7th May

The forecast looked good so we set of for Barbate. There was so little wind we motored the whole way. We survived passing through a firing range. A boat behind us thought we were being targeted. Even though the nearest the shells came was probably over a mile it did provoke some tension, particularly as we were a British boat heading to Gibraltar. Furthermore we weren't far from Cape Trafalgar. The chart shows that big overfalls can occur here. Not today. Back in the early 1800s Nelson chased the French fleet to the Caribbean and back to Europe. On October 20th 1805 a combined French and Spanish fleet, like us, headed southeast out of Cadiz. On the morning of the 21st Admiral Villeneuve turned his fleet north back to Cadiz. Nelson's 27 ships attacked the enemies' 33 ships. They were destroyed or scattered without loss of a single English ship. England expected every man would do his duty. Our duty is to put our feet up and have a beer.