Belle Hélène: The Atlantic Adventure begins!

Following the fantastic Eastern Med adventure, we returned to the UK for six weeks to visit friends and family. The timing couldn’t have been better in one respect because Justin’s Mum had a fall just before we returned and needed some good old family TLC whilst she was in hospital. Unfortunately she took a lot longer to recover from her various ailments and we were very glad to leave her safely installed in a residential rehabilitation home before we left. Mum is now back home in her flat in Worksop getting better by the day. Tom also returned from his job as a dinghy instructor in the South of France and we were able to get him installed in his new pad – one of our small flats in Stamford. He very quickly got himself a good job in a new hotel in the town and is very happy living back ‘home’ in Stamford (for the moment anyway!).

Whilst at home we spent a lot of time travelling back and forth up and down the M5 doing over 5500 miles in just 6 weeks! Most of our time was spent staying with our great friends Jon and Beth in Little Bytham, who were just the best hosts you could possibly imagine. While at home we also took the opportunity to take our STCW95 MCA qualification, including courses in First Aid, Sea Survival and Fire Fighting. We did this at Brixham Marina staying on our friends Ian and Alison’s yacht Pickle. The final part of the course was held at HMS Raleigh in Plymouth where the navy fire fighting trainers put us through our paces for two full days, taking us well out of our comfort zone with many live fire fighting exercises including casualty location and retrieval from a completely smoke filled ship with zero visibility, wearing full fire fighting equipment including breathing apparatus. Hats off to all fire fighters – no way I could do that for a living! Helen did find a positive about it though – 7 of the other members of the course were marines, training for their new jobs as Marine Security Officers aboard ships coming through Somali pirate country in the Red Sea.

Any way, our last night was spent with more good friends, Chris and Minnie, at the Headmaster’s House at Copthorne Prep School, close to Gatwick. A great way to say goodbye to the UK for a while…

After an early start, Minnie dropped us off at the airport and we were soon approaching ‘The Rock’ of Gibraltar. We were met at the airport by our new Skipper Irene and her worthy crew Chris! We were very worried that Irene would take one look at all our luggage and send us straight back home, but fortunately as soon as we explained that we were carrying 20kilos of Marks and Spencer tinned foods to help with provisioning across the Atlantic we were allowed on board Cuttyhunk, our new home for the next 3 or 4 months.

We had no sooner stepped on board when we heard a cry from across the marina and within seconds Helen and John from Awarowa were round and the beers were opened. It was just like old times from Marmaris, and tall tales of all of our separate adventures from the summer were recanted, and I dare say embellished a little. Hilary had jumped ship from Cuttyhunk to make way for us, but had found a berth on Awarowa, and will sail with them at least to the Canaries.

After some discussion we established which side of the bed we were going to sleep , and after a good night for Helen and a few bumped heads and elbows for Justin, we woke the next morning and began preparing for the next leg of our trip by visiting the supermarket (a Morrisons of all things!)

Good old Morrisons!

Guess which side Helen is sleeping on!

After everything was stowed away, and with Cuttyhunk sitting a little lower in the water we were all set to leave, but Hilz had organized a taxi and guide to take us up the ‘Rock’ to see the monkeys, the war tunnels and cave with amazing stalactites and stalagmites. This was a great trip to do, and is a must if you ever visit Gibraltar. The views from the top were great, and you could easily see Morocco. The rock of Gibraltar seems to catch any passing clouds, and was mostly shrouded for our visit, so we were lucky to get the view that we did. Gibraltar really is a little piece of England in the Mediterranean complete with Marks and Spencer and grey cloud!

Abramovich’s yacht ‘Le Bleu’ last seen in the South of France.

Now for the classic Gibraltar monkey photos…..

The marina at Gibraltar.

The only runway in the world with a motorway going through it!

We watched the rugby world cup semifinals in a bar, and were gutted to see Wales loose out so narrowly to France, but we consoled ourselves with a cooked breakfast and then walked around the town a bit, looking for a birthday present for Irene, which we found in a local crafts shop.

We then left Gibraltar and went a few miles around the corner to the sunshine and La Ligne on the Spanish side. Justin and I were duly dispatched to find a bar that would let us watch the New Zealand Australia semifinal, and eventually we found a English bar with a friendly owner who agreed to open early for us the next morning.

It was with great relief that we watched NZ win, as our lives would have been hell otherwise, and we returned to the boat to prepare for an overnight passage to Rabat in Morocco. Unfortunately, the wind and seas picked up a bit, and we ended up sailing at speeds of up to 13.6 knots in 42 knots of wind and 3 metre seas. Normally Justin and I wouldn’t go out with a forecast like that, but Irene and Chris just took it in their stride, and their confidence was infectious and we loved the exhilarating ride! After 26 hours at sea we arrived off Rabat inly to discover that the harbour was closed because of the big seas, so we had to carry on for another 5hours or to to Mohammedia. When we arrived in Mohammedia, we weren’t even allowed into the harbour, as it was full, and were told to take all precautions (presumably for security reasons) if we wanted to anchor outside. After this slightly inauspicious welcome, we dropped the hook, had a landing beer with Awaroa and then caught up on some well deserved sleep.

Next morning was Irene’s birthday, and Chris cooked a fabulous breakfast for us all, and Helen and Hilz had baked a fantastic chocolate cake. Armed with her new camera (a present from Chris) and wearing her new necklace from us, Irene, Justin and John took the dinghy ashore to compete the entry formalities, and see the lie of the land. The news was not good, as there was not likely to be room for both boats in Mohammedia, and the next nearest port was Agadir, a couple of days sail away. There was also bad news on the weather front, with very strong winds forecast for the weekend. Helen and John decided to head off to Agadir, where they could safely leave their boat and explore Morocco by land, but we decided to push on to the Canaries, and away from the weather system. Before we left we put Chris in charge of the boats, and the rest of us had a walk into town. It was disappointingly nondescript, but there was a nice square with manicured gardens, and we managed to pick up a few fresh provisions.