ENGLISH POST NR 4°

04.-09.10.2013: Florian: Crossing Gibraltar - Canary Islands

The facts: its 586 nm from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. The exit of the mediterranean is tricky. The weather needs to be observed to find the right „hole“ of northerly winds fort he crossing.

Our reality: it is our first major crossing and the first one in the atlantic ocean. Some say you haven´t started a circumnavigation bevor you have not left the mediterranean. And its true: ys long as we sailed in the mediterranean – the mare nostrum = our sea – we somewhat felt like on vacation. Now this should become different. We have heared about the large wavers on the atlantic, large but long. The water is cooler as in the mediterranean and the weather should be more stable as in „our sea“.

You need to find the right moment to leave the harbour in order to get well through the straight of Gibraltar. Strong currents are said to be there. All skippers – and therefore us as well of course – discussed in length when we should leave from marina La Linea (on the peninsula of Gibraltar but still on spanish grounds). There is tons of articles and litterature on that topic. I thought if the otherones can do it, why shouldn´t web be able to do it as well.

The other important factor ist he weather. You need to wait fort he right weather – which is a week of northerly winds. The are said to occur if there is a high preassure field over the Azore Islands. We have waited for almost two weeks fort hat and then it looked like the weather would be right. Others where not of this opinion and did not leave yet. But if its one thing you learn on an adventure like ours its that you have to make your own decisions.

So we left on October 4th at 8:30 a.m. 5 1/2 hours after the last high tide in Gibraktar. We should have currents from the east (Mediterranean) to the west (Atlantic). And we started out perfectly. Through the parking lot of big ships (and they are big indeed - let me tell you) in the bay of Gibraltar we motored, since there was no wind. As soon as we put our bow out of the bay and entered the straight of Gibraltar things changed. We slowed from 5,5 – 6 knots down to 4, and then 3 knots. Where was our current that should speed us up towards the Atlantic?

We passed Punto Tarifa - the southernmost point of continental Europe – and fought our way west (I sound like one of the old settlers in the US). And then we slowed down to 1,5 knots and 0,8 knots. It was frustrating. What all the books and articles did not write ist hat you always have west – east currents in the straight of Gibraltar; its because the Mediterranean evaporates more water than the Euopean rivers feed into it; therefore the Atlatic ocean consistently sends its waters into the Mediterranean. The question is not if you have currents east or west, the question is whether the west - east current is stronger or weaker.

Well, now I know.

At 0,8 knots and winds head on I gave it a try, put up the sails and sailed high up on the wind southsouthwest. Our plotter showed us that we would hit the African coast west of Tanger/Marocco. I hoped that the current would be weaker by the time we where there and that the wind would change more towards the north.

And I was right. We did not collide with the African continent and passed Cap Espartel at 17:45 – pffff.

The wind picked up, we stopped the engine at 19:30 and suddenly it was quiet and we anly could hear the splashing of the sea against the bow of our ESPERANZA. We where happy and sailed into our first night on the Atlantic. We have left „our sea“ and are now definitely „on the way“; the vacation is over – the adventure has started.

Martina does the watch shifts from 20:00 – 23:00 and from 02:00 to 05:00; mine are therefor from 23:00 – 02:00 and from 05:00 to 08:00. We figuerd that Martinas shifts are a bit easier since you cannot sleep at 20:00 anyway, so it kind of feels that you only have one shift (from 02:00 until 05:00).

When I started my second shift at 02:00 things where going nicely. But then I saw the first lights on the horizont. And they became more and more – after one hour it looked somewhat like on a busy street at night – lights everywhere – fishermen! I woke up Martina to help me keep a sharp lookout and tried to keep our ESPERANZA out of the way of the fishing boats. It was nervewrecking. And then there also those blue blinking lights; buoies for nets – great!!

The difficulty is that its difficult to estimate the distance of the lights. They could be close and small or big and further away. Suddenly – about 100 yards in front of me – a sparcly lit fishing boat crossed the waters in front of us. I saw them literally in the last moment. After they had crossed the flashed a flash light to show me that they are there – well thanks, I knew by then – and flashed furiously back with my flashlight.

It was strange. Probably 50 fishing boats in one small area. If I´d be a fish I would stay away from there.

And then we had passed them and sailed towards the first sunrise at sea. Our log showed 110 nm at 8:30 on Oct. 5th. The wind turned northerly and we put up passat sails. One front sail left and one front sail right. But the wind that was on the forecast did not show up. At noon our first etmal was 106 nm.

In the afternoon the wind came – and didn´t leave us any more until the Canary Islands. The following days we logged etmals of 121nm, 117nm, 140nm. It is really difficult and consumes a lot of energy to by pushed around for days by the waves, to always need to hold on in the ship, to sleep pressed in between to pillows in order not to toll around in the bed, or to sleep on the floor between the bench and the table in order not to roll around. We found out that these long crossings are an adventure and not a vacation.

However after 607 nm at 10:00 we reached the bay La Francesa on La Graciosa/Canary Islands. The feeling when we dropped the anchor was overwhelming. Martina and I hughed and kissed each other. We just had accomplished something quite extraordinary.

Now it is time to relax, restore our energy, celebrate our victory and explore the Canary Islands. Now its vacation – well almost…