Gibraltar

Grey and drizzly, we navigated around a recently sunk bulk carrier and the many large ships anchored out from Gibraltar and tied up at the Ocean Marina @ £58 per night. Just across from the airport (and Spanish border), the marina was perfect for our needs, centrally located, it felt like we were living in a village and made it very easy for us to get all our troubleshooting, repairing, and provisioning done. Every country is different about its check in and out rules, and it does get confusing at times. The last time we had checked in anywhere was in Italy, the Maltese and Spanish weren’t interested in stamping our passports and we couldn’t understand how we could check into Gibraltar when we (and NOETA) were, for all intents and purposes, still in Italy. Not a problem, the marina could check us in and out. I’m still a little confused about how it all works but we didn’t get arrested or fined, so it’s all good. First job was to pick up the new radar and autopilot from Sheppards and our Moulinex breadmaker from TCA, followed by a well-deserved restorative stop - we didn’t realise that 2-4-1 means that you get two drinks each and they are served at the same time. But hey, we coped.

With a long list and wanting to get on with it, we woke the first day full of purpose but with no water, so spent a precious morning pulling NOETA apart to find the water pump fuse hidden in the windlass box. Of course it was there. Raining and cold, water 16 degrees, air temp 13-18, we realised that this was our 2022 winter, all one week of it, but on Sunday when the sky did clear briefly and all the shops were shut, we jumped into TENDER and headed back around the Rock, the massive slope of tunnel diggings quite something to behold.

A week in Gibraltar, we became very familiar with Old and Irish Towns, long streets of duty free electronics, liquor, clothes, and Saturday morning dodging rugged up locals while passing fundraising stalls with home baking. With Christmas just around the corner, the streets were festive at night, and shop windows full of enticing goodies, so Skip stocked up on gin @ £11.50 and I bought a Christmas tree and decorations from M&S, BIA and Cosmopolitan.

Our Kiwi crew arrived, Gregg and Maggie, and we spent many days in the aisles of Morrisons and The Food Co – provisioning for six people for a month. It was great to have them on board, Gregg helped Skip with a myriad of jobs he had on his to-do list, including the all-important rigging check, and Maggie and I talked recipes, planned meals, created a superb spice store, figured out how to use the breadmaker and had a pedicure. You would think that an international French brand like Moulinex would have an English section in its recipe booklet. No, it has French (obviously), Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, but luckily a very helpful chap in the Middle East translated the booklet into English for me and I now have it as a PDF.

It had been six months since I had treated myself to a pedicure and eyebrow tidy-up, so I was keen to find somewhere in town before we left, one of the locals at the supermarket directed us to the Sunborn – a purpose build ship hotel permanently tied up right near us, very handy, and what a treat. It also provided a great opportunity to catch up on the local hearsay, and meet some recent arrivals from the Ukraine, interesting.

It is also interesting revisiting a place and noticing the effect the weather has on the experience. We had spent several days in Gib back in 2018, it was July, it was hot, the sun was shining and we spent a day climbing up the Mediterranean Steps, along the rock ridge, down and around, saying hi to the apes, exploring limestone caves and military tunnels - what a time, so fascinating. With the greyness of winter I was more aware of the insularity of the place, the small population of approx, 33,000 is made up of locals, British expats and, during the day, Spaniards from across the border commuting to work. It is a small town where everyone knows each other and what’s happening, a week was enough, time to head to warmer weather!