Flag of Gibraltar
Apologies to everyone who has been holding
out for the next instalment of my blog – we have now been in Gibraltar for 10
days (and counting) and have become far too relaxed and really rather
lazy. I do have to mention, however,
that one of our fellow cruisers here in the marina, who has been sailing for
some years now says that he does “one job per day” and once that is finished he
feels that he has accomplished something!
We have been going to bed late, rising later and eating and drinking and
socialising way too much (is there such thing?).
In the meantime, we have been using our
bicycles almost every day, doing a huge amount of walking and of course
exploring and sight-seeing.
We had a smooth ride into the Straits of
Gibraltar with some fantastic coastal scenery on either side (although we were
close to the Spanish side, we could see Morocco quite clearly). As we had been warned, by late afternoon the
wind picked up and soon we had only the genoa up and were making over 8 knots
of speed! Of course this whipped up the
sea as well so that by the time we entered the Bay of Gibraltar, it was windy
and wavy. The area was littered with
tankers, freighters, ferries coming and going and all sorts of pleasure
boats. It’s really not a place you want
to be moving through at night or in a fog with a small (relatively speaking)
pleasure boat such as Bisou.
We found the gap in the breakwater and then
the entrance to the Queensway Quay Marina (very narrow and at a right angle so
how the bigger boats get in and out is a mystery to me!) and were amazed at the
complete lack of wind and wave action once inside. To be fair, the marina is surrounded on all
four sides by three or four-storey apartment buildings which contribute a great
deal towards protecting the boats inside from wind and swell, but the feeling
is open enough that you do not feel claustrophobic. We proceeded to what we thought was the
reception pontoon but were immediately directed towards the sea wall at the end
of the marina which is lined with restaurants.
Thinking that this was where we would check-in, the attendant who
assisted with our lines advised us that this was where they berthed catamarans
of our size! Fortunately we were able to
lay alongside the sea wall, and so mooring was not a challenge (as it can be
with ‘Mediterranean mooring’ using lazy lines elsewhere in the marina), but the
disadvantages were that we had to use loose lines to compensate for the tides,
and we were also completely exposed to passers-by as well as the diners at the
restaurants a few metres away! We do
have sun shades which are semi-transparent from the inside out but completely
opaque looking in, and we put these on our saloon windows as soon as we had
Bisou secured.
It was my job to head over to the marina
office and get us checked in (and thus ‘checked out’ of Schengen Europe –
phew!). To our utter embarrassment we
realized only on approach to Gibraltar that we did not have either a UK nor a
Gibraltar courtesy flag, but it seems that this must be a fairly regular
occurrence as the marina office manager calmly handed me on when I mentioned
this to her – of course it came with a fee, but at least we had one! This was the first marina where we would be
charged an additional cost for electricity and water but the marina fee was so
reasonable we didn’t baulk. In addition,
we found that we really didn’t need to use the shore power at all as we have
been able to charge our batteries sufficiently to meet our needs during the
sun-filled days! Tad was keen to give
Bisou a good wash since we had not done so since A Coruna, so we agreed to pay
for water (a penny a litre – it doesn’t sound much but it does add up!).
Our first meal ashore was in Gibraltar’s
‘oldest pub’ and sadly the food tasted like it!
We ate it anyway as we were tired and hungry and retreated to our bed
for a good night’s sleep.
Over the next few days we assessed our
situation, relieved to be somewhere that was not going to count down our
Schengen clock, where they speak English (sort of) and in a reasonably priced
marina. Being against the seawall had
its disadvantages (already mentioned) but in the scheme of things, it was easy
to get on and off the boat, a conversation piece (lots of people have stopped
by for a chat, taking photos, etc.), and of course great for
people-watching! We have had one or two
evenings when the revelers at one or another of the nearby restaurants have had
festivities that have continued into the wee hours but somehow we manage to
fall asleep and not have too bad a time of it.
View of Gibraltar from the Top of The Rock
View of Bisou against the seawall in Queensway Quay Marina, Gibraltar
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