Holed up in Gibraltar

Apologies if this update is a bit dull, but we haven't done very much recently. Jan has had to go back to the UK for the week so for the past few days I have been moored in Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea. If at any time you are looking for a mooring around here I would strongly recommend it - nice facilities; good security and very reasonable prices. 

Alcaidesa Marina

One thing that is quite interesting here is the weather. Every morning there has been an incredibly thick fog - sometimes such that you can't see to the end of the pontoon, and the temperature is quite low.

Early morning

One hour later

Later in the day the fog disperses quite suddenly and the temperature rises rapidly. I've been doing a few boat chores and I have to make sure that they have been completed in the morning because come the afternoon its really too hot to do anything except sit in the shade. 

Whilst we were here we decided to explore Gibraltar and took a minibus tour to the top of Gibraltar Rock, which was very interesting. 

Apart from the fabulous views over Gibraltar Bay and the famous monkeys there is also St Michael's cave - which is huge. We also went inside the old siege tunnels which were excavated in the late 1700's and were fascinating.

St Michael's cave

The thing that has entertained me most while I have been here has been my next door neighbour. He has a Fontaine-Pajot catamaran and must have been the boat salesman's dream because his boat has more options than I have ever seen! He is very boat-proud and seems to spend most of every day washing and cleaning it, even though the boat hasn't actually been anywhere to get salty or dirty. You have to pay for water here and I would hate to see the water bill when he leaves. 

That's it for now,....looking forward to Jan getting back on Monday when we will leave and head on up the coast of Spain. 

Sighting Africa!

Jan here again

I have no idea why I got so excited today when we spotted the African coastline.  Let's face it you can see it from southern Spain but it was the fact that we were sailing so near and the realisation of the possibilities ahead just got to me. 

We are now one stop away from Gibraltar.  Tonight we are in the marina in Barbote where earlier this afternoon we are convinced we encountered Manuel's brother from Fawlty Towers.  He kindly offered to take our mooring lines even though we had it under control...but he insisted and ran around frantically like a little buzzing fly muttering and shouting in Spanish but unfortunately he just draped the mooring lines over the cleats instead of securing them and before we knew it we were all at sea again, but with the stern of the boat veering towards a particularly large metal pillar.  Greg was not amused.......we are going to have to do a bit of 'touching up' in Gibraltar! 

This is the third Spanish state run marina we have been to this week. They are all consistent in price and facilities but are all located in a concrete wilderness absolutely miles from the town and none of them have wifi or bar, restaurants or shops.....as the pilot says of the Cadiz marina ...

'..though set amidst bleak surroundings nearly a kilometre from the old city walls (another understatement), it offers good shelter and security for the yacht while the crew explore elsewhere. 'Thank goodness we have the Brompton bikes with us!

Anyway although there is not a lot architecturally or culturally to recommend Barbote .... as luck would have it, we soon discovered that there is a festival here today when we heard the band tuning up.  There are two massive stages just across from the marina on the outskirts of the town and we are being treated to competing and very loud music. Greg had a look at the line up but we don't recognise any of the bands.  I am pleased to report that we can hear it without needing to pay and it goes on all night apparently!

We have encountered some pretty high winds and strong swell on this coastline, with odd wind shifts and not always as forecast. Apparently it hasn't been typical. Sometimes it was exciting when we were going downwind as in when we turned east at Cap Vicente towards Lagos but when banging into it not so comfortable.

Just about to turn east towards Gibraltar

At the start of this week we actually turned back when we were en route to Cadiz because the winds became so strong on the nose and we ended up in an interesting place called Chipione.  It was a very colourful place and the beach umbrellas were particularly striking.

The calm after the storm in Chipione

They corral fish there by building walls to hold the sea water in at low tide and trap the fish and shellfish.  It is forbidden to walk on the corrals and I got up early to try to see the Corralisters catching the fish. I only spotted one man there so perhaps I was too late.

One of the man made corrals to trap fish and which also serves as a saltwater swimming pool for tourists during the day

We then went on to Cadiz and loved the city, enhanced by an absolutely brilliant meal out in the evening at La Candella.  Greg told me off for trying to attract the chef's attention when he was cooking (it was one of those open kitchens) .......I just wanted to give him a thumbs up because the food was delicious but apparently I was a  bit embarrassing.  Cadiz was a relaxing experience because there are many lovely interesting streets to wander through in the old town and lots of nice bars in which to sit and watch the world go by.  

We then took a train to Seville for the day.  We have noticed that there are still many people employed to do jobs here that are now automated in the UK.  There are assistants at every counter waiting for customers to help...not a queue in sight! The Spanish trains are so clean and air conditioned...it was a very civilised journey and we passed through a very beautiful station at Jerez; home of sherry making!

Seville is beautiful if you haven't been there.  We absolutely loved the cathedral and the views from the tower.  It was so vast I found it really difficult to take photos inside because nothing I could take on my phone actually captured the majesty and scale of it.  The views from the tower were breathtaking and and the ancient architecture as well as the new parasol building are stunning.   Why do people feel the need to carve their names on everything though; its so sickening. 

The parasol structure, built with the minimum of foundations over Roman remains so they can still be seen 

Greg was as always the height of tourist fashions our trip to Seville.  I was just grateful he decided not to wear his Vibrams though!

I am told this sock look is fashionable

Stunning views from the Giralda Tower of the largest gothic cathedral in the world in Seville

Our only regret on this bit of coast is that we didn't spend enough time in the Algarve. We spent a couple of days in the marina in Lagos and then we anchored in Portimao. In Lagos we hit the eye watering £90 a night marina fee and we had to stay 2 nights because of the high winds but in that time we got to talk to quite a lot of people in similar circumstances to ourselves.  We were struck by how many had succumbed to what I believe is sometimes called 'port rot'.....ie they arrived, stayed a bit...liked the place...stayed a bit longer...met some friends...stayed a bit longer.... now live there on their boats and haven't left the marina for at least a year! There was quite a Brit community there, enjoying retirement in the sunshine on their boats.

We decided to celebrate our arrival in Lagos with one of my retirement presents.  

We haven't caught port rot yet but I have so many purple, yellow and green bruises that you could be forgiven for thinking I had some other kind of rot! (I have spared you the story of falling down the slippery steps at the dinghy dock in the dark last week in case my mum reads this!)

I have to catch a flight back to the UK for a few days for the HfL MAT Board meeting next week, so we have spent less time in some places than we would have liked.  As a result we were sad that we narrowly missed seeing friends who were on holiday in the Algarve.  We are looking forward to slowing down a bit once I get back from the UK and spending a bit more time working our way up the Spanish coast and being available to meet up with more friends and family if possible.  

We have travelled over 1500 nautical miles in the last 2 months to get us here to the entrance to the Med. Although we thought we might get to Greece by August we have realised that we need to go at a gentler pace and go where the wind blows; so our plans are shifting and Greece  is now looking much more likely in 2018 than 2017.

Endurance and Enjoyment

Hello Jan here

A lot has happened since my last post; some good and some more tedious than we expected.

In my last post we were eating miles to get to Porto to meet our daughter Miranda. When we realised we had to skip briskly by the coast of Galicia and the northern Spanish rias; we were thinking 'what a shame' as on paper we had been looking forward to a more leisurely exploration of this bit of coast; but I don't know whether we have just had bad luck or whether this is the normal state of things ...but we didn't mind by-passing it in the least. In fact we couldn't wait to get further south because once again we have been plagued by tediously long journeys in cold weather and fog.  Not at all pleasant.

But Porto was a delight. We arrived on time and were very excited to see our daughter!

I have no idea why Porto has not crossed our radar before.  Neither of us can recall a single person we know from our well travelled friends saying 'You must go to Porto!'  Well we are both saying 'You must go to Porto,'  It was fabulous!  A perfect city break if ever there was one.

From a sailor's point of view the marina is by the sea and the city action is quite a bit further upstream.  The very helpful lady in the marina office assured us it was a 15 minute walk. It isn't.!!!..its at least 50 minutes to the main part of the city...we timed it several times as we walked it every day for 5 days!

It's an interesting walk though; passing by derelict waterside port warehouses and abandoned stately piles all temptingly for sale..provoking conversations about  'Grand Designs' opportunities and massive opportunities to create roof top bars of which there seem to be none yet but which probably reflect the current state of the Portuguese economy. More of a challenge returning when its getting late and you just want to get to bed! 

What a great house to renovate

Old waterside port houses for sale

Right next to the bridge and just asking to become a roof top bar and restaurant! 

The city itself is a riot of colour and texture built on steep hillsides, with plenty of hidden shaded alleyways and shops to explore, peppered with beautiful towers, churches and imposing architecture. Restaurants and bars are everywhere and there is a great energy about the whole city. This may have been fuelled by the fact that we arrived accidentally during the annual festival of St Joao when everyone was gearing up for the big event with fireworks and a massive influx of visitors. 

View from above the bridge

View from the bridge

The very busy waterside

Certainly worth going for the fireworks alone. Those of you who know Greg, will be aware that he is a firework afficionado.  Yes it may have been the degree of port consumed  and was certainly before he fell over and took me down with him...but after the fireworks he did say with a teary eye... 'I love this city and these are the best fireworks I've ever seen!'  The beauty of it was that you can get close in a way that is impossible in London! We had ringside seats.

Waiting for the fireworks

Friends who have adopted a similar lifestyle to us have said that the added happiness comes from having visitors to share the experience with you.  I can  understand that and certainly having Miranda and her friend Liv from Melbourne visiting us in Porto made the experience even better. The girls certainly make the boat more decorative than we do!

Our visitors added a bit of glamour to the boat!

The marina gave us free tickets for a tour of Churchill's port cellars which is a relatively new port house. We had never heard of Churchill's and almost didn't go, thinking we would rather go to somewhere with more history.  In the end we went and we were very pleased we did. Churchill's was set up by one of the Graham family after they sold out Grahams...so all of the skill and tradition was used in the making but because they are establishing their network we received an amazing tasting including some of their very best ports. It certainly paid to be appreciative because we seemed to have a lot more tastings on our table than the others!  Ask for Lilia as your guide! We now know that the year of the very best port worth laying down is the 2011 vintage.  And we both were surprised to find that we loved the chilled dry white port.

Greg enjoying the cellars

A few tastings later!

SARDINES!
We have finally had the sardine tasting.  Greg has been obsessed with the fact that every place we have stopped at since south of Brittany has had dedicated shops selling sardines in pretty tins at outrageous prices.  There are whole shops selling just sardines.  Greg has been magnetically attracted to them pointing out the difference between the price of the ones he used to buy for Vlad and these expensive ones in the area where the sardines are actually caught.

Greg marvelling at the price of the pretty tins of sardines

What could be special about these sardines?  We happened to have some tins of sardines on board from our larder sadly left over after Vlad's passing and Greg was given a pretty tin of the posh sardines in a particularly expensive marina as a sop to the cost!

So we had the taste test for lunch this week.

The posh tin from Isle de Groix 5 Euros!

The Sainsbury's 40p tin

Posh on the left, Sainsbury's on the right of the salad!

The verdict  .....the posh ones look prettier but the Sainsbury's ones tasted better.  Thank goodness we have dispensed with that challenge.  I hate sardines. Don't waste your money. 

Well we have now said goodbye to Miranda and Liv and have ploughed on down the Portuguese coast.  We have seen few vessels of any kind. It isn't a fun coast to sail to be honest. As Greg said "its a coast to endure rather than enjoy" due to the swell and wind direction which isn't favourable most of the time.  We are just aiming to get round the corner towards the Algarve and into the Med as soon as possible where we will probably have a few lay days to catch our breath, do some laundry and cleaning and re-provision the boat. There is no evidence of local sailing for pleasure along this Atlantic coast; most people are on a mission to get elsewhere.  

Next news will be from round the corner heading east.....

Now we are in Portugal

We have travelled a fair distance since the last post. We were on a bit of a mission because we had set a date to meet our daughter Miranda in Porto, so there was a long way to go in not a huge amount of time. After our traumatic 200 mile passage through the lightning we arrived in Laredo on the northern coast of Spain and from there we went to Gijon, a distance of around 80 miles. The following day we went on to Ribadeo which was another 60 miles.

To be honest, these passages weren't enjoyable. The wind was consistently from the West so we had to motor all the way which was bad enough, but to cap it all the weather was awful! Having experienced some sunny warm weather as we went further south along the French coast, we had expected it to be even warmer in Spain but in fact all along this Galician coast it was cold at sea and the visibility was dreadful with long periods of thick fog. Jan dug out the hats and gloves that we had stowed thinking now in Spain in mid June we wouldn't need them for a while; and we consoled ourselves with hot chocolate, Cup-a-Soup and switched on the radar.

The last Cup-a-Soup!

Thank God for the radar! Sailing in 20m visibility is terrifying but you can set an alarm on the radar which alerts you if anything enters the guard zone in front of the boat. It was still terrifying but a lot less  scary than it would have been without it.

From Ribadeo we went to La Coruna, and now the wind was from the East so we could sail. There is a saying, "be careful what you wish for". The wind picked up; the wave height increased; and before we knew it there was 25 knots of wind and 3m seas. At the start of the passage I had considered getting out the spinnaker - I was very grateful that I hadn't! Even without the spinnaker we were surfing down waves at over 9 knots and we did at one point go the fastest the boat has ever been at 10.5 knots. Jan said 'thank goodness my mum can't see me!' We were pleased to arrive in one piece.

Entering La Coruna

La Coruna was nice and the weather improved a bit so we decided to give ourselves a rest and stayed there for a couple of days before braving the next stage, which was to include rounding Cape Finisterre and the most westerly point of Europe.

From La Coruna it was on to Ria de Muros and we chose a fairly benign day for this passage so there were no issues en route, but there are a lot of nasty rocks offshore on this coast so we gave them a very wide berth.

From Muros we went on to Bayona. 

On the rough, craggy Atlantic coast in the fog we hadn't dared risk anchoring and the marina berthing fees were starting to add up so when we arrived at the comparatively sheltered spot in Muros we decided to anchor for the first time. That went well so we decided to anchor again in Bayona. The weather was good and we found it such a nice spot we decided to stay for 3 days - a saving of over €150!

Our anchorage in Bayona

From Bayona it was 60 miles to Porto and although sunny and benign when we set off the most horrendous fog descended again.  Nothing we had read in preparation for our journey mentioned this level of fog or the chill on this coast so we are not sure whether it is the norm or we have just been a bit unlucky.

So now we are in Porto for a few days, reunited with our daughter. what a lovely and exciting city this is turning out to be. We will post more details about Porto itself on our next blog

Absolutely terrified

Jan here just back from my few days short trip with friends in Corfu. I stayed in a hotel in Corfu Town with a bath in my ensuite. I had 10 baths in 3 days; it was bliss even if the water smelled of TCP. 

So,.... Greg met me at the train station in La Rochelle having flown back to Bordeaux and said 'As soon as we get back to the boat we need to leave for a 30 hour trip across the bottom of Biscay to get to northern Spain.' We are on a mission to meet up with our daughter in Porto in Portugal on 19th June which entails some serous mileage. 'No problem' I chirped even though I had just travelled overnight and slept at Bordeaux airport on a row of metal chairs. You can take the girl out of Hebden Bridge but you can't take the hippy out of the girl! 

 Anyway I arrived at La Rochelle at 12.15 and by 13.00 we were casting off! Greg had provisioned the boat (he had been to the supermarket to buy me strawberries and the Offie to buy red wine!....) and had checked the weather...winds not too strong for the next few days. No problem...it was a sunny start and all was well with the world. I engaged in a bit of pre-election chat and coaching with my children on my phone, then we went out of range of social media!

It was all going swimmingly well until night fell and we were about 60 miles offshore with not another vessel in sight. As it darkened and became obvious that the full moon was struggling to peep through the dense clouds, I spotted the first flash. 'Could that possibly have been lightning Greg?!' Of course it was bloody lightning..... the whole sky became like a firework display! I have never ever been so terrified in my life. I was screaming at Greg to turn the boat away from the storm, the clouds were looming thunderously! He was trying to explain how pointless that was given the speed of travel of the storm. I was a gibbering wreck. Greg kept saying that the worst that could happen would be the instruments would be cindered! OMG. I can't believe you could be next to a mast struck by lightning (and lets face it we were the only idiots out there with a tall metal mast waving like a prong saying hit me, hit me!) Surely the least would be our eyeballs would be melted! Look at this picture and tell me that no damage other than a bit of electronic disturbance would be the result of a direct hit!!! 

I'm not religious but in times like this I pray to anything, make ridiculous promises and pacts, try to be grown up and thankful for everything I have.... but at the end of the day I do not want to die, especially on election night..what if Corbyn won...how would I know what happens next? Look on the bright side I told myself.... I was feeling so sick with anxiety I couldn't eat anything... if I survive the night I might weigh less tomorrow. Shamefully superficial I admit but these are the rubbish and random thoughts of a woman convinced that the end is nigh! 

Well obviously we made it - otherwise I wouldn't be writing the blog. Once the lightning died away ..about 2am, the moon reassuringly made a lovely appearance and I felt much calmer, albeit absolutely shattered. I know my new retirement lifestyle is supposed to be relaxing but to be honest I can't recall a moment of impending doom like that in any of my last few jobs! I've decided I'm not that keen on night sailing so unless someone can convince me otherwise I'm staying a bit more in my comfort zone for the foreseeable future. 

The rest of our 30 hour sail consisted of Greg and I taking it in turns to have a nap! I felt very privileged because every time I was on watch (OMG that means in charge of the boat on my own) I saw pods of dolphins. I became quite adept at recognising where they were and after loads of attempts to take photos I made a video. Now you have to be patient. I started filming where I noticed a bit of underwater agitation like a bag of ferrets and my spot paid off but you will have to keep watching to get to the exciting bit. Don't stop..watch to the end. David Attenborough has a team with great editing equipment which I don't know how to do but if any of you know how to edit iPhone videos please let me know and I will reduce the anticipatory time. Its not just a video of the sea honestly!

We were so pleased to spot land as we approached the towering cliffs of Laredo in northern Spain this evening after our 30 plus hours epic journey. We are anchored safely but doubt we will be partying tonight. An early night in safe harbour is just what we need.

Land-ho! Approaching Spain.....

La Rochelle

Apologies that I haven't posted anything on this blog for a while, but we have been having huge problems with our internet connectivity. Before we left I bought a Wifi Bat wifi booster and a Redbox router hoping that these would allow us to connect to local wifi hotspots with ease, but I have until now been very disappointed. 

I have been here for a few days whilst Jan has been away visiting some friends and it has allowed me to get on top of some of the maintenance issues that have arisen. One of them has been the Redbox and I am very pleased to report that after a couple of very long telephone conversations with the very nice and patient people at MailaSail, all is good and we now have an internet connection.

We are currently in Port Minimes in La Rochelle and it is HUGE! Apparently it is the biggest marina on the Atlantic coast and having cycled round it quite a few times I can believe it.

At €55 per night Port Minimes is not only the biggest but also the most expensive marina we have stayed at - it's a shame their shower facilities aren't as top end as their prices.

La Rochelle is a great city, I would describe it as a combination of Brighton; Bristol and Amsterdam. The Vieux Port is a buzzy area with loads of bars and restaurants and sailing and yachting is clearly a key focus here.

I had been having problems with the watermaker and there are so many yachting-related businesses here that I decided that this was the place to get it fixed. Well thanks to the help of Guillaume from Uchimata  all is good and it is now functioning. 

I have also been able to replace the bucket I threw overboard from one of the several chandleries here and I bought a Spanish and Portuguese courtesy flags for the next stages of our journey. FYI, a Portuguese flag is 5 times the cost of a Spanish one because its so much more complicated!  

One thing that hasn't been great about La Rochelle is the prices. Every time i go to the supermarket it seems to cost €35 however little I buy and the bar prices are eye-watering. 

€7.70 for a beer!!

Anyway, Jan is back tomorrow and we are off to Spain, where hopefully it will be a little cheaper. Its going to be our longest passage so far, just over 200 miles - and will require an overnight sail. It can be a bit taxing sailing overnight with only two on board but the weather forecast looks reasonable and there aren't really any other options along this bit of the coast - there is a missile testing area which extends 45 miles offshore.
  

Slave to the Rhythm

Jan here, and its a while since I posted on the blog.

My over-riding sense of what has happened since I last posted is that quite a lot has changed in terms of our behaviour and routines alongside the more obvious places we visit and ever changing landscape.

Most significantly we have had a reality check and realised we are not on holiday!  As we came to the end of the second week and arrived in Belle Isle, the weather perked up no end and we suddenly felt in holiday mode and went for it. 

Yachts queuing to enter Belle Isle

After a few days some tension crept in (code for a few rows) and we realised that we needed to do a budget.  Yes, I hear you saying.........didn't you do a budget before you set off? Well yes we did at a very high level and in broad terms but we were working on mirroring our normal living behaviour not as though we were on holiday 24/7/365. It's tricky because when you are visiting new and exciting places, eating out and drinking in sociable surroundings is part of the experience. Unfortunately that comes at a cost and not on pension income.

I think we have been surprised at the cost of mooring in the marinas in France and it has definitely helped to make sense of what others have told us about heading to the Eastern Mediterranean where the charges and living costs are much more benign. Average cost per night of just parking is about 40 euro here for our boat.

Well thankfully we are now over that hump and are contentedly now eating and drinking on board more frequently as we would be doing at home.

I've chosen the title for this blog because now in week three we are getting used to actually living on the boat; which is very different to taking her for a spin to the Isle of Wight or a long weekend to Honfleur!  Now we are doing it for real, day in day out.

I think the most important lesson we have learned is that we have swapped a pretty large house for a small space. Viridian has lots of good storage and nooks and crannies we are still discovering but there is no way you can leave stuff lying around. Everything needs to go back in its place and everyone needs to know what 'the place' is.  So we have spent a lot of time working out what needs to go where, what needs to be handy and what we can probably dump!

We have also realised that keeping on top of the cleaning is pretty critical. To my shame I have not actually cleaned my own home since 1991.  I don't mean it was filthy.......just that I worked full time and chose to spend some of my hard earned cash on getting some help with the house. Now I wash up immediately after every meal and Greg has become so house proud you wouldn't recognise him.  Here is a picture of Greg vacuuming up crumbs after breakfast with the Dyson power turbo chargeable vac which I can thoroughly recommend...(and I would also really recommend the vac).

So apart from the domestic stuff we have seen some pretty great places and interesting things.

In Quiberon we encountered what we thought was a bit of racism and were turned away from a restaurant on a spurious reason...apparently a big party coming in for lunch...so we went elsewhere and when we cycled back past the restaurant there was no sign of any big party!

We then went on to Trinite sur Mer where things were really happening; there was a sailing competition for amazing trimarans and a regatta for old boats.  They were truly awesome. Here are a few pictures.

Spindrift 2

On the way out of the marina we spotted a guy being blasted up in the air on a high pressure water spout.  

Here are some of the old ships which we sailed amongst on our way to La Turballe.  

We arrived in L'Herbaudier and nearly crashed into Adrian on his yacht Ambience in very poor weather  conditions; it had been a terrible day with no visibility and pouring with rain.  There were moments when we felt we were starring in Waterworld so we were  a bit tense. 

Some terse comments were exchanged but all was smoothed over later once everyone had docked safely.  In fact we have bumped into Adrian and his crew again on our next stop in Port Joinville on the Ile de Yeu (couldn't find what it means in the dictionary so I'm thinking of it as the one eyed island!). 

Port Joinville got both of our votes... ..so we stayed a couple of days.  Firstly the marina charges were cheap, secondly the showers were new and clean and the toilets flushed very strongly and then behold  the supermarket was walking distance and we could use our bikes really easily.  We cycled 18 miles round the island which was absolutely beautiful and caused me to feel very self righteous if a bit saddle sore.  The Bromptons have proved to be a real asset.

Speaking of saddle sore, I don't think I have owned up to my non UDIs.  UDIs are known to us on our previous sailing holidays as Unidentified Drunken Injuries...bruises and cuts that just seem to appear! Well a few days ago I was going down the steps into the saloon after dinner on board and a few glasses of wine....with several things in my hands and I managed to fall, forward roll and then down the next set of steps ( we have a raised saloon) onto my back!  I am pretty sure that I have cracked a couple of ribs and I am bruised all over.  Here is a picture of one bruise..not saying exactly where it is.

Anyway hobbling about but being a bit more careful now as befitting a retiree not a young 'un! 

On our way to our port for this evening St Giles de Croix, we encountered a swarm? of jellyfish. they were so beautiful.  i tried to photograph them but they are strangely elusive.  Here is a feeble picture of one that I managed to capture. It isn't even one of the ones with long trailing legs which I was trying for!