At the door of the Mediterranean

Another Levante (East wind) gale warning is announced by Sept 12 in the night, wind surfers are surely happy about that but not us. We could switch to the other side of the Island of Tarifa but there are too much waves after several days of Poniente (West wind). Our neighbor, always stressed out by the weather, decides to go to Gibraltar, so do we. We weigh the anchor at 3pm and leave for “the Rock”, the wind is S S-O Force 5 but the current will also push us, up to 9 knots. The sea traffic is very heavy in the vicinity of Algeciras, fast ferries to Morocco are running full speed, don’t expect them to slow down or change their course. There are also a lot of huge cargos anchored in the entrance of the bay. After 17,5M, we arrive at 6pm at La Linéa anchorage (on the Spanish side of the long dike), there are already about 30 boats anchored in this place.
Gibraltar is a UK territory and you need to flag your passport to pass the border, which is materialized by the airport runway that you cross by car, bus or foot in between the few daily take-offs and landings. Nothing extraordinary here: double deck buses, red phone boxes ok, but mainly duty free alcohol and tobacco shops, for electronic goods there’s no good bargain.
The strong East wind hasn’t shown up, some gusts but nothing serious; maybe it’s worst in Tarifa. Wind should keep on blowing East until next Tuesday, maybe Ludo will go back to Tarifa for a couple of days to practice kite surfing a little bit more. I will go back to France for some time to give support to my grand-father who’s seriously sick.
By the way, we are in the Med! The anchorage in East of the Island of Tarifa was already technically in the Med, but now in Gibraltar it’s indisputable …