Delivery of Jua Kali, Grand Soleil 43 from Southampton to Gibraltar, Sept 2022

Pre-departure briefings

So here’s the deal: The Skipper splits the six crew into two groups, Team A and Team B. Each team has a leader, and they take turns working in shifts. They work four hours on and then get four hours off, with a two-hour shift change each day to mix things up. Nobody wants to do the midnight shift every day, right?

Oh, and get this – the crew members have to share sleeping quarters, like hot bunking. There are three cabins, and the skipper gets the cozy sofa in the salon. The ladies luck out though, they get their own fancy V-berth with their own bathroom. But they also have to deal with all the sails taking up space in there!

Before we set sail, the skipper gives a quick briefing to the team leaders. I imagine it’s something like “let’s leave Portsmouth Harbor, sail around the Isle of Wight, and head west into the English Channel.” Meanwhile, the rest of the crew gets the boat all prepped for departure – checking the engine, fuel, water, disconnecting electricity, securing hatches, and all that jazz.

And once everything’s good to go, we cast off the lines and off we go, heading south!

Ditching the lines and heading south

Portsmouth to Coruña, Spain

Heading towards our biggest fears and the infamous Bay of Biscay. We’ve all heard about those killer Orcas that go after yachts and the crazy storms that hit during the winter. And let’s not forget about the insane waves that can reach heights as tall as elephants! It’s a recipe for disaster out there, with countless shipwrecks caused by the brutal weather. But hey, it’s all part of the adventure, right?

When we sailed around Brittany, France, we were in for a wild ride! The rain poured, the waves were massive, and we had a blast surfing them and crashing into the next one. The crew got tossed out of their bunks, and kitchen utensils went flying as if they had a mind of their own. But hey, the gals in the kitchen were absolute magicians. They somehow cooked up delicious food and made drinks, defying all odds. It was like some kind of secret sorcery!

We were all getting into our groove, with our watches and our Skipper giving us the lowdown on the importance of sticking to a routine. Every hour, like clockwork, we would fill out the ship’s log with all the deets about our journey. We’re talking GPS coordinates, weather conditions, barometric pressure, heading, ships log, fuel and water levels, and any other noteworthy happenings. And you better believe we were marking our location on the chart with those GPS coordinates from the ship’s radio. We didn’t care about real time; it was all about ship’s time from the ship’s clock, baby!

We had it all, amazing sunrises and sunsets, loads of dolphins stretching out as far as the eye can see, flying fish and Orcas casually passing by. We even had shooting stars, planets, and moonlit nights.

Every now and then, we’d find ourselves surrounded by this creepy fog in the early morning, totally quiet, just waiting for some spooky ships to show up…

Now let me tell you, the winds weren’t exactly on our side during our crossing of the Bay of Biscay. We had to do a lot of motor sailing to keep pushing forward. As we headed further south, we started to worry about running out of fuel and water. But guess what? We made it to Coruña Marina and had the smoothest pit stop you could imagine. We topped up the tanks with fuel and water faster than a Formula One team changes their tires. It was a real game-changer!

Coruña to Faro, Portugal

As we cruised down towards Gibraltar, not much happened to be honest. With the tanks filled up with fuel and water, we just kept on going. The watches changed every 4 hours, and things got pretty quiet onboard. We were all tired and just kind of chilling, waiting for that sweet, sweet beer at the end of the journey.

Team B totally messed up during their night watch, literally sailing in circles! And boy, oh boy, did the Skipper lose it a bit. But hey, other than that little incident, the journey was smooth sailing, calm seas, and total relaxation. That was until we decided to head east at the bottom of Portugal, towards the Strait of Gibraltar. Mother Nature had other plans for us, though, throwing some nasty winds blowing in the opposite direction. So, we had to find ourselves a cozy spot for the night in Marina de Vilamoura, Faro.

Well, since we were stuck there, might as well make the most of it, right? Off we went to get civilized with a nice hot shower, a proper shave, and, of course, taking care of business on the porcelain throne. And guess what? We also found this cool joint called The Brewery near the Marina, where we enjoyed some awesome grub and plenty of ice-cold beer. Cheers!

Faro to Gibraltar

The weather was looking pretty good for our final push to Gibraltar across the Gulfo de Cádiz. The wind was still cranking from the east, so we knew we were in for a solid upwind sail with lots of tacking as we made our way through the Strait of Gibraltar, navigating between the separation zone and the southernmost tip of Spain.

We totally ditched the mooring lines and took off with the most epic sunrise ever! We were all super hyped as we headed to Ocean Village in Gibraltar. Let me tell you, this was hands down the absolute best day of sailing throughout the entire trip. With the main sail reefed twice, we were flying with the toe rails practically touching the water. The power of this yacht was unreal!

Now, I gotta say, Gibraltar was exactly how I imagined it from all the stories and photos my dad shared when he was stationed here. He used to work for the Admiralty Experimental Works, you know.

Once we safely docked and tidied up the yacht a bit, we made a beeline for the Ocean Village Marina to make arrangements for our journeys back home. In my case, that meant getting to Malaga for a flight to Zurich, and of course, freshening up at their facilities. Once we were back on board, we packed up our stuff for an early start the next day.

But before we called it a night, we had to celebrate! We took a leisurely tour of the city and savored our last supper together for this crazy adventure. Cheers to that!