Day 6

I rose early to catch the sunrise to discover we’d stopped for a rest in the Gibraltar straights flanked by two continents, Morocco visible to our starboard and Gibraltar to our port. The clouds formed varying kaleidoscopic shapes, spiralling and streaking as the sun shone through lighting up the famous rock.

Navigating into the harbour was coordinated like the military operations that happen on land. Slaloming between ships, moving from fuel berth to overnight birth, and shifting 30 – 40 metres up along to make way for others.

At 22 degrees, it felt a little surreal as we boated over in groups to the British city. This surreal atmosphere was added to by the monkeys. One of which jumped up on one of our crew taking the ice cream from her hand! Cheeky! It certainly didn’t feel like Britain in November.

Most of the crew took in the sun from the top of the rock from which you can see all of Gibraltar, the border to Spain and the coast of Morocco.

A few of us enjoyed sunset from a Marina bar, sun pouring in through the sails of smaller boats, before making our way back to the ship.

The sun, the wine and the 6 days of pulling ropes has brought everyone together. The characters of those on board are drawn out and manifest in singing, guitar playing, card games, old stories and party tricks.

The day has been long and cheery, and now everyone is off to get some sleep before we set sale for Cartagena in the morning.

FWB STB