As we probably should've expected, our 1 week scheduled stay in Gibraltar has extended to more... There's been much more to do on the boat to feel ready enough to move on. Besides the cleaning and organizing, we've had to deal with a deflating tender and various other important safety details. Not to mention being able to take the boat out and feel comfortable motoring, sailing and most importantly, docking! Here in the Med, the spaces are rather slim and you back in with not much room on each side of your neighbors. No finger pontoons here. Fenders are really important. The slime lines on the bow of the boat are also different here. These lines are connected to the bottom of the harbor and you connect to them by pulling them out of the water and attaching them to your boat bow- which you can imagine is where they get their name.
Andreas spent a day fixing the ginormous hole in the dingy/tender and for the first time, it's holding air. We may have to find another replacement sometime soon as this one is not going to hold up too well. We found an awesome sailing instructor to help us take the boat out and practice! John has been around the world a number of times on his sailboat and has taken us out a few times now and we feel like we can do this! We've learned to dock and fuel and next is getting the sails up to make sure we can do everything on our own.
The people we've met on other boats and around town have been great. That's the positive thing about sticking around longer. We've shared some fascinating stories and adventures and have been around lots of english folks. Their accent is wearing off on us! In Gibraltar they speak this 'Llanito' slang which is, to us, hilarious. Its spanglish but with British and Andalucian accents and it includes a whole list of spanishized words. So you get conversations that are really vibrant and fortunately we can understand them. You just don't ever know which language to speak to people because they mix both up constantly.
We also finally made it up the Rock to go see the view and the monkeys. There's a cable car to the top and as soon as you get off you are greeted by the Barbary Macaques who are very curious, professional pick pocketers and are slyer than you think! Being aware of this is important as we saw quite a few people get their backpacks opened and anything edible ripped out. There were chips, cookies and even a bottle of fanta flying everywhere! When Enzo got hungry and opened the backpack to get a granola bar out, just the sound of the wrapper attracted about 4 monkeys' attention and they narrowed in on us. Enzo immediately put the bar away and waited until we were down below again. Aside from the monkeys, the view is spectacular and you have a 360 degree view and Morocco is so close you could reach out and touch it.
Final official British papers are complete! Thanks to John for his diligent patience (and yes, that's a trident he's holding - the British have their own way of getting you to sign papers!)
we're official!
The other John helping us practice at the helm
Anais enjoying her morning outing
the monkey life
school's in session
discovering new hatches and secrets spots