Life on the Rock - Part 2 (#13)

After living in Gibraltar for a few weeks it started to feel like home. We adapt easily and feel at home everywhere we are, as long as we’re together.

The first part of this blog post will be about the installation of our solar panels and battery bank, feel free to skip this technical part if you’re not into sailboat electrics.

Boat works …

Besides our regular chores and work, we made a lot of time for boat works. Our plan was to finish installing all the extras that we decided to build in ourselves. We ordered solar panels, an extra battery bank to store the solar power, 2 Victron charge controllers and a Victron Quatro inverter/charger to automatically connect the active power source.

We had a stainless steel arch made for the back of the boat. This construction would carry the solar panels and would provide some shade for the dinghy. The arch was made and installed by Pritchards Marine in Gibraltar. The solar panels we installed ourselves. We chose for the LG NeON 2 BiFacial Solar Panels. They have a double-sided cell structure and a transparent back sheet that enables light absorption from both the front and the backsides. This way the panels absorb up to 30% more light than conventional models.

We placed our 5 panels on the construction and prepared the cables to connect them to 2 Victron charge controllers (SmartSolar MPPT). They gather the energy from the solar panels and store it in the batteries. The SmartSolar controllers maximise the energy harvest to achieve full charge in the shortest possible time. We have a 48V system because this requires fewer cables and therefor less power loss.

To store the solar energy we bought the BYD Battery-Box Premium LVL 15.4, this is a 15.36 kWh Lithium battery module. Installing this battery module was a huge challenge, the weight of the battery is 164 kg. The battery consisted out of 2 modules but it was still too heavy to be carried by the two of us. Thankfully the Queensway Quay Marina has some very helpful staff. 2 of the guys helped us carry the battery on board, through the saloon and down the narrow steps to the starboard cabin. It took some measuring and strategic planning to fit the battery in place under the bed. It was a very tight fit but we were able to lower the battery by attaching a rope to each one of the corners and cautiously lowering them without letting the ropes slip. If the battery fell it would go straight through the hull. A big thank you to the Marina staff. We couldn’t have done this without you guys. Connecting all the wires to the battery was another challenge due to the little space that was left but that would be a problem for later.

The Victron Quatro got built in the cabinet behind the sliding cabin door and that left us with a lot of wiring to be done to get everything connected and working.

We also continued working on the water maker that we were building ourselves from scratch. It was almost completely finished aside from some small parts that we were waiting for to be delivered from China. I will not explain the details of our watermaker in the blog, you’ll be able to see the installation later in one of our YouTube videos.

And as always on a sailboat, there were some repairs that had to be done. During our trip to Gibraltar, one of the reef lines got stuck behind the lazy bag which broke the fibreglass rod inside the bag. Sven tried to repair the rod with a tube and some tape but this wouldn’t be sufficient for the long term. This is something we’ll have to improve later.

Although we had repaired the main halyard before we left to Gibraltar it appeared to have been chafed again. Sven went up the mast to check it and to lower the halyard so we could repair it, again.

Sailing in the Bay of Gibraltar ...

At least once a week we went out sailing in the Bay. Overall the weather wasn’t great when we were in Gibraltar, but every week there was at least one sunny and pleasant day. And we always took advantage of those days to enjoy a day out at sea. It is beautiful to see Gibraltar from the water and sail all the way to the other side of the rock. A little less idyllic are the many cargo boats that are anchored in front of the coast of Gibraltar, but it is impressive to sail in between those huge ships. We got to test our code 0 in different circumstances and for the first time, we flew our spinnaker. Our beautiful, large, blue sail. It was also the first time we actually saw it. And I love the colour!

It’s so Nohma ;-)

In the Bay of Gibraltar, there are a lot of dolphins. We saw some almost every time we went out. But one time was especially wonderful. It was a beautiful, sunny day with little wind and the sea was super calm. It was on this same day that we tested our spinnaker. The water was beautifully blue and very clear. We could spot a large pod of dolphins in the distance, jumping and enjoying themselves swimming up and down the Bay. They didn’t seem really interested in our boat this time so we decided to sail a little closer towards them. Once they noticed us some of them came to swim along with our boat. We had very little speed so they had a hard time not getting ahead of us. They kept swimming in front of our boat and turning back to us when they got too far ahead. We could hear them breathe and make sounds. And they were so clearly visible thanks to the calm and clear water. They stayed with us for a long time and they were everywhere around the boat. Some of them stayed further away, showing off their jumps. It was wonderful!

Everyday life ...

In between sailing, boat jobs and our regular work and schoolwork we took the time to relax in the sun whenever the weather was nice. Sven and I would enjoy a drink on the front deck while the children played in the swing that Sven made for them using the bosun’s chair. They absolutely loved it.

Almost every day we took a walk through the park to go to the small supermarket in the neighbourhood because we could not carry enough food and drinks for multiple days. Going to the large supermarket on foot wasn’t a problem either, but it was hard to get a lot of groceries at once back to the boat. It was almost impossible to go with our cart due to the narrow sidewalks. A few times we took a taxi from the store back to the boat until I found a grocery store online that delivered at home. This was amazing, I ordered enough food for multiple weeks and everything was delivered at the boat. So afterwards we only had to go to the market or small supermarket for fresh fruits and vegetables. And to prepare our Christmas dinner…

Christmas ...

Our original plan was to drive to Belgium and spend the holidays with our family but the strict Covid restrictions made it practically impossible so we stayed in Gibraltar for Christmas and celebrated among the four of us. Liam decided to celebrate Christmas the British way with a stuffed turkey. We looked up some recipes because I had never prepared a stuffed bird before, made a grocery list and went to the supermarket to get all our ingredients. We started preparing the stuffing in the afternoon and Liam volunteered to stuff our XL chicken (a turkey wouldn’t fit in our small oven) We got ourselves ready for the Christmas party and by the time the chicken was almost ready we had some drinks, appetizers and we opened the presents. We video called our family in Belgium and had dinner afterwards. Our first attempt to prepare a stuffed chicken, which only just fitted in the oven, was a success. The Christmas dinner was delicious and Christmas turned out to be more fun than we had thought.

The departure ...

Because we hadn’t been able to go to Belgium and spend the holidays with our family, my parents decided to visit us in Portugal for New Years. All of our boat jobs were finished so we prepared to go back to Portugal. A few days before we left we went by the gas station to fill up our tanks. Fuel is so much cheaper in Gibraltar, it’s just incredible. We filled our tanks up for only 0,42€/liter. All ready to go we left the Marina as soon as it opened on the morning of December 26.

We had a great time in Gibraltar, we’re happy to have been there.

Next week we'll take you along on our trip back to Portugal and you'll read about the moment we thought we caught a big fish and why we had to beach the boat in Portimão.

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