The Victoria Shadow Association

CALADH

Faro to Gibraltar, May 2009

We flew back to Faro on 15 April to begin our summer cruise which we hope will take us into the Mediterranean and onto the Ionian Islands of Greece by the autumn. Bruce’s boatyard in Faro had proved a good place to leave the boat ashore over the winter. The yard is clean, spacious with strong cradles provided and we found Caladh in good shape. Simon and his brother Jon had come out for a week in late March to do the hard work of scraping back several layers of old antifouling and priming the hull. We quickly knuckled down to antifouling, polishing and cleaning the boat, as well as fitting two additional solar panels, in preparation for the new season.

By 27 April we were ready to launch the boat on a bright and very blustery afternoon. The boatyard has no marina or pontoons and is approached via a winding, drying, muddy creek. We were lowered into the water at the top of the tide about 4pm, together with another yacht and then had to follow the yard’s owner, Bruce in his tender, as he guided us back to the main deep water channel and waved goodbye. We both felt the engine didn’t sound quite right but with a force 5 breeze blowing we pressed on down the channel towards our proposed anchorage about 5 miles away off the Isla Culatra. However, we had not got much further when the alarm warning us the engine was overheating went off. We put out some of the genoa and with the wind behind us, began to sail down the channel. The alarm quickly stopped and we wondered if the problem had cleared but soon it was sounding again. Investigation showed there was no water coming in to cool the engine, indicating something, probably seaweed, was blocking the water intake. Simon’s efforts to clear this as we sailed towards our anchorage failed, forcing us to anchor under sail. This was something we’d only done on sailing courses but luckily the anchor dug in well and we set about clearing the blockage. An hour and a half’s effort with an old metal coat hanger and the dinghy pump to push the weed back to where it had come from, eventually worked and there was a satisfying “whoosh” as water poured up through the intake pipe again. The engine started and seemed to run well after that, so we can only think that we picked the weed up as we motored hard away from the dock in the stiff breeze.

Caladh being launched in Faro

The following morning we weighed anchor and had a pleasant sail 30 miles east along the coast towards the Portuguese – Spanish border. We enjoyed a number of sightings of quite big groups of dolphins en route west towards the Atlantic, sadly the first and last time we have seen dolphins so far on this trip. Late afternoon we reached Ayamonte, a small town on the Spanish side of the Guardiana River with a pleasant marina. We spent a week here completing the work we needed to do on the boat before beginning our summer cruise in earnest, heading east again along the Spanish coast on 5 May.

We coast hopped towards Gibraltar with stops in the seaside resorts of Mazagon and Chipiona. The forecast was for easterly winds, which would probably mean a beat to windward but with winds up to force 4 forecast and a passage of less than 20 miles to Cadiz, we were unconcerned. The early part of the trip was fine but as a squall came through, winds rapidly increased up to over 30 knots on the nose and stayed there. A hard, wet trip was in prospect so we decided to turn back and return to Chipiona and try again another day. However, as we were berthing up in the marina we were caught by a gust of wind and managed to hit the corner of the metal pontoon hard with Caladh’s bow, causing an ugly dent through to the gel coat. This was particularly upsetting just when we had got the boat looking her best for the start of the season but after careful filling and painting over the following days, she looks as good as before again.

We eventually reached Cadiz a couple of days later after an uneventful passage this time, planning to spend a week here sightseeing, including a trip to Seville by train.

Byron said Cadiz was the most beautiful city in the world but he was probably here before they built the container port!

The marina is situated in these rather industrial surroundings next to the busy commercial port, some 20 minutes walk from the old city, but it is worth the walk. It is an interesting and attractive city with winding narrow streets, lovely old buildings, attractive squares and pleasant parks. It has a huge, colourful food market and is a good place to explore for a few days.

A rooftop view of the old city of Cadiz

Seville, the capital of Andalusia, is a two hour train ride away and is a beautiful city. It has a large Moorish palace, the Real Alcazar, which has beautiful tiled rooms and large gardens in which the Jacaranda trees were in full bloom. The cathedral is an enormous and impressive building, where Christopher Columbus is buried, and the climb to the top of its bell tower, La Giralda, gives extensive views across the city. There was too much to see in just one day, but it was well worth the effort.

We left Cadiz on 18 May heading for Barbate, a fishing port about 35 miles down the coast just east of Cabo Trafalgar, the headland off which Nelson’s famous battle was fought in 1805. We had our first glimpses of North Africa and an enjoyable and towards the end, lively downwind sail, as the wind freshened up to force 5 as we closed the harbour. Barbate is a centre of tuna fishing in the traditional way, with a large tunny net anchored to the sea bed just offshore for the summer months. This is claimed to be a sustainable form of fishing as the net size aims to ensure only larger mature tuna are caught and smaller fish and other species, notably dolphin, escape.

The gardens of the Real Alcazar in Seville

page last updated 30/10/2009