The Med has almost let us go

Leaving Menorca was terrible. We had pretty good weather information and we knew that to get down and around the south coast of Spain we would have a couple of days of tough going. As soon as we left the protection of beautiful Menorca we were hit with electrical storms accompanied by torrential rain and strong winds - we motor sailed through it for many hours cussing and swearing all of the way - mopping up gallons of water - now that's the type of rain we need when our water tanks are empty. Its funny - we thought Menorca was so perfect and clean and friendly that we kept making jokes about how the inhabitants were all in a conspiracy for the 'common good'. 'Be really nice to them so that they'll stay - we need all the spenders we can get'. Well it felt like the actual weather was in on the conspiracy - it was hard not to run back in for protection. 3 days later we pulled into Forementera, a lovely small island south of Mallorca where we anchored long enough to try to fix our SSB antennae and have lunch on flat water - lunch was nice, antennae still not working. We can receive but not transmit. We'll try to fix it in Gibraltar - where we should be later today. So - it took us 6 days to get from Menorca to Estepona. We sailed as much as possible, motor sailed sometimes to push us along a bit faster, but when the wind was opposing us we had some days when even though we had travelled 100 miles only 30 of those miles were in the right direction. 20 miles from Gibraltar yesterday afternoon the favourable wind that had been pushing us along on a broad reach with a triple reefed main at 6 knots died - left us with a punishing slop and then turned to the West. Yes that's right in the direction we were attempting to go. Our motoring speed was cut down to about 3 knots. Knowing we would not get into Gib until way after dark we turned right into Estepona - a lovely little place, nice Marina, great rates and a free bottle of wine - 'All for the greater good' - we'll head out in about an hour for Gibraltar. Here's a couple of videos showing the complete contrast in weather conditions from 1 day to the next.

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