Cadiz to Gibraltar
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After two years campaigning the Volvo 60 Merit with a great team of guys we have sold her and purchased a Beneteau 473 that was a year old and berthed in Cadiz Spain. Not quite to plan but an adventure not to be missed we took possession on the 25th July. With no real agenda other than to sail into the Mediz up the coast of Spain France Corsica Sardinia and winter over in Italy for a three month trip home to race in the Melbourne Hobart on our old yacht.
The long term plan is to spend two years in the Med sailing across the Atlantic a year in the Caribbean and then through the Panama, crossing the Pacific through the islands to Sydney by 2007.
We take possession of our near-new Beneteau 473 Oceanis Clipper. 
After 37 hours of travelling, it’s a shock to find her covered in reddust with barnacles on the hull. The dust has blown in from Africa. No one here washes their boat: there’s no point. But down below we find her immaculate and fully equipped. We clean and scrub, getting ready to relaunch her as ‘Cadiz’, named after the place where our adventure begins. There’s no real agenda for our first season, other than to sail into the Med, up the coast of Spain, to the Balearic Islands and across to Sardinia and Corsica, then winter her in Italy while we return to a Sydney summer.
The ISAF world sailing champs are here in Sept and already we are catching up with New Zealanders and Aussies here training. Barbara Kendall and husband Shayne Bright, with two year old Samantha, bring Champagne and -a sailing tradition - a toy treasure chest, filled with chocolate coins to give the pirates for luck (We still have the treasure chest on board, as we haven’t seen any pirates to date).
Pete Messenger and Sam Hunt also call in on Bumblebee on their way to Sardinia so you never know who you will run into. How the wind blows here on the Atlantic coast, they are in for a good series.
It is Europe’s hottest summer and the sea breeze certainly helps. With the Atlantic at it’s doorstep, the seafood market early every morning is a hive of activity. We soon get used to taking siestas between 2pm and 5pm when all the shops shut and everyone goes home for a leisurely lunch and a sleep. So civilised.
We’re stuck in port because of the Levanter winds. They’re hot, last up to ten days, and can blow 30-plus knots relentlessly.
After one too many bullfights but quite an experience we finally leave on the 5th August in head winds of 25 - 30 knots not quite what we wanted but have to be in Gibraltar by the 7th to pick up our son Ian joining us for 2 weeks.
Tuna nets are our biggest worry as they loom out of nowhere, and up to 2 miles long. We start to wonder what the hell we have done.
It’s a long slow, slow day passing Cape Trafalgar and we think of battles won and lost here. We try to set sail in 25-30 knots, but it’s on the nose and we have to motor 35 nautical miles.
It doesn’t pay to make any plans when it comes to cruising on boats - the weather will play an important part and we’ll always have to be flexible. Holed up here in Barbate are a lot of boats, cruisers and yachts of all sizes trying to get to Gibraltar. When you ask when the wind will die down, you only get a shrug and very daunting ‘Could last another 10 days’. If only we could get around the corner then the easterly will be good for us.
In the night the boat was hit by a sandstorm, a new experience for us but not surprising, as Europe is having their highest temperatures in 60 years. 
Wind on the nose, we motor around Tarifa Point, famous for windsurfers. Our first major port and formalities are surprisingly informal, held in a shed on a pontoon with kids fishing off it and Customs only interested in stowaways. Gibraltar is like popping into an English port, and it’s fun being able to speak English agian. Its August and every one is on holiday so getting anything fixed is impossible.