LIVE ABOARD’S IN THE CARIBBEAN!!!

Ok this is it I have arrived! If I die tomorrow I will have achieved my dream – hopefully that won’t happen and there is lots more of this to come! As I start this we are currently in Falmouth Harbour Antigua, Chicken Madras simmering on the stove, the sun is down, the ensign has been put away for the night, there might possibly be a glass of chilled white wine by my side and the only bad thing is that I am now 52 as of yesterday! However as Emma said I am now into the 2^nd year of my second half-century, which means I am only a toddler, and therefore there is much bad behavior to come – can’t wait to be 68!!

Back to our arrival in St Anne’s Martinique at 4 in the morning on 31^st January. It was strange to see lights on the land in the distance, Andrew and I brought her in for the last couple of hours and then woke the others so we could all experience the occasion and make sure we didn’t hit anything after all those days at sea! We dropped the anchor at 3.30am and then we could hardly go to bed there was much celebrating to be done, after all we were Transatlantic Sailors!! It was definitely the first time that I have started a party at 4 in the morning but it had to be done!

Transatlantic Sailor!

Lets just say that having had breakfast onshore the rest our first day on land was a bit of a wash out and it is possible that our impressions of Martinique were slightly marred by our rather sore heads! A great Lobster dinner ashore put a rosier shine on things, that and a good nights sleep at last!

The next morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed we motored around the Coast to Fort de France to sign in and provision, pretty awful town but there was a Carrefour and therefore decent, if not expensive, provisions all purchased in a very versatile shopping trolley…

We found a great little bay to anchor in, attempted to go ashore for drinks, got eaten by every bug known to mankind and retired to the boat for pasta and cards, girls 2 boys 0!!

Then it was time to set sail for St. Lucia, the local wild life accommodated us with two Sperm whales and lots of birds catching fish just of our bow. We anchored in Rodney Bay, having had a flyby of the hotel that we had spent our honeymoon in, sadly now a Sandals resort. A good evening was had in the Marina, much rum punch & vino culminating in some dancing on the back deck…

Marigot Bay

The next morning we meandered to Marigot Bay, dropping our anchor in the mouth to make the most of the breeze and what a fabulous and special place it is! Lots of boat boys looking for work, we employed one to get rid the beard we had grown over the last three weeks, not the best job in the world but as we had been told once you have your man the rest pretty much leave you alone so it sort of has to be done.

Posh dingy dock

We had an amazing dinner out for the Wilson’s last night at the Forest Hideaway – as we arrived in out dingy we were directed into a bay in front of the restaurant lit with green lights which was just magical, great food too! Then a last trip up to the Pitons for lunch onboard and it was time to say goodbye to our shipmates, which was very sad as we had so enjoyed their company and our adventure together, think we might entice them back for some more sailing antics….

The Pitons

Another night in Marigot Bay, a few chores and then a hasty exit as the boat ahead of us dragged its anchor in the freshening breeze and we had to get ours up pretty fast as there was no one onboard the other boat. Great maneuvering by Andrew and the hasty return of the owners of the other boat prevented a calamity and we sailed around to Rodney Bay and spent a breezy night on the hook.

Dominica

Time to head north; we had a cracking sail to Martinique, Q flag up, hook down, no venturing ashore. Then another cracking sail to Dominica which we had been told was now a safe place to go, up went the Q flag, boat boy was handed a few dollars and we sat and admired the rich green jungle around us. The party on the shore went on all night and was still continuing as we left at 10 am the next morning, we were both very pleased to get back to sea and some peace and quiet!! Must be getting old! We discovered later that it was carnival time so we may go back at some point and see some of the island.

Next stop Guadeloupe and Les Saintes, which are just beautiful, and a definite must see. Very picturesque, pretty painted buildings and lovely sandy beaches. We spent a couple of days there and then sailed to the top of the island before heading across to Antigua to meet my lovely in-laws who had come out to meet us and were staying in The Inn in English Harbour for a few days before joining us onboard. As we sailed into the anchorage we were met by a canoe bearing Tom & his friend Roger, the last day of their holiday they had spotted our arrival and come to say hello. Next arrived Keith, it was quite a welcoming party!

Two lovely dinners at the Inn with Keith & Syggs, what a fabulous place especially the restaurant on the top of the hill that looks over both English & Falmouth Harbour and all those red anchor lights.

Mary & Jeremy onboard

We left them in peace for a couple of days as we had a box to tick. Having spent two lovely holidays with Jeremy and Mary in there gorgeous villa on the island I had vowed we would bring our boat into their bay so that is what we did and they came onboard for dinner. Just fab seeing them both and being there!

Fav colour in the world!

Then it was time for my fabulous mother in law Syggs to come onboard for three days, not a keen sailor we did not want to put her of so we stayed on the West side of the Island with its calm turquoise waters and what a lovely time we had, so very special to have them on part of our journey. Dinner onboard both nights, lunch in Dickinson Bay, just a very special time. Big thank you to them both for coming to join us and being part of our adventure!

The Fab In-laws

Sue and Eddie joined us at the very special Sheer Rocks to celebrate my birthday, which was lovely. They are out here for the RORC 600 so it was perfect timing. Big thank you to them for including us in two great parties and so lovely to see them as always. The 600 is a very popular race attracting over 70 boats.  We walked up to the top of the hill to watch the start, which was a fantastic sight.

So now it is time to go home for a couple of weeks, boat to be lifted and bottom painted, much needed after out travels!

In the slings..

Thoughts on being a live aboard in Paradise:-

Food – you have to go with the flow, buy what ever is available and make do. I fell upon a tub of marvellousguacamole in St. Lucia and we used it in everything for days. King prawns in Antigua by the packet fried with garlic, accompanied once by pea Risotto, no mint but a cup of mint tea did the trick. Loved our lunch sailing into Antigua Foie Gras from Las Palmas, tomatoes from Dominica, white wine from St. Lucia and fresh French baguette delivered onboard that morning in Guadeloupe.

Sun – get the jobs done by lunch time then get in the shade, 4.30 to sunset cool enough to start again, best part of the day in the evening sitting on deck enjoying the moonlight and a cool breeze.

Hullabaloo – Best boat in the world still! Most important thing is to have control of the ladder…

Things to fix –

Internet connection! O2 is definitely making its millions out of us, hard to believe they can charge us so much when the local café will connect you for the price of a cup of coffee.

Water – we have a bug in our pipes and it smells.

Hair – I am starting to look like a scarecrow!

Nothing to add

Oh and Atlantic Rowers – Watching single rowers and fours arrive in English Harbour has been very inspiring. Having been out in that ocean and seen those waves I take my hat of to those competitors who have rowed and rolled all that way! And I love the way all the boats big and small blow their hooters to show their support and respect for such an achievement!

The boating world is a really nice place! But then I am a little bit obsessed….

"DOING THE ATLANTIC"

‘Doing the Atlantic’ on Hullabaloo
By Nigel & Louise

30^th January 2016

Current position has Hullabaloo at 14.18N, 59.10W, and 99 nm from Martinique, our intended landfall. Having left Mindelo in the Cape Verdes’ at 12pm on Monday 18^th January we have now been at sea for 12 days and 2 hours. With approximately 15 hours left at sea we are all now starting to recall what life is like at 90 degrees to the horizontal, what bliss a full night’s sleep will provide and whether it is true that too much rum doesn’t cause hangovers!

We have had a blast; below are some of the highlights…….

·      Almost more Dorado that you can shake your fishing rod at. It was just before 6pm on the evening we left Mindelo when the line started to run; typically the gin and ice had just hit the bottom of the glass, the tonic was at the ready. Andrew, having fought the good fight, reeled the monster in and I then proceeded to beat it to death whilst trying to hook it on board with the gaff. Amongst a certain amount of squeamishness we set about the dismemberment – the mongers of Billingsgate would have been horrified. Nevertheless an hour later sashimi was served; sadly to a crew who were feeling the onset of seasickness.  Andrew was devastated so decided to eat the lot!

Since then we have pretty much caught fish to order – we feel rather spoiled to say that there is only so much ocean fresh fish you can eat. After Annie, Betty, Curtly and Desdemona the Dorados we now have, as of 10 minutes ago,  Englebert the Tuna! Sashimi for lunch!

Nigel and Betty

Lesson learned – don’t take any advice from Andrew when it comes to landing a fish on deck. Video evidence is available but to see a man reduced from total confidence to cries of  ‘even Julia is better at this than me’ is to witness the descent of man.

·        Games. Monopoly on the iPad clearly demonstrated that the ladies of Bursledon are rather better at residing in the smart hotels of London than they are at developing them. Hearts (the card game) showing that whilst staying in the smart hotels the ladies of Bursledon are rather good at plotting revenge attacks on their husbands. A devastating final play by Julia upset Andrew for at least 24 hours!

Lessons learned - Rummikub is about the most pointless game invented by man. Please, never again.

·       Daily mileage estimates – Louise’s unbeaten winning streak of 4 straight days rather took the fun out of the game.

Lessons learned – that’s the last time I will be able to get away with pretending that six inches……

·        Sleeping at sea. The theory of ‘lee cloths and wedging’ has dominated conversations. All of us have slept from ‘awful’ to ‘blimey, that was good’ on the scale.

Lesson learned – firstly that the ‘starfish’ is by the far the most effective method. One person, 4 limbs, one in each corner of the forepeak. Unbeatable for a good nights sleep at sea!

·         Provisioning at sea – the sessions of planning by Julia and Louise (no white wine involved) and the seemingly endless visits to El Court Inglais in Gran Canaria and the markets of Mindelo paid off. We have eaten like kings. Supplemented by Annie and her fishy friends we have had everything from beans on toast to perfectly cooked roast leg of lamb. Where possible, and to much scepticism, I have sought to introduce the skipper and his wife to the endless meal variations that Chorizo allows. Aside from the lamb highlights have been Curtly’s ceviche, Scallops with Cauliflower puree (and Chorizo) and Dorado Kerala. All have been washed down with a combination of the finest wine boxes that man can buy, Canarian beer, rum or gin. Anyone who has been able to follow our track will now understand quite why we have taken the route that we have.

Curtly's Ceviche

Lessons learned – firstly that to set sail with no less than10 feet of Chorizo should be a criminal offence. Secondly that, Julia, just because the prawns are cooked in the picture on the front of the packet doesn’t mean that they are.

·      Technology and communications – with the obvious exceptions of lack of contact with family and friends, which we have all missed, our  contact with the outside world has been almost non-existent.

Lessons learned – firstly that with our own personal ‘Google’ on board we didn’t need the internet anyway and and secondly we should all spend more time at sea.

·       Oh, and the sailing. With very few exceptions we have had day after day of glorious sailing conditions; well established trade winds, mostly blue skies and following seas. Nights have been moonlit and warm.

Half way across!

Lessons learned – firstly, whichever watch Andrew is on, avoid. The skipper is a magnet for squalls, rain showers and flappy sails. Secondly that the phrases ‘poled out yankee’ and ‘3 to starboard’ are now ingrained in Louise’s vocabulary – even Robert Galbraith would struggle with those! 

Skipper dressed for half way party

And so with Martinique almost in sight we have all being reflecting. Louise and I feel enormously privileged to have ‘done the Atlantic’ with Andrew and Julia. Hullabaloo could not have been better prepared or more comfortable for an ocean crossing.  With very few exceptions Hullabloo ‘worked’ and when she didn’t we could rely on the Dallas inventory to tell us where to find the parts or provisions that were needed. Never has a greater collection of Tupperware and labeled boxes and packages been assembled in such a relatively small space. We have been staggered to realize that Andrew is rather organized and Julia doesn’t like to be very far from a bottle of cold white wine!

We are now all looking forward to a last few days of island hopping, beach to beach, bar to bar. It will be wrench for Louise and I to get on a plane back home on Thursday after an amazing three weeks; back to real life, for some of us at least……

Thank you so much, Andrew and Julia, for putting up with us; for the giggling, the pearls of Andrew’s wisdom and for the Ceviche and Sashimi. Life doesn’t get much better than this.

THE BIG ONE

Happy Girl

Wow what an amazing thing to have done sailing across the Atlantic! I am going to let Nigel & Louise tell the story - just a few thoughts from me:-

The boat was fantastic - all that preparation paid off and we had very few problems except for the pump on the freezer which failed and started dribbling sea water into the bilges but we had a spare so it was quickly sorted.

Food becomes very important but gave us much to think about each day.

There is nothing out there except for flying fish.

There is nothing to worry about as there is nothing you can do about anything outside of your little bubble so total peace of mind - bliss.

On the other hand you are aware that anything could have happened and you would't have a clue - weird.

We loved spending so much time with Nigel and Louise who were a joy to have onboard - lots of giggles and no stress - and HUGE respect for Louise for stepping so far out of her comfort zone!!

The only things I missed were a full nights sleep and a steady work surface in the galley, otherwise I  loved the whole experience!

TIME TO BOB AGAIN

Sadly we lost my aunt just before Christmas, it was quite a shock but we were fortunate to spend some time with her before she went. After a very busy time in the UK we landed in a soggy heap back in Grand Canaria.

We were very happy to see our lovely vessel again and even happier to have some time to sleep and enjoy some well earned R&R. Then we set to the job of provisioning for the voyage ahead, two trips to Cortes Ingles and much mooing and baaing at startled Spanish ladies to ascertain the appropriate cuts of meat to buy – they obviously thought I was quite mad but it worked – I hope…. I then had to endure an embarrassing wait of shame with my bagged goods standing to the side of the checkout whilst I waited for Andrew to come and rescue me as I had taken the wrong debit card with me and had no means of paying, by this time I think the matrons of Las Palmas were incredulous!!

Leaving Las Palmas

We left the wonderful Real club Nautico, where we were looked after so well, and headed out to into a very flat Atlantic with very little wind. It took us five and a half days to get to the Cape Verdes and we had to motor for over half the trip as the winds were variable, to say the least, thanks to the large low to the North of us which wiped out the Azores. However it was a great trip and we settled into our routines very quickly. As I am by nature a night owl, who is never keen to get up early, and Andrew likes to be tucked up early and finds it difficult to sleep in the daylight it makes sense for me to do the first watch after dinner. I then get to sleep as long as I like after my second watch, which suits me just fine!

A fish at last!

On our last morning we finally caught a fish, which was very exciting! Andrew reeled in a very fine dorado and then it was my job to spear it with the gaff. This was not as easy as I thought it would be, I ended up bashing the poor thing about like a tennis ball, breaking the gaff in the process. The poor fish was dangling on the end of the rod with this look of disbelief at this mad creature waving its arms about causing such havoc! Eventually we got it onboard and oh the joy of fresh sashimi for lunch and fried fish for dinner. Andrew was very pleased with his new status as hunter gatherer, and the fact that his wife could no longer bemoan his inadequacies as a fisherman.

We arrived in the Cape Verde Islands as the sun was setting; it was an amazing sight to see these mountainous islands rising out of the Ocean. There was low-lying cloud and it rather felt like we were entering Jurassic Park. It is such a fabulous sense of achievement to have sailed so far – I hope we will always feel this way as we progress on our travels.

We enjoyed a couple of days of down time, getting used to the heat. Then much excitement for the arrival of Louise and Nigel and with them the Trade Winds, we couldn’t have arranged it any better! A big night out of course and a suitable hangover! Final provisioning and then we are off across the pond at last!

Our Shipmates

LIVE ABOARDS IN THE CANARIES

Daddy's little girl

After a very busy trip back to the UK having seen lots of friends, visited George in Leeds, spent time with Emma at home and with my mother settled back in her home we headed back to the Canaries and the sunshine! Two days later we had our first visitor, my cunning plan of coaxing my girls to spend time with their parents over the next few years by buying them an air ticket to warmer climes paid of and we had the pleasure of the lovely George for a week. What a treat to spend quality time with her on her own, we had already had Emma to ourselves last year in Spain and loved that! Hopefully she will join us in the Spring when she has finished working in the Alps.

We spent a day in the sun in the Club Le Punto and then mindful of our youngest tendency towards sea sickness ventured an hour around the corner to Anfi del Mar and anchored in the bay. Such a lovely place and very calm,  beautiful weather so lots of sunbathing and swimming. Somehow the skipper was persuaded to buy a lilo for his little girl, a rather  questionable addition to the boat! We found a great bar for sundowners and then headed back for Spaghetti Carbanara, such a shame that the cartoon of cream I had purchased in the supermarket turned out to be Strawberry Yogurt!!

The next day we ventured a little further down the coast. Having annoyed one particular marina with my constant phone calls to enquire after a berth, its very confusing this Spanish Language of which I do not speak one word , we were unable to get one so we anchored outside Mogan and took the dingy in for dinner. It is well worth a visit with lots of lovely restaurants around the port and the weather was settled so George survived the night at sea!

The Fishermen

The next morning we were up early and set sail for Teneriffe.  The fishing rod was cast amid much excitement amongst the female crew very keen for our first catch, and we did hook one but it got away....  probably spurred on by our hysterical screams of excitement! However we had a cracking sail and made good time arriving in the early afternoon.

From Gran Canaria Teneriffe is a very impressive sight with its Volcano rising above the clouds, but as you get nearer it loses its grandeur.  Let us just say that after two nights we headed back the way we had come. The only memorable bit of our stay being my girlie day with George on a beach, reached by taxi, where we sunbathed, enjoyed a few glasses and calamari for lunch and put the world to rights with our constant chatter. Oh and a little retail therapy for mum, such a delight these grown up daughters!!

Anfi del Mar

We spent our last night with George back in Anfi del Mar and sadly said goodbye to our little girl who looked a lot healthy than when she had arrived. We spent a few more days there just chilling, working out how to use our TRX  and then it was time to head to Las Palmas to sort out the water heater.
As the ARC were in town there was no room in the Inn so we dropped anchor in the harbour as before. The next day we managed to get a berth just for the day and the Oyster Boys in Red T shirts came onboard and what a delight they were! Not only did they fit our new hot water tank but they gave the boat a full MOT and some very useful advice on future maintenance and oh what a joy to have hot water again!!!!!

We decided to stay in Las Palmas, until our berth became available at the Real Club Nautico once the ARC had left , and to spend the time working on the boat carrying out the maintenance items that had been suggested to us. We had been told that our engine and generator needed a clean, after three days of cleaning them I wasn't quite so enamoured of the Boys in red but actually they were correct they were both filthy and it will now be so much easier to see any oil leaks or problems. We also serviced the engine and I think even I could now do an oil change.  Having spent so much time working on the engine I have lost some of my fear of it, no bad thing even if my hands ended up looking like they belonged to an engineer! We also serviced all our winches and feel the boat is now fully ready for her crossing in January and I am happy to know that if I run out of face or body cream that Diesel is a very good alternative!

Las Palmas

 It was actually great fun being in town with the ARC, not only did we have the advantage of several contractors giving us a great after service but we also made and cemented some good friendships. The very wonderful Jorge, who had organised us a berth in the Real Club Nautico for December, managed to get us an early berth so we didn't have to bounce around in the harbour,  I loved him!! What  a fantastic club with such lovely facilities and charming people, we have both decided that the Spanish are fantastic, so laid back and friendly!! All in all we had a very jolly time, with only one particularly bad hangover which resulted in a day by the pool as we were fit for nothing! And of course we  gatecrashed the final arc party - well really there we were sitting on our pontoon with music blaring out in the Yacht club, it was too much, we had to put on our dancing shoes and sneak in!!

The Committee Boat for the Arc

The night before the ARC left the wind switched up a notch and by the time they left on the Sunday it was blowing 25 knots and there was a big sea running. I felt very sorry for them, having spent so many weeks in harbour anyone prone to  sea sickness was probably in for a bad couple of days, I know I would have suffered. We went out with Jorge, his brother Jose and friends to watch the start and wave them of, it was quite a spectacle watching all the boats come out of the Marina with bands playing and horns blowing. I felt quite exhilarated by it all and excited for them, while at the same time feeling very sad that we weren't going with them.

Loving this shop

The last few days we finished of our chores and I took advantage of our time there and stocked up on liquids and dry goods for our crossing. Of I trotted to  El Courte Anglais, a fantastic departmental store with an amazing food hall. The next day everything was delivered to the boat - so easy! A few problems with the language again, but then it is rather arrogant of me to come to their country and expect them to speak English, a spanish language app for the crossing perhaps....

As you can see no wine....

We have loved living on our boat again, so easy to keep on top of all our emails and our life & we do realise how very fortunate we are to be able to have this adventure! Despite the odd spate, and some bickering ,  Andrew and I have been getting on famously, it is like the old days, until I look in the mirror that is!

As the time to leave approached I kept  wondering how I was supposed to leave our lovely vessel,  she is so very special, just as special as our Sigma 33 and anyone who knew me then would now how very special that is!! I am absolutely certain that this adventure of ours is the correct thing for us to do at this time in our lives but it is hard with certain ties at home, my mothers welfare a constant concern. This trip my aunt, who is childless, was rushed to hospital and is not at all well. Many phone calls to England again and anxiety as to wether I should go and see her, happily she is improving and has many good friends who have been visiting her and looking out for her.  Having never been very driven before by any one thing in life I am only just coming to realise that if you really want to achieve, or do something special it is often necessary to be selfish. Good thing I wasn't talented at anything, I would have been a nervous wreck!!

Jorge in charge with  Jose looking on..

So we left the boat with a very heavy heart, secretly hoping that we had left our passports behind by mistake and would miss the flight!!!! However she is in excellent hands and we cannot thank Jorge enough for all he has and is doing for us in making sure the good ship Hullabaloo is safe and ready for our return in January when it will very defiantly be time to go to sea again!!

THE BOBBING BEGINS....

Happy Days!

Almost 30 years ago with our feet dangling over the bow of my Dad's boat Sea Streaker we had a chat about sailing around the world - 26 years ago married and on the first Hullabaloo, a Sigma 33,  we promised each other that once our kids - not then born - were grown up we would set sail - after almost two years of preparation and a massive amount of work by my lovely husband and  thirty years of anticipation we finally left the Hamble on 8th September.
Delayed by a week with outstanding jobs to be completed we were finally ready to go - off I went to the supermarket to buy supplies leaving Andrew to deal with last minute jobs - you can imagine his horror when suddenly all the bilge pumps switched on and smoke poured out of the floor boards!! Fearful of a fire it turned out to be our hot water tank which had chosen this moment to explode - not the best of timings! Still who needs a hot shower - we never used to have such luxuries in the past and we were sure worse things were likely to happen in the next few years - so at four o'clock we slipped our berth and motored out of the Solent in calm seas, tired but excited and to be honest a little shell shocked - it all seemed a little surreal.

Farewell Blightey

Mindful of bad weather ahead we were keen to get through Biscay so through a combination of Sailing and Motoring we

Happy Skipper

headed for Northern Spain and crossed the Bay in four days and nights. There was a swell running but conditions were good and we settled into a three hour watch system at night -
catching some sleep in the day when the need arose. Having downloaded some films and tv programmes on our laptops, for the first time ,watching them at night whilst on watch was a revelation - they certainly help to pass the time and we just loved being at sea just the two of us on the start of our big adventure.

We had lots of Dolphins accompanying us - one pod stayed with us for an entire night and we had a whale swim under the boat which was literally breathtaking! Luckily we didn't see him coming Andrew just noticed this whirlpool of water on the starboard bow and he popped up to port about three boat lengths away blowing a huge plume of water - we think he was a Sperm whale about 60ft long - an amazing sight and one we probably don't need to see again at such close quarters!
We made land at Ria Arosa happy to tie our vessel to the shore - headed straight for the showers with a quick detour to the bar for fags, wine/beer and food!! Then a quick nap before dinner - except we didn't wake up until the next morning - clearly more exhausted than we realised!

Club Reale Nautica

Woken by the stern banging into the dock and a howling wind we had an interesting couple of hours securing the boat, the skipper very worried that she would break loose from the finger pontoon and crush the small boat moored next to us - it somewhat supprised us when this couple emerged on deck a few hours later having slept through it all - if I had known they were there I would have dragged them out!

We stayed another night and then took advantage of a break in the
weather to pop round to the lovely town of Bayonna tying up at the Club Reale Nautica de Yeats -an amazing club house built below the old castle where the staff were all very welcoming.

The next morning tropical storm Henry hit, we recorded 45knots at times and were very happy to be safely in harbour - I ventured out to visit the laundrette and had to hold on to the railings to get back to the boat the wind was so strong! We stayed for three nights in all - having wandered out to the sea front the day after the storm and seen an enormous Ro-Ro boat with her bow slamming against the waves we decided lunch was a much better option and Andrew took me to the lovely Parador Hotel which is a very special place.

Lisbon Bridge

We then set sail to Lisbon overnight hoping to catch our lovely mates Geoff & Belinda who have recently moved there but ended up arriving as they flew back to England for a few days - we couldn't quite believe how unlucky we were. We spent a happy day sightseeing - thrilled to have finally reached the sun. It is a fantastic city with such a lovely vibe.

Cape St Vincent

Then two nights at anchor on our way down the Portuguese coast - the last at Cape St Vincent before we said goodbye to mainland Europe and headed out into the Atlantic next stop the Canaries. Once through the shipping lanes there is nothing out there and the sight of a ship is a rarity - absolute heaven nothing for me to panic about!! Lots more dolphins - we even saw a bait ball where the birds and dolphins work together to find food  - the birds spot the fish and the dolphins swim around the shoal rounding them up with their mouths wide open to feed - any fish that manages to escape upwards is taken out by the birds - quite a feeding frenzy! And four more whales were spotted between us but in the distance - you could just see them blow.

It took us four days and nights to get to the Canaries - we had lovely weather and at times had to motor due to lack of wind but we were happy to be enjoying the Sunshine and the freedom - cold showers by now an absolute pleasure! Having now spent many hours at sea and had plenty of time to put the world to rights I marvelled at the experience of just being - nothing to worry about - nothing to be done but bob along. At times you could smell Africa wafting across the ocean I have never been there but I know what it smells like now!                                                                         

We heard a radio call one evening from a boat 120 miles south talking to the Coast guard - they had come across a boat full of refugees and wanted advice as to what to do - we never heard the outcome but it got us both thinking - we would also have to go to their aid if we found such a situation but the authorities didn't seem to be very helpful as to the correct course of action.

I couldn't quite believe it when we spotted Lanzerote - such a sense of achievement to have sailed all that way - I am sure I will change my mind at times as we progress on our journey but at the moment the world seems a smaller place - no doubt after a large storm in the Atlantic it will seem b..... enormous!

Bliss

We spent two nights in the Puerto Calero and then three at anchor south of the island - unheard of I believe to have such settled weather with very little wind and flat seas. Another night in Fuertaventura where we had a very romantic stroll on the little Isla De Lobos which we had all to ourselves after the day trippers had all left. Then a days sail to Gran Canaria and two nights at anchor in Las Palmas which seemed like a very large & busy city. And we bought a fishing rod - with high hopes of our first fish we set sail for the bottom of the island and our final destination on this trip - I psyched myself up for the first kill ready with the gaff to spear this enormous fish I was sure we would catch - maybe next time....