Gibraltar to the Canary islands

On Thursday 1st November we left Gibraltar at the start of a "Levanter".

A Lavanter is an easterly wind that blows for about a week before turning to a light westerly. We thought we would hook onto this, get pushed out the Gibraltar Straits. Levanter winds can be quite strong, we came from Ibiza last year in a Levanter and it was bloody terrible - too much boat speed, big waves, and water everywhere!

When leaving Gib, you need to time it right. There is almost a constant inflow current of water from the Atlantic into the Med. So you need to leave when the current is at it's slowest, or if you are lucky on the rare occassion when it's heading out. We had the timing right. So off we went, to the fuel dock first then headed out the Straits. The plan was to head west until we were out in the Atlantic, then cross the shipping lanes and south to the Canary Islands.

Well man plans, God laughs!, our trip out was horrific, the wind is compressed through the straitsbetween Africa and mainland Europe, it quickly built up to 40 knots and then all hell broke loose!

So we are going through the Gibraltar Straits started with 20 knots, but as the wind is pushedbetween Africa and mainland Europe it gets squashed, like the water from the garden hose nozzle!,and yep builds quickly to about 40 knots, join this with a current heading the opposite direction and you get MASSIVE SHORT WAVES!, it was very scary - this even beats the Phillip Island trip back in 2005!

Jas was quite concerned, it was definately the worst sea we have ever seen. And the problem was that by the time we surfed down one, the next one was right behind, there was no gap - but Reverie did fantastic, Jo was holding back the tears, but must admit lost it a couple of times - she was sure the boat was going over. We had lifejackets on and harnesses! and waited for the big one to land on us.

Anyway we checked our chart and found a place that we could stop and sit it out - Tarifa, Spain -probably situated about at the neck of the Gib Straits. So we went around the point and waited for the wind to ease off (it took bloody 4 days!!!). We named it "Terrific" as as it was terrific to stop and wait the weather out......Anchored here we had a solid 30-35 knots, looks like time for some movies.

J&J