Q1- 2008 Update - Concerning the continuing and truly epic, if poorly reported, adventures of Mags and Steve on their sturdy yacht Silver Fox.

Despite best laid plans and all that, we have been truly rubbish as both bloggers and communicators, certainly equalled but rarely surpassed by numerous friends and relations. For this we apologise, offering as paltry excuses such things as being busy, having little or no decent internet connections (without resorting to internet cafes which cost money), prioritising nearest and dearest, fundraising for Help for Heroes (thanks for generous donations including those yet to do so), wandering the Antipodes, socialising too much, sleeping , too many good books and Steve not getting around to it.



Palma's Wonderful Cathedral from our anchorage


I awoke this morning at 4.30am (this is Mags, Steve doesn‘t do 4.30am unless on watch), anchored in the bay of Palma immediately in front of the magnificent cathedral, after a very pleasant evening with friends from the Yacht Pond life (Phillipa, Paul and young Oscar - 6 going on 30), and resolved to do something about the aforesaid lapses. I shall attempt in one effort to mop up the past six months and present the slops to you in the most palatable way I can.

Xmas and New Year came and went in the blink of an eye and presented us with a combination of frantic socialising, family visits and a plethora of life changing news and realisations. It was wonderful to see our friends and family and this came with the realisation that life goes on without us. We spent Xmas with Suzie, Ibi and Kate (Kate smuggled in the bacon wrapped sausages for Xmas dinner), and we realised that we couldn’t just go back to our place when it was done because we have no place on terra firma now, very discombobulating (that was to say discombooberating but Word changed it and I think I rather like it). New Year brought new family changes and we gained a son-in-law (Ibi) and learned we were to have our first grandchild in August, a status which took some adjusting to with the added emotional pressure of not being in the UK. No doubt this problem will be made redundant if Suzie joins Ibi in Germany before he returns to Iraq, which she probably will.

In January we took an extended trip (6 weeks) to Australia to see Matt, Mel and a little more of the Antipodes. Thanks Mum and Dad for the gift that made this possible. We had a great holiday spending a lot of time in Sydney, a week in Tasmania, a week in Victoria doing the Great Ocean Road, a weekend in Hunter Valley with Matt and Mel, and the privilege of being with the lovely Melinda to celebrate her 30th birthday and meet her family. Another boon was being in Sydney to watch Matt’s band perform several times, witness their CD rise to number 1 in the Australian internet charts and hear them in a long interview on Sydney radio.

We returned from Australia and, in the blink of an eye and a 17 point list (final number) of jobs to do for Suzie (we managed 16) - we were leaving again for Spain.

We were so glad to get back home - I was a little worried about that. I didn't know how I would feel coming back to the boat after being away for 3 months, but it truly felt like returning home and we slotted back into the life aboard with no problems.

The weather was lovely when we returned to Almerimar in March, and it not only had the yachtie's sorting their yachts out for the summer season, but the social calendar was pretty packed too. It was like being on a permanent 74 (International Round Table) jolly! HELP! We needed to slow down.



One of the events that the 'net' (Almerimar yachtie's collective name for those who get involved in the social side) were involved in was the local fiesta in El Ejido. There was a dog and owner look-alike competition which an American couple entered, duly supported by the net. Called team Danni, (the dog is called Danforth) we arrived to find no one at the appointed place for the competition. There is a typical Spanish habit of changing the time and not telling anyone, well anyone English anyway. Our American friend David was dressed to look like his dog Danni. In this regalia he stood trying to communicate with the Spanish guards, whilst looking like a poodle cross breed. The guards at this place knew nothing of the competition and were struggling to keep hysteria at bay whilst explaining in sign language that they ‘knew-a-nothing’. We left and had the after show party anyway on the yacht GwenL and the gathering put me in mind of a reception when the wedding never took place. However, David returned that night having learned of the new location and took the trophy from the local Spaniards. OLE! Another party followed - but we were elsewhere.

In April we did a shakedown sail with a small flotilla of 5 yachts to a fishing town called Adra about 10 miles away. This proved to be very useful and highlighted a number of issues that needed attention for all of us. It also gave us chance for a heads up and a reminder that we are here to sail not fix the boat all the time. The weather was lovely and the company good. One of the guys had organised for us to moor up free of charge in the fishing port for a day. We had a BBQ on the quayside when we arrived and tapas in the evening. The following day our neighbour dived and scrubbed both our props - very helpful that - put at least a knot on our speed on the return journey, though we could probably put several more knots on if we scrubbed our furry bottom!

When we returned from the UK the folding bikes we had ordered at the January Boat Show had arrived, but we couldn't use them because they were damaged in transit. Not a scrap of protective packing, just in a cardboard box - amazing So of course the boxes were punctured and ripped and the bikes and bags were damaged. They were duly returned and we explained the packing problem. We were sent replacements packed in exactly the same way, but with a thin layer of bubble wrap on the outside of the box, and although the boxes were again a bit bashed the bikes were OK. Rock on Bubble wrap. We took them for a test drive in the afternoon and I feel that I can honestly say that my bike seat and I are never going to be really good friends, in fact we don't get on at all. Quite incompatible actually. It's far too personal for a seat I've never met before!

We slipped into May being very busy with so many things just like the rest of the port. We must all be mad. Steve has fitted the new holding tank, the water maker and the central heating. He has strengthened the arch (holding solar panels, wind genny and ariels), re-sited the life-raft and the dinghy outboard. The rigging was replaced and our shakedown trip necessitated a few jobs in the engine that grew arms and legs and necessitated several new engine parts. Nothing new there then. My job has been to help or keep out of the way, to make new cushions and covers for the cockpit, a new spray hood and a bimini cover (awning for over the cockpit). So far I have been good at keeping out of the way, have cut the cushions and the covers but not sewn them, have repaired the old spray hood and bought the materials for the bimini. I keep telling Steve that I only have CSE Needlework but he just cracks the whip harder. I really am on the spot now though as he has fitted an invertor which allows me to use the sewing machine at any time and not just in marinas.



Suzie shortly before succumbing to sea sickness!

Suzie joined us for a few days in early May whilst she is still able to do air travel, and it was lovely to spend some time with her alone. We should have been en-route for France at this time but our 74 trip was scuppered due to a combination of bad weather and lack of engine parts, but mainly engine parts. They took a month to arrive, though to be fair they did send us an empty box once just to heighten the tension.

We left for Barcelona mid May to collect Matt, Melinda and Kate for a short holiday. Kate joined us for a good rest before her Help for Heroes Big Battlefield Bikeride, a 300 mile bike ride to raise money for the treatment of wounded servicemen. This she went on to do successfully and had the experience of a lifetime. We had a few days alone with Kate before Matt and Mel joined so we have been able to spend some quality time with all our children this year, a rare treat indeed.

This trip saw us replace the computer in our auto-pilot which crossed its legs and died at the beginning of the trip. Did you know that BOAT is an acronym for bring on another thousand!



No prizes for guessing who beat Chelsea on penalties as the Dewsnap's celebrate Manchester United's Champions League Win.

Matt joined us en-route back to Australia after being home for family visits, a wedding in a Scottish castle, a christening and a trip on Silver Fox. We were under strict instructions to provide a ‘passage’ to somewhere and arrive by Wednesday 23rd so that we did not miss the European Cup Final. This we did with time to spare and enjoyed the match in a lovely bar in Puerto de Soller on the Isle of Mallorca.
Once the family had returned to their respective lives, we were finally able to STOP and take a breather. We also had to re-focus on what we are doing and why we are doing it, and we find we’ve been doing it all wrong. This is a lifestyle, not a race or a sentence, and we are so used to punishing schedules and timetables we had lost sight of that fact. So we stopped, and a great depression came over the Balearics immediately, and it rained and stormed for a week, but luckily not only on us or we might have felt picked on.



We don’t miss the telly at all and each day is filled to capacity with so many things to do. We rarely set an alarm and get up when we wake up. I know also I speak for Steve when I say that so far this life is all we expected it to be and more. We are surrounded by people who are doing the same thing. Their personal experiences are mixed but in the main they feel the same as we do. To our surprise most are our age, though one couple set out last year to fulfil a lifelong ambition at the age of 72! They are an amazing pair from Yorkshire and they are the life and soul of the party. We all live on budgets so there is no ‘upper class’. The camaraderie is superb with everyone helping everyone else to keep the cost down and the sociability high.

......to be continued shortly ....with more photos and tales of derring-do

End of October: The return to Bajadilla and the mystery of the Governments Official Hour

“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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!