October 5 – 10, 2023 — Following another two nights at sea we arrived in LaLinea, Spain, about 500 yards from Gibraltar. Over the next four days we walked back and forth from Gibraltar, getting our passport stamped at the border in each direction, and enjoyed operating in an English country for a bit. Gibraltar has changed since we sailed into there in 2014 with construction cranes plentiful and many new, high rise buildings. It may be good for the country, but it is reducing some of the charm of the area. Talking with some locals they depend on tourism for the economy but are disappointed in the changes to the city. We skipped visiting the Barbary apes and Rock tunnels as we had done both in 2014. The Gibraltar National Museum is small but excellent, enough so that we went back a second time after running up against closing time the first day. We recommend it.
Laundry done, provisioning updated, and boat clean, we were now ready to head to Morocco. We had been planning this destination for ten years.