Susie sets sail

Money, Money Money........

And by the look of the yachts and motor boats here there's a lot of it about. The place  buzzes with young gals and guys clutching mops, buckets and shammies in hand polishing and buffing chrome and GRP until you can see your face at every turn.

 

Decks are to be entertained on and what would be way too big for the normal garden patio, here the large ensembles of teak furniture sit in the shady large cock pits with matching table cloths, napkins, chair cushions and candles. Even potted plants are strategically placed, oh how the rich and famous live.

Carpet is laid on the stern 'staircase' with large welcome mats on the pontoon where guests are received, and one leaves ones shoes. 

No tevas or wellies on these water-home floors. All tootsies are well manicured and polished too, legs waxed, and bottoms buffed, not a sign of cellulite.

As we sit in  our 'little' by comparison cock pit eating our supper, we feel rather overshadowed and a bit like the poor relations waiting to be thrown the scraps but hey, we can polish our hull in about and hour. These monstrosities take a team  about a week plus, it doesn't cost us 500 Euros in fuel to go the two hundred yards to the fuel birth and fill up. 

Still it maybe nice to sit on deck one evening being fed peeled grapes by the local Uniformed Aduanas (customs). 

Boy those guys do look good in black............ Pics to follow. 

Well i couldn't wait, this pic should come later but who's counting,  get a gander of this power house.....hear that baby purrrrrrrrrr and look at the size of the fender.

 

Twice this Adonis carrier came into our anchorage and twice they ignored us, "what's wrong with us, why cant we get boarded"? 

I even sunbathed naked on the bow actually, maybe i should have been more demure. 

It's OK kids, i did have a hankie strategically placed, your mother hasn't lost all her marbles yet. 

In fact she's not lost much. 

Anyway more of that later back to Alicanti. 

We are still having problems with the in-mast furling so Carol invited a little man to look at it. 

We already had the main off and did a few things we were told that may help, still it's handy to have a man who can around.

Hmmmmm i may have to eat those words, this was rather like the clash of the Titans, a meeting of two forces and one situation where it was best to keep your head down and just do as you're told. 

I stayed on the starboard side clasping and turning the winch while Carol, and our helpful man stayed on the port side. 

They struggled to put the sail in the groove while discussing the why's and wherefores of inmast furling, foils, bearings and WD4O or Teflon. 

I hoisted the main and  Carol struggled to keep her hands from throttling the little chap. I think he was a little charged too.

Forty Euros later and still the same problem we chilled in the cockpit with gin and tonic, or was it beer? 

Lets just say it was alcoholic, and we listened to the unmelodious sound of drums ashore. 

It was that sort of drum beating that i envisaged cannibals did to stir up the natives prior to eating the missionaries. This went on till around 5am by which time i was gnawing at my own elbow and looking for some salt and pepper. 

The drummers were accompanied by whistles, the type a ref has, boy did i know where id like to have thrust a few peas had i been able to get hold of some.

Alicanti where the  streets here are paved beautifully which has become the norm  all over Spain however, i think here  they have the edge on other city's we have been to.

Our walk into the town earlier on in the day was nice and we got a good look at this lovely city. 

As usual we i took lots of pics.

Here you can see the painstaking way they make these lovely patterns, these are small individually cut and shaped  pieces of marble or possibly granite. Each row carefully placed by hand, grouted then polished to a high shine, not only good enough to walk on but good enough to lay on too.

 

The overall affect is lovely and the eye is drawn down the curvy waves to this fountain, one of many in the city.

 

When we arrived back a few boats had arrived, Dutch they were and they recognized us straight away, we are becoming famous in our own right we are not the Ladies that lunch but ''The Ladies from Lagos' . 

I think we are a bit of a mystery to some, especially those who don't know us but only see us in passing. Not many women sail boats without men so our sexual preferences are always on the minds of the dual sexed boats. 

Are they, or aren't they??

Salvador Gomez, an evening with the artist.

Salvador Gomez posing with some of his portraits in his studio in Alicante. The portrait to his right is of his son and to his left, his daughter.

We spent a lovely evening with Salvador chatting about his work, life, family and he revealed he also sailed. From the rooftop of his town house studio that has a Moroccan feel you can see Mount Benacantil, probably the most instantly recognizable feature of Alicante.

Salvador's style of portraiture is unique, he's what i call a coulourist and a man after my own heart. He has developed a wonderful style using colour to give his portraits an energetic and lively feel. I hope he doesn't mind me showing you just a couple of his paintings here to give you a taste of his work but to see his full collection follow the link below.

Salvadore is a quiet man and made us feel very welcome, not what you expect from succesful artists. He loves his work and obviously enjoyed showing us just a few of them. I hope he enjoyed our comapany as much as we engoyed his. He said he admired us for what we are doing and i think there was an element of 'Mad English Women' in his comment and that was to me a title i will try and live up to.

 

I loved this portrait and i like the way he places the sitter on the canvase.

 

Thank you Salvador for shareing your time and work with us i feel privilaged.

http://www.mark-gallery.com/artist.vm?series=3964

Cartegena and Alicante....

We arrived in Cartagena early afternoon and hooray, finger pontoons and an English Capetanery (spelling). In fact this guy Pete only lived around the corner from me in Portsmouth where I spent my early childhood, what a small world!

You have to butter these guys up when you arrive so finding out where they are from and making idle chit chat helps, you can also ascertain if they are single or not. He was rather cute but unfortunately for us married, to a teacher no less.

There are several people here who have overwintered so they are full of info and it doesn’t take long before we know where not to go for a tapas and who is expert at what.

I’ve yet to explore the town as chores are priority, and a day doing laundry is timetabled in. The town looks very interesting with Art Nouveau architecture.

 

We have spent a few days sorting things mainly the out haul on the main which is getting worse. Carol and a few guys have been pulling, lifting hauling in and out and although it’s better it’s still not pulling out like it used  but then I don’t pull like I used to but unlike the main my reason isn’t because of overuse.

Other than that and the laundry we have had a few days of sightseeing where I discovered a great graffiti artist called Sam, visited the remains of a Roman Theatre dating back to the 1^st century BC. Then there’s the fantastic El Gran Hotel built in 1916, it’s architecture influenced by the modernist movement. And Aguirre House, a beautiful building with a Rocco air and housing the Regional.

The Grand Hotel

The air is filled with the mating calls of the wild peacocks and I went to meet then, our relationship had become somewhat intimate as they have been calling when I went to sleep and again when I awoke. These are the offending fellas.

This is what he finally thought of me taking a pic

Cartagena is definitely worth a visit but do not eat out along the main street, they charge for the privilege. Large cruise liners dock for the day and a bounty of tourists swarm in like money vending machines that keep these restaurants walking on water.

We’ve had a few nights of drunken revelry in one cockpit or another. On one of these occasions Frank went for an unexpected midnight swim but give him his due he didn’t panic, he just laid back and said “it’s nice in here”.

Of course you can’t stay in these places forever and you wouldn’t want to but, having looked at most of want we wanted to see it was time to move on.

We have also been mulling over the logistics of visiting Barcelona. This has now become our aim so it’s off to Alicante at first light on Tuesday, 'onward and downward' that’s our motto.

Tuesday morning and even before it’s light Carol has gone to empty Skye and I'm sorting out the ropes for an effortless drift out of our birth and out into the open ocean.

Jeff came to release our lines, bless him. I think this was just to make sure we actually go. While leaving Cartagena  one of the cruisers was coming in so we gave him priority, no point in arguing with a big lad like that.

Blue seas and skies, ‘yes how boring’ greeted us however no wind so it was motoring until it picked up which it usually did mid afternoon.

The odd sunfish and silver fish jumping out of the water made for an uneventful time and Carol and I, at different ends of the boat i must add got our kit off for the all over tan look.

I have now noticed there are areas where the sun don't shine any more, these  need help so maybe a bit of dangling from a halyard will expose these spots, i think they call it gravity.

As usual the mid afternoon wind picked up and we managed a few hours of sailing, goose-winging most of the time between 5 and 6.5 knots.

We arrived in Alicante at about 1800 and this is where all the super yachts hang out and we look like gypsies compared to these guys.

The short finger pontoons make for an interesting time when getting off to. Still, a pleasant evening having supper in the cockpit in the evening sun was very nice.

Today we explored the art galleries and walked through some of the streets, I must say my impression of Alicante because it’s Brit holiday destination had me thinking it would be a bit like Blackpool but i was so wrong.

Alicante is very Spanish with great marble paved walkways under shady humongous rubber trees and palms. 

We visited yet a few more galleries and came across a great fella, he was an Art history lecturer at the university here.

After chatting for a while he invited us to see his etchings later that day, so I'm looking forward to seeing the work of one of Alicante's artists,Salvador Gomez. More to follow.

We four yachts............

We were all ready for our departure from Roquetas, not the most salubrious town but it did have a nice tapas bar right on the beach with wifi, yes it’s sad isn’t  it when you measure a town by it’s tapas and wifi connection. 

We four yachts Us, Fiz, White Wine and Shelini all left  within a short time of each other  and I took a pic of the guys behind following us out, Fiz is right behind us then Dry White and in the distance Shalini.

Not much wind to start with so we were motoring, this seems to be the recipe we have followed most of the time, however when the wind has been up which seems to follow a pattern of mid afternoon we crack along at between 6 and 7 knots.

Bill and Lynn on Fiz are the fastest amongst our little group so they caught up in no time, mind you one minute he was to port the next to starboard, he was chicaning the open seas, was he on the sauce I asked myself.

I really miss John and Lynda at these times it was really great sailing with them especially as they were so slow, we never feared being overtaken when they were around. :0)

Fiz  got awfully close to shore and I did radio him and ask for a rock samples while he was there....

Eventually the wind improved and we had out the Main and Yankee. We’ve been having trouble with the main and more so since we had it off the other day. We put in a new leach line and a new batten, the batten  is  a different shape so we are going to take it out and see if it improves. Twenty minutes to take the main out is ridiculous. However eventually Carol  managed it and with the  to preventer on the main we goose-winged along reaching over seven knots.

Are destination was Garucha about 35 miles from Roquetas however when we arrived not only was it rough and sloppy, there was no room at the inn, except for anchoring in a small area.

Dry White managed to raft up beside a steel boat but the rest of us decided to carry on to  a new marina, Poerto De Montiel about another 10 miles on.

 Dry White lost their bow navigation light to a very rude and mad French man as he tried to come along side at a rate of knots.

So it's no go here and now we just hope they have space at the next place. Well we shouldn’t have worried apart from some local boats and one or two yachts we were the only three yachts on a pontoon about 100 yards long.

The marina had been built to cater for the super yachts so was very roomy however, they never came and the marina sits almost empty. The staff were very friendly and spoke English which is always a bonus however, the 50 Euros a night made us wince. This was one of the most expensive marina’s we have been in so far.

Bill had also had main problems so the following morning he and Frank sorted that while we left for Cartagena, a radio call from Dry White put them way out on our starboard side and we could just see them in the distance. They had a pod of around thirty dolphins playing, it’s not often you see them doing spinning rolls out of the water but Lynne took some great pics, I’ll see if I can nab a few..

I felt they were my dolphins as I’d been calling them up for the past two days so to try and attract them to us we put on Andreas Bochelli  very loud,  unfortunately these Spanish dolphins didn’t seem to like it, perhaps a bit of flamenco would have been more successful.

Not much wind as usual but a lovely blue sky and one of those silky seas, we did get a great view of a Portuguese man o war and sailed around it to take some pics.

This close up shows an amazing reflection.

Not ideal trying to take a crisp sharp picture while moving about but this is the best of the bunch. I love the patterns in the sea and the reflection turned out OK too.

Early bird to Roquetas...

Twas 7am and we are just letting the lines go for our early departure when Dave came to see us off and take some pictures; maybe he was hoping to get one of those ‘candid camera’ type piccys. Bad luck for him but good for us as we drifted out of our mooring without any difficulty. Carol has this stern too mooring sorted now.

Wild Bird had been here for six weeks now but her engine started first time and we were finally off again.

Not much in the way of wind however but the sun was coming up and it looked like the it was at least going to shine on us all the way to Roquetas de mar, 15 nautical miles East north East of Almerima.

Apart from some unusual jelly fish that seemed to float on top of the water with purple colouring (I think they are Portuguese men of war), and a shoal of small umbrella type jelly fish the trip was uneventful.

Frank and Judy on 'Shalene' and Jeff and Lynne on 'Dry white' had been here a week and Bill and Lynne on 'Fiz' were about an hour in front of us. When we arrived, they were all waiting to take our lines on the holding pontoon. 

Of course the men can never do it right and the two Lynn's had to give them a few words of encouragement and the importance of keeping your equipment tidy.

We were supposed to be lifted out later that morning however due to a few technical hold ups (Frank and his paint job) we weren’t lifted until Wednesday at 9.30am so spent a couple of nights on the holding pontoon one of which was very bouncy.

I couldn’t get to sleep due to an unusual noise, funny cause you get used to creaking sounds, halyard’s hitting the mast and ropes squeaking buy this new noise was annoying. Not knowing what it was I started to search my cabin, it seemed to be coming from under the floor and I’d checked the sea cocks that day so was worried I’d not sealed them so had the floor up. Everything was fine and I could hear the nose when I bent down and put me ear to one of the lockers so, I pulled everything out. Bearing in mind this was about 2 am and pretty dark I was beginning becoming frustrated, what can it be? Well nothing I could do except try and ignore it, we weren’t sinking so nothing to worry about.

The sound was like someone scrunching up cellophane. Eventually I decided it s must be fish nibbling at the algae on the hull.

As soon as we were lifted out we started work  cutting and waxing the hull was the first on the list and we had her shining like a dollar before long.

The prop was scraped and polished by yours truly and the anodes changed.

Next was to mask off the waterline and start anti fouling and this is when everyone mucked in. By around 6pm she was finished and looking good.

She was remarkably clean really and very little needed in the way of preparation.

The repair done last year to the crack on the keel had worked well; Carol was really pleased with herself, she had spent several days last year filling and grinding and it had paid off.

I'm still not 100% sure whether the noise I could here the other night was fish feeding however now we have anti fouled the hull and have nothing of interest to fish  last night was quiet.

After our long hard day we went out that evening to celebrate a job well done with Bill and Lynne.

Last night it was an evening on Fiz with Lynne’s recipe for Tai soup, we had a great evening, it’s so good to meet up with interesting folk and all with a common interest, sailing.

On this trip we have met people from all walks of life, I must say I seem to have come across lots of retired teachers, Frank and Judy are just such a couple, Jeff was a Thatcher and Lynne was a party planner at one point. Bill is a pharmacist through and through and Lynne his wife ran a beauty therapy business. It’s a real smorgasbord of characters that run away to sea, maybe that’s what makes it all so interesting.

While all this has been going on here I’ve been trying to coordinate jobs at home, I found this almost impossible and with a list of jobs to do on the house prior to the new tenants I finally had to call in help in the way of a fairy godmother, my friend Anne. Well Anne came up trumps and has done a miracle and in less than a week has everything sorted and the new tenants moved in today.

I owe her and Mike a great deal. Thank you guys.

We will be moving on again probably on Sunday towards Cartagena, one of those places that conjures up visions of adventure, Michael Douglas and romancing the stone comes to mind  however , I think that was the Cartagena in South America.

Friends.........

Not a huge amount happening here at the moment.

There are regular social events Tai chi, quiz night, card night and the Friday social evening.

It all sounds very organised but it helps with meeting new folk and exchanging info.

We finally took the main off to have the leach line threaded back,  it now sits in the cockpit waiting for a windless day so we can put it on again.

The new toe rail is on; Ken another live aboard who is also a shipwright, spent three days masterfully routing, shaping, sanding and screwing in place and it looks splendid we just need to get the brass protectors on.

This is Ken modelling his Easter bonnet accessoriesed with a can of ale.

The toerail was damaged in Llanes in a storm as we were tied up against the harbour wall, that was where we met the Meteor’s, Nick, Pat, Fyn and Red who are now on their way to Granada, in the Caribbean.

Lots of the people we have met  along the way have sailed off in different directions around the globe.

Dries and Yvonne on Windhond are now in Trinidad.

I’ve yet to catch up with the whereabouts of Barbara and Chris on Dream or Two but they were heading towards the Caribbean too they have had a new grandchild so last i heard they were home visiting the new babe.

Roy and Maddy on their Cat Mithril hauled out in Porta Mao Portugal last year. The last time we saw them they were busy painting and cleaning so I need to email them too and see what they have planned for this year.

I wonder if the little kitten that adopted them finally made itself the boat cat, did Maddy and Roy give in to it's charms?

Alain and Sabina have left their boat, September Song in Faro and are at the moment living in Paris after buying a house in Denver Colorado. I heard from them at Christmas with pics of Alexia walking, I bet she's running around all over the place now and hands into everything.

Vic who came to stay in December has finally taken off from Ipswich in his Dufor 385. With Deaks as crew/navigator extraordinary  he's  just started his long over due travels at  last.

Last I heard (yesterday) he was in Devon and moving ever closer to my stomping ground of Fowey.

His boat Issy (Isabelle) will hopefully be in the same waters as me at some point so we can exchange stories of freak waves, whales and pirates.

And of course John and Lynda are still in Lagos but will be on the move again soon.

These are just a few friends we made last year and this year we have made some new ones. and long it will continue.

We had a pontoon Easter BBQ and of course the obligatory decorated hat competition which Carol won, Ken's you have already seen.

Here's Carol clutching her prize hmmm is she going to share?

 

   I couldn't not post  the rear view.

No animals were hurt during this day of larking accept for  the odd cracked egg.

                           

As you can see blue skies and in the background under the fluffy white thigs we have mountains.

The sun shone on us and the sangria flowed but my eye kept being drawn to the end of the pontoon waiting for our friends John and Lynda to arrive, they were driving up from Lagos to spend a few days with us.

Finally, they got here and it was an emotional reunion, it’ difficult when you leave friends behind not knowing when or even if you’ll see them again.

Of course we had lots to catch up on, holding tanks and alternators dominated the conversation as did med mooring, I even noticed John taking pics of our rear/stern.

We played 'Vic's Game' as we call it an were all thrashed by Carol, i had a minus score for about the first seven hands as did Lynda who is usually way up there.

Having a car again meant more sightseeing so a walk in the Sierra Nevada’s was organised with John and Lynda.

Each time we visit these mountains it’s different.

This was a timely look back, no I'm not panting, I'm just breathing in gulps of the fresh mountain air....

The almond blossoms are almost over and now trees are starting to bud, catkins dance in the breeze and pussy willows show there fluffy buds and colourful flowers carpet the ground. 

With the snow melting on the mountains you are never far away from the sound of water cascading over rocks forming fast flowing waterfalls.

I nearly came a cropper when I stood on a wobbly stone in the middle of one of these fast flowing streams, all I could think about was my camera getting wet.

I'm not a huge fan of walking parse but I certainly enjoyed this one and i know i need to get out there more and will do in the future, once the pain threshold has kicked in it's very enjoyable.

At first it was a steep climb but the views were staggering giving me a good excuse to stop so I could catch my breath.

Lunch under a shady tree half way meant a few pics could be taken of the gang with the still snowy mountains as a backdrop before our decent.

It was a great day, sun, views to die for and good friends, what more can you ask for?

Small Finca's cling to the sides of the mountains where farmers eke out a living.

These are fed by water from the mountains that run along gullys.

Every now and then we came across small slues gates in the gully.

Each farmer is given a time when he can open his gate and water his land, not much fun is your slot is 2 am. 

Broad beans are popular here and eaten raw. May bars have them in dishes on the bar and the shells are just thrown on the floor, so i've been told.

In the valley's below farming is done on a large scale and there are miles and miles of tightly packed polly tunnels houseing toms, artichokes, strawberry's and peppers.

They manage three crops a year, most of the workers seem to be Moroccan .

Another tearful farewell came all too soon, it was very quiet after they had left and i retreated to my cabin for a time to reflect.

They were making their way back to Lagos via Granada and Seville.

This time I'm not sure when we’ll meet up again as I leave for another trip back to the UK on May 28^th and after attending Ben and Clair's wedding in June I’ll be starting a new adventure on a new boat.

No longer a lady of leisure, but a working girl again.  

See Phil, you have retired before me and you're sooo much younger.

For me it’s time to earn money and not just spend it.

We still have a way to go before then, we are being hauled out in Roquetas de Mar about 15 miles along the coast to do some maintenance then onward and upward.

My final destination for this trip will be Malaga where I will fly home until my return on June 28^th landing in Athens and joining Lady H.

Until then I’ll keep blogging away...............

          Now where's it gone?

Now where’s it gone I’ve not  seen it for a while?

Maybe you can help me, i'm looking for my smile.

It’s in need of some attention, it’s not been doing very well

 I asked what was wrong but it couldn’t’ tell

Occasionally it comes out and it does have  fun

Especially when I wrote ‘I’ve a pimple on my Bum’

I think it needs  encouragement, maybe I’ll read it other rhyme

Ahhh there you are, you've been  here all the time. :0)

                                                                       ~Susie~ ©