We had a relatively short stop in Gibraltar, but did do some important victualling, had a great steak dinner, bought some pretty dresses (for Laurie!) and got to the top of The Rock – albeit via cable car – to visit the apes.
Our onward journey was expected to be a pretty light wind affair which proved to be the case – unfortunately in spades! We had a buddy boat on this trip – Dan and Alison on Equus, a Taswell 43. We left the anchorage in La Linea in the early afternoon and both made a stop at the fuel dock in Gibraltar to take advantage of the cheap(?!) ($5.11/US Gallon) diesel before heading on for a 2 overnight passage to Cartagena.
Initially we had decent wind – though from the direction in which we wanted to sail – but we carried on until the wind died and we started motoring… That continued for hours 🙁 Finally the wind picked up – after dark – and in darkness we were setting a poled out genoa and preventing the main for a rolly wing on wing sail. Not comfortable.
In the early morning the wind shifted direction and then increased, catching Laurie in an accidental (but prevented) half gybe. She woke me, and in an attempt to free a stuck clutch on the preventer, I managed to screw up and we completed the other half of the accidental gybe!
Late the next morning, Laurie suggested we switch to the spinnaker and what a good idea that turned out to be and we had a wonderfully long spinnaker run with speeds in the high 7 and 8 knots area, right up until it was getting dark. We had fallen behind Equus during the night, but ended up screaming past them with the spinnaker.
We changed sail to the genoa again for the nighttime hours and I ended up having to reef down heavily (2 reefs in main, handkerchief Genoa) to drop our speed from mid 9 knots to mid 7’s! Sadly, shortly after midnight, the wind evaporated and we were back to motoring! In the early morning hours the wind had returned but we’d be very close hauled – so we sailed with main and inner jib, struggling to hold our course for a direct shot to Cartagena… We arrived at 10:00am and took a slip, getting tremendous help from the marinaro.
Cartagena is getting ready for the Easter celebrations – which includes numerous elaborate processions through town, and making the town center a really vibrant place to be.
We’ve had a lovely stay here, but the islands are beckoning and a sort-of weather window approaches us tomorrow, so we’re going to take advantage – even though it may mean adding more hours to the engine… Both of us are anxious to get back to some island hopping and sitting to anchor in some remote spot. (Is that possible in the Balearics?)