Gibraltar - Cadiz (via Orca Central)

The day has finally arrived we are going to have to face up to the real risk of Orca attacks. We left Queensway Marina the night before to anchor at La Linear for an early start and as dawn broke we lifted the anchor and crept out of the harbour.

We know fro attacks the previous day that the Orcas are in the bay opposite Barbate, but we also know it is only the boats that venture out in the bay (through ignorance I can only assume) those that hug the shore have all transited the area without incident. Ironically I felt most at risk going from Gibraltar to Tarifa as there is little shallow water there and in any event the shallow water is really close to deep water.

We arrived at Tarifa after about two hours of motoring, there is little wind but this point was still very choppy because of the tidal flows in the very narrow entrance. Once around the corner we are confronted by an enormous tuna net and we know it is connected to the shore by lines so we have no choice but to go around it in the 30m contour. As soon as we could we headed for the protection of the shallow waters near the shore. It was important to go today because we wanted settled weather to navigate alone the shallow water and to do so we had to pass inside three other tuna nets. The tuna nets are not to be sniffed at they are up to three miles long and cover a vast area. Going outside of then exposes the boat to a huge risk and going inside is very shallow withe the water barely 4m deep.

This route is 75 miles if we had not hugged the shore it probably would have been 55 miles but its a day and the most important thing was to arrive in Cadiz at whatever time without incident.

We passed the entrance to Barbate and felt a huge sigh of relief as most of the danger had passed and now we were heading for Cape Trafalgar. I took the inside route (You could almost touch the rocks) this was retracing our outbound track so I knew we were safe.

Our arrival at Cadiz was uneventful but very welcome. As soon as we tied up we al had quick shower cracked a bottle of fizz and headed into town where Ian found us a fabulous restaurant were we all ate interesting food and a remarkable price.

The next day we were tourists again, after a 75 mile trip it is good to have a days break and Cadiz is not to be missed. Cadiz is full of narrow streets that are beautifully preserved and there are strong Roman influences.

The first thing we did (Mistake) was go to the Cathedral which is architecturally very interesting. The way is is constructed is amazing and it has underground vaults with a self supporting ceiling. It was difficult to photograph but it produced an amazing echo.

Next on the list was lunch and after that we went to market which was now closed. Memo - go to the market before going to the Cathedral!

Gwyn said she could see a Roman amphitheatre on google maps so off we went. We were walking along one of the streets and she said it says we have arrived… I said well that shop says Roman Theatre behind us, it looked like we were in the wrong place. We went in, it was a free public exhibition and indeed there was a huge arena behind the shops estimated to have been able to accommodate 10,000 people. It was a shame because they had not properly preserved it and at some point they had robbed it of stone and built over it but some parts were in fantastic condition and it was stunning.