Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Last Leg...

Today we sailed around the southernmost point in Europe and are heading north to Portugal. I had not realized that the Rock of Gibraltar is not really a rock. Instead, it is a peninsula and there is a town on it. Maybe the town was where Molly Bloom was from...

The scariest thing was that there were a ridiculous number of huge ships--tankers, container ships, and freighters, all waiting for the current to change so they could go through the Straits of Gibraltar. They made our little boat seem very small, especially when one crossed (pretty far, but close enough to make me squirrelly, at least!) behind us.

Frank is getting quite good at steering the boat and docking it. I keep trying, but still cannot hold a course. I am getting better with the lines now that I understand the different types of mooring situations. We have developed a routine. Max's job right now is to stay out of the way; we've told him that once he's a little older and we are more confident we'll teach him. Meanwhile, he's very encouraging!

Max seems to have adapted and most of the time doesn't need his seasick medicine, but it was so rough yesterday it seemed like a good idea.

The scenery is interesting, with mostly brown hills that have little groups of green trees on them. Occasionally there will be a little village or group of white houses. There are also wind turbines on the hills on both sides, the European and the African. Now that we are almost in the Atlantic the seas are a lot calmer, for some reason.

It is incredible how many containers they stack on one of these ships--all the way up to the bridge! It's amazing that any thing ever gets anywhere without falling off, especially since it doesn't appear that the containers are strapped down.

Today is the first day that we've actually been chilly! The wind is cool and since it is pretty strong it feels cold--very bizarre to feel cold in southern Europe in the middle of August!

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