England and Iberia Day 8

Gibraltar off the rail, and a slow sea day

Posted by Brian Hart on August 05, 2026 · 3 mins read
  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

Sea day.

Sharing two Internet connections between four family members (two of whom are teenagers) on sea days is rough.

Today’s most notable event was the passing of Gibraltar off the port side and Tangier off the starboard side. Click on either of those links to read my blog posts about them… from 2007! Whew. Anyway, you go twenty years without sailing the Strait, and then you do it twice within 3 months! (The other recent time was in May, aboard the Silver Spirit.)

It was a lazy day. I sat on the shaded deck cross-ship from the ping pong tables, listening to music and people watching for a few hours. After, I went up to Eden and watched the back of the ship go by for another hour. For me it was mostly a day of thinking, as I was in a reflective mood.

We couldn’t get organized for a sit-down dinner, so I treated myself to the buffet and the others fended for themselves.

Typical sea day stuff.

The Rock of Gibraltar seen across the Strait through heavy summer haze, its long ridge rising from a low spit of land and falling away in a sheer cliff at the right end, the whole silhouette flattened to pale blue-grey by the atmosphere. A band of white buildings is just visible along the shoreline beneath it. In the middle distance a black-hulled DFDS ro-ro ferry with a white superstructure crosses left to right, the DFDS wordmark large on its side, pushing a small white wake across otherwise calm deep blue water. Cloudless pale sky above.

Passengers lined along the glass-and-steel railing of the ship's teak sun deck, looking out at the mountainous Moroccan coast across the Strait. The jagged ridge of Jebel Musa fills the horizon in grey-brown rock under scattered white cumulus and blue sky. About a dozen people watch from the rail -- several in straw sun hats, one in a bright floral shirt raising a phone to photograph, others in t-shirts and shorts -- while a woman in a white top and dark jeans walks across the foreground carrying a folded paper. Grey-cushioned loungers, potted palms in stone planters, and a white radar dome at the left frame the deck, which is paved in alternating teak-toned and pale green surfacing.

Tomorrow: the hottest hike of my life in Palma de Mallorca, and some other stuff. Stay tuned!

← Previous Post Next Post →