The Voyages of Disco Volante: Bolonia - Gibraltar - Marbella

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3^rdAugust – Rio Guandiana to Rota (73.1 / 15hrs inc down river)

A bit of a mammoth sail today, we had decided that we would forgo both our trip to Seville and trip to Cadiz to make it to Gibraltar a bit earlier. (We plan to do both on the way back instead, when we have more time). We eventually arrived in our anchorage at 2am at a place called Rota, just outside Cadiz. Somewhere along the way I had managed to get something in my eye and it was scratched and hurting. I was hoping it would be better by morning or a trip to Cadiz hospital would be needed. Good ‘couples’ day sailing though despite the injury! Sailing at night is very peaceful, although you can’t see the lobster pots very easily. At one point a large tanker ship came quite close by, actually we were both heading for the same point. Mike changed our course to avoid it, but it’s pretty intimidating seeing such a large ship come so close. Make us look like a tiddler.

4^th August – Rota to Bolonia (50nm / 10hrs)

We had come into Rota (Just outside Cadiz) in the dark, so we weren’t sure what to expect when we woke up. We heard several helicopters fly over… Realised Rota is next to an American Naval base & we woke up to landing craft doing drills and war ships in the docks. (See pics) Having said that they were very careful to slow down as they went past us!

We had by chance come across a place called Bolonia on our Navionics charts, when we looked it up in our Spanish rough guide it said that it was a nature reserve. It’s one of those things that happens when you’re sailing, by chance you arrive somewhere really stunning! A nice day sail, punctuated only by me and Mike overheating and having to throw buckets of sea water over each other to cool ourselves down, we arrived in a simply gorgeous beach. Up to the left there were white sand dunes going up to the sunset, backed by bright green hills. We anchored Disco as soon as possible and swam the 200m to shore, so we could climb the massive dunes and catch the sunset. So after our mini triathlon we made it to the top, just as a group of horseback riders peeped up over the top. What an awesome end to the day. We will be back!

5^th August – Bolonia – Girbraltar (26.9 / 4hrs)

We woke up early-ish as we wanted to make to make sure we hit the Strait of Gibraltar we had the tides with us, not against us. At its worst you can have 6knts of tide against you, though it is fairly simple to move between tidal streams to avoid a particularly strong current. Yachts generally stay out of the traffic separation scheme on either side. Luckily going West to East is much less tidal than East to West. The Strait can have a real funnel effect on winds, particularly as you go into the strait from Tarifa you can be hit by finds which can increase rapidly from a F2 to F4-6 in minutes. So it might catch you off guard if you had too much sail up or a spinnaker. At the book swap in Guadiana we had picked up the handy Straits cruising guide, written by a Brit who used to run a sailing school in Gib. It was really useful – even mentioning keeping a watch for Pilot whales who migrate through the straight and have been known to run into yachts!

Just like our Biscay crossing, we had unusually little wind on our trip so actually we motored all the way from Bolonia. We hugged the coast at Tarifa and enjoyed the views of the distinctly Moorish architecture. Super-fast ferries where flying in and out of the harbour and it was a case of get out the way or be run over.

Once into the straight the volume of ship traffic was incredible, mammoth ships everywhere. Some were so big I couldn’t even fit them in a single photo. We listened to the port radio and a huge cruise ship was coming in – it came so close we felt like a toy boat in comparison. Weirdly with all this shipping traffic we even saw a pod of dolphins swim by the boat, but they seemed much more nervous than others we had met.

As soon as we reached the mole (A kind of artificial wall) we had to radio the port and ask permission to proceed to our marina as it was right next to a runway and planes can potentially hit our mast. Permission was granted – “Please proceed madam” was radioed back in a British Naval voice. We stayed at Marina Bay for the princely sum of 15EUR a night! Lovely little marina. Great staff. We were sandwiched in-between two Gib residents who worked in the docks.

As soon as we were settled we headed off to ‘Main Street’ to explore. The street was lined with fish and chip shops and loads of British retailers including BHS & M&S. We were excited – after 6 weeks of nothing British at all – not even meeting many Brits at all on our travels – it was nice to see. We hadn’t even had a bacon sarnie for 6 weeks. I couldn’t resist popping into M&S food hall!

I was determined to get my hair cut and dyed, Mike also badly needed a haircut & we needed to do a massive re-provision of our food and booze stores. Somehow we had managed to forget that Gib was duty free – so when we started to see loads of booze & fab shops everywhere it suddenly dawned on us. Smirnoff was £6 litre, Hendricks £19/L, Bombay Sapphire £8/L & Raspberry stollie £7/L!!!!

We started off with hair – I innocently headed to a hair salon called Oh La La – sounded British! It would appear not -90mins later I emerged with pretty much a bob and ginger roots! Not a good look, but only cost £40. Next stop was Holland & Barrett to buy more hair dye. Think I will be home dying from now on! Mike got extremely jammy as always and got a fab haircut for £12. Next it was off to Morrisons supermarket to check out the prices – you should have seen Mike’s face when he saw they stocked Robinsons Squash, Reggae Reggae sauce & Vintage cider!!

6^th-7^th August – Hanging out in Gibraltar

We started the day with a ‘builders breakfast’ @ Bianca’s. Seriously amazing after 6 weeks of no bacon. Then it was back to the boat for some serious cleaning & maintenance as Alison Mulrooney was arriving in the evening to visit us for a week! We could literally walk to the airport from the boat, so we gave it a trial run via the supermarket in the afternoon – We had no idea that the runway actually went across a main road & when a plane was due to land it got shut, like a UK level crossing. We actually walked across the runway to get to the supermarket! Mike spent the afternoon devising and creating a banner to hold up in arrivals for Alison (See pic) – unfortunately for Alison she had warned Mike not to put any embarrassing banners up - which of course gave him the idea! We knew Alison had arrived because we saw her EasyJet plane land next to the boat. So we rushed over to pick her up – banner in hand. It had the desired effect – expletives abounded! So then it was back to the boat for a quick drink, before sampling the delights of Gibraltar nightlife.

So we started with some large gin bowls @ Biancas, then on a bit of a bar crawl. Ending up in Casement square and having dinner i.e. a hot dog from a stall. I remember drinking beer, sangria, caiparinhas & vodka and redbull. It’s fair to say we mixed our drinks!!

Next day we all felt a bit fragile – helpfully the guy next door explained that due to the dry heat in Gib, you get more dehydrated than usual and hence worse hangovers!!! (The warning was a bit late for us!) So Mike and I went back to Morrisons to finish off our re-stocking marathon. Then to top up the booze stores – it was like spending monopoly money it was so cheap – Vladivar Vodka £3.95L

We got back to the boat and woke Alison up, who had been thoroughly ruined and confined to bed from the night before – it was time to tackle The Rock & The Monkeys! We decided to get the cable car up the rock (10EUR return) and then walk back down. The guy running the cable car was a proper wide boy cheeky chappy! Almost immediately at the top we met our first monkey and got beautiful views of the rock. Those monkeys sneak up on you – one jumped on Mike almost straight away, I was a bit nervous after that. Mike did his normal tour guide duty down the rock i.e. took us on a little known path ‘following his nose’. Great day though – sure Gib is touristy and mainly like the UK, but with sun. But after six weeks of paella it was pretty damn good!

8^th August – Gibraltar – Puerto Banus (34.5nm / 8hrs)

We got up early as we needed to get fuel in the marina before heading off. The fuel was £0.59/litre Gibraltar had indeed paid for itself in booze and fuel prices alone. We were very glad the tank was almost empty, so we filled it to the brim! We then headed off though the harbour an out past the rock. A pod of dolphins came by to wave us off. Unfortunately it was flat calm again, which meant motoring all the way, but with fuel being so cheap, we didn’t feel so bad. We put the autopilot on and got out the sangria and cards. About an hour from Puerto Banus, we all overheated, so we turned off the engine and all dived in to cool off. Then we smartened ourselves off, ready for arrival in one of the swankiest marinas we had been in since we started – A whole 67EUR a night. Our mooring was opposite Gucci and Armani, and was constantly disturbed by Lamborghinis and Ferraris driving past for no particular reason. There were plenty of superyachts as expected, but weirdly the facilities were quite basic, guess people on superyachts don’t both using the marina showers!!

After dinner on board we headed out to investigate the sights with some insider knowledge from Gemma Legg! First stop was people watching – Spanish, British package holiday makers, gangsters, uber rich all mixed together!! Drinks were expensive as you would expect, shops were full of super expensive designers. But it was great for a night out and lovely being right in the centre of things in the marina. It was only on the way home we found the street of cheaper bars that were heaving.. Alison and I stayed up chatting and drinking, while the old man went to bed.

9^th August - Puerto Banus – Ibiza party - Nikki Beach (12nm / 2hrs)

I did my research and found out you can get a free pick up service from the boat to shore if you have a boat moored off Nikki Beach. Ivan came straight over when we arrived – it would seem lots of yachts pull up and then order food to their boat without ever going in!

Just as we were about to go in a Guardia Civil boat moored up next to a party boat and demanded to see everyone’s papers. This delayed us going onto land and meant we had to wear life jackets in the boat on the way in. So later we actually walked into Nikki Beach wearing life jackets – very funny. Meanwhile we sipped our own cheap booze onboard feeling very rockstar. We got in for free which was great – but as we had arrived late due to the police, we missed out on sunbeds, which actually ended up as a blessing in disguise as the paid for sunbeds where really far out of the action and we ended up around the new pool for the first two hours, until a security guard realised we weren’t VIP and move us on! Although literally as soon as we moved we got a table next to the DJ booth and bar, just as all the dancers started to perform, including a rather portly trannie. We got really lucky that the only Ibiza party of the year was happening while we were there as Nikki beach isn’t normally a Saturday place. We had a gorgeous day in the sun – bikinis + high heels + great cocktails & good music = fab day out. Most importantly some much needed glamour for the occupants of Disco Volante

At about 7pm we headed back to the boat for some food – the restaurant was a little out of our price range! We invited Ivan on for some drinks, he was a lovely guy and turns out he is married to a Brazilian lady. He even drove back to Nikki beach to get us two free Nikki beach CDs!

About 9pm, we saw two young guys swimming towards the boat waving – we let them on for a drink. Great end to a great day!

10^th August – Nikki Beach – Torre Del Mar (Caleta De Velez) (26nm / 5hrs)

We had a nice sail from Nikki Beach to Torre Del Mar – finally got the sails up! The heat is really starting to increase, so you have to have a swim half way through the day or your brain melts. Mike was feeling knackered so we put the autopilot on and Alison and I took cushions on the front deck, along with some beers & olives. We were both enjoying reading books and chilling when something went wrong. First of all a big wave of water came over the front of the boat and then the boat started going around in a tight circle. For a split second we didn’t know what was happening..

Then it twigged, the autopilot had popped off. Mike was in his cabin, looking for his sweaty socks, or dosing, something like that… So Alison & I tried to make it to the back of the boat, without us, the cushions or the olives going overboard – whilst screaming “WALKER!!!! WALKER….!!!!” ..at the top of our voices. I think we both thought the boat was going over – luckily our screams woke up the captain and he soon had Disco back under control!!! Luckily nothing and no one went overboard!

The rest of the sail was much less eventful. We arrived in Torre Del Mar at about 7pm, well actually the Marina was in Calete De Velez. We had planned to go to Granada the next day to visit the Alhambra, but you have to book tickets way in advance, which we hadn’t done. We took the sensible, mature option of going to a waterpark instead! Took a restaurant recommendation from a guy in the marina and had a humungous dinner of paella, fish & wine for 20EUR each. As usual we got the Spanish sharing thing wrong and over ordered by about double.

11^th-14^th August – Torre Del Mar (Nr Marbella)

We had a fab day at the waterpark – Managed not to burn and didn’t get too annoyed by teenagers cluttering up the place. They had a kamakazee slide that was very frightening. Went for a chocolate con churros on the way home – YUMMY!!!

Alison flew home on the 12^th, so we escorted her into Malaga to catch her flight. She managed two countries, two nice day sails, some glamorous clubbing & great people watching. We ended her trip with some epic tapas in a back alley & some lovely Malaga beer – Victoria. A great week had by all!

So Mike isn’t feeling very well, and is a bit knackered, so we are vegging here for a few days, heading off tomorrow about 40miles up the coast. We haven’t had a couple of days off, with no boat maintenance or washing to do, for weeks. Oh and finally time for me to write this epic blog. We’ll be heading up the coast toward Valencia, followed by an Ibiza recce prior to meeting up with people there. More soon.. S & M xx

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