Tuesday – 21 August 2018

Chipiona to Cadiz

We have now started to become aware of, and be effected by, the special weather characteristics that apply to the area surrounding the Straits of Gibraltar. There are very strong winds that blow most frequently from the east, but sometimes from the west, at 35+ knots and last for days at a time.  I haven’t yet got an understanding of why this happens, but knowing that it does has started to impact our short-term planning.  Over the last few days we have also seen little wind in the morning followed by quite a lot fairly quickly in the afternoon. Knowing that the same was forecast for today, we wanted to be prepared to leave as soon as the tide was high enough for us to get out of the marina, at about 10:00, and this we did.

We experienced the pattern expected as we went for the relatively short hop down the coast to Cadiz. No wind to start with, but around 20 knots for the last hour before we arrived. It was remarkable in that for almost the entire journey we could see a significant landmark at each end, the lighthouse at Chipiona and the bridge at Cadiz.

We arrived at siesta time, but there was a marinaro working who tried to direct us straight to a berth before understanding that we wanted to get fuel first. This is only the second time we have had to buy fuel since we left the UK, and the other time it was a fairly minor top up. This time, we were well down the tanks and wanted to be sure that we have plenty available for any mechanical assistance that we may need getting through the Straits.  We had set up, as instructed by the marina in an earlier phone call, for a starboard side berthing, and the fuel pontoon was going to be a port side to, so we went past, turned around and came back to save having to change over all the lines, a time-consuming job when there is only one deckhand to do it.  Going to the fuel berth also gave us the chance to look at the berth that we were going to go to.  The wind was a consistent 20 knots, pretty well in line with the finger pontoon that we were going to berth against, but therefore at 90 degrees to the path that we would take between the major pontoons.  We elected to keep the stern into the wind, the most controllable direction and made out way along between the lines of boats going sideways. Fortunately, the gap between the boats was a bit longer than our boat, but as we were crabbing along, there was a continuous dialogue saying “you are getting close at the back” or “you are getting a bit close at the front” resulting in the appropriate adjustment. The guy on the boat we were going to go next to saw this, and rushed out to deploy more fenders on the side that we would be arriving. Once down the line of boats we were in perfect position to just ease back into our slot, which we did without getting anywhere near his boat. Both he and the marinaro complimented Tricia on the manoeuvre.

Cadiz is almost an island, connected via a narrow strip of land.  The bridge provides another way to the mainland and is visible for miles.

So here we are in Cadiz, apparently the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe, dating back over 3100 years.  It has been inhabited by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Moors and for the last 750 years it has been part of Spain. There are various interesting things to explore here and more history to learn but first we are going to take a day off from the boat tomorrow and go by train to Seville.

Distance covered today	22	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1372	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	2092	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)