October 22, 2023, Cruising through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, Zuiderdam Grand Africa cruise

I confees that, while we didn’t intend to, we did sleep through the entrance into the Straits of Gibraltar and I woke up to the wind whistling through our balcony door and the deck chairs and dividers between our balcony and our neighbors rattling like crazy. It was very overcast and the outside temp was 62. When we made it up to the Crow’s nest to listen to the cruise director give color commentary, there wasn’t a seat to be found. We eventually found two seats at the bar, not good sight seeing chairs, but I could walk to a nearby window and take a picture. I was surprised that we could see land on both sides. Morocco was to the south and Spain to the North. I was also surprised that I could track our progress on my phone with my “Where am I” app.  And my final confession … I will admit that I’ve never looked closely at a map of the area and did NOT realize that the Rock of Gibraltar wasn’t a big rock out in the middle of the water but a big ole chunk of limestone that is at the end of a peninsula. Do you remember the insurance commercials? I think it was Prudential … anyway, the closest that we got to it was 7 miles.

The straits of Gibraltar is at the crossroads between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. Between 5 & 8 ships pass through the strait EVERY hour … that is 43,000 to 70,000 ships in a year with an average of 240 million gross tons.

The Strait lies between the southern most tip of Spain and the northern tip of Morocco. At the north eastern edge of the Strait is the territory of Gibraltar, which is governed by the United Kingdom. While Britain has exercised effective control over Gibraltar since 1713, its status has been contested by Spain for many centuries.

Until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Strait of Gibraltar was the only means of oceanic access to and from the Mediterranean Sea. The longstanding strategic importance of the Strait has been well recognized throughout history, and this is reflected in the contests that have taken place between major maritime powers over control of the Strait. The closure of the Suez Canal between 1968–1975 highlighted the importance of the Strait as the only means of seaborne access to the Mediterranean Sea. In more recent decades the role of the Strait in combination with the Suez Canal as the primary sea routes for trade between Europe and the growing markets of East and South Asia, and as a route for tanker traffic carrying Middle East oil for European markets, has only served to reconfirm the 21st century significance of the Strait.

Consistent with the regime of transit passage under the law of the sea, including other international conventions such as the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea ([signed 20 October 1972, entered into force 15 July 1977] 1050 UNTS 17; ‘COLREGS Convention’; Collisions at Sea) and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea ([signed 1 November 1974, entered into force 25 May 1980] 1184 UNTS 2; ‘SOLAS Convention’), the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has proclaimed a traffic separation scheme in order to ensure the safe passage of shipping through the Strait. The scheme, which is given the force of law under the SOLAS Convention, is subject to ongoing review and adjustment to reflect changes in traffic levels and direction. To further enhance the safety of shipping as it passes through the Strait, in 1997 a mandatory ship reporting system was put in place in the Strait of Gibraltar. All ships passing through the Strait are therefore required to comply with the provisions of the ship reporting system, which has been developed in accordance with IMO guidelines and has its legal basis in the SOLAS Convention. Source: Oxford Public International Law

Now for the pictures … it was overcast and foggy with low visibility at times so these are not the best pictures, but they’re my pictures 🙂

Sunrise over Strait of Gibraltar

This was ship spacing …. the first photo is ship in front of us and the following 3 are the ship behind us and I’ve zoomed in so you can tell the distance better.

Ship in front of us
Is there a ship behind us?
A little bit closer view
There it is!
The crowd in the Crow’s Nest for Ian’s color commentary
Morocco to our south Translation = God, King, People
1st view of Rock of Gibraltar
Morocco
Morocco
Zoomed in from previous picture
Unidentified military ship

At the captain’s noon briefing he said we’ve traveled 262 miles since we left Casablanca na we have 764 miles to Tunisia. We are currently 50 miles from Algeria and we are 38 miles SE of the closest land – Malaga Spain. We’re traveling at 18 knots and it is 69 degrees and windy outside.

We only missed one in music trivia last night because I wrote down the wrong answer, but it was our best trivia score to date. Of course, everyone else did great too … it was on the Beatles!

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