ADVENTURE A SPANISH AFFAIR

Erin Carey and her family sail from the Azores to Ibiza as they ease their way back into full-time cruising

- Erin Carey

Our 1,000-mile sail from Horta in the Azores to mainland Portugal had been a mixed bag of motoring in windless, rolly seas, to beam-reaching across shimmering black water. My three boys were happy to step ashore after we made landfall in Lagos, a week after setting sail from the mid-Atlantic archipelago. While it wasn’t a terrible passage, it was the most uncomfortable, confused seas we had ever encountered and we were more than happy to pay the marina fees for a few nights of rest. As an Australian family, we had already used up almost two months of our 90-day visas, so shortly after arriving, we continued our journey east.

As Morocco’s borders were closed, we decided to head to Gibraltar and make our way up the southern Spanish coast to the Balearic Islands, where a jump to Tunisia, the closest non-Schengen country, could be made. An overnight sail from Albufeira, a lovely little Portuguese town, saw us arrive in Gibraltar during daylight hours, some 150 miles away.