Gibraltar? Just the Fax Folks

by Tom Holman

1995

Hope this communication finds you all well! On board we are all fine. Some a little sea sick at the moment, but more on that later.

Gibraltar was wonderful! We spent four days dockside. Had great weather-sunny and clear. Great for sight seeing. The rock is really unbelievable, very beautiful. The fort city is a duty free port like Hong Kong, so lots of shops and tourists. All kinds of modern stuff. As you know, it has been a fortress for centuries, so the history is rich. The views are spectacular as is the surrounding Spanish countryside, which we visited by renta-car one pretty day. The people are very nice, polite, and friendly. We went to a great machine and tool store and the proprietor gave us a nice clamp for free when he learned we were making a crossing-try that in NYC.

While Peregrine our Tintella 45 is a very nice comfortable boat, we were the little guy in the marina. Fun to check out all the mega yacht sailboats, maxies -100 feet plus sailing sloops, etc. I love the English built Oyster 65 to 80 footers, wow! The big ketch, Ticonderoga , from Greenwich, Connecticut, left for Canarsie two days before us. The restaurants, museum, girl watching, boat work and provisioning went well. Fully laden with 250 gallons of water, 150 gallons of fuel, and a fair-weather report, we were ready.

We left 9 a.m. Saturday morning, 11/4/95. Saturday was a sunny and clear day. Motoring out of Gibraltar Bay, we soon encountered brisk west wind coming through the straits. Although we had to fight an adverse current, it was very exciting sailing the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Africa. The mountains north and "Hercules" to the south of Gibraltar were magnificent. It took all day to tack out of the 38 miles strait in 20 knots of wind. To the crew's dismay we soon learned that Captain Sikes likes to motor sail with the autopilot. As night fell we rounded Cape Spartel at the northern tip of Africa. We set out on our rhumb line course of 234 degrees for the Canaries. We motored the first 24 hours !n open ocean. We finally picked up some good wind on the second day. We have been visited by school of dolphins on two occasions. It was wonderful; they come right out of the water in two's and three's. Darlene is a wonderful cook. We have been eating very well. We still have a stash of mom's cookies, which are a big hit. Seth and Richard play with the short wave, satellite communicator, fax and computer all the time. Richard has three EBM computers on board. I have decided I better try and learn a little MS-DOS.

The boat is really set up for this kind of voyaging: two refrigerators, two comfortable heads (bathrooms with showers), bunk boards and lee cloths to keep us in our bunks. 

The seas have been a little too lumpy for my liking. Darlene and I have been queasy; Rob and Frank are OK, but, except for Seth, I think we are all a little lethargic.  

I've been writing this letter over two days. By now we are making good time and are under 200 miles off the Canaries. Hope I can get on the computer to fax this out before we get there.

I am thinking of you and miss you. Be well and I hope to talk to you in a couple of days from land.