GIBRALTAR: the freak of nature

naullsy
Mar 26, 2023
3 min read

So hiiiiii again. This is about Gibraltar, the freak of nature. Now, you naïve people may not understand why we are talking about Gibraltar in this way, but I assure you that you will find out.

MALAGA

I'll back up a bit to Málaga. We boosted there, from Almerimar (Dad will fill you in), to go to a museum and pick up Serafin. We didn't know Serafin before this, Nissi knew him so there we were picking him up. He was going to help us go from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands.

There was this really funny thing that happened when we were entering Málaga. So the port officials told us to wait outside the port because it was occupied by a cargo ship. While we're waiting, this Kiwi boat has the audacity to try and anchor (Málaga was a no-anchor zone, only a marina - mum says "marina within the harbour walls"). The port officials tell them over VHF to go away. This is how the conversation went.

KB (kiwi boat): We'd really like to see your museum.

PO (port officials): You cannot anchor here.

KB: We've heard that your museum is amazing.

PO: No anchoring here.

KB: Can we come into the marina, then?

PO: No. Fully booked.

That was a fun time killer.

When we arrived, there was this guy lying down in this really unnatural position on the front of a superyacht, and the whole time we were coming in he didn't move at all, so we told the Port officials about it and they said, "He's just sleeping."

The next day we saw him moving around, so he was just sleeping.

Anyway, picked up Serafin, and went to the museum -> off we go!

GIBRALTAR

We went into a marina, in Gibraltar, because we needed to stock up and it's always difficult to unload: dinghy to transom to cockpit to cushion to fridge/cupboard/floor.

A fair warning before I get into the facts - yachties are starved of lots of things. For Tu Meke, the main things are toilets, dishwashers, good milk, a front door, showers, space, and privacy. In conclusion: civilisation (I miss youuuuuuu😭).

We have a... ritual, I guess. Every time we go into a marina, someone gets sent to use the bathroom provided by the marina. Because Tu Meke toilets are ungodly (BE WARNED, FUTURE VISITORS!!!) and take about ten minutes to flush properly 😓😔😓.

So Colette checked out the toilet and came back screaming "OMG BEST TOILETS EVER!!!".

And they are, still, the best bathrooms on this trip. They were MASSIVE. Super clean, too. And they came with a hairdryer (no use to me, but Colette was loving it).

Our top five of Gibraltar:

1, The toilets. 2, Morrison's. 3, The zoo. 4, Marks and Spencer. 5, the cinema.

Sad, right?

So toilets, done. Morrison's, that's this massive supermarket that Mum found and fell in love with, and can I just say - best milk on the whole trip.

The zoo. That was really fun. Although 'zoo' isn't really an accurate word for it. More like a 'home for the illegally smuggled monkeys and birds'. (pics below).

Also, as Dad eloquently put it, "Gibraltar is the ugliest place ever.". You will see in the pics. Pretty much construction site meets wave-patterned apartments meets motorway. Oh, and add giant cargo ships and a big rock with monkeys on it. Then you have Gibraltar.

Marks and Spencer was in second place before we found the zoo and Morrison's. How sad is that? We bought Mum's birthday present there and Colette almost got a pair of socks but Mum shut it down before Dad said yes.

We went to see Wakanda Forever in the cinema, much to Serafin's distaste (he's not really a fan of the MCU). It was... eiuh. You know? Meh. Also, we got ripped off at the end. We waited for the second after-credit scene, but there wasn't one! There was another group in the cinema that waited (they yelled "THERE'S ALWAYS TWO!" when the credits ended), so at least we weren't alone. Poor Serafin, though, we made him suffer through the credits of a movie he didn't like.

At some point, we tried to walk up the Gibraltar rock but found out there is a price for walking up (it's ridiculous - something like 250NZD) so we just walked to the end of Gibraltar and back.

PICTURE TIME!