Runway in center crossing east and west
Sea Turtle moored as plane lands
We have now been meeting more passage-making sailors here compared to the hordes of vacationing sailors in the Med. It is the time of year for those of us who want to do the Atlantic crossing to start exiting the Med and head down to the Canary Islands as the jump-off point. We have met a few Canadian sailors too.
Throughout the Med, we have had very little tide differences, but with Gib so close to the Atlantic, we are now seeing about a 4-foot tide range.
Gibraltar is actually a UK territory. It is in the EU but outside of the Schengen Group of countries that control immigration. As a small peninsula (less than 7 sq km), the 'Rock' dominates not only the skyline but the land surface area. Available land for development is at a premium.
Gibraltar is short on hotel rooms so one enterprise's solution was to build a 7-deck cruiseship named Sunborn and dock it permanently here. In luxury, it offers 5-star rooms, restaurants, a Casino, conference rooms, spa, etc. Built in Malaysia, its only passage was from the deck of the world's largest transport ship to the dock at Ocean Village Marina here where it will stay. Website: https://www.sunborngibraltar.com.
Sunborn - floating hotel
Gibraltarians drive on the right side of the road, as do Canadians, but of course in Great Britain they drive on the left. As Gib is a territory of UK, they get a lot of visitors from there. Consequently they can easily get confused by looking in the wrong direction before crossing a road. So to keep the Brits safe, "Look Left" or "Look Right" is painted on the beginning of the proper crosswalks. Hmmm, wonder how many Brit casualties did it take to initiate that?
As a tourist, Gib offers a lot to see for the size of it. Because of its unique dominant geography and strategic land/sea location, many historical events have occurred here, We spent a couple of interesting hours at the Gibraltar Museum learning about it. Over many centuries, the Rock was occupied and fought over by a wide range of inhabitants: Moors, Spanish, and British to name a few.
Going back much further, evidence was found here of Neanderthal life. We saw such displays of medieval artifacts (tools, bone fragments, skulls) discovered in the shore caves. The Museum is actually built over a 14th century Moorish bathhouse where we descended down into.
Elaborate Moorish bathhouse (copied from internet)
We spent another couple of hours strolling through the Botanical Gardens where some very interesting plants and trees have been planted with some well over 200 years old and plants brought in from other parts of the world as well as indigenous species.
Scene with Moorish brick castle and key in grass
1 of many interesting plants
We needed to slow our pace of travel so knowing we would be in Gib for some time, we undertook some boat jobs and equipment updates including a new instant hot water heater, some new electronics and nav aids, a new Genoa and staysail, and watermaker parts and repair.
Some cold weather settled in so Jordan thought it was time to hook up the bus heater (cabin heat that comes from the engine). While doing that, he noticed a broken engine mount but fortunately was able to just barely get it off for repairs without having to lift the motor.
We also learned of a new-ish product by Garmin that we think is well worth mentioning for passages. It is the Garmin InReach Explorer+. It looks like a small handheld GPS but it is actually much more. It works like a satellite phone (in fact uses the Iridium satellites) but for texting. It has an SOS button essentially working as an EPIRB, giving a Mayday and GPS fix but with the additional feature of being able to text back and forth as you float in your life raft. For us, we simply want to text either land bases (or other boats) for weather checks or perhaps sign up for a weather package.
So we phoned Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC) in Victoria and paid for one and our sailor friend Glen Wilson who was back there for a visit picked it up and will bring it back to the Canary Islands where we will meet up with him before we do the crossing. The unit costs much less than a satellite phone and you pay for a usage plan by the month which you can start and stop anytime. The cost of the variable plans are also very reasonable (check it out on their website).
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