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Barbete is 35 miles east of Gibraltar and the last place a yacht can stay before Gibraltar. Mostly the winds are from the west in the straits of Gibraltar, however a strong easterly wind was forecast called a Levanter. To try and beat this and get a favourable tide, despite 25knot winds being forecast, we set off at 7:30 am. Initially, there was no wind, then for 30 minutes we had 10 knots from the north west ie behind us so we sailed, then it switched to the East, ie on the nose. Slowly as we motored into the wind it increased. Our route avoided tunny nets and a nasty set of shoals a couple of miles offshore. As we approached Tarifa, the wind increased to force 6. Tarifa is well known for wind and kite surfing, I wondered if it was going to be worse as we got level with Tarifa or on the other side of it. The current was giving us good speed over the ground. But the waves were slowing the boat down. It was at this point a mist came in reducing visibility to less than a mile. Thank goodness for the AIS and radar. A high sped cat loomed into view doing 19 knots bound for a Tangier and was soon past us. Fortunately, after Tarifa both the wind and sea calmed so we made good progress until 5 miles from the bay, a thick fog rolled towards us and we found ourselves in visibility of less than 50 metres! Again the AIS and radar helped to see other boats, apart from a small fishing boat which appear right by us. This did not register in any way.
We could see over 20 large ships on the chart plotter but none were visible to us. Fog horns were all around us and for anybody who has not experienced it, large ships have very loud and low notes. We did not hear any bells or gongs from most of the boats which were anchored! We contacted Gibraltar harbour control who told us the fog was lifting about half way across the bay and no shipping was moving in. Another high sped cat from Algeceries was travelling at 19 knots to Tangier. If we had been in its way we would have stood no chance. Eventually we came across this moored ship which was at the point where the fog lifted. We were two hundred metres away before we saw it!
All in all the last leg of the journey to the med was memorable. We have now covered 1,875 miles since leaving Southampton in a thunder storm 2 months and a day ago.
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