From La Línea to Graciosa

As soon as we enter the harbor in ‘La Línea de la Concepción’ we are greeted by several boat hitchhikers who help us moor at the gas station. Even once moored at our slip in the marina, we are visited by young people who are looking for a ride to the Caribbean — or at least to the Canary Islands as a stepping stone. We politely decline, as we have just had visitors and will be waiting for Stefan on Lanzarote, who will sail with us across the Atlantic.

‘La Línea de la Concepción’ borders directly on Gibraltar, the Rock of Gibraltar is clearly visible and the marina is practically built next to the runway of Gibraltars airport. One can cross this runway to get to Gibraltar. Of course, this only applies if the light signal is green and no aircraft is taking off or landing. We visit the playground and market in La Línea and often exchange ideas with the young people who live in their camp outside the marina and approach people from the harbor to find accommodation on a boat.

We visit Gibraltar and stock up on all kinds of useful things in the chandlery. Afterwards there has to be a visit to the pub and the next day Andrea and the children head back to Gibraltar — to a piercing studio for the girls’ ears. They bravely get their ears pierced by Gorge and afterwards are proud that they survived it.

We fill up our supplies and mentally prepare ourselves for the crossing to Graciosa. Silvio prepares Mirabella for our first passage of 4 days and nights. He carries out a rig check and replaces a halyard with jacket damage.

A hot topic among cruisers are the orcas, which have been attacking sailing ships off the Strait of Gibraltar and far into the North Sea for several years. They are groups (pods) of juvenile males that have apparently adopted this behavior. A month ago we didn’t take the topic very seriously, but now everyone is talking about their strategy and equipment for a possible encounter with the animals. We even met a Dutch family in Cartagena who had transported their boat on a trailer from northern Spain just so they didn’t have to sail past the orcas. On November 1st, the day of our departure, a sailing ship sank off Portugal after an orca attack. We adapt our route through the Strait of Gibraltar and head directly south to the Moroccan coast. We take a pet bottle of diesel in our luggage, even if we don’t want to use it. We are thankfully foregoing the ‘whale pingers’ that a German wants to sell us, as we don’t want to cause any additional noise in the sea.

The young German women Nati and Laura, also boat hitchhikers, give us their flyer. At first we decline, then we invite them over for coffee and finally dinner. It can’t hurt to have support for the night watches, cooking and looking after children. We decide to take the two of them with us to Graciosa. They shop for us at Carrefour, which relieves us from this duty. The evening before our departure, the two of them move into our guest cabin and are now part of Mirabella’s crew.

It looks like we’re ready — or as ready as one can be.

On November 1st we set off early from the port to the Gibraltar gas station to fill up with cheap diesel. The gas station doesn’t open until 9 a.m. so we eat our breakfast at the gas station.

So it begins! We head south between the tankers using our engine in little wind. Directly across the fairway of the large cargo ships to the Moroccan coast. We move west along the Moroccan north coast with a considerable current against us. By dusk in the evening we reach ‘Cap Espartel’ west of Tangier, where we can finally set sail with enough wind.

Luckily we didn’t see any orcas so far, but we did meet a few fishing boats without AIS, which suddenly appeared on the radar in large numbers during the first night near the coast of Morocco. We also see nets again and again, some with lights, some without. Silvio and Andrea divide the nights as before: Silvio keeps watch until around 1 a.m. and Andrea stays awake until the early hours of the morning.

Laura and Nati are settling in on the boat and have already read a few children’s books and played games.

Intermittently, we have less wind, but soon enough it blows steadily and so we switch from ‘Code 0’ to our jib. On the second day the swell reaches us from the northwest. Far out the waves create a gentle rocking motion, but once the swell roars along the coast of Morocco, it will delight surfers. Impressive waves!

The moon accompanies us through the nights. Day and night, with a northeasterly wind at our backs, we race over swells and wind waves, sometimes sailing only with a mainsail, sometimes in a butterfly, always well secured with a spinnaker pole and preventer line. This means our boat hitchhikers can also get behind the wheel. The two cook and play with the children, which makes Joséphine and Chloé very happy. Baking muffins is also popular – what a delicious desert! We discover the same boats over and over again on AIS, and at times we sail quite close.

On the morning of November 5th we see ‘Isla de Alegranza’, with its conspicuous high volcano that can be seen from far away. And then we see Graciosa in the north of Lanzarote, where we camped in the dunes with a tent almost 7 years ago. We said back then, that we wanted to visit again with a sailboat. Here we are!

We go straight to the anchorage of ‘Playa Francesa’, where many boats are already at anchor. The anchor holds and we set off with the children and our visitors to the beach and the dunes for a farewell aperitif.

It was great that Natalie and Laura were with us, even though they struggled with seasickness and probably only realized underway, that it can be quite tiring to look after two small children and a ship around the clock.

We have mastered our first longer passage and know — from experience — that the crew and Mirabella are a good team. Now we are ready!