Sardinia to Gibraltar

After 11 days in Castelsardo it was good to get moving again as time was starting to slow down as we started to relax with no 'task list' to complete. With a favourable forecast we departed for the Balearic Islands. Despite the forecast for 48hrs of wind this two day trip of 230NM saw us motoring for almost half the passage which was frustrating but is typical of Med sailing.  

We dropped anchor in a lovely bay in the port of Mahon on Menorca Island. Mahon is the capital city of Menorca which is built around a beautiful (long) natural harbour with the town built along the clifftops. The military importance of Mahon harbour resulted in the island being fought over by the British, French and Spanish powers as it could protect large fleets in their entirety with the British occupying the island from 1713-1755. The anchorage was about a 10min ride in the RIB which was good way to sightsee around the harbour on our numerous trips into Mahon. As always being at anchor was a social time as we enjoyed meeting sailors from the UK, Canada and Netherlands.

John increasing the gap at La Mola

The anchorage was directly under the impressive La Mola Fortress which covers a vast area (1 sqkm) and was built in 1852. We enjoyed wandering through the fortress which is regarded today as a Spanish masterpiece of military architecture.  Unfortunately the huge technical advances in gun design made the fortress obsolete within 20 yrs as a series of coastal batteries replace the fortress. We made the most of clear water, with daily swims and John diving the boat to clean the hull. The hull dive resulted in another task - replacing a loose anode on the propeller shaft.

 Although we were needed to keep going to get back to the UK this season, it was bittersweet to pull the

Rounding Europa Point into Gibraltar

anchor after 7 days and know we were leaving the Med behind us. The passage to Gibraltar was our longest yet 550NM and four nights at sea, the bonus of this trip was a full moon allowing the night watch's to have significant increase in visibility. While we had good speed for this trip we still ended up motoring 50% of the way - this part of 'Med sailing' we will not miss! We had a short divert into Cartagena for fuel then continued on. While on watch at 0300hrs Leanne was surprised to hear Sabbaticus being hailed. This was the local authorities advising to watch out for 'a rubber boat with immigrants in front of you' this quickly broke the monotony of keeping 'eyes out of the boat', thankfully we never spotted any boats.

We sailed past Europa Point in Gibraltar at 0530hrs and headed straight for the fuel dock. Filling the tanks with 600L at .34p/L made a welcome change to the budget! Coming back to Queensway Marina felt like coming home, given we had spent three months here for winter in 2014. Our celebratory dinner on arrival was a huge steak meal and then a couple of nights later local fish and chips. We have enjoyed various conversations with the locals on the BREXIT vote - given 96% of Gibraltarian's voted to stay in the EU it was a black day when the vote was announced. With no breakages to fix (although a head pump was replaced) the Gib stopover has been relaxing while we passage plan the trip up the Atlantic coast.

Queensway Marina - an easy place for a stopover

Hiking up The Rock and trying to avoid the 'Rock Apes'