Monday, November 23, 2009

I'm still alive again!! - Leaving Gibraltar



Ok wow I'm getting really bad at updating this!!

So, quick recap of the last few months. So we made it through Greece, picked up a new crew member, Sarah in Ithaca (home of Odysseus), sailed over to Sicily, up the west coast of Italy, checked out Pompei, climbed up Mt. Vesuvius, went to Rome and Naples and ate tons of pizza. mmmmm. Yeah so then we sailed over to Sardinia for a few days, then across to Menorca, came into the harbor of Mahon armed with only a road map for navigation, then down to the island of Ibiza. Finally we took off down the coast of Spain to Gibraltar.

We've been in Gibraltar for almost 3 months now. What a strange place. It marks the end of the Mediterranean and the beginning of the Atlantic, with the Strait of Gibraltar joining the two. The Rock of Gibraltar looms overhead, with it's Moroccan counterpart Jebel Musa on the other side of the strait (in fact the name Gibraltar comes from 'Jebel Tarik'). Gibraltar is a British colony, but not part of the EU, and has it's own currency, the Gibraltarian Pound.

The Gibraltarian people are special. Not quite British, not quite Spanish, but somewhere in the middle. In conversation they meander between English and Spanish without thought in a kind of sing-songy accent that drives both the Brits and Spaniards insane. The term speaking 'gibberish' actually comes from this very vernacular anomaly.

We've been here in Gibraltar for so long on account of a few pieces of equipment for the boat being shipped (or not shipped) in from various corners of the planet. We still don't have everything we were waiting for, but the frontal depression systems in the North Atlantic this time of the year can cause problems for little sailboats such as ours, so we must move on. So we're leaving tomorrow!!

We've generally had a good time here, we've made some good friends, met some complete nutters, and I must say it has been good to call one place home for a small amount of time.

Also while we here I was able to get my RYA Coastal Skipper License, which certifies me to skipper commercial vessels up to 200 gross tons up to 60 miles from a safe haven, woo!!

Ok so the next step before the big Atlantic crossing is to sail down the west coast of Morocco, and then over to the Canary Islands. From there we will pick up the NE trades across the ocean to the Caribbean!! And from there who knows. There's talk of Guyana, Venezuela, Cuba, DR, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala etc. but you just never know.

So now we head south til the butter melts, and then head west!

Love Willy

4 comments:

  1. Willy, you are an inspiration for me! please email me at kpennell at gmail .com

    I'm from Seattle and I'm really looking for crewing tips if you could help. Thanks.

    Kyle P

    ReplyDelete