes a right angle on the smaller scale charts is the most SW point of Europe and therefore has a sort of romantic air about it…….there aren’t many spots like this…….Cape Horn is another of course.  I digress……………….. We got to Ponta de Sagres in a dayhop and then spent two days at anchor waiting for a quiet moment, via the just ever so unreliable weather forecasts, in which to leave. This came very early one morning as expected and we set off, motorsailing with determination. Cape St Vincent was only a couple of miles away & could surely be conquered easily but would we be able to find somewhere suitable to anchor for the night once around the corner? The wind and the current might mean we could only make a couple of knots once the Nortada set in and this part of the coast is mostly barren cliff face. Well, we eventually rounded the Cape quite easily and I got a good photo or two to prove it, then, we did make an anchorage at Arrifana some way up the W coast which I rather liked because the exposed rocks were delightfully contorted geologically (Africa ”crashing” into Eurasia a few years ago) but, we rocked and rolled here all night as the Atlantic swells blasted in and I read that the beach here can be a Mecca for surfers…….. One night was definitely enough and another very early start was needed to get to Lisbon…………..

Odd photo or two

Gibraltar as we saw it emerging from the haze. The weather got better!

The bullring at Ronda. It's a lovely place but every bit as hot as the last time I visited. The bus journey there and back is incredible....worth it just for that. I took a video but don't know how it would post here.

An ape with attitude. They all seemed to be quite approachable.....but I still didn't have a go apart from giving an old female a drink of water from my ever handy bottle. I know how she must have felt!

Cartagena was full of statues like this, some of them in the middle of the street, sitting on park benches etc Could be a little alarming if one was slightly enebriated on a dark night and one just sort of bumped into one? This is Jackie (Blue Banana) and Dick btw.

After eight months ashore, doing just enough of the money earning flagmaking and an awful lot of knitting (this was necessary for the soul), I came to the conclusion that I would never be totally satisfied until I had completed thAe mission to get around the world on Moonshiner, which had been my original goal. I would just have to accept that I had missed out the Red Sea and Suez but nothing could be done about that given the unfortunate circumstances….pirates in the Indian Ocean last year.

So, I flew out to Menorca at the end of May to join the boat in Mahon and we left after a couple of days of having a look around this quite pleasant island (not too many and mostly the “right kind” of tourists). Dick had sailed the boat across the Med with friends, leaving Marmaris, Turkey in mid March. Moonshiner had been in that part of Turkey since June last year and I spent a month aboard in August just daysailing and mostly anchoring. We had met up with a pair of old friends from Guernsey / Taunton, who are mostly liveaboards, on their Heavenly Twins catamaran, Sundowner…..we had some good runs ashore and enjoyed many sundowners together. Turkey, from the small part I saw, was very pleasant, not too hot, just the right amount of sailing wind at the right time of year…………...and cheap.

 On rejoining Moonshiner, the first destination was a daysail to Mallorca, south and just a little west of Menorca. We arrived in the evening after a motorsail and attached ourselves to a “waiting pontoon” hoping to be able to stay there the night, but a man turned up after a few minutes and said we would either have to leave or pay him 100euros. Eek! No way Jose! So we left, and reluctantly, with much grumbling, found a marina mooring for the night. Our original choice had been the free anchorage outside but it was far too crowded….and we had quickly earned why. Fortunately, in the end, the terribly nice man in the marina said we could have the mooring for that night for nothing as it was getting rather late and we were leaving early the next morning so it wasn’t inconveniencing them at all.

We left and after another half day motorsail, anchored in a bay in the South of the island, Puerto el Arenal for the night. Next morning, we dinghied ashore for essentials and left early the next day for Ibiza, yet another half day trip but this time, we actually had some wind and so could sail properly for a change. We spent the night in the marina at Santa Eulalia…….horribly expensive and just about as far away from the marina office as it’s possible to get and one of those increasingly common purpose built places that seem to cater for tourists and people with big, shiny, showoff, motorboats only. Not a very pleasant experience. One night was enough. The nicest part was being accompanied for a few minutes towards the marina by a lone dolphin.

Next day, we motored the short distance to Formentera, the most southerly of the Balearics. Umpteen ferries cross from Ibiza and create enormous amounts of wash which makes for a lumpy passage! This traffic fortunately dies down in the evening. We anchored on a sandy patch…..you mustn’t disturb the sea grass…they are supposed to have moorings available from the first of June but they weren’t there yet when we arrived so we had no choice. The only thing I shall say about this place, as we didn’t go ashore, is that it appears to be a Mecca for naturist yachties. I simply didn’t know where to look!!

Our next port on the route out of the Med was Cartagena, an overnight sail away and with a marina that looked as though it might cater for sailing people because it’s off the tourist trail. And it was.  En route, we spotted an enormous pod of dolphins madly feeding and, nearby, a small pod of about eight finned pilot whales. We stayed in Cartagena for 4 nights in the end and met some lovely people such as Jackie from E Yorks and Bill from Washington. Bill had been sailing around the world since 1997 with his wife, who had sadly died just a few months ago. They had sailed with Jackie last year and she had very kindly come over to help sort out the boat. We spent a lot of our time in their company and this helped make the stop in Cartagena a very pleasant few days ….we shall stay in touch I hope……but we had to leave….a schedule to stick to if possible……..

Next stop after almost 24 hours was Aguadulce, a small holiday destination for the Spanish, and recommended by a yachtie in Cartagena as a port of call in preference to the more obvious Almerimar which isn’t supposed to be as friendly. Aguadulce was a really nice little place and we stayed for two nights in the marina there, taking a bus along the coast to Almeria for some sightseeing and a bit of necessary shopping too…..I bought a pair of slip on shoes which are the most comfortable I have ever had and I am already wishing I had bought a spare pair…….

Incidentally, en route to Cartagena, we crossed the Greenwich Meridian making this the first time Moonshiner had been in the Eastern hemisphere since July 2010, nearly two years ago and then, on the leg to Aguadulce, we crossed the line of longitude that Guernsey sits on, meaning that Moonshiner had technically been around the world, having crossed all 360 lines of longitude. Land gets in the way from now on!

We had a half daysail to our next chosen (not by me!) stop, Fuengirola. I had heard this name before and we found out why……….aarrghh! The marina was nice enough but it was really hard to get away from the smell of vinegar and pizzas….and the European football was on of course so there was an awful lot of cheering going on all night for some reason……maybe England were playing? Maybe they won, even? Hooray!! The best part about being there was the ability to get on a cheap bus and climb into the mountains to see Ronda. I’d been there before a few years ago with Mary and loved the old town and the tortuous journey to get there, so I thought Dick might like to see it…..It was still really hot as before but it’s such a spectacular place, I’m glad I went again, though I missed going over the bridge to see the old town……just like last time……I was wilting in the overpowering heat and just couldn’t face going any further………just like last time!!

As an aside,this is how I have been amusing myself on the long, long tortuous passages...and I have long way to go......in more ways than one!! I'll try to post a few other photos in the next instalment of something or other......

Fuengirola was the last stop before Gibraltar, the Straits and the Atlantic and this was another half day motorsail. The winds are so flukey around this part of the Med….we had fairly dense fog in Fuengirola and the same on the approach to “The Rock” which made for an interesting approach. Gibraltar is very busy as a lightering (taking fuel etc from anchored ships) place and the Bay was full of fairly large vessels doing just that. I think it’s a tax avoidance thing as well? As we passed one ship that had just picked or dropped off a pilot, the police launch came zooming out towards us……had we transgressed some unwritten rule? It sped past then turned and waited. Then the pilot launch zoomed past and someone on board started shouting at us. Eek! I listened hard and heard him yell at us “You’ve got the Spanish flag up”. So what, we thought? We weren’t going into Gibraltar, but into the (Spanish) marina next door and so the Spanish courtesy flag was correct. We pointed towards this marina, La Linea, and carried on……The pilot boat and the police launch both left. Very childish, I thought.

Bagpuss exposed.

 

Putting these pictures on to help a fellow Raveller with her Bagpuss. He was a bit of a problem to sew up and stuff to get the right look but if he's not quite right, I don't think it matters. he looks OK to me!

A smooth grafted seam with chunky wool.

Instead of casting off the stitches in steps as you shape the shoulders, leave them on the needle unknitted. Then, instead of knitting the next stitch in each step, just slip it onto the right hand needle. This makes the shoulder slope smoother. (I always do this with shoulder seams anyway to get a smoother slope.) Leave the unfinished stitches on holders while you shape the second shoulder.

Now take a third needle of the same size and with right sides together, and the needles parallel as shown in the photo, knit one stitch from the front needle and one from the back together to leave just one stitch on the right hand needle. Now knit the next two stitches on the two left needles together in the same way, then cast off the first stitch on the right hand needle over the second as in the normal cast off method.

Continue knitting one from the front and one from the back and casting off as you go, to the end. Finish off the last stitch as normal.

The wrong side looks like this!

And the right side like this.

You could do this cast off the other way round so that the cast off edge is on the outside if you want to make a different look.

The guernseys made here on the island are finished like this with the shoulder seam on the outside and with a knitted row at first as the stitches are grafted together. Then the cast off is done on the next row. There is a picture of this in an earlier blog.

I hope my instructions are clear. It's quite hard, turning knitting into words!

Squirrel Nutkin

I adapted the Timmy Tiptoes pattern to make him because he's my favourite Beatrix Potter character and I couldn't find a pattern anywhere. I think he turned out OK..... for a first effort.

I don't know if there might be copyright issues here. I'll post this and wait and see!

If there are no problems, I'll have a go at writing the whole pattern down......somewhere!!

TWENTY MINUTE MOUSE

20 Minute Mouse

DK oddments….. approx. 13metres should be enough
3mm needles
Small amount of stuffing.
Sachet of catnip if desired.

Cast on 8 stitches (back edge) leaving a long end approx 1.5mtrs (for tail).
Ss 2 rows
Next Row, Inc in every stitch [16sts]
P 1 row
Next row,(Inc 1, K1) to end [24sts]
Ss 13 rows
Next row K1 (K2 tog K2) to last 3 st, k2tog K1[18sts]
Ss 5 rows
Break wool here leaving end of 2 mtrs approx. and thread onto darning needle
Next row K1, K2 tog, K1, K2tog, cast on 7 sts.
Thread needle (carefully to avoid tangles) through these 7 sts, & draw up tightly to form ear on right side of work Fasten off firmly with a stitch or two through work.
Continue with remaining sts on left hand needle. K1, K2tog, K1, K2tog, cast on 7 sts.
Thread needle through these 7 sts, & draw up tightly on outside of work as before to form 2nd ear.
Continue with remaining 6 sts on left hand needle, K1, K2tog, K1, K2tog. [12sts]
Ss 5 rows
Next row, K2 tog to end [6sts]
Thread needle through these stitches and pull up tightly to finish off for nose, then use remaining yarn to join body seam, stopping about 2 cm from the tail end.
Stuff nose end, then place small bag of catnip inside body cavity if desired, and stuff remainder firmly.
Take 1.5metre length from cast on edge, double it and twist up tightly until it doubles up on itself to form a tail of whatever length you prefer.
Fasten the twists off near to the mouse body with a double knot.
Tuck this knot into the stuffed body of the mouse and sew up remainder of body seam, then gather the cast on body end by threading needle through every stitch, pull up tightly and fasten off taking one or two stitches through the tail knot for extra security.
Sew on a couple of eyes in black, if desired, with a French knot.