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.
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