Caught in a lightning storm (#11)

As soon as the mast works were finished in Vilamoura we set sail to Gibraltar. The sun was already setting so we sailed into the night.

The sea was calm and so was the wind. It was a nice and peaceful night. At a quiet moment during the night when Sven and I were both awake, we spotted fluorescent algae in the water, it’s so magical to see the water lighten up around your boat! The wind picked up a bit during the night but not enough to turn off the engine.

Start of a bumpy ride …

We had a lovely morning with a pretty sunrise and the sea was still calm.

This did not take very long unfortunately… As soon as the sun was up, the sea became very choppy and the wind picked up. This was the beginning of a very bumpy ride.

A little later we got the acknowledgement that we made an excellent choice by spending money on a full enclosure for the flybridge. The waves hit the boat so hard in the front that the water sprayed all the way over the boat. You have to imagine that the roof on the flybridge is several meters above the water level, and the water spray was as if they were throwing buckets of water over us. We would have been soaking wet if it wasn’t for the enclosure. But we all stayed dry and comfortable and ended up having a lot of fun watching the waves hit us and waiting for the ones that were high enough to splash against the front window of the enclosure, resulting in a lot of cheering and laughter. (I'll put some video's up on our Facebook page)

The lightning...

Just after lunchtime a thunderstorm surprised us. Even though we checked the weather regularly and we were listening to the weather reports given out by the coast guard none of it mentioned the dark cloud mass we saw approaching. It started with wind gusts and heavy rain and a little later we saw lightning in the distance. It looked like the darkest clouds weren't going to pass over us so we kept our course in the direction of the thinner, lighter clouds. Little did we know that that was not the end of the storm yet but there were some more dark and ominous clouds following, which we were unable to escape at that point. These clouds were filled with electricity and soon we were in the middle of a lightning storm. It was a bit of a scary moment. I had learned in my weather course that you better avoid lightning when you are sailing. The chance is real that lightning strikes on a sailing boat and if it does it could destroy all of your electrical appliances, including your navigational equipment, radar, autopilot, VHF, …

We were the only boat in the area and at one moment there was lightning and thunder everywhere, one after the other. But there wasn’t a lot we could do any more at this point than to ride it out. What were only minutes seemed like an eternity… but finally we could see and hear the storm pass behind us, everything became quiet again and we were safe. I was definitely going to do some research on ways to protect our boat from a lightning strike later.

The lightning storm was over but the clouds that followed were packed with rain and the wind kept shifting direction and speed. Which meant we had a lot of work trimming and adjusting the sails. At one point when I turned the boat into the wind (so that Sven could put in another reef) so much rain came blowing in through the open panel that everything was soaking wet inside our enclosure. And later when we checked inside it was as if a tornado had passed, everything that could be on the floor was on the floor, like towels, cushions, the table cloth, … and on top of that a lot of stuff was wet because we didn’t close the small air vents inside the windows. They normally don’t let water in during the rain, but they obviously do during these circumstances. It wasn’t fun any more at that point and it was definitely the worst passage so far.

The Straight of Gibraltar ...

Luckily we had reached the straight of Gibraltar and we would only have to sail a few more hours. Al of our trouble was quickly forgotten when the rain finally stopped and we could enjoy the beautiful views in the straight of Gibraltar. It was incredible to see how close the two continents are together at that point. We were happy to see Gibraltar in the distance and as we approached we were welcomed by a lot of dolphins, a beautiful ending to this rough ride.

The final challenge ...

There was only one more challenge ahead before we could finally enjoy our well-deserved rest. We would arrive in the Marina of Gibraltar after dark. We normally prefer to arrive at a new place during the day but we were so close at that point that we decided to give it a try. If you don’t know your way in the Bay of Gibraltar it can be pretty confusing, there are a lot of lights everywhere and it’s hard to see which ones are on land and which ones are on one of the many cargo ships that are anchored in the bay. Thanks to our AIS system, which clearly shows where the cargo ships are, we managed to avoid them easily. It were the smaller moving ships that were a bit harder to dodge but we managed perfectly.

As always I had a lot of stress preparing the boat for docking in a new marina. So I ran around like a mad woman tying up the fenders and preparing the docking lines on both sides. No need for all the stress of course but I just can’t help it. The marina staff was waiting for us and pointed us to our berth. There was no wind so Sven managed to dock the boat like a pro.

A last surprise were the slime lines we had to use to tie up the boat in the front. I had never done this before and it’s extra yucky in the dark because you can’t see what you’re doing. The guys in the Marina were so friendly and helpful that they decided to show me how it’s done instead of just explaining me, and so basically did it for me this first time. Once we were all tied up the marina staff took care of our paper work while we rinsed and tidied up the boat. A few moments later we were cleared by customs to leave the boat. We went to get some take-away Indian food before going to bed early.

I took us a lot longer to arrive in Gibraltar than planned due to the necessary repair stops during the previous months. But we made it to our new home for the next month(s)… Read all about our life on the rock next week.

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