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There are many from abroad that describe Gibraltar as an island, but we’re not. We are a peninsula: meaning, we are surrounded by the sea on three sides and not four as is an island.

But that’s not important. We still have the sea all around us and we’ve existed looking at it all our lives – the wet stuff has been forever in our presence.

We have a Naval dockyard (base), a commercial ship repair yard and a cruise liner and other type of shipping port at North Mole, not forgetting our healthy ship bunkering business. To an extent, part of our income depends on the sea.

I have always loved watching ships coming and going at our port since I was very young. In fact, I used to record the names and pennant numbers of Royal Navy warships – F142, or D115 – as they arrived at our dockyard, and in those days they were a-plenty, arriving at the base.

I would do this whilst listening to Radio Gibraltar in its heyday, enjoying Petula Clark singing her hit single in the late ‘50s or perhaps very early ‘60s , `My Friend The Sea’ – hence what influenced the title to this article. That was a favourite of many on the Rock.

So where do we go from here? Well, apart from the fact that we love the sea and live the sea, we also want to take advantage of what it has to offer us in terms of the economy and career-wise also, and I sometimes wonder why we didn’t take advantage of the fact sooner.

Yes, locals love to go to the beach and we have our rowing clubs and small boat marinas which are full to the brim with fishing and leisure craft and there’s a following for snorkeling and deeper underwater diving, enjoying the environment beneath our waters.

So we do indulge in and out of the waters surrounding us.

Yes, we have the cruising industry calling at our port but we need more of those big ships full of potential spending customers in town and visiting the sites. I think numbers have dropped a little.

But what’s patently clear is we need more yacht marinas judging by the amount of those expensive boats arriving at our port. Some of them seem to be getting bigger and bigger, I assume owned by very well-off owners or corporate companies.

So let’s take advantage of what we have in terms of the sea that surrounds us which costs us nothing.

If you look around the port, there are very expensive-looking yachts spread all over. They are stuck in here, there and everywhere, wherever they can find a space to berth, every nook and cranny is taken up, some in not very attractive surroundings (especially in the commercial port amongst tug boats and other port support vessels) and it’s not very striking or appealing to come alongside all that jumble of, some of it, ageing or scruffy looking vessels, not creating a very good impression and perhaps dulling and uninspiring any plans for any of those rich individuals to purchase an apartment here.

However, I know there are plans for a spanking, top class marina – especially for the larger yachts – on the East Side development (while some say bad weather and currents are not favourable for such a project). But we will see… whenever it arrives.

I wonder where else on the west side one could be built. Three or four yacht births are provided for at the Small Boat Marina by Coaling Island and I see there aren’t any plans – as far as I can see – to have one by the soon to be built Victoria Keys.

So, by and large, there is a need for more yacht space. For now we have Marina Bay, Ocean Village, Waterfront and Queensway Quay, a few at the Small Boat Marina and any other space or not-very-attractive available corner, Sheppard’s Marina being the forerunner many decades ago, of the more attractive marines seen these days.

But what about our youngsters or older beings, going back over the years? Apart from working on the tug boats in the harbour, very few Gibraltarians have taken up a career at sea.

Now (or in recent times), our Gibraltar University offers seafaring courses. Maritime skills of many types for those interested in a life at sea and not heading to the UK for the usual Law, Business, Teaching and the usual careers many of our youngsters tend to choose to take up.

Surprisingly, living so close to the sea, we never seem to have latched on in a big or significant way and head out on the world’s oceans, but maybe that will change now with the university courses which will hopefully drum up more interest in ‘our friend the sea.’

Observations: a new city soon to be added to our already, expanding one.

And our main focus this time round keeps us close to our surrounding waters so… keep cool!

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