Tuesday 26th March 2013 +1.0hrs GMT: Gibraltar: Dolphins, Dancing and Shipwrecks

On previous visits I have had one successful and one unsuccessful experience Dolphin Watching.  The former was in fact on my first ever cruise way back in 2006 when my friendly and caring colleagues at the company at which I then worked threatened to book a holiday for me if I didn’t take a break!  Rather than find myself at some beach resort I booked a dance cruise and with the lovely and very patient Anna and Eamon as instructors learnt the basics of ballroom dancing and as many of you know I still enjoy a good ‘work out’ on the dance floor – including belly dancing!!!

The second, unsuccessful Dolphin watching experience was in October 2008 at the end of a 28-day cruise to the Black Sea.  We had enjoyed gorgeous calm and sunny weather all the way down from Southampton, through the Med and up into the Black Sea and then back through the Med.  In fact the Captain remarked at the end of the cruise that he had only used two engines for most of the time!!  Everywhere we went they had said “a good thing you didn’t come yesterday the weather was bad”.  When we arrived in Gibraltar the weather had really been bad the day before, they had had the worst storm for years, which had swept away one third of the cruise terminal, and a ship had finished up in three sections on Europa Point (Just to the east of Gibraltar harbour).  I know because I visited the wreck the next morning – see photos.

Ironically we had a so-called maritime lecturer aboard on the first leg of this cruise who had shown photos of this wreck stating that it was because of the failure of the lighthouse, the theme of his lecture.  Utter rubbish!  The truth is that the ship was at anchor in ballast only and in the storm had dragged her anchor.  Attempts to start the engine failed but the Captain refused assistance fearing I guess huge salvage claims.  The outcome was that the vessel finished up in three pieces on Europa Point rocks. 

I remember thinking at the time that it was a salutary lesson in the power of the sea, the ship had been torn apart like paper!!

I didn’t go to any more of these lectures so inaccurate were they!!