Chispa; Caribbean to Malta

In January 2001 Jan set off to be re-united with his floating girlfriend in Trinidad. His second cousin from Switzerland joined him to experience sailing the high seas. I joined up with him in St Lucia and left six weeks later in Guardaloupe having called at many little islands en route. Mary and Neil from Benoni joined us but their visit was short-lived. Mary hurt her back and had to fly home after about 10 days. Dominica was he nicest with spectacular scenery, delightful people and, aove all, very few tourists. After I left Jan, Marcus and Neil hurridly sailed to Antigua to watch the South Africa / West Indies Test (cricket match). Jan then carried on Northwards visiting Monseratt, Nevis, St Kitts, St Eustatius, St Bart and St Maarten Here he met up with lots of family members and spend some very happy days. By then Neil had left Chispa and Mick had joined. In Bermuda they stocked up and set off across the North Atlantic calling at the Azores before arriving safely in Gibralta.Jan continues" Bermuda felt unreal with not a leaf out of place. The businessmen's (and women's) dress code consisted of bright coloured (Bermuda) shorts, a long sleeve shirt, tie and blazer, knee high black socks and black shoes. It was very funny to see hundreds of similarily dressed creatures walking along the streets during lunch hour. The Azores were fantastic. Sao Miguel, I would count as one of the most beautiful islands, if not the most beautiful I have seen. Unfortunately we couldn't linger and had to press on to Gibraltar. For the most, the North Atlantic crossing was good, with only one heavy storm with Chispa behaving perfectly. We stayed more south than I'd planned because of many 'fronts' passing more southerly than normal. It was colder than expected but with such a long time in the tropics our resistance was lower. We saw many dolphins, whales, barracuda and tuna, more so during the storm, when they passed just below the surface in the lee of the yacht. On approaching Gibraltar at night, Markus called me on deck to witness an enormos anchor hovering above my head! All I could do was throw the wheel in manual, turn parallel and pray (not really enough time for that)! At one time I noted 40 ships on the radar. It is very spectacular ariving in Gibraltar with 'The Rock' dominating the city and the airport (only) runway stretching out into the sea both ends. The border with Spain is just across the runway. The runway is always busy with pedestrian and vehicular traffic crossing to and from each country. Chispa was moored right beside the runway. I (Ann) arrived soon after Chispa's arrival. Gibraltar is is situated on an isthmus covering a total area of 2.75 square miles, but is said to have 35 kms of secret tunnels within 'The Rock'; so named in AD 711 by the Moors, Jebil (rock of) Tariq . Payment was in either Sterling of Pesetas (now Euros), with a free interchange of currencies.I wonder if it is the only British 'colony' which drives on the 'wrong' side of the road!! Gibraltarians are extremely proud of their nationality and are not just British ex-pats. English and Spanish are often used in the same sentence. The history of Gibraltar is long and interesting and there is still an on-going feud with Spain. The famous Barbary Apes are cinnamon-coloured, tailless monkeys, natives of the atlas Mountains in Morocco. Legend holds that as long as the apes remain, the British will continue to hold 'The Rock'. The time zone is slightly out with Summer sunrise around 7am and sunset about 9.45 pm. The apes are the responsibility of the British Army who feed them twice a day. Before setting sail from Gibraltar, we travelled through Morocco and Andalucia. We left Gibraltar by simply walking over the runway and on into Spain. A 30 minute crossing from Algerciras to Ceuta brought us into a living biblical scene. Harvesting was in progress carried out by robed men and women using scythes. Ever patient donkeys were dotted all over, waiting to be loaded up. The fields were surrounded by little flat-roofed houses. Fez has an 8th century medina with only two types of taxis - small and large (donkeys and mules). All the varied craftsmen use their time honoured ancient methods and it seems as though the 20th century hasn't penetrated their lives at all. Marrakech was quite different with all actvities taking place in a huge 12th century square where everything only comes to life after 6pm. We visited the breathtaking Hussein V mosque in Casablanca and finished up visiting Tangiers a rather modern city. On our return to Gibraltar, we hired a car and visited the ancient royal cities of Andalucia Jerez, Seville,Cordoba and Grenada. Having just been to Morocco, we were able to really appreciate the remains of Moorish culture which are still to be found all over this area of southern Spain. At long last, we bade Gibraltar farewell and set sail on glassy seas. Unfortunately, within hours, the Levante caught us blowing a Force 9 gale. We managed to keep going bare-poled for ten hours, exceeding the maximum boat speed. What a way to start off in the Mediterranean, especially for our friend Kurt. We stopped off in Almeria and Cartagena before crossing over to Mallorca and Minorca. Here Ann's 'old' school friend, Jill, joined us and aftera couple of rough days, we arrived in Sardinia . a week is definitely not long enough to explore this interesting island, if you are at all intersted in history. Kurt left in Sardinia and we continued on to Sicily with Jan's cousin, another Jan. We visited the Mafia Capital, Palermo where our sightseeing varied from a puppet show to seeing a collection of 8000 preserved (some better than others!) bodies dating back to the 17th century. Mount Etna had just stopped errupting so we were unable to see much as there was lava flowing all over. Arriving in Valetta, Malta by sea is most spectacular with the St Elmo fortress dominating the entrance. We were able only to scratch the surface of the island's incredible history and planned to delve deeper on our return in 2002.

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