| We departed Cartagena at 9:30 am on Sunday, September 7. From the weather sent by Phil�s brother, very early Monday morning looked like the best time to travel around Cabo de Gata, the major cape at the southeastern tip of Spain. With light winds and a countercurrent of 1 to 1� knots, we mostly motorsailed from Cartagena to Cabo de Gata. We passed around Cabo de Gata at 1:30 am, Monday. We really hadn�t known what to expect with the seas as the winds had just changed from west to east, but the cape of the cat ended up being a �pussy cat.�
Before leaving Cartagena, we really didn�t know if we could make it all the way to Gibraltar, or whether we would have to stop after Cabo de Gata in the marina at Almerimar and wait for another weather window before continuing on to Gibraltar, as each area had its own weather and wind pattern. With continued light winds after passing around Cabo de Gata, we decided to continue on to Gibraltar. Except for a brief 2� hour sail, we motored the entire distance. During the day we moved closer to the Spanish coastline to lessen the 1 to 1� knot countercurrent that we were experiencing further out. After months of endless sun, the heavy cloud cover that day was depressing. During the night we had few ship contacts. Tuesday morning our visibility dropped down to 2 miles as we approached Gibraltar. At noon the fog lifted and we could finally see the Rock of Gibraltar. At 1 pm we rounded its southern point. |
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| At this time we needed to decide whether to stay in Gibraltar and rest overnight or to continue on to Rota, the port we had chosen on the Atlantic side of Spain to prepare Kuhela for the sail to the Madeira and Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. As our weather window for both the Straits of Gibraltar and Rota would close if we delayed, we made the decision to continue. Every 6 hours the tidal flow changed in the Straits of Gibraltar. Our next time to start through the Straits was at 3 pm. Since there was nowhere nearby to anchor, we slowly motored across Gibraltar Bay toward the Straits reminiscing over our time in Europe and the Mediterranean. These last four years had been fantastic!
At 3 pm on Tuesday, September 9, we started through the Straits. As there was always a countercurrent in the Straits of Gibraltar when traveling from east to west due to water lost in the Mediterranean through evaporation, we hugged the northern coastline to minimize the effect. Although we had mixed feelings about leaving the Mediterranean, we were glad once more to be in the Atlantic Ocean where the winds were more consistent. At 4:30 am, Wednesday, we tied Kuhela up to the fuel dock at Rota. In all, we had traveled 319 miles from Cartagena to Rota in 67 hours and 2000 miles across the Mediterranean in 10 weeks, succeeding in our goal to be out of the Mediterranean within the first two weeks of September. We celebrated our accomplishment with a glass of wine. |
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