Barry’s visit
Sun 11th July, Barry arrived at about 3 in the afternoon with his friend Cat, he had had to land at Malaga and was not permitted by the Spanish authorities to fly directly on to Gibraltar. We did wonder why there were no flights from Spain here! He could have flown via Tangiers in Morocco which would have been
the only alternative.
Barry brought with him a copy of Practical Boat Owner August 2004 which my Dad had bought for us, although we believe the magazine exists in Gibraltar we had not been able to find it, so finally we were able to read our article all about us and our yacht Spinalonga and details of the way it was built. We went out for a late lunch and then a wander around town for a few more beers. Tea consisted of some sardine-like fish caught from the boat with some bread and wine. (We later found the same fish in the supermarket, called Jurel Mediano)
Mon 12th July, Cat went to meetings in Gibraltar via the dinghy and the rest of us whiled away much of the day on the boat, we had pancakes for breakfast, and sardines with butter and rosemary for lunch. In the afternoon we landed at La Linea (Spain) and while Nigel and Dan stayed on the beach, Barry and I went to the supermarket to stock up on some food, as we had heard that Spain was far cheaper than Gibraltar. Indeed there were a lot of very cheap items. Barry went to fetch Cat and then Nigel cooked us all a feast with chicken, rice and salad – a very good day’s eating, all in all!
On the Tuesday Barry ran Cat to Gibraltar again, but the day went very much downhill from then on. Barry decided to treat us to a couple of nights in a marina. However we got ourselves in a lot of trouble, we tried the Queensway Quay marina in the centre of Gibraltar harbour, unfortunately they are the most security-conscious marina, we were all in trouble because Barry and Cat had never checked through immigration, and we were in trouble because we had been to La Linea in Spain, where we had anchored just the other side of the same breakwater which made the international border, and had not re-checked in
to Gibraltar and admitted that we had two extra crew. The problem is apparently the Spanish authorities, who look to find any fault with Gibraltar that they can, to use in their case against Gibraltar being British-owned. So we had to all get back on the boat immediately and move the boat back to the Port Authority hut at Waterport and get a new form filled in. In the event Customs were too busy to come down so we filled in their form too and left it at the Port Authority office. After all that fuss we decided to stop at the nearby Marina Bay marina and not go back to Queensway Quay marina. And by that time most of the day was gone! We did a few errands and had tea on the boat but it was a very frustrating day.