7th & 8th June - Towards Cabo St Vincente and Gibraltar

With the wind directly behind us the motion on board was a little awkward due to the rolling of Fenix in the following waves. The moon had slipped down over the western horizon before I came on deck and the dark night sky that remained was made bright by the presence of Venus. We were making good progress towards Cabo St. Vincente given the conditions and we rounded the Cape just after 9 a.m. in glorious sunshine. The wind moderated and seas flattened with a slight 5 knots of wind and we steered our new course of 113 for Cabo Trafalgar and the Straits of Gibraltar.


With calm waters and good afternoon heat I prepared an extensive grazing picnic lunch. The assortment of Guernsey smoked glazed ham, salami tartuffo, suffolk gold and blue, Camembert, goats cheese, sliced tomatoes and pears was served with a rustic bread purchased in Cascais and devoured with relish. Dinner followed a similar formula with the addition of cold baked snapper, potato salad with garlic mayonnaise, mange tout and asparagus, served with a Cote du Bourg 2005. The skippers walnut and coffee cake was served with clotted cream and set us up for the night watches ahead.

2 a.m. - 36 17.68' N 6 40.16'W - 1017 millibars - 7.1 knots boat speed - 3.5 knots wind speed.
Sometimes it is difficult to get a sense of what the conditions might be like before you come on deck and the conversation that takes place in the changing of the watch often gives you an understanding of how conditions might be developing. As I surveyed the horizon in the very dark night, it was quite evident that we were closing in on the Straits of Gibraltar and Cabo Trafalgar. The horizon to the north and north east was illuminated intermittently by the lumes of light and lighthouses from Cadiz and other cities along the Spanish coast. Meanwhile on our starboard side a dark indistinct horizon suggested the African and Moroccan shore. A lume of light from the city of Tangiers just off the starboard bow, a long way distant, was the only visible evidence of urban settlement.

The sea was very calm and almost motionless and the slightest of swells was beginning to take its shape on the surface of the sea. Under full main and under engine Fenix pushed made her way effortlessly through the oily water. Luminescent lines in the water revealed dolphins once again were close by. Every so often I could hear a fluttering sound in the water alongside the hull as the water was pushed away from the sides. The sound was more agitated than it should have been and it soon became clear that we were travelling through very large shoals of slumbering sardines. Upon awakening suddenly, and with surprise, they literally took flight and were jumping out of the water all around the hull to evade this new perceived predator.

By 5 a.m. dawn was approaching and the lights of Cabo Trafalgar and Cadiz were still visible blinking away against the bright red horizon with deep blue resplendent sky above it. Approaching Cabo Trafalgar we crossed the Banco de Trafalgar where the sea shallows from about 120 meters to a low as 6 meters in places. Just over two hundred years ago the Royal Navy engaged the combined French and Spanish fleet here. While the battle was won by the English fleet, a new threat quickly emerged as the conditions changed and a severe south westerly gale made escape from this shore very difficult for many of the vessels. Nelson's rumoured request and order was to anchor the fleet after the engagement however this did not happen and the Spanish shore was littered with wrecks and bodies for days to come.

As the sun crested the horizon at about 6 a.m. we were abeam of Cabo Trafalgar. With the advent of the dawn the breeze gradually began to build, but more ominously the barometer began to fall and it recorded 1015 millibars as I completed by log entry.


Soon after my watch ended the jib was unfurled and we were sailing again as the wind picked up to 17 knots. This idyllic sailing was short lived and the sail plan was reefed down as we began to sail to windward in winds of as much as 40 knots. Unlike many yachts Fenix was in her stride and we tacked our way upwind, our course limited and confined by the Spanish shore to the north and the busy shipping lane to the south. With the proximity of Gibraltar and Tarifa to the African shore, only separated by approximately 7 nautical miles, the build in the wind was probably accentuated by the narrowness of the straits.


The straits of Gibraltar almost defy description. A great number of ships constantly make their way entering or departing the Mediterranean, while other ships traverse the straits between the ports of Tarifa (pictured below), Algeciras and Tangiers linking continental Europe with Africa. Among this traffic on this day were leisure sailing and motor craft, some recommencing their passage west, making their way out of the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean with favourable winds. There were not many arrivals given the conditions. Sailing upwind, Gibraltar was now made effectively further away and more difficult to get to, with the result that everybody was on deck for the next 40 nautical miles for the frequent tacking as we proceeded through the straits.


We eventually reached Punta Camero, and passing outside Bajo La Perla and other rocks the full size of the Rock of Gibraltar came into view shrouded by cloud as it was forced to rise steeply above its sheer 430 meter high peak. As we exited the straits the wind also moderated to about 20 knots and finally by the time Fenix was docked at 1700 hours the sea was calm once again - 36 8.13' N 5 31.24' W.


After a glass or two of wine, a joint of pork was put in the oven and we were enjoying a full Sunday roast dinner by 2100 hours despite the fact that we had all not slept properly for more than a day.