Gibraltar to Canary Islands
27/02/09
Day No: 04
Position: N 31 20 W 011 36
Miles to go: 280
Wind Speed/Direction: 15 kn 045
Weather: Cloudy
Sea State: Moderate
Destination is Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. We are 430 nm from Gibraltar.
Hi trust this finds you well.
We left Queensway Quay Marina at 0840 on Tuesday 24 after they opened the floating boom to let us out. We then moved around the harbour to the fuel dock across from the Airport. Departed the dock at 1000 hrs on our way to the Canaries. At least the fuel prices were much better than anywhere in the Med.
To take advantage of the Eastward set we had to leave by 1100 at the latest. We got that right, having a pleasant motor at 6.5+ knots out through the Straits, crossing the Traffic Separation Zones in the presence of heaps of shipping in calm and warm conditions. The forecast for Gibraltar and the Straits was for Easterlies force 8 in the early hours. In fact they, according to our Met Info have had force 9 conditions for the last 3 days... We were thankful to have missed that!!
Queensway Quay Marina...hmmm. Quite new, right downtown, chic with bars, restaurants and up market surrounding apartments, even reasonably priced by European standards but there it ends. A design fault makes it very uncomfortable even in light airs.
It is located on the old harbour/city wall and is about the size of a football field and is fully enclosed except for a very narrow right angled entrance. All of that is enclosed in the old "Great" harbour which is almost totally enclosed by 2 surrounding breakwaters probably up to 1/4 of a mile out from the main docks.
It suffers from sympathetic resonance! Ie any small surge outside is amplified inside the Marina. (just like an acoustic guitar or violin amplifies the small movement of the strings for certain "resonant" frequencies).
We experienced only 20- 25 kts when we first arrived and AC and all the other Vessels were uncomfortably moving up and down and in and out. We suffered damage to our transom and wore out one of our stern lines. Sleeping was difficult.
Apparently last October a force 9 caused havoc and mayhem with the floating pontoons breaking loose and severe damage to a number of vessels. People were stranded on their yachts and vise versa. It will be interesting to find out what has happened over the last few days??
We motored the first night and except last night with head winds and lumpy seas we have been able to sail most of the time. At one point we gybe tacked towards Casablanca and the out again until the winds became reasonably favourable. The downside was the increased frequency of b... fishing boats. Large ships were quite numerous to start with but having moved away from the Moroccan coast has made our night life easier.
Our new sail looks good and is working well.
Our speed is down to below 4 kts so we had better attend to it.
AC
Day No: 04
Position: N 31 20 W 011 36
Miles to go: 280
Wind Speed/Direction: 15 kn 045
Weather: Cloudy
Sea State: Moderate
Destination is Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. We are 430 nm from Gibraltar.
Hi trust this finds you well.
We left Queensway Quay Marina at 0840 on Tuesday 24 after they opened the floating boom to let us out. We then moved around the harbour to the fuel dock across from the Airport. Departed the dock at 1000 hrs on our way to the Canaries. At least the fuel prices were much better than anywhere in the Med.
To take advantage of the Eastward set we had to leave by 1100 at the latest. We got that right, having a pleasant motor at 6.5+ knots out through the Straits, crossing the Traffic Separation Zones in the presence of heaps of shipping in calm and warm conditions. The forecast for Gibraltar and the Straits was for Easterlies force 8 in the early hours. In fact they, according to our Met Info have had force 9 conditions for the last 3 days... We were thankful to have missed that!!
Queensway Quay Marina...hmmm. Quite new, right downtown, chic with bars, restaurants and up market surrounding apartments, even reasonably priced by European standards but there it ends. A design fault makes it very uncomfortable even in light airs.
It is located on the old harbour/city wall and is about the size of a football field and is fully enclosed except for a very narrow right angled entrance. All of that is enclosed in the old "Great" harbour which is almost totally enclosed by 2 surrounding breakwaters probably up to 1/4 of a mile out from the main docks.
It suffers from sympathetic resonance! Ie any small surge outside is amplified inside the Marina. (just like an acoustic guitar or violin amplifies the small movement of the strings for certain "resonant" frequencies).
We experienced only 20- 25 kts when we first arrived and AC and all the other Vessels were uncomfortably moving up and down and in and out. We suffered damage to our transom and wore out one of our stern lines. Sleeping was difficult.
Apparently last October a force 9 caused havoc and mayhem with the floating pontoons breaking loose and severe damage to a number of vessels. People were stranded on their yachts and vise versa. It will be interesting to find out what has happened over the last few days??
We motored the first night and except last night with head winds and lumpy seas we have been able to sail most of the time. At one point we gybe tacked towards Casablanca and the out again until the winds became reasonably favourable. The downside was the increased frequency of b... fishing boats. Large ships were quite numerous to start with but having moved away from the Moroccan coast has made our night life easier.
Our new sail looks good and is working well.
Our speed is down to below 4 kts so we had better attend to it.
AC
posted by Alpha Crucis at 1:17 AM
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