Tuesday - 28 August 2018

We made an early start from Cadiz to ensure that we had enough tide for leaving the marina. As ever, the draft of the boat makes some of the decisions for us.  As Cadiz is almost an island, we had to go round one end and then right down the long side, and it felt as if we were not making much progress. Know that there are some headlands to pass and that the Straits of Gibraltar have a major impact on the wind, we had chosen a day with little or no wind forecast.  As a result, we had no wind initially and had to motor. Eventually the wind did arrive, and as it was from behind we had the spinnaker up for quite a while and made much faster progress.  The downside of this was that we also could only access the next port, Barbate, at the right phase of the tide, and we were making progress too rapidly. With a heavy heart, we reduced sail to slow down.

The most significant place that we past today was Cabo Trafalgar, the scene of Nelson’s famous victory against the navies of France and Spain in 1805. This, naturally prompted me to read a little more about the battle that is so central to Britain’s naval history. Already the pre-eminent naval superpower, Britain had been blockading France to economical weaken them for years. Napoleon wished to invade Britain, but had to defeat the Royal Navy to then be able to control the English Channel, and allow his invasion fleet to sail. Eventually a French / Spanish fleet had managed to break out and reassembled at Cadiz. They were ordered to attack the Royal Navy, still loosely blockading them but not all of the captains agreed that this was a good idea. Nelson formed a plan of attack, derived from previous battles, and briefed his squadrons accordingly. Eventually the 41 French and Spanish ships went to sea and were engaged by Nelson’s 33 ships.  The result was that the French and Spanish lost 22 ships and 13,781 men, either killed, wounded or captured, to Britain’s losses of no ships and 1666 men killed or wounded. All 3 of the national commanders died either in the battle of in the aftermath, and the threatened invasion could not take place.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. As we approached Barbate, we had to avoid a massive area where they lay tuna nets.  At certain times of the year there are also tuna lines, which are very unpleasant for boats like ours to get tangled up in. The areas seem to be well buoyed, so that you are aware of where not to go, but even so, there is a certain amount of trepidation in crossing an area of potentially hidden dangers. However we made it safely. The upside of the fishing industry is that Barbate is renown for its tuna.  We cycled into town, but were put off by the prices indicated at the restaurants that were recommended by the marina.  We were also told that we should have booked a few weeks ago if we wanted a table at the most famous.

A pile of anchors that are apparently used on the tuna nets.

The sailing guide is fairly unkind about Barbate, stating that it is a bit run down and soulless. We didn’t thin it was as bad as they made out, the ladies in the marina office were jolly and helpful and we have been places where the facilities are much worse than here.

Shortly after our arrival, a rescue boat came and docked near us, accompanied by a Guardia Civil vessel. On the deck of the rescue boat were about 20 people who were obviously migrants trying to enter Europe.  Some were wrapped in blankets, and we could only speculate as to the circumstances of their rescue. They were kept on the boat for 2 or 3 hours while first the police, then the Red Cross and finally a large coach came.   We saw them being driven away, and heard that some of the Red Cross workers were seen in tears afterwards.  I also read in the newspaper today, that a group of migrants had landed on a beach near Cadiz, and walked ashore.  We are right at the front line of Europe.

Distance covered today	44	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1416	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	2136	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)