Cruising Gibraltar via Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea, Spain

December 2019

We made the decision to winter berth in La Linea Spain, just 500mtrs from the Gibraltar boarder which has given us the opportunity to visit Gibraltar a British Overseas Territory.

It is very surreal walking through Gibraltar and hearing English being spoken so freely having been in France, Portugal and Spain for all these months.  We don't like the fish and chip shops but only because it feels so very odd to see something so British abroad, even in one of our territories.  However, they are all very busy due to the many many cruise liners that stop in Gibraltar.

Being near Gibraltar does mean that we can buy all the things we miss from the UK - pork pies, real bacon, Lurpak.  Whilst you can buy alternatives in Spain they are just not the same lol.

There are also a couple of good chandlery shops, who are also very helpful and dare I say slightly cheaper than the UK.  One of the chandleries are in Queensway Marina, which is in walking distance of Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea.

As of today's date, prior to Brexit there are never any difficulties getting in and out of Gibraltar.  Both passport control and customs are very relaxed. That is not to say that it will always be that way but I'm sure it's unlikely to change dramatically as there are 28,500 people who cross the boarder and go to school & work from Spain into Gibraltar.  It is said that 30% of people in La Line are unemployed and there are just 33 people unemployed in Gibraltar, an almost unbelievable & incredible figure.

Gibraltar is only 6.8km2, this means with the increasing population they can only build up and not out.  Therefore, when walking through the streets if can feel very claustrophobic.

When our daughter, son-in-law and grandsons came to visit we decided to to the tourist thing and go up the cable car to see the Barbary maraques, commonly known as the Barbary apes.

We had our first trial when we parked the car (we had hired a car for our family visit so that we could go and visit several places whilst they were here).  There is only one car park for the cable car and you need to know your registration plate, the metre is in Spanish and the queue was about 8 people long.  the 2nd trial was at the entrance where there were many mini-bus touters, who were
trying to sell their rock tours.  We didn't do this and waited for the cable car, some 40 minutes.  Our 3rd trial was there were different prices for the different activities, apes, skywalk and caves.  This all became quite confusing so we opted for all of it at an eye-watering cost of £169 for 4 adults and 2 children, only finally to be told it would take 3hrs to do everything and it was already 2.30pm!

The day was beautifully warm so the walk was fantastic. We saw the apes, which were amazing especially those with babies.  They were literally anywhere and everywhere, they will sit quietly whilst you pass but beware do not get near their growl and teeth are quite loud and big, as we were to find out haha! 

Only the guys went on the skywalk as this is an overhang on the eastern side of the rock, much to high and frighteningly scary for me and my daughter.

The St Michael's caves were the most amazing I have ever seen.  Part of the caves have been created into an auditorium for concerts.  It is said that there is a tunnel that runs from Morocco to Gibraltar and that this is how the apes came to be on the rock.  It is more likely they were bought to the rock via ships from Morocco. The caves are enormous and stretch for some way both up high and deep below.

                                                 There is also Windsor Suspension Bridge.  Katrina did not want to walk across, the guys were happy to run and walk across.  I hate hate hate heights but at my age was determined to get over my fear of heights by walking across it.  I had such high hopes of just gritting my teeth and walking but to my horror after some very deep breathing and lots of self-encouragement I started to walk and within 10ft started to cry hysterically.  I carried on walking because I didn't know what else to do.  All I could hear was my head which was about to explode with fear and some woman shouting encouragement from the other side. Stu, our son-in-law came to my rescue and walked me the rest of the way, even though the fear and tears would not go.  I can't say that I felt anything but exhaustion when I got to the other side, I certainly didn't feel elated as I thought I would!!!

  









All in all it was a wonderful afternoon but you need more time than 3hours to really enjoy all of the actives and really appreciate all the sights.

Europa Lighthouse is also a great site to visit with fantastic views over the Gibraltar Straits and across the Morocco.  Parking is free and there is a small cafe.  We visited twice and on both occasions the winds were good so we had an excellent time looking around.  

Katrina, Stu, Zed & Zach in La Linea

Gibraltar is a fascinating place because of its size, where it is and what it has to offer.  Its a place not to missed in you are in Southern Spain.

We've blown the budget already!! Our true cost of cruising

November 2019 - The true cost of living on our boat whilst full-time cruising.

Costs for our cruise so far in our Venus 46' Ketch.  Where to start?  Our current circumstances are we sold our house, which was part of the plan and Cordelia is paid for so there is no mortgage.  We felt like we could not do it if we had a mortgage to pay on either a boat or property.

We planned that we were going to leave the employment rat race early so we needed to make sure we had an income to sustain the lifestyle that we wanted.  Our target date to set sail was April 2019.

Our income consists of a small pension and some savings.  Annette also continues to work remotely on a part-time basis in a job she loves.

We have a daily budget, which works brilliantly for us.  We write down on a daily basis every penny we spend, no matter what it is for or how small the amount.  This is then transferred to a spreadsheet each month to enable us to look at what and where we have spent our budget and more importantly where we need to pull our belts in.  I know it's anal but it works for us lol.

What we did find is that during the first 3-4 months we spent more on restaurants, which was rather strange because it was not something that we used to do.  When we looked at why we realised that it was due to our activities on the boat every day.  There were days we would work in the early morning and then go out exploring and this was always just before lunch. This meant that we were out over lunch time so we were eating out.  We have since changed that and work up until lunch and go out after lunch. This way we also use the food that we were still buying when we were eating out! Whilst most cafe's/tapas bars are reasonably cheap, it's amazing how quickly our lunchtime bill would come to €15 and when your daily budget is only €42.50 that is a large chunk of it.

We also changed our sailing plan during the summer and are now going into the Mediterranean in
2020.  This has meant a 6month stopover in a marina and whilst this is cheaper than a daily marina rate it is still 183 days in a marina that we did not budget for.  We certainly won't do this next year.

There are also days where we spend nothing.  These days we like because it means that if we want to hire a car to go sightseeing, we are able to do this.  Our non-spending days are due to the way Steve has set up the boat with a good fridge, freezer, water-maker and we make sure we provision in advance.  We overspec'd our ground tackle to keep us safe whilst anchoring as much as possible.  We also just love relaxing on the boat sitting in the sun reading a book or fishing (even though we have yet to catch anything in 6 months 🤣.

We were once told....do not try and live this life too differently than how you lived on land....what they meant was, if you eat out a couple of nights a week, try and continue to do this, if you go to the cinema once a month again try and do this or something similar.  You are who you are, do not try and change too much otherwise you may feel there are too many compromises and you don't want to regret your decision.

We've had an amazing time in our first six months.  We've visited 37 ports from May - Oct 2019 of which 6 were marina's plus our winter marina berth.

Actual Spend & Budget May - Oct 2019

Our 6-month spend & budget.  We break it down as follows:

Marina Berthing / Fuel - Diesel / Fuel - Gas / Food / Restaurants / Coffee's / Boat bits / Laundry / Mobile phones & Data / Other - includes ferries, clothing, taxis, hair cuts etc.

We did not include flights in our budget but this year we have had 2 exceptions, one being our son's wedding which included a weeks holiday stay too and also an emergency flight to the UK due to a parent falling ill.  We don't envisage having to do this again however we will include on 'other' in future.

Boat Bits below includes a 2nd hand Electric Torquedo outboard that we purchased in France and a new Victron Invertor in the UK and each was €800.

NB.  Our boat insurance is not included in our budget.  We made the decision to not include this and to pay it annually from our savings when it is due.  For reference though, our insurance is approx. £1250 per six months.

There are cruisers who have sailed on less per day and cruisers who have sailed on more per day. There is no right or wrong way, only the way that best suits you.  This is our true spend for our initial 6 months and we absolutely will spend less in the next 6 months.

We would love to hear your comments or if you have questions, fire away.  If you have any ideas on different things you would like to see please let us know or why not watch our last vlog episode 14