19th November 2015: We had a real early – 6:30am start for our 55 nautical mile passage to Benalmadena. That’s a bit of a shock to the system after 3 weeks of sleep ins!! We are trying to make some miles today as the weather forecast is not looking very favourable for the next few days and we would like to make it to Gibraltar tomorrow.
It was pitch black when we set off but a brilliant sky of bright stars and a half moon! It was an easy anchorage to leave in the dark and the radar is a huge help. Robbie gave the big spot light a quick run but we didn’t really need it. Wind gauge was reading 5 knots of wind and the sea was very calm and flat. Starlet departed just after us.
I spent the day sorting out all our hard drives and saving all Robbie’s photos from his Samsung phone which is dying a slow death. I have made labels for them also so it (technically) should be a piece of cake to find something when we are looking for it!
We had a number of “Pan Pan” messages on the radio from the Spanish marine radio station stating that there is a small rubber duck from Morocco, with 25 people aboard drifting in the area and if we see it to please report back to them. The message starts with a very loud radio alarm that certainly wakes you up it is so loud. Around 12:30 we heard a message cancelling the Pan Pan so they must have located them. Thank goodness as it would be a difficult moral dilemma what to do if you came across a boat load of refugees. Trying to look after 25 refugees on our boat which is registered for 15 persons could be very tricky indeed. I hope we don’t come across this situation as we wouldn’t be able to ignore them.
At 1:00pm the wind gauge is reading 1.2 knots, aaaaaah we just love this Southern Star weather!! We have had the current against us for most of the day, only getting 6 knots of speed, but it has just increased to 6.6 which is much better.