Crush, The Turtle. Remember?

August 27, 2020| Captain| 0 Comments| 10:46

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Sailing

Gibraltar to Almerimar (Aug 22).

(posted Aug 27)
We left Gibraltar with a bit of sadness. Due to Covid-19 we didn’t dare to go down-town and mingle with all the other tourists.

Motoring south the Bahia de Algeciras, the rock showed itself from the best side. A small cloud shrouded the rock.

Soon after rounding the Rock we sailed under Genoa only and winds gusting 25kts+ with 7 to 9 kts over ground.

Gibraltar is always very busy. In-between all these ships are also boats with no AIS signal.

Gibraltar Current

The distance from Gibraltar to Almerimar is 136nm. Our sailed distance through water was only 109nm. The difference was the current pushing us with 2knots for most of the trip. Coming from Gibraltar we initially headed SE some miles to pick-up the current and then drifted a la Crush NE to Almerimar. The PredictWind current projection was spot on.

Crush the turtle and Squirt riding the East Australian Current in ‘Finding Nemo’.

Calm Sail

Soon after leaving the Straits of Gibraltar the wind calmed down towards 0-wind in the evening.

Many laid up ships either under anchor or driving large circles at 2knots, while their AIS says “waiting orders”, like this freighter in the background.

Sunrise short before arriving in Almerimar

26 hours after leaving Gibraltar we arrived in Almerimar. We had star lit skies with no moon. Fish jumping at night. A magical ride again.

Update on Tank Cleaning – Diesel BugUpdate on Tank Cleaning – Diesel Bug

August 20, 2020| Captain| 0 Comment| 18:04

300L diesel in our starboard tank were contaminated with dirt and water. After two years of refueling while adding anti Diesel bug additives, we had the choice to fuel polish (which is a filtering and water separation process) or pump out all fuel, clean the tank and replace it with fresh diesel.

‘Slick Hull’ pumped the tank out (company in Portimao) and cleaned it. We had 3 hour express service.

Afterwards we filled with initial 60L of fresh diesel and completed the rest at the boat gas station. Interesting the tank gauge showed still empty even when you could see 60L of Diesel swapping around of the tank bottom 🙂