Gibraltar

2/1/09

Gibraltar

After sailing from Spain, we did not go directly to Morocco. We stopped over in Gibraltar to take on more fuel and supplies. I was very excited about this because I did not know we were going to stop in Gibraltar until I got on the ship. The ship did not dock, rather we anchored in the bay and a fuel ship came to load supplies. We arrived around 10 a.m., and fueling is supposed to be a 5 hour process. The seas were very rough, and although it was a mostly clear day, the wind was ripping across the ship. When we were still anchored in the port of Gibraltar at dinner time, I got worried and rumors started swirling around the ship. We were supposed to arrive in Casablanca, Morocco at 8 a.m. the next day, and we knew we had a long way to go. Unfortunately, the rumors turned out to be true. The seas had been too rough for the fuel barge to get close enough to our ship, and the fuel hose could not be inserted into our tank. They gave up in the late afternoon, and we had to bunker overnight until calmer seas in the morning. We all were terribly disappointed, because this gave us one less day in an already short stopover in Morocco. I was disappointed; I wanted to be able to call Kyle on his birthday, but we wouldn’t get to port until it had passed. Although I hear he had a good birthday anyway! 

To make up for the delay, Semester At Sea organized a number of fun activities. We watched the Superbowl live! However, because of the time difference, it didn’t end until 3 a.m. I stayed up to watch the whole thing, since there was no need to wake up early the next day! It was such an exciting ending! The Dean of Students for our ship is a HUGE Steelers fan and has been talking up the game since we departed from the Bahamas. It was a funny game, because for some strange reason we could not get an American or English broadcast of the game. We watched the game with German announcers; there were also no commercials, which tend to be a highlight of the game. Were they funny this year?

Gibraltar was a beautiful place, and it afforded me my first views of AFRICA. I was so excited!! The gap between Europe and Africa is a straight 8 miles wide, so you can easily see both continents. There is a mountain range along the northern coast of Africa, and they looked beautiful across the water. Seeing Africa so near made me even more eager to get there. The European side was also beautiful, and we anchored only about a kilometer from the famous Rock of Gibraltar. It was much much bigger than I expected, whole cities are built at the base of it. There are over 200 Barbary Macaques that live on the top of the mountain, but we were too far away to see any of them. The rock is a striking view; it rises sharply from the sea. It is a monolithic mass, meaning it is only one piece of rock; rising 426 meters (nearly 1400 feet) tall. I wish we hadn’t spent so much time there, (I wanted to get to Morocco!) but it was certainly an interesting place to spend a couple days!