It felt a bit strange to visit the office at Puerto Alcaidesa for the last time and pay our final two days stay along with the bit of electricity we had used. Although we had been there for over a year longer than previously planned along with all the frustrations that entailed, it had been a good place to leave her and we had become surprisingly fond of La Linea itself. Still, we were absolutely ready to start and gentle easterlies were forecast though it was likely to be breezier around Tarifa as usual. As it happened, there was no wind at all in the Bahia de Algeciras and we motored all the way to Punta Carnero. From there the wind picked up and by Tarifa, we were running before a characteristic force seven which held most of the way to Barbate though it did ease once past Punta Caramiñal.
This picture shows us leaving the Gibraltar area.
All along this coast they have rigged tuna nets or Almadabras as they are called in Spain. These are very large and very strong nets in which they catch migrating tuna. I understand that it is quite a sustainable way of catching them as you can chose which fish to take and leave the small ones unlike in a purse seine net. From our perspective, you have to look carefully for the cardinal marks which show the area to avoid as they are only laid in designated areas. The trouble is that a mark on a chart showing the buoy gives you an entirely false idea of their size. You are looking for the great big thing that they use to mark rocks for big ships whereas the reality is a puny little stick which you are lucky to spot from a couple of hundred meters away. Still, we passed the Tarifa nets and the Zahara do los Atunes nets but could not pick out any of the marks for the Barbate nets until we were almost on top of them. The climax to this came as we were closing the entrance to Barbate when we spotted the northernmost buoy just where it should be but right in our path for the harbour entrance.
For the unitiated, a cardinal buoy is used to tell you to avoid an isolated danger and is coloured, shaped and lit according to the cardinal points of the compass (hence their name). A north cardinal mark tells you to pass to the north of it, an east to the east and so on. They have two cones at the top which make recognition in daylight very easy. Once again, the north cardinal has both pointing up, the East has them opposed to each other with the points away, a south both cones pointing down and a westerly one with points together. The lights are continuous flashes for north, three flashes for east, six flashes for south and nine flashes for west. The colours are more complicated and I find them of less use as you can spot the orientation of the cones from further away. Brilliantly simple but only if they are used correctly. Spanish tunny fishermen do not maintain theirs to the same exacting standards as Trinity House does.
After the adventure of the Almadabras, we enjoyed our first night away from La Linea on Sarah Giddings for 18 months though the town is not that special. It does however sit under a very significant headland for Brits, the next point is none other than Cabo Trafalgar.
The next day, we set off for Cadíz and first rounded Cabo Trafalgar. There are no pigeons that I could spot though lots of migrating swallows. The wind continued to blow from the east and we got sail up past Trafalgar though it was clear that it was going to go light once we were well clear of the effects of the Straits. Light it did go and we had to motor the last fifteen or so miles to Cadíz. We did however get to sail past some more Almadabras while passing Cabo Roche. They were working these nets so all was easy to spot and avoid.
I am rather proud of this picture looking back to Trafalgar after rounding it.
The approach to Cadíz is a rather long one from the south but none the less dramatic for that. The coast is very low lying and slowly, the tower blocks of Cadíz rear out of the flat sea and take on a more defined shape. There is a small harbour ten or so miles to the south called Sancti Petri which we decided must be the dedicated to the patron saint of microbiologists. Cadíz is a large port so you have to start contending with large shipping again but nothing like the scale of Gibraltar/Algeciras. Once you are off El Castillo San Sebastian, things take on a whole new angle. The city is off to starboard and looking every bit as dramatic as you would hope and just then you spot that the vast cruise ship is now on the move and you hastily move out to the edge of the, for once, well marked channel to give it and it's thousand or so guests room to get out and head on to whichever town is their next stop. We didn't know as they had not yet updated their AIS with their destination.
It is slightly, but not very disappointing that the marina for Cadíz is out past the container port and so a fifteen minute walk to the city. The cruise ships get to dock right at the bottom of the jetty with easy walking to the turismo and guided bus tours. We walked past the Dutch ship docked and felt very superior in our scruffy clothes knowing we had got here in our yacht rather than a huge floating hotel. The fact that Sarah Giddings might be described as a floating caravan did not once cross our minds!
Cadíz is an amazing city. It benefited from the fact that the Rio Guadalquivir silted up in the eighteenth century which meant that all the trade with Spain's then empire moved to Cadíz making the city very rich at a good time architecturally. It has of course been in decline since then but has this wonderful aura of relaxed dilapidation. It is also a very old place and there have been people living there for over twenty thousand years as was shown to us in El Museo de Cadíz. Phoneticians gave it the name Gades which has survived through Greeks, Romans and Moors to today.
I have always liked the walk out to El Castillo de San Sebastian. Apparently the castle was used as Fort Royal in the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Other highlights of our visit were finally trying fried fish which was invented here rather than in the UK. Once can't help wondering if Drake brought the idea back with him after raiding the city in the fifteenth century. After having walked enough, we treated ourselves to a huge tapas lunch in a suitably busy bar. The highlight though was the group on the table next to us. There was what looked like a daughter entertaining her parents. The daughter drank beer, the Mother had a glass of wine and then went onto coke but the Father polished off an entire bottle of Tio Pepe sherry.
The next day, we set aside for a visit to the Gonzales Byass Bodega in Jerez. The tour was reasonably interesting but it would have been better if it had included a bit more technical stuff about how to make sherry rather than a limp film supposedly showing how the founder of the bodega named his best fino sherry after his uncle Pepe. Still, the tasting and subsequent blow out on their best oloroso sherry and brandy afterwards were very enjoyable. I know that it is very difficult to make fino sherry but really, some of the really old solera olorosos are the absolute equal of the best vintage port.
An atmospheric view of the Bodega.
The next day entailed a short hop round to Chipiona just at the mouth of the Rio Guadalquivir. This is a purely Spanish holiday town and so is very nice though most boaty types use it as a kick off point for the sixty mile trip up the river to Sevilla. Sadly, we didn't have time for this so spent a day just walking round the town and also searching for a supermarket. We also, completely stripped, serviced and rebuilt the toilet but that is another story.
There is a lighthouse marking El Punto del Perro which is especially elegant as lighthouses go.
This final picture shows a very ancient method of fishing they have preserved called coralles. Essentially, the stone walls are awash at half tide and are porous. At high tide, the fish swim in but are then trapped after half ebb allowing them to be easily caught. Similarly, shellfish can be harvested at low water and the protected area inside the corral makes for a good environment for them.
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