George and Teri caught a early cab to the
airport (in Malaga) and the rest of us cleaned the boat, filled the water tanks
and after a nice beach lunch at “Larry’s”, Ken, Ron and I waited for John and Niki to
arrive.
New crew on board without too much fuss, a bit of restocking, we were ready to leave around 10AM Sunday morning. 7-12 kt winds encouraged us to put up the
main and Foresails right away. This is
John’s first sailing adventure and so in order to let John, Niki and Ron find
their “sea-legs”, I made Ken promise not to threaten to put up the
Spinnaker. That can certainly alter
someone’s first impression if something goes bad with the spinnaker set or
douse.
We are heading to Puerto Estepona a town of Roman origin
developed from a fishing village into a close-packed tourist resort with
restaurants, shops and a nice market. Today’s sail proved to be about a 35
nautical mile journey. We pulled into
harbor and stopped as directed in our Pilot guide at the Reception dock around
6:30pm. Almost immediately we were
greeted by some of the crew of Evergreen, the boat that George had made quick
friends with. They gave us some local
tips and helped with some Spanish translation with our reception.
We washed down the boat, getting the salt and grim off,
and made Chicken Teriyaki Salad for dinner.
Down the Quay we found a small jazz club that provided us with great
evening fun. In the morning, we found
the same outdoor seating at the club had free wifi and was soon serving us café
con leche’s.
After our morning internet check (necessary
evil), and café, we shoved off to sail across the Strait of Gibraltar to Ceuta,
a Spanish Enclave on the North coast of Africa.
It was 35 miles of sailing and motoring through one of the busiest shipping
lanes I have ever encountered.
With AIS on and my constant monitoring and reporting to Ken at the Helm, we successfully
maneuvered to avoid getting too close to the freighters and high-speed
ferries. At some points we seemed to
have ships coming from all directions and we were on constant alert.
Making it across to Ceuta, we arrived in the
marina around 4:30 and found plenty of berths.
The city is big and beautiful and right next to the marina within steps
of where our boat would be was a McDonalds with free wifi! They’re everywhere!!! Ron, Niki and John later went out to dinner
leaving Ken and I alone to enjoy a quiet dinner on the boat. Very rare for us and much needed at times.
