A fountain square in La Linea.

Gibraltar and La Linea

Having looked at the chart of Gibraltar and seeing that the marinas are open to the W and therefore surge, we decided to see if there was a Marina in La Linea which has a better protected harbour. To our delight they had opened a marina there last year, and what’s more it was a lot less expensive than the other marinas in the area.

This marina was also a victim of the unscrupulous greedy bankers that caused so much misery in the world. It is sad to see half completed pontoons but as the price is good, it has been good for us, but very sad for the developers and Spain.

Being a small boat we are tucked us away in the back end of the marina which is even more protected. The safety of the boat comes first.

Only downer is that it is a long trot for the morning necessities and the showers have the push button operating system which was invented by some Machiavellian EU bureaucrat with a vendetta against yachts people, thinking his invention will save water. The button keeps switching off the water after 20seconds, so you are forever doing the shower dance. Wash right arm, push button, wash left arm, push button etc and if you miss it, watch out as when you do hit it again, as it is once more freezing cold.

Fortunately I have found some of the showers have been doctored by some enterprising person.

Sunday we did a quick walk around La Linea, found a lot of restaurants but all the shops were closed. We noticed that there was often a waft of rather dubious smelling material, even in the street with all the restaurants. The sewer is obviously in need of attention. This does have it positive side of course, should one be struck by a bout of Zeppelin inflating, no one would notice.

la Linea, church square.

Main street, all paved with restaurant tables in the middle. 

Monday we went to Gibraltar, half an hour walk to the town, provided you do not get held up at the runway as a plane takes off or lands, and then the rest exploring. Our way is to walk and get lost, much more fun than having a map. It would be difficult to loose yourself totally here though, as the Rock is a good orientation tool.

We found a “Morrison’s”, one of the British supermarket chains and bought our favourite, parsnips. We had run out and thought we would not be having any more, but to our joy we can now have them again.

They have Glass Blowers here that make crystal objects and I immediately thought of my niece, Colz, who loves crystal. She would love to come and watch them make it but would probably bankrupt the bank balance buying all the gorgeous crystal. Beautiful as it is, it does not fit in with a yachting lifestyle; a smashing time would be had. http://www.gibraltar-crystal.com/glass.html

On the way back there was a plane supposed to take off, but it went back to the apron, but in waiting we sat down on a bench and Mike got up to watch the plane. Two Englishmen, with tog bags, sat down beside me and the one was showing the other how to flash his passport going through immigration. I thought nothing of it until they got up and separated, pretending they did not know each other. Alarm bells flashed in my mind, “they are smuggling something” I told Mike. We watched and as they continued their walk across the runway and my suspicions grew. We got to the other side and guess what, they were both hauled out. The one in front was hauled out with an incredulous face and then the one behind us, the new guy, was not happy as he could not get out of the queue and was also caught. I guess if the alarm bells rang with me the cops must have had them clanging. They were definitely amateurs.

At the gate, waiting for a plane before walking across the runway.

Gibraltar is duty free, so every Saturday and some week days there is a traffic jam of people going into Gib, we hear them hooting and can see the queue from the boat. The fuel is less, as are cigarettes and alcohol, to some the weekly trip into Gib for a “visit” must be a necessity.

We continued to do the laundry in stages, as by this stage it had piled up a bit, and to do work on the boat, in between applying for jobs for Mike. I did most of the filling in of websites as he would rather be fixing things. The internet was a disaster and in the end we ended up moving the boat to get better reception. To spend 1 hour filling in all the info and then have it crash is sole destroying. In the end, even moving the boat did not help, the internet company promised to send a technician, but could not promise one for a week. After England where it is cheap and efficient to where it is double the price and does not work well was a rude awakening on how fortunate we were there with a lot of things.

 The Marina gave us a refund which is a pity as it would be great if it worked. We found out that all the live a-boards here use dongles through one of the cell phone providers rather than Wi-Fi. So off we are to get one, much more expensive than UK but one has to have internet when looking for jobs nowadays.

To our happiness there is a market and 5 supermarkets within walking distance. We bought the biggest strawberries we have ever seen and the peppers are enormous.   Mike is happy as you can get large prawns at 7Euro a kg so we had a prawn pig out and he can get cheaper mussels etc.

Sainbury’s in Gib does free range chicken and egg at least, but no organic meats are to be found as yet.

At least I found a good dentist on the Gib side, good looking, and with a sense of humour. Which solved the problem of a tooth ache and a crown fallen off. Not all that cheap but worth the price.

When waiting for the dentist, we saw all the Jewish community celebrating the feast of “Purim”. Commemorating when Queen Ester delivered them from Haman, who wanted to exterminate them. The children were all dressed up and running around collecting for the poor and having fun.

These poor people are camping out in front of the building, trying to get their salaries paid. 

For two weeks it was sunny here and is warming up event more, on the windless days it is positively tropical and I have been able to shed the layers and even getting to wear a T shirt.

The best news was the mould monster has been unable to send his horrible claws clawing at the paintwork and anything it can grasp to destroy. The green algae that was fast taking over our ropes and awnings on the outside has also been halted in its tracks. No rain since we got here. Ok so they are in the middle of a drought which I commiserate with, but when you have been as wet as we have been and watched all you own growing noxious plant life you can only appreciate the sun, warmth and lack of humidity. Mike has now finished painting the heads and scullery, it is so fantastic to have a clean, bright, mould free area. Now just the rest of the boat to do.

So far forecasting the weather here is easy, Cloud on the west side of the rock, E wind.

Cloud on E side of Rock, W wind. No cloud =no wind. Lots of cloud, lots of wind.

Lots of cloud can equal rain, it has to happen sometimes. And now it is cloudy, rainy and windy. It had to happen some time. Hope the sun comes back soon.

The Cloud hanging over Gibraltar from the Marina.

The cloud hanging over Gibraltar city on an East wind makes it a couple of degrees colder than where we are on the Spanish side. Another good reason to have chosen this side, it is a bit deserted and a good walk to anywhere but at least we are getting exercise, me that is, Mike still goes for his morning jog and feels so much better for it. I am afraid as the sun does not come up before 8 and it is not light before 7, being a sun bird I find it difficult to get out of bed in the dark.

Geographically we should be on the same time zone as the UK but we are on European time which is one hour ahead, this means it gets light late and stays light late, up to 2000. This of course plays havoc with our eating/sleeping habits but I am sure we will adapt. Now it is even worse, they have gone to summer time, so it only starts to get light at 0800 and dark at 2100.

Slowly we are getting to know where to go and where to shop and getting to know the other people at the marina. We ran into someone who knew me yesterday. As Mike says, “cannot go anywhere without his wife finding someone who knows her”.

We now have found a good church and look forward to many more profitable Sundays and some weekdays sharing with them.

One last piece to the puzzle, a job for Mike, or we will be on the move again.