“Senor, the official hour, she is not yet here” said a very helpful Spaniard, in a mix of broken English and Spanish, as he noticed me waiting for the Officina of the Marina to open.
“Oh,” I said a little befuddled from lack of sleep. I tried to think what this information meant but it was 10.00am on an October Sunday morning and I had enjoyed precisely 2 hours 45 minutes of sleep since our boisterous overnight sail from Almerimar. We had covered 120 miles or so in 15 ½ hours averaging 7.5 knots under jib alone .
It had been an exhilarating sail but very tiring, as, with the wind behind us, the boat had rolled horribly from side to side through an arc of 30 degrees for the whole voyage. The winds had remained constantly between 20-25 mph providing more than enough power and eventually building waves of around 2-2 ½ metres in height. These rolled under us at a slight angle and were the cause of the horrible rolling.
We were returning to Bajadilla Marina in Marbella to have a stainless steel gantry fitted to the stern of the boat which we had ordered earlier in the year. The gantry was to hold our solar panels and wind generator. We had wanted to arrive in daylight and had based our departure time of 2:00pm the day before on a planned 20 hour journey that would enable us to arrive at Bajadilla mid to late morning. They had asked us to phone the day before to confirm they had a berth as we were arriving 3 days before our previously made reservation began. Unfortunately we had “forgotten” to make the call in the hurly burly of preparing for departure. The truth of the matter really being that we had a small “weather window” of easterly winds before these turned into a full force 8 gale gusting force 9, and changed to westerly’s on Sunday evening and we were damned if we were going to let a little thing like a full marina stop us.
But I digress, as previously mentioned we arrived at 7.00am in the pitch black and “footled” around the marina for a bit. (For those who don’t sail footling is just the activity of keeping the boat in roughly the same place whilst you get on with other stuff such as getting fenders rigged and mooring warps ready. It is also very handy to give thinking or panicking time when you don‘t know what you are going to do next….). After a few minutes footling the security guard previously attracted by our arrival got bored and wandered off. Our plan had been to tie up alongside the waiting quay and try for a berth when the office opened, however someone had beaten us to it. A quick check of the marina revealed only one berth big enough to take us, so seizing our opportunity, in we went. I was a bit concerned that the berth actually had carpet on the adjacent quayside which certainly suggested we had hijacked someone else’s berth.
However needs must when the devil drives and we were knackered and needed some sleep. So we moored had a quick cuppa and turned in. I set the alarm for 10.00am when I knew the Officina opened and planned to negotiate then.
Which is how I came to be waiting outside the office in such a befuddled state at 10 sharp on a bright and sunny Sunday morning. I mulled over my new Spanish acquaintance’s statement. What on earth did he mean by the official hour? I concluded that he meant that the office hours of this municipal marina had changed and that was why the official hour had changed.
“So the opening hours of the Officina have changed” I said.
“No Senor”said my Spaniard, who began to bang his head with the palm of his hand in frustration at my stupidity. “The government has changed the time.” and he began to make gestures showing the fingers of his watch rotating round the dial for 24 hours.
“Oh the Officina doesn’t open on a Sunday any more?” I guessed.
This prompted more pantomime watch winding and head banging and so clearly was not the right guess. Realising he had a challenge on his hands he went through the whole pantomime again but very, very slowly. At the end of this charade I looked at him dumbly bereft of ideas, and he, now equally bereft of any new gestures, asked me to wait whilst he went to talk to his wife in the nearby shower block.
Two minutes later he was back “Senor” he said, with renewed confidence and words supplied by his spouse. “The official hour is not here yet because last night the government changed the clocks back one hour to wintertime”
“Clang! The penny dropped…all was now clear. I thanked my new friend profusely for his explanation of why the office wasn’t open and silently cursed my mistake which had cost me an hour in bed.
He wandered off wreathed in smiles of satisfaction having done his good turn for the day by helping a very stupid Englishman; and as for me….well I had another 20 minutes to kill before the Officina opened
Thursday 27 December 2007
Things that go bump in the night.......
At two o’clock in the morning, sat huddled in the corner of the cockpit, the last thing I expected was to hear a sound that was midway between a cough and a retch and then to see an object five or six feet long fly past at head height! Its strange how you sense something is there and turn to look but only in time to catch the sensation of movement rather than any distinct form.
Mags was in bed and so I was on watch alone, this “happening” had caused me to jump and set my heart pounding. The loud splash that followed was not reassuring either. One of the fundamentals of a lone night watch 30 miles out at sea is that you are left alone and UFOs are simply not welcome. What the bloody hell was it? Was I dinner or was it harmless?
Oh no! there was another one - every inch of six feet and very threatening in the inky darkness. Another huge splash and it was gone, back in the deep where it belonged. Dewsnap was not a happy bunny and not in the mood for scary mysteries.
Wow! Got it that time! We have been honoured by the visit of some exceptionally lively dolphins, maybe dozen or so. Now I know what to look for I find that even the darkness I can see these fantastic animals quite clearly when they are quite deep in the water as they seem to glow under water as they disturb the phosphorescence. Its almost as though they are leaving a trail of bubbles like a living torpedo.
Swimming easily at boat speed or even double that at times they ride the bow and stern waves, going within millimetres of the hull without ever touching, darting this way and that, and every now and then making the huge leaps which had so concerned me earlier. They seemed to have two styles of leap; a neat and tidy jump out of the water followed by an equally tidy re-entry with hardly a splash or a more exuberant “show off “ leap followed by an impressive belly flop with accompanying splash.
We have been accompanied by porpoises and dolphins on pretty much every trip we have made. I don’t know what attracts them and why they come to play but their effect is amazing and really lifts everyone’s spirits. Watching them certainly never becomes boring.
Mags was in bed and so I was on watch alone, this “happening” had caused me to jump and set my heart pounding. The loud splash that followed was not reassuring either. One of the fundamentals of a lone night watch 30 miles out at sea is that you are left alone and UFOs are simply not welcome. What the bloody hell was it? Was I dinner or was it harmless?
Oh no! there was another one - every inch of six feet and very threatening in the inky darkness. Another huge splash and it was gone, back in the deep where it belonged. Dewsnap was not a happy bunny and not in the mood for scary mysteries.
Wow! Got it that time! We have been honoured by the visit of some exceptionally lively dolphins, maybe dozen or so. Now I know what to look for I find that even the darkness I can see these fantastic animals quite clearly when they are quite deep in the water as they seem to glow under water as they disturb the phosphorescence. Its almost as though they are leaving a trail of bubbles like a living torpedo.
Swimming easily at boat speed or even double that at times they ride the bow and stern waves, going within millimetres of the hull without ever touching, darting this way and that, and every now and then making the huge leaps which had so concerned me earlier. They seemed to have two styles of leap; a neat and tidy jump out of the water followed by an equally tidy re-entry with hardly a splash or a more exuberant “show off “ leap followed by an impressive belly flop with accompanying splash.
We have been accompanied by porpoises and dolphins on pretty much every trip we have made. I don’t know what attracts them and why they come to play but their effect is amazing and really lifts everyone’s spirits. Watching them certainly never becomes boring.
Engines ….bloody engines !?!?
As previously mentioned our engine had refused to re-start in the Mar Menor so I decided to try to fix the engine. It started first time…..so to cut a very long story short, it is sufficient to say that we had finally identified the problem with starting the engine but only when hot.
A day’s work finding and fixing a loose connection on the solenoid cured the problem. It was one of the most frustrating jobs so far. The solenoid was so inaccessible that I couldn’t see the connection - even with the aid of a mirror and I found the problem by feel alone.! The whole job comprised undoing two connections putting on a new crimp connection and then doing them back up. A 10-minute job ordinarily, but when done by touch alone and took 12 hours. Seriously character building.
Hey, but what doesn’t’t kill you makes you stronger, which as just as well, because hot on the heels of this problem came another which was not solved so easily.
The engine now started and stopped OK but would from time to time misfire and lose power. I immediately suspected it was something I had done or damaged in my 12 hours lying on top of the engine fixing the starting problem. After another full day of unsuccessful investigation I decided to head for a Marina at the entrance to the Mar Menor called the Thomas Maestre Marina where there would be diesel mechanics that could help me.
The engine by now was totally unreliable so we sailed into the marina and berthed on the waiting quay. This performance attracted a few old fashioned looks from others who thought that we were showing off and being irresponsible. However needs must when the devil drives.
Shortly after our arrival a thunderstorm came through and it rained heavily for a couple of hours. The Spanish deal with this level of rain as badly as we English deal with a sprinkling of snow. When I rang the port for the mechanic, he very politely told me that he could not help me as he was dealing with the after effects of the terrible storm. Terrible storm? Frankly it would have passed unnoticed and unremarked in Warrington.
The mechanic did however discuss my problem with me and diagnosed very confidently that the problem was fuel starvation and that I should check fuel filters and fuel lines as dirt or water in the system was the problem 99% of the time. I had already previously checked and replaced the fuel filter, and taken samples from the bottom of the fuel tank without finding the problem. Day 2 and 3 quickly passed as I whiled away the hours tracing the fuel lines from tank to engine, stripping them down and checking them for cleanliness by sucking fuel through them. (Not a bad vintage but persistent oily after taste that lingers for days). All to no avail.
After 3 days I was beaten, but hey! At least I no longer had an intermittent problem as the engine would no longer run at all for longer than 5 seconds. The port mechanic was still unable to help so he recommended another mechanic who lived on a boat nearby.
Nick arrived within half an hour rowing across from the other side of the canal in his battered old Avon inflatable. It transpired that Nick had built his own 57ft boat out of steel and had lived on boats for the last 33 years with his wife and had brought up 3 kids on board.
He quickly displayed a confidence and knowledge with engines that made me green with envy. A couple of hours work identified a number of minor problems that were combining to frustrate my attempts to restart the engine. The fuel filter was fitted with two seals and one had to be discarded as this was letting air into the system. (Why don’t they tell you this on the instructions?)
The batteries weren’t receiving their full charge because of a loose earth connection which in turn was stopping the engine turning over fast enough or long enough to self bleed and get the air out of the system that my investigations had introduced.
The engine leapt into life at the first time of asking. Still suspicious because it had done this before I put it into gear and left it stretching the mooring ropes bar taut for 20 minutes. At the end of this test we declared the engine fixed, thanked Nick profusely and prepared for sea as we were going to leave the following day.
The following morning we set sail for Almerimar as with all the delays we no longer had time to explore the Balearics this season.
The engine started first time and pushed us along at the permitted 3 knots under the swing bridge as it opened at 10am. We exited the canal at the seaward end set course for a Cabo Palos and free of the port speed restriction opened the throttle wider. Whereupon the engine stopped!
Now there’s a problem!
Behind us lay a narrow canal, difficult, if not impossible to sail along, with a bridge that wouldn’t re-open for two hours; in front of us lay a 120/140 mile journey without engine. After some thought we decided to press on to Almerimar and that journey is recorded in another blog.
I did try and fix the engine whilst underway but it was such a sea sick making activity I gave up after a few hours.
Once at Almerimar I found the problem after about an hour. Own bloody goal as well! When I had fixed the solenoid problem I had unwittingly left a wire loose but resting on the correct terminal. This would make good contact when the engine revs were low but not at higher revs: the result was the cause of all my trials and tribulations.
Still looking on the bright side, I was now familiar with the engine and had acquired the ability to reach parts of it previously regarded as impossible by adopting techniques and positions only normally seen in advanced yoga classes.
A day’s work finding and fixing a loose connection on the solenoid cured the problem. It was one of the most frustrating jobs so far. The solenoid was so inaccessible that I couldn’t see the connection - even with the aid of a mirror and I found the problem by feel alone.! The whole job comprised undoing two connections putting on a new crimp connection and then doing them back up. A 10-minute job ordinarily, but when done by touch alone and took 12 hours. Seriously character building.
Hey, but what doesn’t’t kill you makes you stronger, which as just as well, because hot on the heels of this problem came another which was not solved so easily.
The engine now started and stopped OK but would from time to time misfire and lose power. I immediately suspected it was something I had done or damaged in my 12 hours lying on top of the engine fixing the starting problem. After another full day of unsuccessful investigation I decided to head for a Marina at the entrance to the Mar Menor called the Thomas Maestre Marina where there would be diesel mechanics that could help me.
The engine by now was totally unreliable so we sailed into the marina and berthed on the waiting quay. This performance attracted a few old fashioned looks from others who thought that we were showing off and being irresponsible. However needs must when the devil drives.
Shortly after our arrival a thunderstorm came through and it rained heavily for a couple of hours. The Spanish deal with this level of rain as badly as we English deal with a sprinkling of snow. When I rang the port for the mechanic, he very politely told me that he could not help me as he was dealing with the after effects of the terrible storm. Terrible storm? Frankly it would have passed unnoticed and unremarked in Warrington.
The mechanic did however discuss my problem with me and diagnosed very confidently that the problem was fuel starvation and that I should check fuel filters and fuel lines as dirt or water in the system was the problem 99% of the time. I had already previously checked and replaced the fuel filter, and taken samples from the bottom of the fuel tank without finding the problem. Day 2 and 3 quickly passed as I whiled away the hours tracing the fuel lines from tank to engine, stripping them down and checking them for cleanliness by sucking fuel through them. (Not a bad vintage but persistent oily after taste that lingers for days). All to no avail.
After 3 days I was beaten, but hey! At least I no longer had an intermittent problem as the engine would no longer run at all for longer than 5 seconds. The port mechanic was still unable to help so he recommended another mechanic who lived on a boat nearby.
Nick arrived within half an hour rowing across from the other side of the canal in his battered old Avon inflatable. It transpired that Nick had built his own 57ft boat out of steel and had lived on boats for the last 33 years with his wife and had brought up 3 kids on board.
He quickly displayed a confidence and knowledge with engines that made me green with envy. A couple of hours work identified a number of minor problems that were combining to frustrate my attempts to restart the engine. The fuel filter was fitted with two seals and one had to be discarded as this was letting air into the system. (Why don’t they tell you this on the instructions?)
The batteries weren’t receiving their full charge because of a loose earth connection which in turn was stopping the engine turning over fast enough or long enough to self bleed and get the air out of the system that my investigations had introduced.
The engine leapt into life at the first time of asking. Still suspicious because it had done this before I put it into gear and left it stretching the mooring ropes bar taut for 20 minutes. At the end of this test we declared the engine fixed, thanked Nick profusely and prepared for sea as we were going to leave the following day.
The following morning we set sail for Almerimar as with all the delays we no longer had time to explore the Balearics this season.
The engine started first time and pushed us along at the permitted 3 knots under the swing bridge as it opened at 10am. We exited the canal at the seaward end set course for a Cabo Palos and free of the port speed restriction opened the throttle wider. Whereupon the engine stopped!
Now there’s a problem!
Behind us lay a narrow canal, difficult, if not impossible to sail along, with a bridge that wouldn’t re-open for two hours; in front of us lay a 120/140 mile journey without engine. After some thought we decided to press on to Almerimar and that journey is recorded in another blog.
I did try and fix the engine whilst underway but it was such a sea sick making activity I gave up after a few hours.
Once at Almerimar I found the problem after about an hour. Own bloody goal as well! When I had fixed the solenoid problem I had unwittingly left a wire loose but resting on the correct terminal. This would make good contact when the engine revs were low but not at higher revs: the result was the cause of all my trials and tribulations.
Still looking on the bright side, I was now familiar with the engine and had acquired the ability to reach parts of it previously regarded as impossible by adopting techniques and positions only normally seen in advanced yoga classes.
Mags' - End of 1st Term Report!!
Oct 10th
It is now exactly three months since we left England and we can honestly say that we do not know where that time has gone! We know what we have been doing - but how could it take so long or the time go so fast? But, they do say that time flies when you are enjoying yourself, so that confirms it then - WE ARE ENJOYING OURSELVES!
For most of the time, I would say ten of twelve weeks, we have been working on the boat. Working very hard, long days as amateurs do when everything has to be learned as you go along. Although to some it may seem we have swapped one refurb’ nightmare for another, we know that is not so. It has been a labour of love. I can see why people love their boats, they do become part of you. Our poor Foxy had been far more badly neglected than we had at first thought, and although we were expecting the vast majority of things that have gone wrong, to go wrong, we were not expecting so much, so soon. However, the up side is that it is done now, and whilst there is lots more to do yet she is at last truly sea worthy. A bit scary when you think that we did a few hundred miles sailing without realising just how many things were not going to work when we needed them!
Communication has been difficult because we were being fleeced by the local mobile providers and street phones and cards seemed impossible to find. In the end, we opted for Skype which is far cheaper and great if you have a reliable microphone and internet link! Our first call was from an old school friend of Steve’s whose sister-in-law (my friend) had given him our number!! The shine went off this mode as more people came to the marina for the winter but the local internet provider did not expand the broadband links! Greedy but it will come home to roost!
I have attached a précis of ‘a few days in the life of ’, when we had a particularly bad week, just to give you the flavour! We spent 7 weeks in the port ‘Almerimar’ we only pulled into for a couple of days en-route, and did all the repairs we did not yet know we had to do! It became our ‘Hotel California’ because try as we might, we could not seem to leave. We missed one favourable weather slot after another (the wind is fickle and wild here, especially as the summer gets on) as pre-passage checks revealed yet more issues. A true hornets nest in fact.
In the end, we left in a moderate NE’ly (on the nose - no choice but to motor) on Oct 8th and just went for it. We HAD to get away. We are so glad we did. It took us 26 hours to get to the Mar Menor, where we now lie at anchor in the lee of a tiny island. After a fairly uncomfortable passage in lumpy seas (I hate the motor) we anchored up, ate a prepared meal of vegetable soup and potatoes, had a couple of beers, showered and fell into bed at 10pm (after falling asleep on the couches first for an hour). It is now 9am Oct 10th, 24C, calm and serene (wonder how long that will last!) and for the first time I am experiencing a little of what we left home for.
Before we left Steve ensured that all our new electronic equipment was installed. Don’t be fooled into thinking that installing electronic equipment is simple from an installation point of view. Firstly, as an example, there is the climb up the mast for some of it! No, although Steve was determined to do it he had to give in to a seasoned hand. When he saw how long Eric was swaying about up there (15 metres up) for about 7 hours in total, he was glad it wasn’t him.
The cables have to be fed down inside the mast - not as simple as you might think (requiring copious amounts of patience, lizards and Vaseline), brought into the cabin and fed along the underside of the cabin roof - above the ceiling (yes the ceiling had to come down) and some under the floorboards (yes the floorboards came up) and along the inside of the cabin walls (yes the walls had to come off) - and that was just for the mast head unit, wind vane and VHF aerial. I won’t bore you with the rest!
15th Oct
Oops, I did say that time went quickly here didn’t I? That is quite scary actually! What happened? Well, Steve got up so I stopped typing and I made breakfast. Then we spent a blissful day basking in the sunshine and peace of the Mar Menor. This is possible because we are in the middle of it and it is mid week! An early night as we were worn out from doing nothing took us to Thursday when we spent a day in! It rained all day, wind, thunder, lightening the lot. Eeehh, it were grand holed up with a book, snug in a dry cabin in which we had spent several days before we left finding and sealing all the tiny, and not so tiny, leaks from windows.
Steve got all adventurous and got on deck and scrubbed it in the pouring rain! My Hero!
Quite a late night because we watched a video and Steve was cogitating on a problemo with the ignition we have discovered. Sometimes it fires, sometimes it doesn’t and seems to be connected with the heat of the engine. We can’t have that as it is folly not to have a dependable engine so Friday we headed for the marina.
We arrived as the weather was worsening and had to tie up very securely with springs to the shore as we were expecting a rough night. We were the ‘quietest’ boat on the quayside and barely moved that night as Steve’s nautical know how gave us the edge on the weather.
The following day was beautiful again. We got the bits and Steve spent Saturday with his head in the engine compartment and I did the washing by hand as there was no laundry - and I am supposed to be a good live aboard wife! It was no problem and I laughed as I thought we must look like the Beverley Hillbillies (again) with our washing festooned over a boat in a ‘posh’ marina - on a Saturday with everybody coming to take their flash craft out to show off! A young couple from the Midlands stopped to ask why I was washing on holiday and drooled when they found out that I wasn’t. I love that bit!
As we had paid for the night we used the electricity but most importantly, topped up with water. The water hasn’t been lasting very long and we have been concerned about that but we discovered on this occasion that the tank wasn’t filling properly. Steve remembered that I had noticed a kinked pipe whilst we were under the floorboards and he felt this was the culprit, and that the second tank wasn’t filling fast enough so it appeared that we had filled up when in fact the pressure hadn’t evened out between the two. It took over an hour of ‘dribbling’ the water in to be sure we had in fact filled both tanks this time. That’s another job then!
Steve was successful in fixing the ignition problem but he found a couple of other things he is now worrying about. We left the quayside before we had to pay for another night and made our way back to the lee of another small island, anchoring just outside the harbour for an hour first to have dinner. We arrived in the pitch black, ably aided by Steve’s computerised navigation plus his long experience of arriving somewhere in the dark and having to anchor - usually in foul weather (but not this time).
On Sunday we awoke to some ‘locals’ buzzing around us in their power boats. Several other yachts joined us in the anchorage and there was a hell of party on a couple of them! I have to admit that after preparing a good old English Brunch, I had a very lazy day. Notable by the fact it was the first time I can remember having spent all day pampering myself. I did my legs, hair and nails, Spent ages on ‘rubbing down’ and massaging my feet and read at every opportunity. Steve, bless him, spent the day in the engine compartment again! I think he likes it in there!! He spent the evening reading Nigel Calders’ book on boat maintenance and I completed a trip round ‘Cape Horn’ with Hal Roth and his missus.
It is now Monday 15th and instead of heading for Ibiza we are heading back to the marina because the engine now has a different problem and we can’t start it! It seems the diesel is dirty because the filter is blocked, and the fan belt doesn’t look to good, and the batteries aren’t charging properly etc. This will be good, it means we have to ’sail’ into the berth - GULP!
A beautiful sail to the marina followed by a text book mooring under sail followed. I actually jumped off the boat, all nautical like, and tied up like a proper sailor! Mind you, we did ’fox’ some of the boats traversing in the immediate area as they were unsure why we had come in under sail. It’ll keep their arteries clear!
We cadged a lift to the nearest supplies shop (5km) from the port marinaro, bought the required filter, ordered new fan belts and returned. Steve fitted the filter - perfecto! Tomorrow we will fit the new fan belt and set off for Ibiza - it says here on this plan!
Oct 16th
It is PERSISTING down, thunder, lightening, the lot! My washing is in the cockpit - where it can stay - and we have to go and collect this fan belt! Ah well - that’s the nautical life eh. And we left the hatch open so the bed’s wet. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
It is now exactly three months since we left England and we can honestly say that we do not know where that time has gone! We know what we have been doing - but how could it take so long or the time go so fast? But, they do say that time flies when you are enjoying yourself, so that confirms it then - WE ARE ENJOYING OURSELVES!
For most of the time, I would say ten of twelve weeks, we have been working on the boat. Working very hard, long days as amateurs do when everything has to be learned as you go along. Although to some it may seem we have swapped one refurb’ nightmare for another, we know that is not so. It has been a labour of love. I can see why people love their boats, they do become part of you. Our poor Foxy had been far more badly neglected than we had at first thought, and although we were expecting the vast majority of things that have gone wrong, to go wrong, we were not expecting so much, so soon. However, the up side is that it is done now, and whilst there is lots more to do yet she is at last truly sea worthy. A bit scary when you think that we did a few hundred miles sailing without realising just how many things were not going to work when we needed them!
Communication has been difficult because we were being fleeced by the local mobile providers and street phones and cards seemed impossible to find. In the end, we opted for Skype which is far cheaper and great if you have a reliable microphone and internet link! Our first call was from an old school friend of Steve’s whose sister-in-law (my friend) had given him our number!! The shine went off this mode as more people came to the marina for the winter but the local internet provider did not expand the broadband links! Greedy but it will come home to roost!
I have attached a précis of ‘a few days in the life of ’, when we had a particularly bad week, just to give you the flavour! We spent 7 weeks in the port ‘Almerimar’ we only pulled into for a couple of days en-route, and did all the repairs we did not yet know we had to do! It became our ‘Hotel California’ because try as we might, we could not seem to leave. We missed one favourable weather slot after another (the wind is fickle and wild here, especially as the summer gets on) as pre-passage checks revealed yet more issues. A true hornets nest in fact.
In the end, we left in a moderate NE’ly (on the nose - no choice but to motor) on Oct 8th and just went for it. We HAD to get away. We are so glad we did. It took us 26 hours to get to the Mar Menor, where we now lie at anchor in the lee of a tiny island. After a fairly uncomfortable passage in lumpy seas (I hate the motor) we anchored up, ate a prepared meal of vegetable soup and potatoes, had a couple of beers, showered and fell into bed at 10pm (after falling asleep on the couches first for an hour). It is now 9am Oct 10th, 24C, calm and serene (wonder how long that will last!) and for the first time I am experiencing a little of what we left home for.
Before we left Steve ensured that all our new electronic equipment was installed. Don’t be fooled into thinking that installing electronic equipment is simple from an installation point of view. Firstly, as an example, there is the climb up the mast for some of it! No, although Steve was determined to do it he had to give in to a seasoned hand. When he saw how long Eric was swaying about up there (15 metres up) for about 7 hours in total, he was glad it wasn’t him.
The cables have to be fed down inside the mast - not as simple as you might think (requiring copious amounts of patience, lizards and Vaseline), brought into the cabin and fed along the underside of the cabin roof - above the ceiling (yes the ceiling had to come down) and some under the floorboards (yes the floorboards came up) and along the inside of the cabin walls (yes the walls had to come off) - and that was just for the mast head unit, wind vane and VHF aerial. I won’t bore you with the rest!
15th Oct
Oops, I did say that time went quickly here didn’t I? That is quite scary actually! What happened? Well, Steve got up so I stopped typing and I made breakfast. Then we spent a blissful day basking in the sunshine and peace of the Mar Menor. This is possible because we are in the middle of it and it is mid week! An early night as we were worn out from doing nothing took us to Thursday when we spent a day in! It rained all day, wind, thunder, lightening the lot. Eeehh, it were grand holed up with a book, snug in a dry cabin in which we had spent several days before we left finding and sealing all the tiny, and not so tiny, leaks from windows.
Steve got all adventurous and got on deck and scrubbed it in the pouring rain! My Hero!
Quite a late night because we watched a video and Steve was cogitating on a problemo with the ignition we have discovered. Sometimes it fires, sometimes it doesn’t and seems to be connected with the heat of the engine. We can’t have that as it is folly not to have a dependable engine so Friday we headed for the marina.
We arrived as the weather was worsening and had to tie up very securely with springs to the shore as we were expecting a rough night. We were the ‘quietest’ boat on the quayside and barely moved that night as Steve’s nautical know how gave us the edge on the weather.
The following day was beautiful again. We got the bits and Steve spent Saturday with his head in the engine compartment and I did the washing by hand as there was no laundry - and I am supposed to be a good live aboard wife! It was no problem and I laughed as I thought we must look like the Beverley Hillbillies (again) with our washing festooned over a boat in a ‘posh’ marina - on a Saturday with everybody coming to take their flash craft out to show off! A young couple from the Midlands stopped to ask why I was washing on holiday and drooled when they found out that I wasn’t. I love that bit!
As we had paid for the night we used the electricity but most importantly, topped up with water. The water hasn’t been lasting very long and we have been concerned about that but we discovered on this occasion that the tank wasn’t filling properly. Steve remembered that I had noticed a kinked pipe whilst we were under the floorboards and he felt this was the culprit, and that the second tank wasn’t filling fast enough so it appeared that we had filled up when in fact the pressure hadn’t evened out between the two. It took over an hour of ‘dribbling’ the water in to be sure we had in fact filled both tanks this time. That’s another job then!
Steve was successful in fixing the ignition problem but he found a couple of other things he is now worrying about. We left the quayside before we had to pay for another night and made our way back to the lee of another small island, anchoring just outside the harbour for an hour first to have dinner. We arrived in the pitch black, ably aided by Steve’s computerised navigation plus his long experience of arriving somewhere in the dark and having to anchor - usually in foul weather (but not this time).
On Sunday we awoke to some ‘locals’ buzzing around us in their power boats. Several other yachts joined us in the anchorage and there was a hell of party on a couple of them! I have to admit that after preparing a good old English Brunch, I had a very lazy day. Notable by the fact it was the first time I can remember having spent all day pampering myself. I did my legs, hair and nails, Spent ages on ‘rubbing down’ and massaging my feet and read at every opportunity. Steve, bless him, spent the day in the engine compartment again! I think he likes it in there!! He spent the evening reading Nigel Calders’ book on boat maintenance and I completed a trip round ‘Cape Horn’ with Hal Roth and his missus.
It is now Monday 15th and instead of heading for Ibiza we are heading back to the marina because the engine now has a different problem and we can’t start it! It seems the diesel is dirty because the filter is blocked, and the fan belt doesn’t look to good, and the batteries aren’t charging properly etc. This will be good, it means we have to ’sail’ into the berth - GULP!
A beautiful sail to the marina followed by a text book mooring under sail followed. I actually jumped off the boat, all nautical like, and tied up like a proper sailor! Mind you, we did ’fox’ some of the boats traversing in the immediate area as they were unsure why we had come in under sail. It’ll keep their arteries clear!
We cadged a lift to the nearest supplies shop (5km) from the port marinaro, bought the required filter, ordered new fan belts and returned. Steve fitted the filter - perfecto! Tomorrow we will fit the new fan belt and set off for Ibiza - it says here on this plan!
Oct 16th
It is PERSISTING down, thunder, lightening, the lot! My washing is in the cockpit - where it can stay - and we have to go and collect this fan belt! Ah well - that’s the nautical life eh. And we left the hatch open so the bed’s wet. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
October 2007: Off To the Mar Menor….
Our six week stay in Almerimar had been frustrating in the extreme. Our plan to sail to Barcelona had been foiled by adverse winds and we had given up and driven there by road in the end. Of course once in the car the winds changed to favourable but it was too late by then.
It was a pattern oft repeated, every time we couldn’t sail because we had decided to undertake a maintenance task, the wind would shift in our favour, every time we could, it would set firmly and forcefully against us.
In the end we decided to go even if the winds were adverse, as long as they were not too strong.
Our route was 30 miles east to the Cabo de Gata and, once round this Cape with its stormy reputation, which for those not familiar with this part of the world is the bootom right hand corner of Spain) we would head North East for 90 miles, past the ancient City of Cartagena round Cape Palos and into the inland sea, the Mar Menor. Our goal was the Balearics some 100 miles or so further north.
Ye famous Cabo de Gata
It quickly became evident that we needed to use the engine as soon as we got out to sea, and once started it was to run non-stop for 27 hours as we battered head on into sea and winds under mainsail and engine.
We had completed much of the journey and were about 20 miles or so south of Cabos de Palos and Cartagena when I observed on radar at around 2.00am in the morning a number of ships a mile or two distant travelling back and forth. Fishing boats I thought, - better watch out and keep clear as they pay only lip service to COLREGS. (Collision avoidance regulations at sea).
After 10 minutes or so the VHF squawked into life “This is Spanish Warship 101, would the vessel heading north east at 5 knots in position “so and so” come in please?” I looked at our position on the GPS as the course and speed were spot on. The position was ours too. But what did they want with us? I decided to do the only logical thing and ignored them. The VHF repeated its request more insistently this time in both Spanish and English and there was now no possibility of a mistake - it was definitely us.
Reluctantly I acknowledged their message and identified us and whereupon we were promptly and politely told to alter course due East for 6 miles as we were in the middle of their submarine exercises. We meekly obeyed although I must confess to resuming our original course a mile or so early as a silent protest at being diverted in international waters. Hornblower would have handled it quite differently I am sure. Quite educational really to learn that the Spanish have at least 101 warships and an exercised submarine!
The Mar Menor is entered by a mile long canal dredged to a depth of 4 metres and entry necessitates passing under a lifting bridge which is opened once every two hours during daylight hours. We arrived with 45 minutes to spare and footled around awaiting the bridge opening. (See earlier blog for a full definition of footling.)
In middle footle we briefly ran aground. I couldn’t believe it! Our brand new instruments were showing 10 metres of water which came down suddenly to 6 metres and then we touched. Somewhat shocked we retreated to deeper water and pondered the contours of the sea bed that shallows from 10 metres to nothing in the blink of an eye. But more of that later.
The bridge opened and we passed under it into the Mar Menor. Once through I uttered the fateful words “What a cracking engine! 27 hours and it hasn’t so much as missed a beat.” Whereupon I switched it off for some peace and quiet. An hour later as we prepared to anchor in the lee of one of the beautifully desolate islands in the Mar Menor I tried to start the engine but it remained resolutely lifeless.
Trying to get the engine going!
We anchored under sail, reawakening long unused skills that had lain dormant since my early days of sailing. All went well and we safely anchored (after the mandatory footle to find the best place!).
Six weeks and we were finally out of Almerimar; we enjoyed a chilled beer in the cockpit and as we watched the sun go down we reflected it was good to be free because we had been starting to go stir crazy stuck in the marina.
It was a pattern oft repeated, every time we couldn’t sail because we had decided to undertake a maintenance task, the wind would shift in our favour, every time we could, it would set firmly and forcefully against us.
In the end we decided to go even if the winds were adverse, as long as they were not too strong.
Our route was 30 miles east to the Cabo de Gata and, once round this Cape with its stormy reputation, which for those not familiar with this part of the world is the bootom right hand corner of Spain) we would head North East for 90 miles, past the ancient City of Cartagena round Cape Palos and into the inland sea, the Mar Menor. Our goal was the Balearics some 100 miles or so further north.
Ye famous Cabo de Gata
It quickly became evident that we needed to use the engine as soon as we got out to sea, and once started it was to run non-stop for 27 hours as we battered head on into sea and winds under mainsail and engine.
We had completed much of the journey and were about 20 miles or so south of Cabos de Palos and Cartagena when I observed on radar at around 2.00am in the morning a number of ships a mile or two distant travelling back and forth. Fishing boats I thought, - better watch out and keep clear as they pay only lip service to COLREGS. (Collision avoidance regulations at sea).
After 10 minutes or so the VHF squawked into life “This is Spanish Warship 101, would the vessel heading north east at 5 knots in position “so and so” come in please?” I looked at our position on the GPS as the course and speed were spot on. The position was ours too. But what did they want with us? I decided to do the only logical thing and ignored them. The VHF repeated its request more insistently this time in both Spanish and English and there was now no possibility of a mistake - it was definitely us.
Reluctantly I acknowledged their message and identified us and whereupon we were promptly and politely told to alter course due East for 6 miles as we were in the middle of their submarine exercises. We meekly obeyed although I must confess to resuming our original course a mile or so early as a silent protest at being diverted in international waters. Hornblower would have handled it quite differently I am sure. Quite educational really to learn that the Spanish have at least 101 warships and an exercised submarine!
The Mar Menor is entered by a mile long canal dredged to a depth of 4 metres and entry necessitates passing under a lifting bridge which is opened once every two hours during daylight hours. We arrived with 45 minutes to spare and footled around awaiting the bridge opening. (See earlier blog for a full definition of footling.)
In middle footle we briefly ran aground. I couldn’t believe it! Our brand new instruments were showing 10 metres of water which came down suddenly to 6 metres and then we touched. Somewhat shocked we retreated to deeper water and pondered the contours of the sea bed that shallows from 10 metres to nothing in the blink of an eye. But more of that later.
The bridge opened and we passed under it into the Mar Menor. Once through I uttered the fateful words “What a cracking engine! 27 hours and it hasn’t so much as missed a beat.” Whereupon I switched it off for some peace and quiet. An hour later as we prepared to anchor in the lee of one of the beautifully desolate islands in the Mar Menor I tried to start the engine but it remained resolutely lifeless.
Trying to get the engine going!
We anchored under sail, reawakening long unused skills that had lain dormant since my early days of sailing. All went well and we safely anchored (after the mandatory footle to find the best place!).
Six weeks and we were finally out of Almerimar; we enjoyed a chilled beer in the cockpit and as we watched the sun go down we reflected it was good to be free because we had been starting to go stir crazy stuck in the marina.
Monday 24 December 2007
Just the two of us: Getting on 24 x 7 x 42ft
After 6 months living cheek by jowl in the close confines of a cruising yacht I can only wonder at my luck in marrying a women as wonderful in all respects as Mags.
We feel and behave like newlyweds, long may it last!
Mags Reports:21st September - October 2nd 2007 Almerimar Marina
21st September - October 2nd 2007 Almerimar Marina
Earlier this week we sent Eric, a South African rigger (wonder if that's relevant) up the mast to check on the wind speed instruments as they weren't working (Steve couldn't go because you need someone to handle the ropes and winches and I don't have the strength, will or experience yet and, actually, neither does Steve, to be up the mast that is!). He found that the thing up there that measures wind speed had rusted up. Anyway the bearing that has rusted up must cost 50p but the choice was send it back to UK for repair or buy a replacement masthead unit for £350 plus postage. The trouble with a repair is they often don't work and Steve reckoned 2 hours labour plus 50p parts plus postage both ways plus insurance was going to come to 400 euros anyway....so....for £400 you can buy the latest super whizzy posh stuff with warranty, so we decide to buy new. We already had faults with the depth sounder .... same issues applied so we got one of those with an integral water temp gauge and speedo - and guess what? The holes in the hull are a different size by 3mm. SO - we had to pay to have the boat hauled out so we can drill bigger holes as they are below the water line. Sooooo, we had the boat hauled out………
You still there?
....and as we were having problems with some engine vibration at higher speeds, we had them take a look at a bearing just in front of the propeller ...
don't weaken you have time to do slow cooked lamb with this series of events .... where was I? Oh yeah this bearing.
Well, we had been told by an engineer when the boat was last out of the water (August) that the bearing was fine and had a couple of years in it at least, so finding that it failed 8 weeks later really pissed us off. It may sound like we need a new boat but we very nearly have one!
So knowing that things were a bit rusty down there we paid an engineer to change the bearing but he couldn't because a rope cutter also fitted just behind the prop and was rusted on solid. “No probs “he said, “I will just undo the prop shaft from behind the gearbox and do it that way“. So he undid the coupling in about 2 mins and then spent 2 hours trying to get the flange off the prop, big hammer, WD 40, blow torches the lot - nuffin worked! So he said "right guv, gonna have to cut this orf"
Don’t weaken ..…
So he got out his angle grinder and cut the flange in half - still wouldn't come off - so in the end he had to cut it into 3 pieces, then very reluctantly it gave into the gentle persuasion being applied by the 2lb lump hammer. Then he pulled out the prop shaft and said, “We don't stock flanges here“. “Bugger“ Steve said , “no sweat” he said “I will order one today for you, they will send out tomorrow, we will get it Tuesday, then we will send it to be machined because it will be metric and you are in inches“. “Bugger” Steve said, “don't be like that” he said, “but you told me it was a 2 hour job and now I am stuck in this bloody yard for 6 days” Steve said. Anyway, he updates me, who is not best pleased at: a) not having a pot to piss in (it is considered bad form to let your marine toilet drain all over the yard) and b) that I have to climb up and down a rickety ladder at the stern of the boat (its about a 3metre climb to the deck!)
Still alive?
OK I will attempt to finish this for posterity. So to soften the blow I persuade Steve to go out and rig a pipe from the bog to a bucket (as he does not want to use the holding tank until he’s checked it out) so I don't have to negotiate the ladder (often) in the middle of the night (and I don‘t want a bucket ob board). Also, he tied the ladder onto the boat to make it safer and only slightly less scary! Then we went out to visit some Canadians and drink wine and complain for the night, come back and go to bed.
At around 8 the following morning there is a MASSIVE thunderstorm and when it is finished I NEED to get off the boat and go for a sh.......ower. I ask Steve if he will accompany me to the ladder as it is wet and I'm afraid of slipping and falling.
As I am getting off the boat, feet on the ladder and hands on the stern rail ................... aaaaaaargh! Steve reproaches me for being such a wuss. “For Gods sake, just hold on and stop whinging” but reaches over to help a very shocked Mags and .......aaaaaargh! Not to put to fine a point on it we have both received a big electric shock. I was only scared of falling through slipping - I never thought of falling through electrocution! I wonder at this point if he has rigged this specially for me.
So Steve gets his meter out and find that the rigging, engine, keel, and rails are all live at 170volts. We suspect the shore supply from the yard is wired up backwards, but it seems it's not! So in conclusion this boat ain’t working very well. We have been electrocuted and we are stuck here for 6 days - but it's still better than the alternative!
Steve then set about checking all possibilities with the help of his trusty colleagues (nerds) from the on-line boating forum!
I was reading Ellen MacArthur’s epic adventures so was too busy sailing around the world to care!
For those still alive ……
UPDATE! It seems that the yards cable is at fault, so Steve (MY HERO) fixed it. Safe at last. We cannot use a bucket on the hard - we have to use the holding tank. Sorry Steve. We both have to compromise - I’m sure it will be OK.
Next Day:
Phwaw, what’s that niff?
“Mags, there’s piss in the engine compartment!”
“Don’t be ridiculous”
“I’m telling you it’s piss. I thought it was sea water and tasted it to see”
“You dirty bugger! Anyway, how do you know what piss tastes like?”
You guessed it. The holding tank was leaking, and not just our 12 hour old contribution!!!
What can I say. The table had to be unscrewed, every floor had to come up, the bed had to come up, the stern locker had to be emptied (that is where the tank is conveniently located - 1metre down under a board in ½m of space). The bilges were swimming in it, it was in the engine compartment, the whole place stank! LOVLAY!!
Once again Steve is a hero, he got into that space and got that smelly creature out…… and it had several massive holes in it ……. Not new or unused I think! (that is what we were told but Steve did not believe him. Sometimes it pays to be cynical!)
I did my bit removing the offending stinking liquid (no solids thank God) which took 3 days of cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting, cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting. YUK!
Are you still there?
Any road up, we now await a new tank BUT we are back in the water - BLISS!
Once back on the water, Eric, the rigger, spent a total of seven hours up the mast ‘cos the cable was stuck and not getting through the mast. He also had to drill and fit new saddles near the top of the mast for the halyards to pass over. Inside, Steve and I had the ceilings down, part of the floor up and two walls out for 2 days trying to feed the wires from the mast and from the instruments in the hull, through the cable runs on the inside of the boat - this involved a lot of ‘lizard’ wire, Vaseline and second sight. Interesting living with your home upside down around you.
We then moved onto dismantling the cockpit, but most of he electronics are all now installed and ready to be integrated.
2nd Oct
Well, I say installed! Steve has just short circuited the shore supply! SHIT - That has to be another story.
Looks like we are in Hotel California for some time yet!
Wasn’t as bad as it seemed. The electrician had everything sorted in short time so Steve sensibly asks him to help with the remaining work. “Are you sure all this stuff integrates Steve?” said Marco the electrician, “Some of it is ancient”. “Yes” confirms Steve, “I am VERY sure, it says so in the manual (bloody hell, he read the manual! No, that’s not fair).
Another 4 hours pass and all is completed - nearly! Marco leaves having eaten his words and the instruments are integrated. Steve has now nearly completed installing all the new units. God - he’s WONDERFUL! We also have VHF radio now - so we’d better get a certificate and get trained to use it.
You may think this would dampen our spirits, but it hasn’t. Call us masochistic if you must, but it is very interesting in a mad, nautical sort of way. Anyway, we now Know most square inches of the boat from bilges to battons, from stem to stern in fact!
Well done for sticking with it if you got this far.
I wonder if we will leave here soon?
Earlier this week we sent Eric, a South African rigger (wonder if that's relevant) up the mast to check on the wind speed instruments as they weren't working (Steve couldn't go because you need someone to handle the ropes and winches and I don't have the strength, will or experience yet and, actually, neither does Steve, to be up the mast that is!). He found that the thing up there that measures wind speed had rusted up. Anyway the bearing that has rusted up must cost 50p but the choice was send it back to UK for repair or buy a replacement masthead unit for £350 plus postage. The trouble with a repair is they often don't work and Steve reckoned 2 hours labour plus 50p parts plus postage both ways plus insurance was going to come to 400 euros anyway....so....for £400 you can buy the latest super whizzy posh stuff with warranty, so we decide to buy new. We already had faults with the depth sounder .... same issues applied so we got one of those with an integral water temp gauge and speedo - and guess what? The holes in the hull are a different size by 3mm. SO - we had to pay to have the boat hauled out so we can drill bigger holes as they are below the water line. Sooooo, we had the boat hauled out………
You still there?
....and as we were having problems with some engine vibration at higher speeds, we had them take a look at a bearing just in front of the propeller ...
don't weaken you have time to do slow cooked lamb with this series of events .... where was I? Oh yeah this bearing.
Well, we had been told by an engineer when the boat was last out of the water (August) that the bearing was fine and had a couple of years in it at least, so finding that it failed 8 weeks later really pissed us off. It may sound like we need a new boat but we very nearly have one!
So knowing that things were a bit rusty down there we paid an engineer to change the bearing but he couldn't because a rope cutter also fitted just behind the prop and was rusted on solid. “No probs “he said, “I will just undo the prop shaft from behind the gearbox and do it that way“. So he undid the coupling in about 2 mins and then spent 2 hours trying to get the flange off the prop, big hammer, WD 40, blow torches the lot - nuffin worked! So he said "right guv, gonna have to cut this orf"
Don’t weaken ..…
So he got out his angle grinder and cut the flange in half - still wouldn't come off - so in the end he had to cut it into 3 pieces, then very reluctantly it gave into the gentle persuasion being applied by the 2lb lump hammer. Then he pulled out the prop shaft and said, “We don't stock flanges here“. “Bugger“ Steve said , “no sweat” he said “I will order one today for you, they will send out tomorrow, we will get it Tuesday, then we will send it to be machined because it will be metric and you are in inches“. “Bugger” Steve said, “don't be like that” he said, “but you told me it was a 2 hour job and now I am stuck in this bloody yard for 6 days” Steve said. Anyway, he updates me, who is not best pleased at: a) not having a pot to piss in (it is considered bad form to let your marine toilet drain all over the yard) and b) that I have to climb up and down a rickety ladder at the stern of the boat (its about a 3metre climb to the deck!)
Still alive?
OK I will attempt to finish this for posterity. So to soften the blow I persuade Steve to go out and rig a pipe from the bog to a bucket (as he does not want to use the holding tank until he’s checked it out) so I don't have to negotiate the ladder (often) in the middle of the night (and I don‘t want a bucket ob board). Also, he tied the ladder onto the boat to make it safer and only slightly less scary! Then we went out to visit some Canadians and drink wine and complain for the night, come back and go to bed.
At around 8 the following morning there is a MASSIVE thunderstorm and when it is finished I NEED to get off the boat and go for a sh.......ower. I ask Steve if he will accompany me to the ladder as it is wet and I'm afraid of slipping and falling.
As I am getting off the boat, feet on the ladder and hands on the stern rail ................... aaaaaaargh! Steve reproaches me for being such a wuss. “For Gods sake, just hold on and stop whinging” but reaches over to help a very shocked Mags and .......aaaaaargh! Not to put to fine a point on it we have both received a big electric shock. I was only scared of falling through slipping - I never thought of falling through electrocution! I wonder at this point if he has rigged this specially for me.
So Steve gets his meter out and find that the rigging, engine, keel, and rails are all live at 170volts. We suspect the shore supply from the yard is wired up backwards, but it seems it's not! So in conclusion this boat ain’t working very well. We have been electrocuted and we are stuck here for 6 days - but it's still better than the alternative!
Steve then set about checking all possibilities with the help of his trusty colleagues (nerds) from the on-line boating forum!
I was reading Ellen MacArthur’s epic adventures so was too busy sailing around the world to care!
For those still alive ……
UPDATE! It seems that the yards cable is at fault, so Steve (MY HERO) fixed it. Safe at last. We cannot use a bucket on the hard - we have to use the holding tank. Sorry Steve. We both have to compromise - I’m sure it will be OK.
Next Day:
Phwaw, what’s that niff?
“Mags, there’s piss in the engine compartment!”
“Don’t be ridiculous”
“I’m telling you it’s piss. I thought it was sea water and tasted it to see”
“You dirty bugger! Anyway, how do you know what piss tastes like?”
You guessed it. The holding tank was leaking, and not just our 12 hour old contribution!!!
What can I say. The table had to be unscrewed, every floor had to come up, the bed had to come up, the stern locker had to be emptied (that is where the tank is conveniently located - 1metre down under a board in ½m of space). The bilges were swimming in it, it was in the engine compartment, the whole place stank! LOVLAY!!
Once again Steve is a hero, he got into that space and got that smelly creature out…… and it had several massive holes in it ……. Not new or unused I think! (that is what we were told but Steve did not believe him. Sometimes it pays to be cynical!)
I did my bit removing the offending stinking liquid (no solids thank God) which took 3 days of cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting, cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting. YUK!
Are you still there?
Any road up, we now await a new tank BUT we are back in the water - BLISS!
Once back on the water, Eric, the rigger, spent a total of seven hours up the mast ‘cos the cable was stuck and not getting through the mast. He also had to drill and fit new saddles near the top of the mast for the halyards to pass over. Inside, Steve and I had the ceilings down, part of the floor up and two walls out for 2 days trying to feed the wires from the mast and from the instruments in the hull, through the cable runs on the inside of the boat - this involved a lot of ‘lizard’ wire, Vaseline and second sight. Interesting living with your home upside down around you.
We then moved onto dismantling the cockpit, but most of he electronics are all now installed and ready to be integrated.
2nd Oct
Well, I say installed! Steve has just short circuited the shore supply! SHIT - That has to be another story.
Looks like we are in Hotel California for some time yet!
Wasn’t as bad as it seemed. The electrician had everything sorted in short time so Steve sensibly asks him to help with the remaining work. “Are you sure all this stuff integrates Steve?” said Marco the electrician, “Some of it is ancient”. “Yes” confirms Steve, “I am VERY sure, it says so in the manual (bloody hell, he read the manual! No, that’s not fair).
Another 4 hours pass and all is completed - nearly! Marco leaves having eaten his words and the instruments are integrated. Steve has now nearly completed installing all the new units. God - he’s WONDERFUL! We also have VHF radio now - so we’d better get a certificate and get trained to use it.
You may think this would dampen our spirits, but it hasn’t. Call us masochistic if you must, but it is very interesting in a mad, nautical sort of way. Anyway, we now Know most square inches of the boat from bilges to battons, from stem to stern in fact!
Well done for sticking with it if you got this far.
I wonder if we will leave here soon?
September 2007: Our first Trip Alone
After a year of planning and what seemed like endless waiting we were ready to start our adventures for real.
“Ready” is a term that is used loosely in maritime circles. For example each captain in the Royal Navy has to confirm to the Admiralty before setting sail that he is “in all respects ready for sea”. Every time this message is sent and received, both parties are complicit in a lie, because nothing as complex as a ship is 100% operational and entirely ready. And so it is with a yacht.
The Fox had been lying virtually unused in a Marina for 16 years when we bought her. 500 hours on the engine, 2836 nautical miles on the log, and amazingly just 25 hours on the radar testified to just how lightly used she had been in those years. Such a history has a mixed blessing; on the one hand we had bought a boat virtually unmarked despite her age, but on the other hand sea air has away of destroying equipment left unused for any length of time.
We had arrived in Marbella on July 11th with a pretty clear understanding of the work that needed doing and had booked a lift out of the water for 2 weeks to complete it and we planned to complete further non-urgent work at the seasons end. In the event the work took double that length of time but after 4 weeks we were “ready”
We were then joined by our friends Millie and her daughter Charlotte for a week’s shakedown cruise which revealed more work to be done and there then , followed another fortnight of maintenance before we were “ready to set sail.
Our first commitment was to meet Steve and Joy, friends from Warrington, in Barcelona for along weekend and to pick up a second hand water-maker bought from a fellow live-aboard from the YBW forum. We waited several days for a suitable break in the weather before deciding to grab a half chance of favourable winds followed by calms.
Our grand plan was to cover the trip to Barcelona in a number of discrete chunks: -
Marbella to Almerimar - 110 miles
Almerimar to Cartagena - 110 miles
Cartagena to Ibiza - 90 miles
Ibiza to Barcelona - 120 miles
In the days of the old sailing ships it was considered tempting fate to say that you were “going to” a particular destination; the accepted term to use was “bound for” because that allowed fate to intervene and …well you ended up where you ended up!
So, “ in all respects ready for sea” we set sail at 2:00pm “bound for“ Almerimar expecting to sail for around 20 hours. The wind was strong Westerly force 5-6 blowing us towards our destination. This was forecast to fade away the following day and be replaced by equally strong winds from the East by teatime so we needed to make the most of the current westerly by sailing through the night.
We made good progress to start with….although we lost a fender overboard ( another £25 donated to Neptune!). After a couple of hours being bashed about Mags decided it would be time for a cuppa. After a couple of minutes she reappeared at the hatch and announced the “The gas has gone!”
Had it run out one cup of tea earlier I could have changed it in the peace and quiet of a marina! Changing the gas bottle in a locker, only accessed from the plunging side deck in the fading light, took about half an hour and resulted in some splendidly bruised ribs. Yet again Steve & Joy’s humorous present of a baseball cap with a light fitted to the peak proved to be very useful indeed.
The weather continued to deteriorate but around about midnight the promised calm came early, only to be immediately followed by stronger easterly winds that were gusting force 7 at times. This was for me a novel experience. We were actually surfing down waves created by the westerly winds whilst sailing close hauled into the new easterly wind. It was also quite bizarre to sea easterly waves slowly build up over the underlying westerly swell. By the time the sun came up we were battling a near gale and it was time to use the iron topsail (engine) and furl the jib. We made the rest of the journey under engine and mainsail alone. This is a combination that keeps the boat stable whilst enabling progress pretty much directly into the wind.
Progress had to be slow because at anything above 4 knots the bows buried into the oncoming waves rather gong over them -and that was just too wet! Even oing slow, sea water and spray was constantly covering the decks and finding the perished sealant in the saloon windows. The resultant leak allowed water inside the saloon where it tracked down the inside of the side decks for about 6 feet until above the navigation station where all the expensive equipment is fitted. Of course this equipment is marinised and is waterproof .
Now, we did mention in our opening comments that we were in all respects ready for sea and part of that preparation was the fitting of a brand new CD-Radio bought tax free in Gibraltar and fitted by yours truly in place of an old and corroded system. The leaks tracked past the waterproof electronics attracted by some malignant force to the vulnerable CD-Radio which was destroyed almost unused.
Did we mention that BOAT is an acronym for Bring On Another Thousand?
Talking of expense I didn’t mention it to Mags but I really didn’t like the way the engine vibrated under load, I think we could have a prop shaft problem…….
We eventually arrived at Almerimar Marina after 27 hours, tied up in a nice safe berth without crashing into anything and went to sleep. Our plan was to stay one night and press on towards Barcelona but Almerimar turned into our own Hotel California in that no matter how often we checked out we couldn’t leave and a further six weeks were to pass before our next sail.
Oh - and to this day we remain bound for Barcelona
“Ready” is a term that is used loosely in maritime circles. For example each captain in the Royal Navy has to confirm to the Admiralty before setting sail that he is “in all respects ready for sea”. Every time this message is sent and received, both parties are complicit in a lie, because nothing as complex as a ship is 100% operational and entirely ready. And so it is with a yacht.
The Fox had been lying virtually unused in a Marina for 16 years when we bought her. 500 hours on the engine, 2836 nautical miles on the log, and amazingly just 25 hours on the radar testified to just how lightly used she had been in those years. Such a history has a mixed blessing; on the one hand we had bought a boat virtually unmarked despite her age, but on the other hand sea air has away of destroying equipment left unused for any length of time.
We had arrived in Marbella on July 11th with a pretty clear understanding of the work that needed doing and had booked a lift out of the water for 2 weeks to complete it and we planned to complete further non-urgent work at the seasons end. In the event the work took double that length of time but after 4 weeks we were “ready”
We were then joined by our friends Millie and her daughter Charlotte for a week’s shakedown cruise which revealed more work to be done and there then , followed another fortnight of maintenance before we were “ready to set sail.
Our first commitment was to meet Steve and Joy, friends from Warrington, in Barcelona for along weekend and to pick up a second hand water-maker bought from a fellow live-aboard from the YBW forum. We waited several days for a suitable break in the weather before deciding to grab a half chance of favourable winds followed by calms.
Our grand plan was to cover the trip to Barcelona in a number of discrete chunks: -
Marbella to Almerimar - 110 miles
Almerimar to Cartagena - 110 miles
Cartagena to Ibiza - 90 miles
Ibiza to Barcelona - 120 miles
In the days of the old sailing ships it was considered tempting fate to say that you were “going to” a particular destination; the accepted term to use was “bound for” because that allowed fate to intervene and …well you ended up where you ended up!
So, “ in all respects ready for sea” we set sail at 2:00pm “bound for“ Almerimar expecting to sail for around 20 hours. The wind was strong Westerly force 5-6 blowing us towards our destination. This was forecast to fade away the following day and be replaced by equally strong winds from the East by teatime so we needed to make the most of the current westerly by sailing through the night.
We made good progress to start with….although we lost a fender overboard (
Had it run out one cup of tea earlier I could have changed it in the peace and quiet of a marina! Changing the gas bottle in a locker, only accessed from the plunging side deck in the fading light, took about half an hour and resulted in some splendidly bruised ribs. Yet again Steve & Joy’s humorous present of a baseball cap with a light fitted to the peak proved to be very useful indeed.
The weather continued to deteriorate but around about midnight the promised calm came early, only to be immediately followed by stronger easterly winds that were gusting force 7 at times. This was for me a novel experience. We were actually surfing down waves created by the westerly winds whilst sailing close hauled into the new easterly wind. It was also quite bizarre to sea easterly waves slowly build up over the underlying westerly swell. By the time the sun came up we were battling a near gale and it was time to use the iron topsail (engine) and furl the jib. We made the rest of the journey under engine and mainsail alone. This is a combination that keeps the boat stable whilst enabling progress pretty much directly into the wind.
Progress had to be slow because at anything above 4 knots the bows buried into the oncoming waves rather gong over them -and that was just too wet! Even oing slow, sea water and spray was constantly covering the decks and finding the perished sealant in the saloon windows. The resultant leak allowed water inside the saloon where it tracked down the inside of the side decks for about 6 feet until above the navigation station where all the expensive equipment is fitted. Of course this equipment is marinised and is waterproof .
Now, we did mention in our opening comments that we were in all respects ready for sea and part of that preparation was the fitting of a brand new CD-Radio bought tax free in Gibraltar and fitted by yours truly in place of an old and corroded system. The leaks tracked past the waterproof electronics attracted by some malignant force to the vulnerable CD-Radio which was destroyed almost unused.
Did we mention that BOAT is an acronym for Bring On Another Thousand?
Talking of expense I didn’t mention it to Mags but I really didn’t like the way the engine vibrated under load, I think we could have a prop shaft problem…….
We eventually arrived at Almerimar Marina after 27 hours, tied up in a nice safe berth without crashing into anything and went to sleep. Our plan was to stay one night and press on towards Barcelona but Almerimar turned into our own Hotel California in that no matter how often we checked out we couldn’t leave and a further six weeks were to pass before our next sail.
Oh - and to this day we remain bound for Barcelona
Beer on Board: Even as an atheist I'll drink to that....
In the Beginning God created Timothy Taylor's Landlords bitter, an ale without equal in this world and very possibly the next. Sometime later a prophet in the Antipodes, (Adelaide to be precise), called Cooper created “Coopers Sparkling Ale” which is quite without equal as a bottled beer.
Admittedly the Germans and the Czechs have had a damned good go too, and produce tolerably good brews. Belgium also deserves a place on the podium - just.
Whilst not quite a nectar of the Gods, a Spanish supermarket called Mercadona is producing a respectable canned Cerveza “in the German Style” which is very very quaffable and called “Steinberg Bierre“.
36 cans provide the boat’s fridge with the thermal stability required to cope with external temperature fluctuations.
Competitively priced at 3€ for a pack of 12 cans, its very difficult to justify room in the fridge for other forms of calories.
At any one time the Fox has a stock equal to that the local supermarket to protect consumers from opportunist pricing and currency fluctuations.
It's a big responsibility but someone has to think ahead and look after these items.
Remember Ben Franklin’s pearl of wisdom “Alcohol is proof that God wants us to be happy”
Even as an atheist I’ll drink to that.
Admittedly the Germans and the Czechs have had a damned good go too, and produce tolerably good brews. Belgium also deserves a place on the podium - just.
Whilst not quite a nectar of the Gods, a Spanish supermarket called Mercadona is producing a respectable canned Cerveza “in the German Style” which is very very quaffable and called “Steinberg Bierre“.
36 cans provide the boat’s fridge with the thermal stability required to cope with external temperature fluctuations.
Competitively priced at 3€ for a pack of 12 cans, its very difficult to justify room in the fridge for other forms of calories.
At any one time the Fox has a stock equal to that the local supermarket to protect consumers from opportunist pricing and currency fluctuations.
It's a big responsibility but someone has to think ahead and look after these items.
Remember Ben Franklin’s pearl of wisdom “Alcohol is proof that God wants us to be happy”
Even as an atheist I’ll drink to that.
August 2007 Our First Guests: Millie's First Whale !
Our frantic refit was completed a few days late despite our very best efforts and we were then immediately joined by our good friends Millie and her daughter Charlotte.
Millie had done a competent crew course with Mags around 18 years ago and had been studiously swatting up prior to joining. This always presents something of a problem to an incompetent skipper as invariably you are asked questions the answer to which has long been forgotten and the inability to answer does nothing for the skipper's standing or the new crews confidence.
That said we managed to get through this phase without resorting to "because I say so" in a stern voice so that was positive!
Millie and Charlotte were a delight to have on board and quickly adapted to the cruising life, which, considering Charlotte had never been on anything smaller than a channel ferry, was very impressive.
We had a relaxing week's cruise from Marbella down to Estepona, then La Linea, Gibraltar, Smir (Morocco) before returning overnight to Marbella.
It was Millie & Charlotte's first night sail and although they viewed it with some trepidation when it was first suggested it was a thoroughly enjoyable overnight thrash with the wind on the beam most of the way and the Silver Fox making 8 knots for much of the time.
Just as the sun was setting Millie shouted "WHALE" at the top of her voice. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of the damage a collision with a whale would cause. I was also puzzled as I was unaware of any whales in the Mediterranean. My anxiety quickly subsided when a more detailed look at Millie's whale revealed, at best, a very modest porpoise!
It's a mistake anyone could make and we all agreed to spare Millie's blushes and not mention it again. (Nuffin said about bloggin though!)
Our cruise concluded with our return back to Marina La Bajadilla, Marbella . We arrived in the dark at 4.00am well ahead of schedule and in good spirits. Rather than end our cruise with a whimper we decided it was time for a beer and a reminisce which lasted until dawn - Wonderful!
Come back soon...
Post Script
We had a couple of unusual experiences during the week.
The Masthead "Volunteer"
On arrival in Estepona we were greeted and assisted by a very helpful (if not a tad overpowering) couple with a couple of children on a nearby boat. In conversation we revealed that we had a problem with a masthead wind speed unit. In a flash they volunteered the services of their 12 year old son who "regularly climbed masts for 10 Euros and loved heights".
The following morning the team arrived and a somewhat tense young man whose climbing skills clearly had been oversold by mum and dad was tied into a bosun's chair and a second safety harness and hauled part way up the mast by "dad". Dad it turned out wasn't ideally matched to the task in hand either and ran out of puff before his son and heir was winched to the masthead so I took over.
Once at the mast head junior tried to reach the masthead unit only to slide out of his bosun's chair, which "dad" hadn't tied correctly but fortunately the lad was held safely by the second safety harness. Clearly frightened he was screaming at the top of his voice to be lowered. Equally loadly "dad" was shouting "Don't panic, and get back into your harness you are OK"
At this charged moment "Mum" arrived and began to scream at her husband, me and anyone else to "Lower him now"
I had the thankless task of lowering the young lad slowly but surely, checking that he was safe at each stage, whilst receiving shouted conflicting advice by both parents and anyone else who felt I would benefit from their advice. Tense moments that ended safely but not happily. Mum proceeded to tear dad off a strip for jeopardising son, humiliated him further by showing him how to tie a bosun's chair in front of the gathering throng, she then glared at me and before leading her family off the boat never to be seen again - but equally never to be forgotten.
Walking the plank!
When I first started sailing it was common practice to carry a plank to use as a gang plank or fend the boat off piling when moored alongside a dock. These days the humble gang plank has been largely replaced by the much posher - but no safer - all aluminium passerelle!
It is very easy to spend one's liveaboard days in an alcohol fuelled haze and we met several couples doing this. The occasional bath following an unintentional fall from the plank seemed to slow them down not at all. We saw one beautiful swallow dive in Gibraltar by a 70 year old who, thankfully, was unharmed by the experience.
Millie had done a competent crew course with Mags around 18 years ago and had been studiously swatting up prior to joining. This always presents something of a problem to an incompetent skipper as invariably you are asked questions the answer to which has long been forgotten and the inability to answer does nothing for the skipper's standing or the new crews confidence.
That said we managed to get through this phase without resorting to "because I say so" in a stern voice so that was positive!
Millie and Charlotte were a delight to have on board and quickly adapted to the cruising life, which, considering Charlotte had never been on anything smaller than a channel ferry, was very impressive.
We had a relaxing week's cruise from Marbella down to Estepona, then La Linea, Gibraltar, Smir (Morocco) before returning overnight to Marbella.
It was Millie & Charlotte's first night sail and although they viewed it with some trepidation when it was first suggested it was a thoroughly enjoyable overnight thrash with the wind on the beam most of the way and the Silver Fox making 8 knots for much of the time.
Just as the sun was setting Millie shouted "WHALE" at the top of her voice. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of the damage a collision with a whale would cause. I was also puzzled as I was unaware of any whales in the Mediterranean. My anxiety quickly subsided when a more detailed look at Millie's whale revealed, at best, a very modest porpoise!
It's a mistake anyone could make and we all agreed to spare Millie's blushes and not mention it again. (Nuffin said about bloggin though!)
Our cruise concluded with our return back to Marina La Bajadilla, Marbella . We arrived in the dark at 4.00am well ahead of schedule and in good spirits. Rather than end our cruise with a whimper we decided it was time for a beer and a reminisce which lasted until dawn - Wonderful!
Come back soon...
Post Script
We had a couple of unusual experiences during the week.
The Masthead "Volunteer"
On arrival in Estepona we were greeted and assisted by a very helpful (if not a tad overpowering) couple with a couple of children on a nearby boat. In conversation we revealed that we had a problem with a masthead wind speed unit. In a flash they volunteered the services of their 12 year old son who "regularly climbed masts for 10 Euros and loved heights".
The following morning the team arrived and a somewhat tense young man whose climbing skills clearly had been oversold by mum and dad was tied into a bosun's chair and a second safety harness and hauled part way up the mast by "dad". Dad it turned out wasn't ideally matched to the task in hand either and ran out of puff before his son and heir was winched to the masthead so I took over.
Once at the mast head junior tried to reach the masthead unit only to slide out of his bosun's chair, which "dad" hadn't tied correctly but fortunately the lad was held safely by the second safety harness. Clearly frightened he was screaming at the top of his voice to be lowered. Equally loadly "dad" was shouting "Don't panic, and get back into your harness you are OK"
At this charged moment "Mum" arrived and began to scream at her husband, me and anyone else to "Lower him now"
I had the thankless task of lowering the young lad slowly but surely, checking that he was safe at each stage, whilst receiving shouted conflicting advice by both parents and anyone else who felt I would benefit from their advice. Tense moments that ended safely but not happily. Mum proceeded to tear dad off a strip for jeopardising son, humiliated him further by showing him how to tie a bosun's chair in front of the gathering throng, she then glared at me and before leading her family off the boat never to be seen again - but equally never to be forgotten.
Walking the plank!
When I first started sailing it was common practice to carry a plank to use as a gang plank or fend the boat off piling when moored alongside a dock. These days the humble gang plank has been largely replaced by the much posher - but no safer - all aluminium passerelle!
It is very easy to spend one's liveaboard days in an alcohol fuelled haze and we met several couples doing this. The occasional bath following an unintentional fall from the plank seemed to slow them down not at all. We saw one beautiful swallow dive in Gibraltar by a 70 year old who, thankfully, was unharmed by the experience.
Sunday 16 December 2007
The Coroner and the Colonel
Every now and then you have the privilege to meet someone truly larger than life and Rafael and the Colonel are two such men.
Shortly after arriving on the boat we replaced the CQR anchor with something a little bigger as we intend to spend a lot of time relying upon it. So having fitted the new anchor to the chain I was then faced with the problem of what to do with the redundant 45lb anchor.
Nearby was a large ketch (two masted yacht) that was undergoing a refit and which I noticed had an anchor a bit on the small side. I wandered over and asked if they wanted the anchor. It was gratefully accepted by the owner of the boat, Rafael.
Rafael, clearly touched by the friendly gesture, took us under his wing and immediately returned the favour many times over. It turned out that Rafael is a man of many talents and great energy. He has for many years been the local forensic coroner and he is due to retire shortly. He has spent the last 7 years preparing his yacht thoroughly for a round the world trip which is a dream he has had for many years.
In his younger days he also qualified as a heart specialist and a dentist. Part of his yacht refit programme is to fit out the Captain’s cabin as a surgery (complete with defibrillator) for medical and dental treatment which he intends to provide free of charge wherever he goes.
Rafael will be accompanied on his circumnavigation by the Colonel who has special dispensation from his wife to make the trip. Nothing remarkable about that you may think, until I tell you the Colonel is 83 years old.
Good luck to them both!
Shortly after arriving on the boat we replaced the CQR anchor with something a little bigger as we intend to spend a lot of time relying upon it. So having fitted the new anchor to the chain I was then faced with the problem of what to do with the redundant 45lb anchor.
Nearby was a large ketch (two masted yacht) that was undergoing a refit and which I noticed had an anchor a bit on the small side. I wandered over and asked if they wanted the anchor. It was gratefully accepted by the owner of the boat, Rafael.
Rafael, clearly touched by the friendly gesture, took us under his wing and immediately returned the favour many times over. It turned out that Rafael is a man of many talents and great energy. He has for many years been the local forensic coroner and he is due to retire shortly. He has spent the last 7 years preparing his yacht thoroughly for a round the world trip which is a dream he has had for many years.
In his younger days he also qualified as a heart specialist and a dentist. Part of his yacht refit programme is to fit out the Captain’s cabin as a surgery (complete with defibrillator) for medical and dental treatment which he intends to provide free of charge wherever he goes.
Rafael will be accompanied on his circumnavigation by the Colonel who has special dispensation from his wife to make the trip. Nothing remarkable about that you may think, until I tell you the Colonel is 83 years old.
Good luck to them both!
Our July 07 Refit Starts
Adapting to a foreign culture can be challenging. We had begun to suspect that this may be the case when all our requests from the UK for estimates for repairs from boatyards up and down the Costa del Sol were resolutely ignored.
Needing to find a solution we booked a lift out of the water at the boatyard which was right next to the marina we were in. We were told it would take 3-4 weeks as there was a waiting list and limited space and boat owners never got their boats ready on time!
We arrived at the boat 4 weeks later and our first action was to ask when we were due to be lifted out?
“Boat name” said the boat yard manager tersely.
“Silver Fox - we booked alift out a month ago”
“Not on the list” he said, warming to the task. “Who did you speak to?”
“You” I replied, tensing my muscles for the forthcoming tussle.
“Not on the list” he repeated “But I can lift you out tomorrow morning”
“But we need to book workman and we haven’t been able to do that because you couldn’t give us a date.” I replied. “When else can you do it?”
Tomorrow is the only slot, if not tomorrow then I cannot tell you when” he said with glee.
First set to the boatyard!
Knowing when to change strategy is important so after a moments consideration I immediately surrendered and agreed to be lifted out tomorrow. Once lifted out the balance of power changed when I opened up two very obvious holes in the hull where sea cocks needed replacing and left them open.
We did manage to get workmen to do the repairs that were too difficult for me but these took 2 weeks, rather than the two days the yard manager had assumed, because they weren‘t able to start at a moments notice. After the first few days we were clearly in the yard manager’s way at the peak of his summer season. If he could have, he would have lifted us back in the water - ready or not! But he couldn’t because the boat would have immediately sunk.
Set two to the Fox I think!
Watching him busily move boats around us on his crane was like watching someone trying to sort out some giant Rubik cube, there simply wasn’t enough room to do it efficiently
Every day he would tersely ask “Are you finished?”
And every day I would smile sweetly and answer “Mañana God willing”
Game set and match to the Fox!
The Adventure Begins....11/07/07
Departure
Well dearly beloved where should this tale begin? Dreams turned to reality as we flew out of Manchester Airport on July 11th 2007 bound for Malaga and the boat in Marbella.
The preparation since retiring on June 24th had been painful to say the least. We thought we had already disposed of most of our possessions but many trips in our transit van to the local council tip and to friends and relatives proved us wrong. Every day was filled with packing and disposing of “all our worldly goods” as they say.
What a lot of material things you acquire along the way without realising it.
Our daughter Suzie drove us to the airport where, it transpired Mags’ mum, Ronnie, sister Pat and brother Chris had taken time out to surprise us with a nice family send off, at least that was the plan. The Campbell’s navigation (or lack of ) skill is legendary and there was an interesting half hour whilst with the aid of frequent calls to the mobile a rendezvous was arranged though for a time it seemed that being in the same airport was as close as we w ere going to be.
A cup of coffee, lots of hugs and kisses and tugging of heart strings and then we were off.
We checked in close enough to the weight limit to be waived through, a formidable achievement for a couple leaving the country you might think? The full truth is that we had realised 10 days previously that we had far too much to take with us and arranged to have it freighted overland. Somewhat optimistically we had arranged for the collection of 3 x 25kg boxes. By the time the lorry had arrived this had grown to 13 boxes and we then had to call them again and arrange to ship another 10 more! But more of that later; quite a few of the boxes were filled with my tools, more of that later too.
It was a funny old feeling knowing we had single tickets. On the flight we decided the occasion warranted a bottle of champagne and a toast to adventure.
Arrival
Our transition from bricks and mortar in England to boat in Spain was eased and simplified by the wonderful help and support we received from Sarah and Mario our long standing friends who lived in San Pedro just outside Marbella.
They clearly thought then and still think now that we were absolutely potty, but as founder members of the potty club themselves, they did not see this mental aberration of ours as any reason not to give us their wholehearted support, added to which they housed and fed us for a month with the style and standard found only in the best hotels and restaurants.
Our plan was simple; put right the items identified in the survey as affecting the yachts seaworthiness, fix the damage to the bow caused in April and get sailing. Other “stuff” could wait until the winter we would carry out a refit and mould the Fox to our requirements.
That was our plan but more of that later too.
Well dearly beloved where should this tale begin? Dreams turned to reality as we flew out of Manchester Airport on July 11th 2007 bound for Malaga and the boat in Marbella.
The preparation since retiring on June 24th had been painful to say the least. We thought we had already disposed of most of our possessions but many trips in our transit van to the local council tip and to friends and relatives proved us wrong. Every day was filled with packing and disposing of “all our worldly goods” as they say.
What a lot of material things you acquire along the way without realising it.
Our daughter Suzie drove us to the airport where, it transpired Mags’ mum, Ronnie, sister Pat and brother Chris had taken time out to surprise us with a nice family send off, at least that was the plan. The Campbell’s navigation (or lack of ) skill is legendary and there was an interesting half hour whilst with the aid of frequent calls to the mobile a rendezvous was arranged though for a time it seemed that being in the same airport was as close as we w ere going to be.
A cup of coffee, lots of hugs and kisses and tugging of heart strings and then we were off.
We checked in close enough to the weight limit to be waived through, a formidable achievement for a couple leaving the country you might think? The full truth is that we had realised 10 days previously that we had far too much to take with us and arranged to have it freighted overland. Somewhat optimistically we had arranged for the collection of 3 x 25kg boxes. By the time the lorry had arrived this had grown to 13 boxes and we then had to call them again and arrange to ship another 10 more! But more of that later; quite a few of the boxes were filled with my tools, more of that later too.
It was a funny old feeling knowing we had single tickets. On the flight we decided the occasion warranted a bottle of champagne and a toast to adventure.
Arrival
Our transition from bricks and mortar in England to boat in Spain was eased and simplified by the wonderful help and support we received from Sarah and Mario our long standing friends who lived in San Pedro just outside Marbella.
They clearly thought then and still think now that we were absolutely potty, but as founder members of the potty club themselves, they did not see this mental aberration of ours as any reason not to give us their wholehearted support, added to which they housed and fed us for a month with the style and standard found only in the best hotels and restaurants.
Our plan was simple; put right the items identified in the survey as affecting the yachts seaworthiness, fix the damage to the bow caused in April and get sailing. Other “stuff” could wait until the winter we would carry out a refit and mould the Fox to our requirements.
That was our plan but more of that later too.
So where have you been for the last 6 months?
Sincerest apologies are due to our faithful reader for the lack of posts and updates. We have been busy beyond our wildest expectations and often with little of no web access.
To overcome this limitation we have stored our blogs and photos offline and now that we have web access we can post them in batches. Hope you enjoy reading them despite them being yesterday's news!
To overcome this limitation we have stored our blogs and photos offline and now that we have web access we can post them in batches. Hope you enjoy reading them despite them being yesterday's news!
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