Water Pump Failure in Gibraltar

This morning, Christi went to wash the dishes. She turned on the sink and no water came out. Uh oh. After checking a few things, Eric deduced the water pump had died. Thank God it happened on shore and not out at sea. Here, it is an inconvenience. We can use the marina’s toilets and showers, and buy bottled water until it is fixed. And it is easy to fix when the boat isn’t moving. At sea, it would be a nightmare. Yes, there are ways to tap into the water tanks or watermakerbut it is awkward and tricky when the boat is moving. We’d have to give up showers until it was fixed. And, since the pump is in the lazarette, we wouldn’t be able to work easily on it unless the seas were calm enough that water wouldn’t be coming over the cockpit walls into the lazarette.

We decided to go out for breakfast, knowing we’d deal with the situation better on a full stomach. Ahhh, it is such a wonderful luxury to go out to breakfast. We think we mentioned this in Australia, but a traditional English breakfast is Continue reading

Looking Around Gibraltar

Continued from yesterday”¦ As we were getting ready to go out, we could hear a bunch of planes taking off and landing. And they were loud. This tiny airport can’t possibly have this much traffic, and certainly not big planes. Eric poked his head out and saw a new super high powered state of the art jet fighter doing acrobatics. It would take off, do trick in the air, then land, then repeat. Eric watched for a while. Here is a shot of the waterfront as we were leaving Kosmos to get some lunch.

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Eric was delighted to see a Mexican restaurant on the boardwalk. He thought Mexican food was the ideal way to celebrate our passage completion. We are sad to report that Continue reading

Entering Gibraltar

By 0200, we decided the wind was confused. It would pick up for a while, then die down for a while. It changed direction often, rotating from starboard to port and back. It was afraid to commit. Seas had picked up some more, but it was still nice ride overall.

By 0230, the seas really picked up out of nowhere and it started to get a little bit rough. If it were head seas, we would definitely be well into the “uncomfortable” category, but since they were following seas, and it was tolerable, but not fun. The stabilizers were Continue reading

Start of the Passage to Gibraltar

Yesterday was a nice day in terms of weather. It was a little bit warmer than it has been, and there was no rain or wind. As soon as we got up we started our “get ready to go to sea” routine. We planned to leave shortly before sunset. Eric worked at getting things ready to go on board while he waited for the Simrad repair guy. Christi went to pick up fresh fruit and bread for the passage. Conveniently enough, there is a supermarket directly across the street, right next to the restaurant we like. And, from the fancy awning and red carpet, it looks like a nice one.

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It wasn’t open. Odd, since it is normal business hours on a weekday. She went and peeked into the windows and realized it is a nightclub, named “Supermarket”. Oops. She set off Continue reading

More Chores in Palma

This morning the wind had pretty much died and the marina was, for the most part, calm. Praise the Lord! We slept great and woke up full of energy, determined to get a lot done to make up for all the wasted days last week when we were too lethargic from the rocking to do much. It was ominously gray and cloudy all day, but it never really rained.

Eric set out to find a gasket and shaft packing tool. He went to two chandleries. The second chandlery sent him to a machine shop to have a gasket made. Eric arrived at the shop holding his home made gasket and the leftover gasket material we had gotten in Greece. The machine shop guys dropped what they were doing to make a gasket for him right then and there. And they only charged him $12 USD! Eric gave them Continue reading