Finale

We had a great summer.  Thanks to all of you who took the time to dip into the blog, or otherwise offered support and reminded us of the normal world.  We were away 4 months and a bit, covered 3300 miles, and stopped in 82 ports, several of which we remember not at all.

Here are the way points in our chart plotter (we call him Aubrey).

We promised you the Cruise Awards:

- Most efficient service - the Raymarine organisation, who managed to replace our faulty plotter in Galicia within 3 days without delaying us by visiting in one port and supplying a new machine in the next.

- Most helpful harbour - Marina Greenwich on (0 deg longitude in Eastern Spain) who provided us with all normal assistance at reasonable prices, and also offered to drive us to the local-ish shops.

- Most chaotic harbour - Cudillero in Asturias, where the assisant harbourmaster tried to help us pick up a mooring, failed because the lines were too tangled,showed  us where to drop an anchor, which we couldn't recover because it was tangled in other lines, then  helped us dock alongside a pontoon which broke.  We declined his offer to dive for the lost anchor!

- Most mercenary harbour - San Jose, who provided an extremely uncomfortable berth exposed to heavy swell, charged twice what nearby marinas charged, and still wanted us to pay for the night we left after being storm-bound 5 days.

- Most determined visitor - our daughter Cathy, who joined us for the three windiest places of the cruise, but only got sea-sick twice.

- Most officious police force.  The GNR in Portugal.  It did get tiresome to return from the police station having completed multitudinous forms to find the police at the boat wanting documents and more forms completed.  And the fact that police and marina offices don't communicate, but do need the same data and copies of the same documents (I think that there are now several hundred photocopies of our passports in Portugal).  And the police launches which speed up to you as if to intercept, and then object to us not giving way.  They were never rude to us - just extraordinarily tedious!

- Most customer-focussed restaurant - the harbour cafe in Marina America in Cadiz.  They provided us with simple but excellent fish dinners, at what we thought were very reasonable prices.  They may have thought differently, siince having paid they then provided unlimitted quantities of brandies, liqueurs etc to us and Ian and Helena, Cathy and Marion.  A win-win!

- Most inviting marina water.  St Peter Port in Guernsey - ask Val!

And no - we don't know where or when we're going to go next!

We're back

That's it then.  No more wondering where to go tomorrow, worrying about the weather, trying to remember the code for the marina toilets...Funny places, houses.

Friday was Val's birthday, and we were on our way on a short hop from Trebuerden to Treguier, further East, when we realised that the wind was better for Guernsey than Treguier.  So we gritted our teeth (the grit seems to need replacing more frequently these days) and did a hard 50 miles to Guernsey.  What's more we got to St Peter Port in time to celebrate with a good meal and a drink or two.  We had to moor outside the marina, so we took the inflatable dinghy ashore. We were still celebrating when, on getting back into the dinghy, Val lost her balance momentarily...  She was able to clamber back into the dinghy with good grace, and nothing lost but a sliver of dignity.  Her phone however is not happy!

And from Guernsey to Alderney, and on Sunday a good, very fast sail from Alderney to Lymington, reaching in up to force 7 at a steady 7+ knots.  Tiring, but very satisfying!  And we got the boat into Birdham, where we will probably keep her, today.  Val's brother Alan, who has kindly been house and mother-sitting met us there.

For those of you (if any!) who are still following, all is not yet complete.  There will be a final blog entry, including some reflections and an awards list from the cruise.  Watch this space!

Rockin' on

We've done the last corner now, and are homeward bound.  We even caught a snippet of Falmouth Coastguard on the radio.  With Cathy and Ian we stopped at a couple of very pleasant Breton towns, and had some excellent seafood (and we even caught a mackerel, which made a dainty lunch for four).  It's an impressively rocky place this end of Brittany (Finisterre it's called, which I always confuse with the cape in Spain).  And they have some impressive lighthouses to go with them

This one, on Isle de Vierge, claims to be the highest in the world, at 77 meters.

We are now peacefully anchored in the Morlaix river - well anchored anyway, since the wind is howling round us.  It's the wind that has been the problem the last few days; we've had continuous strong Easterlies, with more forecast to come.  And where to we want to go, now we're round the corner?  East!  So it's slow, and quite hard going.  We've been up at dawn the last two mornings to get some help from the tides, but even then, trying to head directly into strong winds gets tiring. Or maybe we just get tired.

By the way, Steve asked what a backstay tensioner cleavis pin was.  Really!  For the really ignorant amongst you, its the horizontal pin towards the bottom of the picture.

Brittany

At last we've got to somewhere we've been before.  We're in Concarneau, a very attractive port in South Brittany, where we're meeting Cathy and Ian tomorrow.  It seems to have been a hardish week.  Some attractive places in the Vendee, and the Isle de Yeu, where we had a lovely cliff-top walk.

 Our mood was a tad upset by unluckily spending one night next to a smallish French boat  where a dozen or so youngsters (well under 40s) decided to party until 4.30 am on deck.  Surprisingly they then put to sea, so we didn't even have the pleasure of disturbing them at 7.30, when we had to leave. 

Until the last two days it's been warm and calm - we've been motoring a lot.  But the weather has now changed to wet and windy.  There was a Force 9 forecast for today (for the uninititiated that's definitely breezy) but we managed to get here before it did.  All we had was pouring rain alternating with thick fog and a brisk breeze, while we tried to weave our way around the numerous very sharp-looking rocks that pepper this coast (not really possible without GPS/ Chart Plotters).  Then in the middle of it the engine started to smoke a bit alarmingly.  Then another yacht called up to ask for a tow because they had (unrelated) engine problems.  If someone had been trying to set a Yachtmaster test they could have done worse.  Still we got here.  And we hope the engine problem isn't serious.

Soon we'll be at the last corner!

Masting

...or, in French, mâtage.  Well, we found the mast, and it's up, and we hope it will stay that way.  It was a hard working, and quite stressful 3 days in Pauilac.  The actual raising of the mast only took an hour or so, but there was rushed preparation, and quite a lot of sorting to do afterwards.  The raising was a joint effort with harbour staff - and our french wasn't really up to "tighten up on the starboard lower shroud" or "lock the cleavis pin on the backstay tensioner".  With all that we missed out a bit on the glories of Pauillac, and in particular the vinyards that we might have visited/ sampled.  Still, we did manage a Sunday lunch on the boat with fresh local oysters and local Entre Deux Mers.

 We're now in La Rochelle.  It's a really pleasant and interesting city.  Splendid entrance to the harbour

and a very attractive atmosphere.  We're actually sitting in a huge, 3000 boat marina, and there is boating activity everywhere.  A proper place.  For some reason the tourist blurb doesn't dwell too much on the siege.  27,000 inhabitants - mainly protestant civilians - killed according to Wikipedia.  Still, it was a long time ago.

We continue North tomorrow - the weather seems to be improving the nearer England we get.  There will, I'm sure, come a point where this ceases to be true...

Back to sea

That's the canals done then.  A lot less hectic and busy at the end than the beginning. It's easier going down, and there are fewer people and boats at this end (it's the Canal de la Garonne, rather the the Canal du Midi).  We had a lovely stop in Toulouse - a beautiful city we thought, and one we could comfortably live in.   And pleasant though the canal was, we've really seen enough plane trees for now

You don't really see a lot else - barring occasional otters (we always thought they needed clean water!), purple herons and towards the end, lots of kingfishers.

We're now on the Garonne river, just outside Bordeaux.  It's spring tides and the flows in the river are impressive - about 5 knots either way, and about 10 minutes pause between the changes.  The water is chocolate brown (mud we think/hope!).  Occasional tree trunks passing give rise to some concerns.  And the current makes parking interesting!  Off to Pauillac today (when the tide turns) to find the mast, we hope.  We plan to be there a few days to sort out before and after it's put up.  Then we'll be a proper boat again!

France Profonde et canaux moins profonds

Bit of a cock-up on the blogging front, I'm afraid.  I thought the comment from Narbonne had already gone on on the blog.  So now there's two at once.

It's harder work than we thought.  So far we've done 61 locks in 4 days, and still going up.  The locks themselves are automated, but they are fast and violent, so the boat takes a lot of handling.  The canal was built in the 1670's and for some reason caring for delicate fibreglass hulls was not among the designer's priorities.  So everything is stone or concrete, and Sally T's delicate complexion is taking a bit of a battering.  And we're the only boat we've seen with a crew of only two.  Since I have to do the really difficult bit (steering) this means that Val is running around everywhere with bits of rope to pull.

It's not helped by the crowds of international (Brit, German Maltese, Oz) boaters in specially built dodgem boats, who aren't always worried about whom they hit (they're mainly friendly and helpful though).  We spent a great evening yesterday in Carcassonne, with a memorable cassoulet.  And we're now in the crumbling, decaying town of Castellnaudary - grandeur fading.

There's a dark secret here, not mentioned in any of the reference books.  I'll probably have to forego my aspirations to the Legion d'Honneur for mentioning it.  On the coast, one is not permitted so much as a pee to go into the sea within 3 miles of the coast (boats have to have tanks to put it all in, and pump it out well away from land).  On most canals there are pump-out stations, so that tanks can be emptied harmlessly.  But not here.  It all has to go into the canal.  Which, unsurprisingly smells.  Oh well.  C'est La France!

No piccies this time - the connection's too slow.  Just wait!

Holidays

We've been going for 3 months now, and really felt it was time for a break.  A canal boat, for example, for a fortnight or so.  And so here we are in the centre of Narbonne.  It's certainly different!

We really enjoyed meeting up with old friends around Barcelona, and taking Cathy and Marion up to the French border at Port Bou.  They had to put up with some very strong winds - always in the wrong direction.  The Tramontana blows very hard off the Pyrenees a lot of the time, and it was hard going at times.

We finally got the mast down - in one piece - in France, after quite a lot of hassle.  It wasn't helped by our nearly complete inability to speak French after three months in Spain.  Two consecutive French words was a success.  And  - hard to believe - a huge marina at Port Leucate where no one admitted to speaking a word of English (oui, je parle de vous!).  If things work, we'll meet the mast again in Pauillac, on the Gironde.  I wonder how you put it up...

Catalunya

Since Ibiza, we stayed for a few days in Mallorca, mainly on the mountainous NW coast.  Pleasant towns and spectacular mountains. 

 

The only problem was that it was too hot for much walking.  Still, a morning coastal walk followed by a swim and a good lunch in a fish restaurant overlooking a small cove isn't all bad.

We crossed back to Sitges on the mainland in a 20 hour motor in dead still conditions.  It was good that Alistair was with us to help with the watch-keeping.  And at least it was slightly cooler overnight.  Then from Sitges to Castelldefels, where we used to live.  We've had a nostalgiafest of meeting up with old friends, and revisiting old haunts.  The place has changed, of course, and in our view, mainly for the better.  Behaviour has changed too - cars screech to a halt at zebra crossings.  Ther's hardly any litter.  It's certainly more developed in all senses.

And now on to Mataro, to see more old friends, and to pick up Marion and Cathy who are having a weekend with us in the Costa Brava...

Ibiza

Yes that's right - Eyebeezer.  It's our second day here, with Alistair and we're chilling out (or something).  In fact it all seems very pleasant, if hot.  We're told that most of the more publicised activity comes from the far side of the island (San Antonio).  The marinas are very crowded and very, very expensive though.  We are anchoring a lot.

 It was slowly dawning on us on our way around that our boat is small.  She's really very small here, compared to most of the other craft around.  The motorboats (known as "stinkers" to us old salts) are enormous.  Gin palaces doesn't do them justice.  Some of them have tenders bigger than Sally T.  In fact I suspect that some of the tenders have bigger tenders than us.  We know our place!  What was it I was reading about the Spanish economy?

But economics isn't everything.  I remember saying that there'd be no more about football in this corner of the web.  But we can't really stick to that in the circumstances.  We spent the night of the match anchored about a mile off the shore of the Spanish mainland.  So we could follow the exciting events by the crowd reaction, and were in no doubt at all about who had won.  But we avoided the worst of the overnight, early morning and mid-morning noise.  When you see so much celebration even I can't help feeling quite pleased!!

 Val and I find that things normally run more smoothly if we stick to our traditional roles:  she does the domestic effort (cooking, washing ..) and I generally look after the boat.  So when she suggested I made dinner yesterday I had to find other activities....

The view was good too.

Alicante

Well, we had our Force 10 while we were safely in harbour in San Jose.  It didn't always feel that safe - the boat was bouncing about and moving every which way all night, but it was better than being at sea.  And we managed to find the way away from San Jose by leaving at 9.30 pm and sailing/motoring through the night.  Quite pleasant really except for an incident at dawn, when I just caught sight of a very long fishing net floating in front of us, and avoided it.  Half an hour earlier and we would have been caught!

We're now in Alicante, a pleasant - but hot - city, where Alistair is joining us.  Then it's off to Ibiza!!

Stuck

...and things were going so well.

We took a clean, punctual, cheap, air-conditioned bus to Almeria, an old Moorish city.  Mainly very attractive and surprisingly affluent.  It must be all the plastic agriculture in the hinterland, all the fruit, veg and flowers going to England.  However Val had her purse stolen, which was fairly bad news.  Credit cards, driving licence, some cashe etc, etc.  Luckily the passports were elsewhere.  However, we seem to have got things mainly sorted, and even managed to report the theft to an efficient and almost friendly policeman.  What is Spain coming to?

Now we're round another corner, in San José (we had to ask around a bit).  We're trying to head NE, which is  where the wind is coming from and it's strong (F8 today, F10 forecast tomorrow).  What's worse is that there are very few ports or even sheltered anchorages for some way.  So for the moment we're sitting tight and enjoying San José.  We got up at dawn yesterday and went for a 15 mile walk back to the cape (Cabo de Gata), so for a change here's a picture from the land side of a corner.

Green and pleasant it's not, but very impressive in it's way - and hot!

Costa del Sol

I suppose it's what we expected.  Busy, very built-up, full of English and expensive at the Western end, and busy, built-up, full of a different kind of English and not quite so expensive in the East, where we are now.  Well, we're only two or three days from the corner, just short of Almeria, so we've nearly done it.  And we don't have to go back!

We had some pleasant sailing for the first day or two, but the wind has now died, and the temperature has shot up.  It's really very warm now.  And that's without taking account of the howls from the nearby bar, where England are apparently playing Germany (this may be my last World Cup comment!).  We swam ashore from the boat where we anchored yesterday, carrying just enough cash for a couple of icecreams.  Then I dropped mine.

The highlights so far have been:

- Malaga.  We took a train there from Fuengirola.  A very pleasant, tranquil old city, with a stunning Moorish castle - the Alcazaba.

- The views of the Sierra Nevada - still surprisingly snowy 

    (but note the polythene in the foreground.  This gets worse as you go East.  We call it the Costa Plastica)

- The general ambiance, friendliness, good food and good wine.  Worth a lot really.  It would be even better if it was easier to understand the people.  I was chatting (in my bad Spanish) to a lady in the marina office here (Almerimar) today, and moaning how hard I found it.  She said (in very clear Spanish) that she had had the same problems when she moved here.  I asked her where she came from - the answer was Seville!

Thanks for all your comments - please keep them coming.  It reminds us that there's another world there somewhere.  And we're sure that White Magic will get to like Scotland once she's mastered the accent!

All change

We've certainly had some contrasts in the last week or so.  After the mass tourism exposure in Vilamoura, with Ian and Helena, we pottered up the river Guadiana.  Spain on one side, Portugal the other, in the sunshine.  It was really lovely lush rural country.  Then back in the rain. 

Ian and Helena left us in Cadiz, a fascinating old walled city. The cafe on the pier was memorable.  It's a real greasy spoon equivalent, but served us excellent grilled fish and chips and bad wine with very friendly attentive service.  They were so surprised when we paid what we thought a very fair bill without demurring, they plied us with free brandy and sherry in too large quantities for us to remember afterwards.

Some of the trees were particularly interesting.  Please let us know if you can identify them!

 
Cathy and Marion joined us in Cadiz (and returned to the pier cafe with us!).  We have had two very good day sails with them, first to Mazagon, then on to Gibraltar.  Avoiding the fixed tunny nets was quite an effort.  They are huge - up to 3 miles out from the shore, and connected to the shore.  Not pleasant to be caught in, we would guess.

And so to Gibraltar. 

First impressions are better than we expected  (Cathy had suggested Aldershot-on-Sea).  But the great news is there's a Morrisons!  A big one!  And they have PG Tips, Pringles, Walkers crisps, Ryvita, Hobnobs.  We hadn't realised how much we'd missed them.  But we're now into Mediterranean style docking, with the bow up near (but not too near) the jetty.  Some clambering is required.  Val is wondering if she needs to go ashore before the canal!

Adeus Portugal

So that's it for Portugal.  We're back in Spain, in Ayamonte on the Costa de la Luz. 

With Ian and Helena, we experienced the full  head-on tourist experience in Vilamoura on the Portuguese Algarve.  An all new development, packed with bars and restaurants and thousands of people - mainly Brits - milling around it.  It was a big shock, but I'm sure we have more of the same to come when we get to the Med.  Still it was quite a relief to get back to Spain, and a sleepy, traditional town, without more than a few hundred policemen.

The weather continues to disappoint.  Cloudy, little wind, spots of rain at time, and up until today quite cold.  It must change in the end.

More Corners

We rounded Cape St Vincent on Monday, and we're in Lagos (no, no, we're not that lost - it's in S Portugal - pronounced La'gosh).  The cape is another impressive corner.

We've had some splendid sails.  The wind always picks up, to really quite strong, in the afternoons, and it's been behind us most of the way.  But the real highlight has been the dolphins.  Large groups of them, up to 20 or 30 at a time, choosing to while away their time playing with the boat.  It's a real joy to see.

Portuguese bureaucracy continues to amaze us.  On two occasions, I had just returned from checking in at the marina office, where they typically spend 20 minutes copying out details of passports and boat papers (horsepower of engine?  do you have radar?  what was the colour of your grandmother's eyes?) to find two policemen patiently waiting at the boat to repeat almost the same, but subtly different procedure.  There are apparently at least three police forces, all of whom can go through similar processes.  Our last stop, Sines, consisted mainly of a very large police station, with a small settlement surrounding it, to service its needs. 

By the way, I promised a picture of the harbourmaster's office in Cascais.  It's on the right.

Still, now we are really down South.  And it's raining.  Our guidebook says that Lagos has less than one rainy day per summer.  So we're hoping it will stop soon.  We have met Ian and Helena here and we will be setting off with them towards Cadiz tomorrow.  We also met their friends, Janet and Michael, who live here, and gave us some local perspective over a lovely dinner at their home last night.

Pottering South

So our first visitors - Andrew and Sue - have come and gone and we amble gently on.  We´re in Sesimbra, about 30 miles South of Lisbon.  The weather has stayed fine; not much wind most of the time, but occasional strong puffs, mainly coming into port in the evening.  Today was an exception when we had a strong wind all day, and a lovely sail under jib only.  Docking wasn´t so easy, but we got help from several marina chaps who all had fun shouting instuctions to us and to each other in Portuguese.  It worked in the end!

There are some splendid places - and very little but perfect beaches between them - all the way down this coast.  We went inland to Sintra yesterday.  It´s full of palaces and castles - really very impressive.  Even the harbourmasters´ office in our last stop, Cascais, was palatial  (picture will follow).

~More detail when internet access improves - watch this space.

Portugal

Portugal is just like we remembered it.  Especially the sardines.  Andrew and Sue joined us just outside Porto (Leixoes) and we've been enjoying the warmth, the seafood, the comparitively cheap prices and the friendly people.  At least we were until the bimini broke this afternoon.  But it's cobbled together again now and it's on, on and South to Nazare tomorrow (they used to wear socks on their heads there, we're hoping to see them again).

There has been some talk in the UK, we think about excessive regulation.  We arrived yesterday in Figuera do Foz.  We parked the boat where the other foreign boats were.  We were told to move it 20 metres to the "reception area" where the police could interview us.  Having spent 30 minutes writing down every conceivable detail of the boat and our family histories we were permitted to move it back to where we started.   Then we had to report to the marina office to check into the marina.  The marina office couldn't help us until they got the details from the police, who unfortunately were by then unavailable...  Luckily a great deal of good humour prevailed throughout. We quite like UK regulation now!

Fitzroy, Trafalgar

... are the sea areas we are looking at weather for right now.  The problem is that they're so huge the forecast can't be much more than a very broad generalisation.  We have been dominated by weather again in the last few days.  We got to Sanxenxo (in Gallego, Sangenjo in Spanish) on Sunday.  And we spent several happy hours putting up the extremely sophisticated and complicated sunshade (bimini) on Monday morning (extremely sophisticated and complicated piccies will follow).  Then it rained.  And blew very hard from the South.  And we discovered that our sunshade made a very effective washing line shelter while we whiled away our time in wet and windy SanX.

But now we're off again, and we're in the attractive and historic port of Bayonna.  And it's going foreign to Portugal tomorrow.

Going South

We rounded Cape Finisterre today so are now firmly Southward bound.  The weather continues wonderful and getting hotter.  Until today we've had some really good favourable winds.  Today we had none and had to motor, but oh well. 

We're enjoying exploring the Galician rias (in Ria de Muros now).  You could easily spend months here.  The scenery in the north is very rugged indeed (it's apparently known as the Costa de Muertos!), but it has slowly got softer as we've gone round, and is now green rolling hills around large, fairly sheltered inlets.  Lots of fishing still, and lots of seafood to be eaten.  It's tough out here!

Val in control!

Standing on the Corner

And suddenly it's Summer! Warm sunny days, windy afternoons, starry nights.  What a difference!

From Gijon we went to the very attractive fishing village of Cudillero.  Lots of wind and bouncing about en route, but we had a friendly local to help us with the mooring.  It didn't work.  The set moorings are a complete tangle of ropes going every whichway.  The chap kindly helped us drop an anchor, which then got trapped in the mooring ropes, and we lost it.  He then helped us dock on a pontoon (a very special concession).  The pontoon broke.  So we were not unhappy to leave for the first of the Galician rias (think fjords or sea lochs) - in Ria de Ribadeo.  It also has a marina which didn't break.

We've had one or two equipment failures of our own, in particular a plotter (think satnav) has decided it only likes cold weather and has gone on strike.  Luckily we have two.  However the shiny new cup-holders are working magnificently! 

We've now been rapidly through Ria de Barquero (near Ria de Vivero) with magnificent coastal views (Cabo Ortegal above), and are in La Coruña, right on the North West corner.  And we've bought a new anchor.  We have a sort of arrangement to excahnge the plotter, and we're a day ahead of schedule.

Thanks to all who have posted replies on the blog.  It's good to know there are people out there!  Excuse us for not replying directly - the blog doesn't seem like the best medium for ongoing conversations!  Oh, and good luck with the government!  Just as long as Cameron keeps sterling going up I could be converted!!

Asturias

Greetings from Gijon, an attractive city in the province of Asturias.  Lovely sandy beaches between high rugged cliffs.  Inland, lush green hills and clear rivers.  And in the background the snow capped peaks of the Picos de Europa.  Excellent food, particularly the seafood, and drink, especially the local cider.  Splendid!

However ... there is a hint of a problem in that word "green".  It's wet.  And it's cold.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,
But also in Asturias
And when those dark grey clouds roll in again
It makes us bloody furious

[Val didn't think it was any good either!]

Along the coast

So from Santander we had a gentle sail to S Vicente de la Barquera, a very pleasant seaside town and fishing port, with splendid views of the Picos de Europa.  A gentle friendly place we thought, until we were woken in the early hours by a rescue helicopter searching for survivors from a boat apparently deliberately burned out.  So maybe it's more a Midsummer Murders location?  Rivalries in the Rias, Val suggested.

And on today (Tues 11th) to Llanes, beating against the wind in the rain.  Just as good as England.  And the harbour is full of fishing boats, and the marina is being rebuilt, and we have to leave on the tide at 6.00 tomorrow morning, and I need a beer.

The waves in Biscay

were biggish

We're in Spain

Bien.  We're in Santander.  We've started!  The sail across went very well.  The boat performed excellently, the crew showed stamina and dedication, and the even the skipper managed to find Santander!  It took us 4.5 days of strong to gale following winds, so relatively quick, but rough, very cold and quite tiring.  A photo or two may follow when we have a faster internet connection.  Many thanks to Peter and David for their help, encouragement and company!  And thanks also to Alistair for his departure photos.

Val arrived yesterday (Friday).  We were extremely lucky since northern UK airports were closed earlier, and Spanish airports, including Santander, are closed today.  Tomorrow we're off to San Vicente de la Barquera.

Across the bay

Sally T arrived in Santander today, Thursday 6th after a cold crossing in strong northeasterlies. Peter and David returning on the Santander Plymouth ferry this afternoon.

First stage

The intrepid crew (Peter, David and Simon) make it to the entrance to Portsmouth harbour! They actually made it to Portland on Sat May 1st, and are setting off today (Sunday) for
Santander with strong northerlies forecast. Hopefully they'll be there by the time I (the less intrepid crew) arrive by plane on Friday.

Getting Ready

It's 10 days to the off, and time for all the preparations to get finished. We spent Easter Sunday night on the sand at Bembridge, and in the morning replaced anodes, greased the propeller and various other "out of the water" jobs. We've just had the rigging retensioned, and we plan a "final" keel adjustment this week. A few details yet to attend to (like buying and stowing provisions), but we think we're getting there.

The first leg is to Santander - non-stop if the weather allows. David Pennison has very kindly stepped in to help on this leg, after family concerns stopped Alistair coming. Val plans to join us in Santander - by plane. And there's another story...