Passage to Freedom from Schengen

Our last unofficial port of call in Portugal - up a river, around a few bends and in very narrow water.  The policia gave us a long look as they passed but we think it was only because they hadn't seen a catamaran so far up the river.  And we thought we were being inconspicuous!

You may have read in a previous blog that my time in most EU countries is limited by the Schengen Agreement, the purpose of which is to allow most citizens in the EU to travel freely across Schengen borders without checking in or out.  NonEU citizens are limited in time as they are in most countries but the limit includes all Schengen countries as if it was one large nation.  Hence, Canadians may stay in Schengen countries for 90 days in 180 days.  Not sure which officious official is going to take the time to count the days on my hyper stamped passport but lore says it all depends on the officer who receives you and how their day is going.  We have not yet met one who cares to look at the passport of a friendly, middle-aged, female Canadian but who knows it could happen.  Most seem completely uninterested and it is tempting to gambol in the game of risk and just stay past the 90-day alarm but I have always been rule abiding.

Peter, born in Britain, has an EU passport. Although Britain is nonSchengen, British citizens can travel without Schengen limitations in Schengen countries - for now, anyway.  Even though we have been married for 30 years, I would need to live with him in United Kingdom with less and less time away, over three years to qualify for a British passport.  I understand this rule for those who get married in order to get the passport.  But surely thirty years of happy marriage, three of which have been on a boat the size of a tiny condo, is a good enough history to negate the risk that I'm only in it for the passport.  Officialdom does not make exceptions, however.

It was wonderful to arrive in Europe but once we checked into the Azores, my 90 Schengen days were counting down.

After clearing out of Portugal with the almighty stamp on my passport - no easy affair (see The Algarve blog) we were officially out of Schengen and our time was counting up on nonSchengen instead of down on precious time in Schengen.  Our objective was to check into Gibraltar without touching down in Spain, Gibraltar being a nonSchengen country.  We planned to leave Portugal and sail with one or two nights at anchor off the coast of Spain.  If we didn't go ashore, I wouldn't be illegal.  Problem was that we wouldn't see Cadiz.  There are a mounting number of places to which we have to return.

And so began our passage, an approximate 120 NM as the crow flies, to Gibraltar.  We left our hideout in Tavira, Portugal - we had checked out of Portugal a couple of days before actually leaving - and headed across the Golfo de Cadiz.

Tavira, Portugal was worth a stop.  

We planned to anchor for the night in Puerto Sherry in the Bahia de Cadiz.  We weighed anchor and set off at 7:00 a.m. on a close reach, meaning slightly upwind as seems to be our habit.  At 8:45 as the wind backed, meaning started to go counterclockwise, the screecher head strap tore and the screecher began to slip down on it's luff line.  As it slipped, a bigger and bigger bag grew for the wind to catch, making it more and more difficult to pull in and down.  But after a bit of huffing and puffing and exclamations, we wrestled it to the deck, folded it up as best we could and struggled with it to the cockpit.  We were now limited to the smaller headsail - which probably should have been up anyway - or the spinnaker as headsails.

The head of the screecher was chafed right through.  We probably shouldn't have been using the sail on a slight upwind but ...it makes us go faster.  

The sail took up the entire cockpit until we wedged it into a tighter spot.

 The rest of the first leg to Puerto Sherry was lovely, even as the fishing fleet returning to home port looked like they might skewer us.

The little black boat is Milly.  The others are returning large industrial fishing boats.  The fish don't have a chance and for awhile it looked like we were in for the same fate.

Second day of sailing was lovely although upwind and therefore wet and salty with mounting winds as we approached the Strait.  The Strait of Gibraltar is renowned for it's very strong wind and currents.  As sailors we seek to have current carry us toward our destination and want it in harmony with the wind.  If wind is against current the sea waves become very steep and the period is short making the sea unpleasant at best and very hazardous at worst.  The Strait's currents are not just in one direction with incoming tide and the other direction as the tide goes out and don't follow the basic tidal timing rules.  As well, the strait is long enough that at some point we would be going against the tide.  We wanted to time it so we got there during the day.

Our cruising guide suggested a couple of anchorages to shelter from strong SW winds which is what we were experiencing.  We dropped anchor mid afternoon after only 44 NM, protected by a small point.  Beautiful surrounds, sunbathers and sea bathers at the beach which was surrounded by hills dotted by large villas.

Lovely anchorage.  Even with protection from the tiny point the swimmers were having a great time playing in the surf which was already big shortly after anchoring.

Taken from Milly, this is the minuscule point.  You can see the wilder conditions just off our stern.

 Peaceful dinner but as we slept the winds mounted and shifted, this time veering or clockwise making our anchorage more and more exposed.  Milly was now facing out to sea but pulling on her anchor toward shore - in sailor parlance we were on the leeshore.  We have a great anchor and I was not particularly worried about dragging in the sand bottom that the anchor was buried in but I could hear the breaking surf was getting louder and louder.  We couldn't see it but as the waves mounted with the rising wind, the waves would be breaking closer and closer to Milly.  We would have to escape.

The anchor system on a catamaran is such that the "bridle" has to be removed from the chain.  To do this on Milly I have to stick my arm through a smallish hole.  This is a bit anxiety-provoking in a strong wind but in breaking surf it would be downright dangerous and, of course, my overactive imagination had me envisioning the worst.  Peter agreed that we should weigh anchor before my imagination was tested.

At 1:17 a.m. we left.  Tarifa, only a few miles from Gibraltar, was not too far away but it would be dead upwind in big seas.  We decided to turn back toward Cadiz, the first time we had ever done that.  The sail was actually quite lovely going downwind - big waves are quite fun when you surf them instead of pounding through them with the motor on.  We had no regrets just a bit of frustration at lost miles.

When I got up from sleep after my watch, we were almost at Cadiz.  Peter had read that there was another anchorage described as protected south of Cadiz and, therefore, closer to Gibraltar.  We decide to turn around and check it out.  Nope.  No protection.

This was the so-called protected anchorage.  Perhaps the whitecaps are pretty but we didn't want a repeat of the night before.

So we turned north again and this time went back to Puerto Sherry which we knew would be protected from this high SW wind.  71NM of to-ing and fro-ing and backtracking.

As we went up and down and up and down the coast, we were astounded and impressed by the huge number of wind generators all along the high mountain slopes.  This photo was in Tarifa.  Note the turbines on the left.  Amazing.  Spain is doing something right.

After sleeping in a bit too long, we left at 10 a.m. and motored into the wind for 8 hours arriving in Tarifa, the Spanish city at the narrowest point of the Strait.  The wind had again shifted to east and we found a protected anchorage just as the sun set.

Our protected anchorage in Tarifa was right beside this fort and lighthouse, still used by the navy.  This point is the most consistently windy in the whole strait.

(Interestingly, during the day and for the rest of our stay in Gibraltar when near Morocco, the Spanish coastguard would radio that "nomadic" boats were sited in a particular area near the Moroccan coast.  They directed to avoid them and to radio the coast guard if seen.  These were refugee boats which offer cruisers who may come across them a dilemma.  Often these boats and the people on them are in dire, if not life threatening, circumstances.  A rule of seamanship is to help all craft who need assistance.  With overcrowded boats an desperate people on board, cruising boats have been boarded bringing their own boat into peril.  It is against the law to assist these boats.  We have decided that we would call the coast guard.  We hope to never be faced with this heartbreaking dilemma though.)

I know it's getting repetitive but during the night the wind again shifted and the surf was again mounting.  We were up early for the last 17 NM to Gibraltar in high winds downwind.  We zipped across the harbour crowded with anchored ships, accompanied by welcoming dolphins and a clear blue sky for our stay on The Rock.

We had taken five days and gone 271 NM to go what should have been a two day trip of 120 NM. A bit arduous. On the bright side, my nonSchengen time was higher and more was to come in Gibraltar.

Our back and forth passage.