In Algeciras the people strained their eyes seaward. Across the bay in Gibraltar the Moorish garrison looked to its defenses. The cloud was heavy over the Rock, and the walls streamed with the sweat of summer dewfall. As the sun rose, the mist began to lift, and now the Castilians in Algeciras and the Moors in Gibraltar saw anchored in their bay the largest fleet ever known.

In the afternoon of August 10 the King summoned his council, and the decision was reached to attack Ceuta on the following Monday. If they sailed that same night, they would be able to get into formation during daylight on the eleventh, and they would be ready to make their assault on the morning of Monday, the twelfth. The reasoning was logical, the planning exact, but once again those unknown factors of wind and weather upset their calculations.

The currents in the Strait of Gibraltar are strong, setting mainly easterly from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean. The reason for this steady surface current is that the Mediterranean receives from its rivers and rainfall only about a third of the amount that it loses through evaporation. This almost tideless sea is largely replenished, therefore, by the constant inflow from the Atlantic. In late summer and early autumn the current is usually at its strongest, and it was this fact, coupled with a dense fog, that upset the Portuguese plans

That night, as the ships moved out into the strait, the fog came down thick and heavy. It was a summer fog of the kind that often adds to the difficulty of navigating these narrow waters. The Portuguese pilots must almost certainly have known about the prevailing current in the strait, but perhaps they were ignorant that fog in summer often precedes a strong east wind (known locally as the Levanter). They could hardly have picked a worse moment to try to take a slow-moving fleet, dependent largely on the wind, across the strait. Perhaps the pilots advised against choosing this moment for the assault, but the advice of mariners was little heeded those days in the councils of the great. In any case, the fact that their presence in Algeciras Bay was known to the Moors in Gibraltar meant that by now, no doubt, a fast skiff or galley was on its way to Ceuta, to warn of the advance of a Christian fleet. The alarm would soon be out on both sides of the strait. Speed was essential.

So the fleet wallowed out into the thick clammy night, and their sails drooped. Soon the east-going current, as it whirled past Europa Point at the tip of Gibraltar, began to take the ships with it. The slow, heavy merchantmen, carrying the soldiers, drifted down the coast at half a knot or so. The lighter vessels drew away from them, some of them fetching up, finally, as far east as Malaga, 60 miles away. Only a few of the oared galleys, unaffected by the calm, managed to cross the strait. These were ready in position by Monday morning, but by now the main body of the fleet was dispersed over many miles of sea. Some were drifting off Malaga, others were striving to beat the current and cross to Ceuta, others again were being carried by a west-going ebb, away from Ceuta toward the Atlantic. It was on the Tuesday, while the King and the bulk of the fleet were once more making up for Ceuta Bay, that the Levanter began to blow. Wind against tide made a confused sea. The awkward square-sailed barks could make no further easting, the galleys were blown off course, and soon the main body of the fleet was driven back. They sought shelter in the deep arm of Algeciras Bay, which they had left just four days previously. It was this moment of confusion—this apparent disaster when the Portuguese attack seemed destined to fail—that contributed to their ultimate success.

Sala-ben-Sala, the governor of Ceuta, had been on the alert from the moment when the first galleys and small craft had appeared off his walls. He had seen the approach of the larger sailing vessels, some from the direction of Malaga, and some from Gibraltar. It seemed clear to him that his city was to be the target. But the confusion that had followed, the second dispersal of the fleet, and finally the disappearance of the bulk of it back to Algeciras, reassured him.