Yacht Balvenie

Barbados – it’s Rum Time! ….. Jan 2012

2012-01-28T20:51:00.001+01:00

09 – 18 January 2012

We arrived in Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados around 5.45pm after 14 days at sea crossing the Atlantic, what an enormous relief to get into flatter water and drop the anchor. But sometimes things don’t turn out quite as you think they should, we took 4 attempts at getting the anchor to set – never before have we needed 4 attempts – where was all the sandy bottom we expected? The sun had dipped over the horizon while we were still finding a home for the night, darkness arrives very quickly in the tropics, happy hour celebrations were continuing onboard Matador without us, tempers were getting frayed, but then the anchor finally set. Our kiwi friends Brenda and David on Bandit dinghied over to us with fresh fruit, NZ cheese and David’s freshly baked bread and soon after taxied us across to their boat for rum punches and dinner. It was wonderful to have such a welcome after so long at sea.

The rocking and rolling continued unfortunately, the swell crept around the headland and came in beam-on, however it was nowhere near as bad at being at sea, we just felt a little hard done by, a lovely calm and sunny anchorage would have been just the ticket after what we had been through!! I mention sunny as it was often squally, but Balvenie came out sparkling clean, finally rid of months of dust and ingrained dirt, it is worth having the rain to have such a salt, dust and dirt free home.

Our first few days seemed to pass me by, I felt like I was operating in a zombie state almost doing things by remote control. It took a while for the relief of successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean on our own yacht to work its way through my brain and to let my body know that life would be returning to normal (well normal for us!!) The weather was very changeable - hot, sunny days with regular afternoon rain showers, so that didn’t encourage us to get out and explore, and then the watermaker decided to set a record for having the most breakdowns in a week. For skipper it was back to “Maintenance in Exotic Places”, he spent 3 days fixing 3 different failures, one resulted in several litres of salt water being pumped into the bilge – not a good thing, another resulted in several litres of salt water being pumped into our fresh water tanks – now this is a very bad thing and until it is diluted back to an acceptable level we will be purchasing drinking water, oh what fun.

As the days passed new arrivals made landfall. Tactical Directions and Ventana followed us in then Eye Candy and Resolute arrived also. All of them as happy and relieved as we were to have “crossed the pond”.

In order to perk up spirits (quite literally) there was nothing for it but to abandon ship one afternoon and head to the Mt Gay Rum Factory. Skippers “rum of choice” has always been Mt Gay since he started yacht racing in Auckland, participating in the Thursday afternoon Rum Races. Many miles have gone under the keel since then, and many many bottles of Mt Gay Rum have been emptied . Now it was time to see “where the rum that invented rum” was born. In true cruiser style an outing was planned and several of us headed for the Mt Gay Bottling Plant in Bridgetown for the “Tour and Tastings” experience. There are several different plants around the island and this is only the bottling plant, so you don’t get to see the actual production process, however they have an excellent informative short film, followed by rum tasting of three different aged rums, the measures were very generous. The adjoining bar area overlooked a lovely flat bay (where no anchoring is permitted!), rum punches were ordered and the afternoon just slipped away.

On Friday night we ventured out between the showers and went firstly to the newly opened J’s Lucky 7 Bar for a rum punch to celebrate Stu off Matadors birthday then piled into buses, minivans and taxis and all headed out to the Oistins Bay Friday Night Fish Fry Up. It’s a market stall type set up, with around 50 stalls selling the catch of the day and the local speciality – flying fish sandwiches. If you are lucky you get something with it, maybe fried plantain chips or a little coleslaw. It’s all plastic chairs, tables, plates, knives and forks – very cheap and cheerful but without the cheap!! The minivan ride was the most entertaining part of the evening,. One of those little competitions to see just how many people you can fit into a minivan, how loud will the music go and how long can you drive down the wrong side of the road before you hit something???

It was time for Tony to leave us, head for New Orleans, journey across America and then fly home to Auckland. It had been great having him aboard and deciding to ask him to do the crossing with us had been one of the best decisions we had made. Thanks for coming Tony.

More days passed, we slipped in a few walks along the beach, sundowners at the welcoming Barbados Cruising Club, snorkelling on a wreck further across in the bay and then the Caribbean Twenty 20 Cricket Series came to the Bridgetown Kensington Oval, definitely time for another cruisers outing. We walked to the ground and enjoyed watching the Windward Islands play the Leeward Islands in a evening match. There wasn’t quite as much razzmatazz and audience participation as we had thought there might be, maybe because it wasn’t Barbados playing, but it was a good game and a fun outing.

We had been waiting for our headsail to be repaired by the local Doyle Sails Loft. When ready we undertook a rather exciting surf landing on the beach to collect it, managed to get a lull in the wind just long enough to reattach, hoist and furl it in then started making our preparations to leave Barbados. It was time to sail westward once again for the final Atlantic leg. An overnight sail another 100 miles to the island destination of Bequia …. part of the St Vincent and Grenadines chain. As Balvenie sailed away from Bridgetown the floodlights of the Kensington Oval Cricket Ground lit up the evening sky before slowly dipping below the eastern horizon behind us. Darkness enveloped us once again and revealed all the now familiar star formations across the night sky made all the more vivid on a moonless night. Balvenie jogged westward on a steady easterly trade wind, rolling to the rhythm of the Atlantic swell. Dawn would see us approaching the Windward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean.

For Cruising and Touristy info go to www.balveniescruisinginfo.blogspot.com and click on the Barbados label on the left sidebar.

Click below to see our voyage map across the Atlantic

2012-01-10T23:31:00.002+01:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR ROUTE TRAVELLED TO BARBADOS

Hallelujah!!!

2012-01-10T20:54:00.002+01:00

Balvenie arrived safely at Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados just before 6pm local time (right on sunset) on 09 January 2012 after 14 days at sea.

Position 13:05N 59:37W. It's time to crack open the rum bottle and celebrate.

The Mighty Atlantic Ocean has been Conquered.

From a Distance

2012-01-09T17:02:00.002+01:00

Sunrise on our final day at sea

Land Ahoy at 3.45pm GMT 09 January 2012

From a distance ........... we can see Barbados. We have 23 miles to run to the bottom of the island so will arrive in daylight.

The last 24 hours have been lovely, still the roll and lurching around, but we are so used to it now. But the skies have been clear and we enjoyed a magical final night with an almost full moon and many stars.

We even spotted a huge turtle about an hour ago, morale is very very high. As I type I am hearing the first transmission on the VHF radio for about 12 days, there is life out there!!!

Carlisle Bay anchorage at Bridgetown, Barbados here we come ...............

Rawhide

2012-01-08T16:20:00.001+01:00

riding along on the crest of a wave ....

Current position at 3pm GMT 12:54N 56:21W. Guess what, we still have 20 - 25 knots of wind, lumpy 2 metre confused seas, but today it is clear and sunny again, very warm and Balvenie is romping along at over 7 knots. By this time tomorrow we might be able to see Barbados and we hope to have anchor down before dark.

Todays song "Rawhide" has been chosen for it double meaning. The verse of "Rolling, rolling, rolling" has become one of our theme songs , and yes - our hides are becoming somewhat raw (otherwise known as Boaties Bottom) with the endless hours of sitting on them as they wobble backwards and forwards on the cockpit cushions. Arhhh, not for too much longer though.

Today is my Dad's 84th Birthday, well done Dad, thats quite an achievement. And while thinking of my parents Tony and I were discussing rolly polly last night, of course talking about the sea state but then I remembered the yummy jam rolly polly pudding Mum often made when we were growing up, served drowned in fresh New Zealand cream, oh how good that was!!!

So there is little new to report from here, moral is high with the chequered flag in sight, possibly even the beat of a distant steel drum - or maybe thats just Thumper the watermaker going. The fishing line has just been deployed, it really is still too rough but we would like to stock up while we can.

Our wildlife spotting has not furnished anything exciting . There have been sea birds now and again, right across the ocean, but we haven't seen any dolphins, turtles or whales. Very unusual not to have any dolphins come to play, Tony is very disappointed. We have seen a huge amount of seaweed, it just keeps on coming, acres of it and all the boats have commented on how much is floating around. Might have to Google on arrival to see if there is a seaweed invasion going on. There have been no amazing sunsets, no green flashes, no beautiful dawns (so never got to use that song title). I have just been advised that the last few nights setting of the moon has been spectacular (I am asleep) and we are very happy to be able to see the Southern Cross low in the sky off our port beam, it has been truly missed in the Northern Hemisphere night sky. We nearly have a full moon now so evenings are light, even if any cloud cover.

One more evening watch to go ...................................

Yesterday !!.

2012-01-07T15:47:00.001+01:00

Current position 3pm GMT 13:01N 53:30W, wind back up to 18-25 knots from the ENE, swell 2 metres NE, total cloud cover, going 6.5knots

(Todays posting done by the skipper) New Lyrics to be sung to John Lennons classic.

Yesterday...all the dark cloud seemed so far away.

Now it looks as though its here to stay.

Oh...I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly...big black clouds are all that I can see.

There's a darkness hanging over me.

Oh..I believe in yesterday.

Why they had to come I don't know...Mark wouldn't say.

Did I say something wrong, how I long for yesterdaaayeh eh eh eh?.....and so on !!!!.

Well...after a postcard day out in the middle of the Atlantic yesterday, today has dawned quite grey and overcast. It is a feature of this route to the Caribbean that as we close the West Indies and the South American coast we encounter tropical squalls and clouds. The worry for us is that some of these squalls can pack alot of wind for a brief time so we are ever vigilant particularly in the dark not to get caught with our trousers down and too much sail up!! This morning we are romping along at 8 knots running before the trade winds and now only 368 miles to go to the Mt Gay Rum factory in Barbados. We are hoping for a Monday daytime arrival and we have fair winds and moderate seas forecast for the next few days... and so we are starting to see the finish line...phew !!.

Thought I might give you all an idea of our routine on board.

We operate on a 24 hour cycle rather than day or night. Day and night has no meaning out here other than being able to see or not being able to see. That said, we have had moonlit nights lately casting a dim glow over the sky and sea which makes night time watches much easier.

Ok...so our 24 hr cycle kicks off at 8am (local time) with a radio sched with all the other yachts crossing with us.. some are a few days ahead... some are a few days behind. We are like a train of yachts on the rhumb line (otherwise known as the Mt Gay Rum Line... funny huh ??!!!) between The Verdes and Barbados. We check in with each other and broadcast our positions, conditions and status on board. At the mo there are 15 yachts on the roll call. The one's that arrive drop off the top and the one's that leave get added to the bottom so as you journey across you move up the list until you too drop off the edge of the known world! We organize it ourselves and a different yacht facilitates it each day. So that gets us to around 8.30am and thats it really....rest of the day at leisure. No not really...then its breaky time, muesli and fruit after which Tony will stay up on watch and us 2 get some ZZZZs. The watch system is fairly loose during the day depending on maintenance issues, who is sleep deprived etc etc.

Pretty soon after breakfast we start thinking about lunch... normally wraps with tuna etc. Then we fire up the computer and sat phone and produce and transmit the days report and other emails before downloading incoming emails. This is the most important part of the day because we receive a daily weather report from our friend John our land based weather guru who tells us what to expect for the next few days and he can reroute us to avoid any nasty stuff developing in our path. Thanks John...again !!!. We also receive in all emails from families and friends - a huge morale boost.

Ok.. so then afternoons are spent resting, reading, snoozing etc. Trust me the best place to be on a yacht in the ocean is horizontal. It is very difficult to carry out even the most basic of human functions (if you get my drift) when the boat is pitching and rolling and the motion is very tiring. We have another informal chat with a few other yachts on the radio at 3.00pm. Then we do some house work as well as some checks around the boat, rudder, steering, autopilot, bilges, rigging, sails etc etc etc. If we have a problem..best to find it early !!. Then its early dinner and Amanda has done a great job in a difficult rollling galley to produce food I'd pay for in a restaurant. ie crumbed, panfried mahi mahi and last night...lamb chops, mash potato, peas, gravy. If conditions are ok we may have a beer or a wine. Then at 7.00pm we are into a strict night watch regime...Amanda 7.00pm to 11.00pm, Tony 11.00pm to 3.00am, Mark 3.00am to 7.00am. That way the 2 off watch can rest for 8 hours. It has been a godsend on this longer trip having Tony on board. On previous passages Amanda and I would do 3 hours on ,3 hours off continuously and that really wears you down especially if we are in bad weather !!!.

The watches have been quite easy...there is very little to watch out here. We last saw a ship over a week ago but....you never know and so regular radar checks and 360 degree visual sweeps are mandatory. Then before you know it.. its 8.00am again ....

So there we have it...day in day out.

....and so with the sun poking through and the Admiral snoring in the corner, Balvenie relentlessly presses her bow ever westward...her sails are full and the crew give a hearty cheer as thoughts turn to steel drums, shacky beach reggae bars, cricket and of course the reason we are making this epic pilgrimage... Rum tasting !!!!. .

Footnote: Previous correspondent currently suspended due to negative comments and feedback.

What A Difference A Day Makes

2012-01-06T17:49:00.005+01:00

Current Position 4.15pm GMT 12:56N 51:03W, hardly a cloud to be seen, around 15 knots east south easterly, still rolly but what an improvement.

Tony at the helm

1st Officer Tony reports - At last the Big A is doing as expected = the NE trade wind is blowing 10-15knots: the sea is a deep azure; the sky eggshell; the clouds fluffy white; the sun scorching down; but the fish are not biting today...always a serpent in Eden? We're rolling along at 6knots; just enjoyed a cappuncino on the poop deck; nearly time for lunch (our snactition says it's corn fritters today ...it's a hard life on the ocean). Day 12 and only 500 miles to the Mt.Gay rum factory in Bridgetown, Barbados; all is well.

Admiral here - well what can I add!!! After a full day of squalls yesterday we had a magical moonlit night with gentle winds and almost comfortable seas. Onboard morale is at a peak, there was considerable room for improvement. What short memories ocean sailors have !!.

The "Crew" are all happy. Henry the Helicopter (Wind Generator) is having the day off today as the winds are lighter, he has done a sterling job so far even though he is so so noisy (an "almost silent" Airbreeze - yeah right!!). The Twins (solar panels) are soaking up the sun and topping up the batteries, long may that continue. Ray and Arnie the two autopilots have been doing the steering shifts between them, so get to have a decent rest, just like the three of just real crew on board. Jenny the Generator had a run this morning and we enjoyed our first espressos in 12 days, maybe that is what has perked me up so much! Olive the Volvo has to work an hour each day to run the freezer, now that it is warming up so much she might just have to start putting in a little overtime. Thumper the noisy watermaker comes on when we tire of the peace and quiet out here.

... and finally from the skipper...

On a more serious note. There is no doubt that the first week of this voyage was tough with big seas and strong winds but it was absolutely no more than we expected to encounter at some point on this voyage. The crew and Balvenie were well prepared. Balvenie proved once again that she is a true ocean thoroughbred...designed and built for such conditions. So we have 500 miles to go...still alot of work to be done but for now we can relax and enjoy the kinder conditions.

Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

2012-01-05T17:42:00.001+01:00

still out here

Current Position at 4.30pm GMT 12:19N 48:37W, total cloud cover, rain squalls since 5am, winds around 17 - 23 knots, swell easing a little but still nice and rolly.

The positive news today is that we have an exceptionally clean boat, on the outside anyway. We have been getting rain squalls all day, I am so pleased we have furling headsails, we just keep rolling them in and out. We haven't had much wind in the squalls but know that if we don't shorten sail for a squall then that will be the one with plenty of wind in it!!

Passed another yacht overnight, it is just going a little slower than us, don't know who it is and couldn't raise them on the VHF so have just done the "Ships that pass in the Night" thing with them.

Thanks to everyone that is emailing words of encouragment, advice, news and gossip to us, we very much enjoy our daily connect to the outside world and love getting the emails.

We have turned our clocks back another hour so are now on GMT -2, it was still dark at 8am this morning so that will make it better, we still need to adjust 2 more hours to get onto Barbados time.

If Tomorrow Never Comes

2012-01-04T16:58:00.001+01:00

Current Position at 1530 GMT is 12:06N 45:52W. The only thing changing from day to day is our position and mental state!!

Each day the weather forecast shows improvements tomorrow, then tomorrow arrives and becomes today and the weather shows improvements from tomorrow. This has gone on now for several days and is becoming somewhat tiresome. In fairness though, although the wind increased overnight it has dropped a fraction this afternoon - trying to hover at just over 20 knots and the seas really aren't big they are just very confused.

T
he jerky motion of the boat is still making it very difficult to do anything (as I slide off the chair, leg outstretched wedged under the fire extinguisher to try and give me some support). Doing dinner last night was a battle and I crashed my wrist into the benchtop while using two hands to dish up, silly me I should know better by now but it is very hard to dish up one handed.

So as you can see my sense of humour has jumped overboard, I hope it was wearing its life jacket so we can retrieve it again one day. Talking of life jackets, we are all developing rashes around our necks from non stop wearing. It's getting abit hot now for them too, but until the seas settle, or we anchor - whichever comes first and I suspect it may the later - we will keep wearing them. Still too rough to fish, all those Mahi Mahi swimming around out there, what a waste.

I'll try and remember to take some happy pills in the morning to make tomorrows update a little more upbeat .... until then

Better Days

2012-01-03T18:48:00.002+01:00

rolling along on a sunnier day

Current Position at 1700 GMT 12:02N 43:15W, nothing else has changed really, slight easing of wind, about 18-23 knots, seas still as lumpy as ever but swell starting to be a little more uniform, speed around 6.7 knots.

Well the highlights of the last 24 hours have been our half way party at 3am and no rain squalls. The sails have not needed changing but it is cloudy again now so we are still on squall alert. The sea state is still pretty awful really, but the miles are slipping away and we are now well under 1000 to go, yippee.

The fishing line did not get deployed, just too rough still to be on the back of the boat if we did happen to catch something, so it looks like spaghetti bolognese for dinner. Wish I'd made up two weeks supply of passage meals, its a real challange trying to cook in this jerky roll.

Tony on Aussie Catamaran Tactical Directions is still coping single handed, he seems to have sorted out his autopilot issues but the latest on this afternoons sched was that his freezer has gone into meltdown, bugger.

Kiwi's David and Brenda on Bandit have just one more night to go before arriving in Barbados, good on them. Brenda very kindly bought us a Christmas Cake and Christmas Pudding at Morrisons in Gibraltar and brought it all the way to the Canaries for us, the pudding was devoured at Christmas lunch and the cake hidden away and rationed, last rations tomorrow.... always good to have something to look forward to.

Skipper thinks I am sounding way too negative, I have told him he can sit here and type if he wants to. I'd love to say I'm having heaps of fun out here and enjoying every minute but honestly I'm getting by, it's ok but I would much rather be where we were last New Year and thats having fun skiing in Switzerland!!!

Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

2012-01-02T17:09:00.001+01:00

enjoying a calmer day

Current Position at 3.30pm GMT 12:03N 40:18W, around 18 - 23 knots ENE, rolling NE swell becoming more uniform, sun is shining with a few fluffy clouds around.

We have now been out here for 7 days and have covered 981 miles which is an average of 5.83knots. Not too bad considering we have had very little sail up. We now have just over 80 miles to go to our half way point.

So here we are again but starting to feel somewhat more positive. Todays song title was going to be "Things can only get better" but they have got better so we will stow that one away and hopefully not need to use it during the rest of our trip.

We have just unfurled the headsail right out for the first time for days, its on the pole out on windward and the staysail is sheeted in on port to stop us rolling, jury is out on whether it helps. We had a real squally night with lots of rain and stronger winds, hopefully we have now left all that behind. Balvenie is relishing the conditions as we fly along at 7.3 knots, pointed straight at the Mount Gay Rum Factory in Barbados.

Tony is off for his afternoon nap and has managed one step unaided across the cabin before crashing into the door frame - oh well at least he tried!!!

Used the last of our fresh greens for lunch, oh no it looks like we will get scurvy. Had a slight hiccup when I went ashore to do the fresh produce provisioning on Christmas Eve in Mindelo, I only had a few euros left and all the ATM machines had run out of money, think there might have been several people in Mindelo that didn't get any Christmas presents. Well we didn't get much produce, but trust me, there are plenty of other food options onboard.

What a Swell Party This Is ...... Happy New Year

2012-01-01T17:11:00.001+01:00

we only take photos on sunny days!

Current Position at 4pm GMT New Years Day is 11:58N 37:51W. Sun currently shining in between the endless march of nasty squalls, wind currently 25 knots, less sometimes, more in squalls, seas are very very confused, we are getting somewhat tired of this and really hope to see an improvement ..... soon - as are the other boats around us!!!

Enjoyed our "virtual" New Years Eve party onboard Matador who are a few days ahead of us, Stuart caught a huge tuna so him and Steph kindly invited all of us out here to a sushi party for New Year, entertainment was provided onboard by local group "The Flying Fish", and a swell time was had by all.

Skipper has finally deployed the lee cloth on his bunk after being thrown out of bed 3 times, a sensible move it would seem.

Life is continuing in survival mode, it will be a momentous occassion when the first one of us takes a step through the boat unaided ... may that day come soon.

Quote of this Year

If you are not living on the edge you are taking up far too much room

Twist and Shout

2011-12-31T16:53:00.001+01:00

Current Position at 3.30pm UTC

12:07N 35:20W Speed 6knots, Wind 20 - 25 knots NE, Confused 3 - 4 metre seas, Course 280

Well there was a big twist then a fair amount of shouting during our morning net as a rogue wave gave Balvenie a fair slapping causing things to go into orbit inside the boat and cockpit. Luckily we had the windward clear zipped down in the cockpit so it kept out most of the water, and things were back to normal after a clean up.

The Northwest swell has arrived and combined with the Northeast swell and wind direction to make a very messy sea so we are heavily reefed down and taking it easy till things start to settle down again, hopefully tonight. Looking like a very quiet New Years Eve onboard Balvenie. Hope you all have more fun than we are likely to!!

As Time Goes By

2011-12-30T15:07:00.002+01:00

Current Position at 1400 UTC 30 Dec 2011 12:23N 32:35W, Course 262, Speed 6.5 knots under reefed staysail and reefed headsail, a glimmer of sunshine trying to poke through, 20 - 28 knots ENE and building seas around 3 metres.

It's 2pm, it was 2pm an hour ago also but skipper decided it was time to turn our clocks back an hour, so here it is again. He is trying to get our night time watches in sync with the hours of darkness, shame really as I rather liked having an hours daylight at the start of my watch, oh well.

My sense of humour has gone missing today, when I look out the back of the boat I have that nasty feeling that the seas are going to look much the same as the ones we had on the way from the Canaries to the Cape Verdes, they are building all the time, lets hope the weather reports are right and they only last a day or two then we get some more comfortable conditions for a few days.

I can't think of anything entertaining to add, I come up with all sorts of ideas when I am on my 4 hour night watch, only to forget the lot when daylight comes. We are having fun picking song titles for the subjects each day, we have stolen the idea from Brenda and David on Bandit (who are 4 days ahead of us), they saw it on another blog so we are all copying, Brenda is doing Movie titles, I have gone for the easier choice of Song titles. It's sure more fun than reporting Captains Log, Atlantic Crossing Part Two Day Five - mind you being on the Starship Enterprise right now might be a really good option!!!!

Shake, rattle and roll

2011-12-29T13:22:00.001+01:00

Current position 12 noon 29 Dec 2011 13:21N 30:02W. Gybed the boat at 9am and now steering 262 , wind 15 - 20 NE boat speed around 6.2knots. Have headsail poled out on starboard to windward and staysail poled out on port.

Quite a comfortable night, all still feeling somewhat sleep deprived, but its so much better having three on board. Tony hauled in a huge Mahi Mahi yesterday afternoon so we are filling up the freezer, smell abit like a Moroccan Fish market though.

Saw another ship earlier, and had to do more running repairs to the radar which keeps jumping off its belt, thank goodness it isn't up the mast. That is plenty enough entertainment for today, rest of the day at leisure we hope.

Starry Starry Night

2011-12-28T15:07:00.001+01:00

Position at 1400 GMT 14:48N 28:25W. Winds around 12 - 18 knots, mainly clear skies, Course 232, Speed 6.1 knots.

Weather finally started clearing just before dark last night, after enjoying our ultra fresh Mahi Mahi for dinner. I had a sliver of a moon on my watch before it disappeared over the horizon, each night will broing more and more. We had a great starry sky though, what a difference it makes.

We could see Ventana and Tactical Directions last night but we have all separted a little more today. Seas are rolly, so much so that this is about as much as I can type.

Tony has caught another fish for dinner though, well done.

Whoa, we're going to Barbados

2011-12-27T15:20:00.000+01:00

Position at 1400 GMT 16:18N 26:57W. Around 15 knots Easterly wind, skies clearing after overnight rain, Course 262, Speed 5.8 knots, messy lumpy rolly seas

We finally departed Mindelo in the Cape Verde Island Group on Boxing Day at 2pm along with Tactical Directions and Ventana. Our original departure took us through the passage between the islands which provided us with some reasonably flat water for the first couple of hours and then we hit the lumpy bits, and in the lumpy stuff we have been ever since!!

The winds have been fluky changing direction and strength, but mainly light, plus we had rain overnight. It was the darkest night I think we have ever sailed in, couldn't even see the back of the boat.

First Mahi Mahi was caught by Tony early morning, but I hear now the lure has gone - these fish are somewhat expensive. Thats it for today.

Merry Christmas from Cape Verdes

2011-12-26T12:51:00.003+01:00

Just a short update as internet connection here is expensive and the days have flown by since we arrived in here in Mindelo.

Photos for the previous crossing posts will be added in Barbados or whenever there is reasonable internet access again. Meanwhile we are leaving tomorrow along with Tactical Directions, Ventana and Toots, heading for the Caribbean!! Our friends on Eye Candy are waiting for their friend to arrive in a couple of days so competitive Andrew will spend his entire passage trying to catch us, we are sure!

We had Christmas Eve drinks onboard Balvenie managing to squeeze 14 into the cockpit, so much easier when there is a lovely sandy beach, warm breeze and convenient dinghy landing for us all to congregate, but we managed and had a great get together.

Christmas Day has dawned somewhat murky and windy but Santa Claus’ GPS must have been working ok and he actually found us here in Mindelo. We have been very lucky this year with goodies brought from New Zealand by Tony, and goodies from England when Marks Mum came out, very spoiled indeed.

Inbetween precooking passage meals for the next 6 days I managed to slip in a leg of New Zealand lamb, which we had roasted with onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes – steamed beans, broccoli and carrots, gravy and mint sauce. Served with a couple of bottles of excellent red wine and finished off with christmas pudding, brandy custard and cream. We shared it with Tony off Tactical Directions. Its a hard life on the ocean – well from tomorrow on it will be for a couple of weeks.
I’ll do more on Cape Verdes at some stage, but for now its time to get a good nights sleep.

The Final Part of our Atlantic Crossing is about to Begin!

Land ahoy in the Cape Verdes

2011-12-21T19:54:00.005+01:00

Very well earned cooked breakfast on arrival

Position 16:53N 24:59W at anchor

Yippee, we have arrived in the anchorage at Mindelo, the Cape Verde Islands, we have knocked off about a third of our Atlantic Crossing.

We arrived in the dark, something we are always careful not to do but we have had enugh of being out there and didn't fancy heaving to for 5 of so hours so nudged our way in very carefully and slowly into the inner harbour, following our friends on Bandit's excellent instructions.

More to come soon after a much deserved sleep PS.... WE ARE FIRST TO ARRIVE!!!!

Its a beautiful day

2011-12-20T15:01:00.004+01:00

Running radar repairs at sea

Position at 1345GMT 17:24N 23:55W, around 70 miles to run to Mindelo.

It seems we have finally peaked Everest and have slid down the other side, getting stuck on a few of the foothills now and again but mainly cruising along in the lowlands at last. The high winds and big seas have eased, we now have about 15 knots and less than 2 metre swell but she's a lumpy and rolly old ride until the seas flatten more.

The Aussie boats must think we are having a race. Tactical Directions tried breaking the multihull speed record yesterday, clocking 19 knots down a wave. Eye Candy went for the monohull record and blasted down a wave hitting 13.9 knots. Balvenie has been much more sensible topping at around 9 knots, she loves the big waves and just lifts up and lets them pass under her. Despite our lack of record breaking we are in the lead, much to skippers joy!!

Our only fish, found once in port!!!

We practised some more acrobatics this morning, shed a few layers of thermals and fleeces and have almost got "tropics" attire on. At last it is warming up. We have had sunshine each day, but the wind had been very cool while it was strong, today is much better.

Still haven't deployed the fishing line, can't face a bloody massacre on the deck if we happen to catch one - we have plenty of food.

Last night was so dark, the waning moon has waned to a point of being about as bright a a planet and and not appearing until 3am, not much use at all. We saw a fishing boat and container ship last night, the first traffic in days.

Time for a nap, looking very forward to dropping anchor in Mindelo around dawn.

Groundhog day - again

2011-12-19T16:31:00.003+01:00

sleeping on the floor but loaded upside down!!!

Position 19:04N 22.10W Course 220d, speed 7 knots, winds 20-25knots, seas still big but only 208 miles to Mindelo.

Monday afternoon, back to work after a hard weekend. This morning sadly did not dawn calm and comfortable, it is just the same as yesterday, and the previous days. Hanging out for a slight ease tomorrow but guess we will get what we get.

We are all starting to sleep a little better, the motion on the boat if fine for sitting on watch or snoozing but impossible for anything else. I have decided I need 5 arms to be able to function living inside a bouncy castle, 2 for holding on with, 2 more for doing what needs to be done and 1 extra to do things like holding the toilet seat lid up so you can actually get to sit on it before it closes!!

It is getting warmer but still all sitting here with long johns on and plenty of layers of fleeces, thermals and beanies at night. Somehow we thought we were going to the tropics but maybe we made a wrong turn somewhere. On that note well done to John our friend and onshore weather man for being the only one to pick up on an incorrect position.

We still have Eye Candy and Tactical Directions reasonably closeby, with the other 6 that left with us spread out. We are all looking forward to getting our anchors down soon.

Still flying along

2011-12-18T16:01:00.003+01:00

Current position 21:25N 20:22W course 224 and speed 7.1knots, destination Mindelo.

It's Sunday afternoon and things have not improved. Big seas, winds gusting over 30 knots and somewhat difficult living conditions, we live in the hope that it will get better soon. We are now over half way.

Out in the big blue wobbly stuff

2011-12-17T14:52:00.002+01:00

Current position is 28:24N 18:34W, we left Las Palmas 51 hours ago and have been sailing under triple reefed main only for most of the journey so far.

Seas are pretty lively out here and doing anything and that requires movement is a huge challange. We hope the sea state settles soon, the wind is not bad, highest 32 knots but most of the time around 20 knots, we have travelled 342 miles so at least we are getting there quick!

Practice run updating before departure from Las Palmas

2011-12-14T20:24:00.002+01:00

There has been a slight delay in our planned departure which was due to happen yesterday, one final look at the weather gribs and confirmation from our land weather man John, confirmed the wind gods had a change of mind up there and decided to send through some strong winds which we would have encountered enroute to the Cape Verdes.

It was great to have a day of leisure yesterday instead, no supermarket runs - wonderful. Today we made the most of the extra day in harbour and finally visited the Christopher Colombus museum which was excellent, then just couldn't resist another quick supermarket trip to restock on what we have consumed in the last two days and jam some more meat in the freezer - get me out of here !!

So ........... the latest plan is that we depart Thursday morning and head due south towards the African coast, the winds look a little friendlier over there for the next couple of days and the swell also looks like it won't throw us around - quite so much!!! Then before we arrive in Western Sahara (mmmm - never been there before) we will vear right and head for the Cape Verdes.

However we are cruisers, and as with all plans it is written in the sand at low tide!!! There are around 8 yachts now, champing at the bit, rearing to get out there and head south, all suffering from cabin fever. I suspect it may be a little livelier than we would wish for on a blank sheet of paper, but I think we are about to find out!!!!

Ready to depart Gran Canaria ….. December 2011

2011-12-13T20:04:00.001+01:00

25 November – 13 December 2011

We have now been in Las Palmas at anchor for nearly 3 weeks, heavens only knows what we have been doing besides daily trips to the supermarket and fresh market. I know that there will be shops in the Caribbean, but while its here and while there is room in the lockers it seems like such a good idea to stock up, and up, and up while the boat goes down, and down and down!!!!

We shared a car with our Australian friend Tony on Tactical Directions on Saturday and went inland for a days touring and incorporated another supermarket and electrical store run. Our rather new (well only 4 years old) microwave suffered an incurable broken latch on its door last week, which put it into total shutdown mode. We don’t use the microwave much, but we are leaving 240 volts territory and heading to 110 volts land so if we don’t replace it now it will be a long time before we can, so it was added to the shopping list. Our little Nissan Micra hirecar was absolutely bulging at the seams with provisions for 2 boats, the 4 of us and the microwave. I was just looking at all the food receipts from the last 3 supermarket trips and we have purchased over 200 items, the lockers are bursting and I have become an absolute ace at stowing, I have also had enough sense to write an inventory of what is where, all we have to do now is remember to delete items as they are removed!!!

We enjoyed our days touring with Tony and his English friend Lyn, we went inland high up into the mountains and discovered a totally different landscape to what we have seen on the other Canary Islands. There is much more vegetation here, everything looked very autumnal with trees shedding their leaves, and the low hanging mist made us feel we could quite easily have been driving through English countryside.

Yesterday our friend Tony Knight arrived, after a long trip via Korea and Germany from New Zealand. He has come to sail across the Atlantic with us and it is great to have him onboard again. The weather forecast was looking good to depart this morning and we were on red alert for a mid morning departure……. but then the weather was checked again. The Azores High is pushing a band of stronger winds and lumpy seas across our path in a couple of days so we will be patient and wait it out, tucked up comfortably here at anchor in Las Palmas. We are getting extra weather help from our English friend John Bowering who will be tracking us along the way and emailing us the bigger picture and his advice which we value. Thanks John.

While we are at sea I can not update our position map on this blog but we have started a blog tracking map we can update via the Mailasail website through our satphone. If you want to see where we are and how our progress is going out there in the big blue wobbly stuff click here or visit www.blog.mailasail.com/yachtbalvenie (both go to the same place) it’s an excellent facility designed for yachts worldwide. The link is also in the left hand side bar of this blog near the top.

Cruising and touring info to follow when more time

Island hopping in the Canaries ….. November 2011

2011-12-12T23:21:00.001+01:00

17 Nov – 25 November 2011

Moving from Lanzarote to Fuertaventura to Gran Canaria

Before we left Rubicon Marina we organised a get together of all the boats we had heard on our morning cruisers net but had not met, plus the ones we did know, and invited everyone for happy hour. We are all planning to cross the Atlantic soon, so it was time to put faces to names, and names to boats. We squeezed 16 into the cockpit which instantly makes everyone very close friends and a good night was had by all.

It was time to move on again so we left Lanzarote and had a ripper of a sail down the east coast of Fuertaventura. The winds were solid but the seas were flat so we zoomed down the side and around the bottom and tucked up next to British boat Macushla at Cala de las Playitas. Macushla was another boat we had had contact with but never met, so it was great to finally meet Mark and Sue and we spent the next few days in their company. Cala de las Playitas was a great spot, a tiny village nestled into the hills on one side of the bay, looking all remote and quaint - but then if look look about 500 metres across to the other side of the bay there is a huge hotel complex, oh well at least it was low rise.

There was some excellent walking in the area with tracks going off in all directions on all the hills. The island was quite different to Lanzarote, and I am sure I read somewhere that it is known as the flat island. this can only be in relation to the other islands in the Canaries as is sure wasn’t flat, volcanic peaks were everywhere yet again, but it was certainly not as dramatic as Lanzarote.

We stayed a couple of nights in comfortable conditions but then the wind switched mid afternoon to an unforecasted south easterly, bringing with it a chop and swell and putting us on a lee shore – time to find a new home for the night, we just hate it when that happens but at least it was daytime. We were able to relocate just a couple of miles further west, we had been able to see into the next bay on our earlier walk and it looked to have reasonable protection so around we went. We tucked up by the town of Gran Tarajal for the night, protected from the wind and chop but it was a rolly old night, yuk!

So we moved on again the following day, always in search of flat water! We had a comfortable downwind sail in company with Macushla, nice and easy with just our headsails rolled out. We headed along to Morro Jable and found where all the tourists go. The beautiful long white sandy beach was packed with holiday makers – umbrellas up and deck chairs out, the bay was alive with windsurfers and hobbycats and just around the headland there were hundreds of kitesurfers making the most of the strong winds and surf.

We didn’t quite feel in a holiday mood, I suppose if you had just arrived by plane from 4c and ice somewhere in Northern Europe it probably felt warm and sunny out of the wind but each day for us was feeling more and more wintery, the tropics were calling us!!!! We stayed a couple of nights, had a very long walk along the beach for some exercise, and did more boat aerobics than we would have liked as the swell sneaked around the corner and had us rolling again, oh and then there were some rather violent wind gusts funnelling down the gap between two volcanic peaks that kept our interest up. Sometimes it would be nice to live in a house and not worry about wobbly floors and jolting wind gusts – but then think of all we would miss out on.

One such thing would be screaming along on a beam reach in 20 knots of breeze, watching the speedo hit 9 knots, and the lively seas rise up to meet us as we flew across from Fuertaventura to Gran Canaria, actually it was one of those days that I wouldn’t have minded missing out on but it was good practice for the Atlantic Crossing and we sure covered the miles quickly.

So now we are anchored inside the commercial harbour at Las Palmas where will be be until December 12th when our good friend Tony Knight flies in from New Zealand and will stay onboard with us until the Caribbean. We are looking forward to his company and to having an extra person onboard for the crossing.

Life on Lanzarote - or is it the Moon? ….. Nov 2011

2011-12-04T14:43:00.001+01:00

01- 19 November 2011

Exploring the volcanic island of Lanzarote

It was time to move on from the small island of Graciosa, we needed to find somewhere much more protected as a 3 – 4 metre swell was forecast to roll in. We had a good sail around the top then down the east coast of the island of Lanzarote and headed for the protected harbour anchorage of Puerto de Naos at Arrecife. We squeezed into the upper harbour, certainly flat and protected but it was bumper to bumper, or more appropriately bow to stern and gunnel to gunnel. It was like being back in the med, find a spot that might just be big enough, drop and set the anchor then put out all the fenders. We were all cruisers, all waiting to cross to the Caribbean and there was always room for one more – just!!!

We stayed for days, the anchorage was handy to town, there was a beach down the other end of the harbour where a couple of happy hour beach parties were held, cruiser drinks were organised in a nearby tapas bar and the days slipped away.

The swell had finally dropped and the winds were favourable so we enjoyed another downwind sail - the sun was shining, the seas were flat and the winds were light so the cruising chute came out to play again. It was a lovely day, and we ended it anchoring in a sandy bay on the southern most point of Lanzarote, Papagayo. We sat onboard Tactical Directions watching Balvenie silhouetted as the sun set in the west turning the sky from all shades of pink and gold to a deep red – just magic.

We moved into Rubicon Marina on the Southern Coast of Lanzarote. We had a VIP guest arriving, Mark’s mother Jackie was flying in from London to stay for a few days so it was a great reason for us to have a minibreak too, into the marina we went, a car was hired, and Jackie was collected from the airport. It was lovely to have her onboard again for her second holiday on Balvenie and to have the chance to join us again before we headed across the Atlantic – so the holiday began.

The amazing lunar landscape within the Timanfaya National Park, Montanas del Fuego (Fire Mountains)

Lanzarote is an interesting island, a perfect destination for a weeks holiday, reasonably small, great roads, excellent natural attractions, a winter climate in the high teens/low twenties, extremely clean and well presented - what more could you want.

So the exploring began, first day we headed for the Timanfaya National Park. The park covers 51 sq kms with dozens of volcanic cones within it. You can drive through a good portion of it by car and then there are special coaches that travel along a private one way road, gauged out of the lava. You traverse around the rims of some volcanoes, into the bellies of others, and through the lava flow of many more, what a harsh environment. It was an excellent trip through this barren lunar landscape. The eruptions that formed the current landscape struck between 1730 and 1736 with more as recently as 1824, it must have been one hell of a bang when they all started blowing their tops!

There are fire pits, seemingly harmless and dormant until a park ranger shoves a few twigs down them and they spring to life with a snap, crackle and flames. Likewise are a few steam blowholes, lying quietly until water gets poured down them, first releasing a big burst of steam – a crowd pleaser, but then followed by an almighty bang – which sure gets every ones attention! In another area there is a large circular pit, filled with red hot charcoals that actually live there permanently, makes a great charcoal grill with chicken and fish being cooked on top for the adjoining restaurant. It all sure makes you wonder what is bubbling away down there, only just below the surface.

Grape vines in this dry volcanic gravel, sunken in pits

Another day we explored the interior of the island, passing miles of vineyards, but not as we know them. Early settlers here obviously could not do without their “vino” so developed a method of nurturing their grapes so they could survive in this dry environment and grow in volcanic gravel. Guess if you want something badly enough you will think of a way! There really is no soil, its just a volcanic gravel, and they dig out circles into the gravel, enclose most of it at ground level with a rock wall and plant one vine in the bottom of each. The rock walls trap the condensation created by the huge temperature change here between the heat of the day magnified by the black landscape and then the rapid cooling once the sun sets. The water drips down into the dug out bowl and gathers around the base of the vine, all very clever but it produces a very low yield, albeit an excellent product. We went to the El Grifo Museo del Vino, a working vineyard founded in 1775, it houses an excellent display of 19th and 20th century machinery and wine making tools. We even enjoyed a little wine tasting before we moved on.

Just a few of the amazing cacti at the Jardin de Cactus

Now to many of you a trip to a cactus garden may not be high on the list of “must do’s”, but the Jardin de Cactus had come highly recommended and Jackie is a very keen gardener so off we went to see for ourselves. Well what an incredible display, I never could have imagined so many different varieties of cacti were in existence. It is very well laid out, compact and interesting and every cactus is labelled with its name and country of origin. There were teeny weeny ones just a few inches long, to towering prickly ones with solid trunks and amazing flowers.

Many of the natural attractions on Lanzarote are showcased in surroundings created by designer César Manrique, he had a huge input into ensuring Lanzarote maintained its stark natural beauty and integrated the attractions into the natural environment. This garden is one of his designs as is housed in a disused quarry, the steep walls providing a hot house bowl for the cacti to grow.

We were making our way around all the sights but there was more to see. There are two natural caves areas on the island, both have been formed by lava tunnelling through the earths core. We visited the Jameos del Agua which has a natural lake within it and is home to blind albino crabs that only grow to one centimetre, unique to this cave. The geology of the cave area was very interesting, the surrounding setting and entrance blends so well. There is an adjoining cavern that is a natural theatre, with amazing acoustics. Many operas and other performances are held here.

On the northern coast of Lanzarote there is the Mirador del Rio, another area created by César Manrique. It is a lookout area with an amazing panorama over the straits between Lanzarote and Graciosa Islands, and a wonderful vista from high above over our previous anchorage at Playa Francesca at Graciosa. The lookout is so well blended into the landscape that we had been unaware the whole time at anchor that hundreds of tourists were spying down on us each day!

The days passed, but each day there was somewhere else to go, another of natures marvels to discover. On our last afternoon we headed across to the west coast late afternoon and visited Los Hervideros, an excellent walkway along the rugged coast that takes in some natural blowholes and caves dug out deep by the crashing surf. It was quite a calm day when we were there and there was still plenty of water action, I expect it gets quite lively and wet there when a 30 knot westerly is blowing.

Then we found the Green Lagoon, yep, its the pond in the photo and it certainly was green. The colours of the cliff faces around it were glowing in the late afternoon sun, terracottas, burnt reds, yellows and olive, the geology and scenery on this small island did not not cease to amaze us.

It was time for our farewell dinner and we could not have found a more perfect spot. We carried on to the small village of El Golfo and settled into a beach side table at a local cafe, ordered a selection of tapas and some excellent local wine and watched as the sun dipped lazily into the ocean setting on fire the clouds and sky above us.

We had a wonderful time with Jackie staying, the weather was kind to us – most of the time, Rubicon Marina had been a great spot to base ourselves and Lanzarote was the perfect island for easy day trips of touring.

Beach Party Time on Graciosa ….. October 2011

2011-11-11T23:43:00.001+01:00

18 October – 01 November 2011

We slipped into the anchorage at Playa Francesca on the northern most island of Isla Graciosa in the Canary Islands chain early in the morning after our 4 night passage down from Rabat in Morocco. There is nothing more rewarding than a spectacular anchorage and flat water after an ocean passage. We have completed our 2nd step in the Atlantic and have made it to the Canary Islands.

This island group of volcanic peaks rise steeply from the sea with dramatic landscapes and an amazing collection of soil colours and earth contours, making for an ever changing backdrop, the time of day, angle of sun, amount of cloud cover; all changed our vista by the minute. Add to that a deserted beach of golden sands between the rocky lava flows, a temperature in the low 20’s, clear but slightly chilly water, 23 other cruising boats in the anchorage – we certainly felt like we were cruising again.

For the first few days we had settled weather, it was a wonderful time. It is the northern most anchorage in the Canaries and is a very popular first stop for all the yachts migrating from Europe to the Caribbean and South America and so each day there were new arrivals and departures. Sundowners/happy hour was spent late afternoon gathered on the beach, guitars were brought in, as were cricket sets, soccer balls, volleyballs, kites – it was a great time of the day for everyone, especially the many ‘Kiddie boats’the nickname we give yachts with children of all ages who are being home schooled on board, and receiving an education of a lifetime.

For the boats starting out from Europe it was a great introduction for them to the true cruising lifestyle, away from busy towns or cities, ports and marinas, experiencing their new self sufficient life living at anchor. For those of us that have spent a few seasons in the Mediterranean it was great to get away from packed anchorages, charter boats, noisy jet skis and nightly discos on shore and remember how it had been before we arrived in Europe.

The village of Caleta del Sebo was just under 3 km’s away, so a very long dinghy ride or a 40 minute flat walk, there are no roads, just a small network of sandy marked tracks – its great. We wandered in several times during our stay, it had everything we needed. After a 7.30am dinghy departure from Balvenie on Sunday morning, with fingers and toes crossed, we were delighted to find a cafe open with the final of the World Cup Rugby on the big screen. We sat glued to the screen for 80 minutes with some French supporters and, along with over 4 million other New Zealanders were thrilled to watch the All Blacks win the World Cup, well done guys, it was your time. Back in the anchorage Skipper ensured that everyone knew the result with a dinghy flyby of the New Zealand flag!

The days just slipped by, we had a day of southerly winds which saw us hunker down and do anchor watch, then that was followed by a few days of a large Atlantic swell rolling in, making landing on the beach impossible by dinghy but the local surfers had a great time. It was the first time we have shared an anchorage with surfers, certainly not ideal conditions to remain there at anchor but it was such a lovely place and we just weren’t ready to leave. Whenever we could get ashore we would make the most of the great walking, we ended up doing the walk to the top of the volcano, Montana Amarilla, three times, the views were spectacular from up there and well worth the climb.

One day, in company with Tony off Tactical Directions we walked into the village and hired mountain bikes for the afternoon and set off cycling around the volcanoes at the top of the island. It was a great afternoon out, we sat enjoying our picnic lunch on a deserted west facing beach, the swell was still up and the surf was crashing in, Montana Amarilla sat proudly in the distance, the sun peaked through the clouds – it was just beautiful. We carried on along the sandy track, quite a workout on a mountain bike; we stopped at a natural stone bridge that has formed a blow hole and watched as the force of the ocean crashed up through this small opening then drained away to nothing; we carried on to Pedro Barba, the only other settlement on the island where some of the properties had the most wonderful cactus gardens; watched a local fisherman haul in a huge tuna while fishing off the concrete dock then, after making it to the top of quite a mean climb it was downhill all the way back to Caleta del Sebo.

Eventually we knew we would have to leave and a forecast for a 5 metre swell heading for the Canaries finally pushed us on our way. There will be time for many more beach parties soon, maybe with a coconut palm or two swaying in the breeze, steel drums sounding in the background, and warmer waters lapping at our feet – we will never get to the Caribbean if we don’t leave Graciosa!

Cruising Info for Isla Graciosa, Canary Islands – October 2011

29 13.004N 13 31.755W 15m sand. We did move in closer as space became available, some of the bottom was rock and in most of the eastern part the bottom is rock. Dinghy landing was best on the far left beach, the far right dries out very rocky but the 2nd from the right wasn’t too bad and closer if walking into town. The path to climb Montana Amarilla (172m) is by the far left beach, it is circuitous and takes around an hour with time out for admiring the view. It is medium difficulty, a little steep in places and slippery shingle. The path /road to Caleta del Sebo is at the far right, follow it around then veer off to the right at some vehicle barriers when you can see the town in the distance and walk along the beach. It’s about a 40 minute walk. In town on the waterfront are a bakery and one small supermarket. In the back streets are a butcher, Pharmacy, ATM machine, Post Office, 2 more supermarkets one of which has a machine in it for topping up any cellphone/datasim supplier and Rosa’s Internet Cafe (not always open but unlocked wifi signal seems to be on all the time so just sit outside). The backstreets are a maze, but it’s not a big place. There was Vodafone signal in the anchorage our our worldwide Gymsim worked fine. Everyone else's Vodafone Spanish dongle worked in the anchorage, but ours didn’t, no surprise there, topped up with €40 from machine in village and it still doesn’t work, more money donated to Vodafone! We hired our bikes from the place on the far left behind the beach in the harbour, 8€ each, same price at other places. We did Route C on the map they give out, it took us 3 hours with lots of stops. There are ferries from Caleta del Sebo to Órzola on Lanzarote. There did not appear to be anywhere to “check in”, so all yachts waited till their next port of call (eg Puerto de Naos or Marina Rubicon on Lanzarote or Las Palmas on Grand Canaria)

From Land Cruisers back to Ocean Cruisers ….. Oct 2011

2011-11-03T11:53:00.000+01:00

09 – 18 October 2011

MOROCCO TO THE CANARY ISLANDS

We had a marvellous time away on our inland travels in Morocco and enjoyed staying in Rabat but the northern hemisphere winter is fast approaching and it is time to start migrating further south. Friday the 14th, (thank goodness it wasn’t Friday the 13th) had the lowest predicted swell across the bar entrance to Rabat, and the winds, whilst light, would be favourable for at least 4 days. So…holidays over, it was once again down to the serious business of circumnavigating. We began our preparations. We would sail on the afternoon high tide for the Canary Islands 470 miles away to the south west.

Six other yachts also planned to leave using the same 6 hour tidal window and because the check out formalities can take a while the skippers met and agreed a departure sequence i.e. catamarans first because they have less draft. monohulls second as the tide approached its highest point, then any unprocessed catamarans last. We all ensured our paperwork was in order to speed the process. It is necessary to tie up at the small Customs Dock to clear out once you have left your marina berth and, would you believe it, over night a yacht had arrived and was still being held on the customs dock with paperwork issues. So this meant only one boat at a time could tie up - oh well – and so the procession began. We were 5th to check out which timed well with the tide almost at full height, and we just sneaked onto the dock before two more new arrivals got escorted in over the bar. The marina staff and officials sure had a busy day. We motored down the river toward open ocean as the afternoon call to prayer sounded out over Rabat, this would probably be the last time we would hear the prayer call during our circumnavigation – we will always associate it with some of the most interesting, exotic locations we have visited.

As soon as we cleared the river entrance, full sail was raised and once again Balvenie eased into her work as we pointed her bow south westward towards the Canary Islands. It was great to have the other yachts out there with us, always quite comforting being able to see another set of sails, even if only in the distance, and we kept in touch over VHF and HF radio during the passage. We sailed until after dark then the wind completely died out so the motor came on for the evening. We were just two days past the full moon, so the evening was bright and the miles ticked away. Just before dawn we started sailing again, but it was a fluky morning with the winds coming and going, then the fog rolled in from the land and brought with it an easterly. Eventually on day 2 we cleared the African coast, left the land and fog behind and picked up the steady Atlantic trade winds that for centuries have carried sailors across this vast ocean and will now be with us for the next few months.

It was the moment skipper had been waiting for! Time to play with our MPS (multi purpose sail, a big coloured asymmetrical sail that floats off the bow). We haven’t flown this sail since we did our passage from Australia to Indonesia in 2006 and it scared the hell out of me back then, I remember it as being very big, hard to deploy and almost impossible to snuff and retrieve. Previous to that we had flown it from Vanuatu to Australia and my lasting memory of that encounter was when the halyard gave way at the top of the mast and it just all collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, let me assure you it is quite a handful trying to get all that wet, soggy sail back onboard. Can you understand my reluctance in flying it again??? But the Skipper was not going to be denied !!!.

The light trade wind conditions were perfect, and even I hate motoring so it was time for me to toughen up and agree to fly coloured sails. We were lacking in practice (obviously) but eventually we thought we had sorted everything out, raised the sail still with the “sock” down over it (that’s the white cover over it in the photo above, it keeps things manageable till the sail is hoisted, then there is a continuous line on the sock which gets pulled to the top of the sail, then the wind fills the sail and voila!, out pops “Big Red” – when you want to “snuff it” you do the reverse procedure which is not as easy as it may sound!!!). So up it went, but the sock would not go up, it was somehow all twisted, so down the whole thing came, then up it went, down it came, up it went etc,etc, after about 40 minutes and lots more practice it was hoisted back to the top of the mast, the sock actually went up and “Big Red” appeared in all his glory.

And there “Big Red” stayed for two days! or more alarmingly two nights!! The winds were consistent until the 2nd night when they started to build, just a little at a time so we kept an eye on him and kept stretching our cut off point when we would drop him, both of us secretly hoping that we wouldn’t actually have the challenge of snuffing him and dropping him in stronger winds!! We all hung in there and eventually just before dawn on day 4 the winds eased to a more manageable level and we took a sigh of relief. By 1pm we didn’t even have enough wind to fill “Big Red”, so down he came and our trusty green Volvo engine had a turn instead for a few hours. The one positive in motoring again was that a large pod of dolphins came to play and they stayed with us for a couple of hours, oh and I nearly forgot, we saw a turtle – miles out in the ocean, all by himself.

We were able to sail again before dark on our last night, but decided to run with our more manageable white sails as we would be closing on land early morning and experience tells us that land can do some funny things to the wind strengths and directions and we wanted to be ready to deal with anything that came our way. We had another great evening on our last night - but boy was it dark,. The moon didn’t rise until around 10pm and it was also very cloudy, as skipper would say - “it was as dark as the inside of a cow”.

As the eastern sky started to lighten on day five the familiar call came from the watch … Land Ahoy!! The first grey outline of the northern most island of the Canaries appeared on our port bow. We sailed down their leeward coast, giving them plenty of clearance, to our destination at Isla Graciosa. We made our final approaches to the anchorage at Playa Francesca at day break, hoping that the crashing Atlantic swell we could see on the windward side was not entering the anchorage. We need not have worried, we turned the final corner and discovered another paradise!

We travelled 476 miles in 3 days and 18 hours, our average speed was 5.28knots, which we were happy with in the very light winds. We motored for 15 hours.

Our journey across the mighty Atlantic Ocean has begun.

More Marrakech and Chaotic Casablanca ….. Oct 2011

2011-10-31T11:43:00.004+01:00

06 – 09 October 2011

Marrakech the 2nd time around was so much more enjoyable. We had managed to reserve rooms by email at the Jnane Mogador Riad, we had had this riad recommended but it had been full on our previous visit. This time we had been lucky to get enough rooms and it was an excellent choice in just the best location, under 5 minutes walk down a pedestrian stall lined lane to the main square. On arrival back in Marrakech from our Sahara trip, Mohammed our driver had called the riad and they gave him directions to the closet road access and sent their “bell boy” (rather more like old chap pulling a cart!!) to meet us and take our bags. We checked in to our beautifully appointed rooms, and hit the town.

This time the madness of Marrakech didn’t seem so overwhelming, we wandered around the square which just buzzes at night. We took time to stop and watch the different street performers dancing – from all different parts of Morocco and Africa - showing off their local musical instruments and talents. We didn’t get too close to the snake charmers though, I definitely didn’t want a snake dangling around my neck!! We dined on a balcony overlooking the square from above, slightly removed from the hustle and bustle but still feeling very much part of Morocco.

Next morning we found a square side cafe for breakfast then I went walk-about and found the souq (covered market place), and what a find it was. An absolute Aladdins Cave of wonderful shops and stalls selling some of Morocco's most beautiful wares. This was not a place where you could rush, so after a mini board meeting while supping on fresh mint tea we decided to stay another night and do Marrakech justice. The skippers had checked the weather and we wouldn’t be able to leave Rabat before Friday so there was no need to hurry back to the boats. Unfortunately the Jnane Mogador Riad was again full and couldn’t accommodate us the extra night but they arranged accommodation at the nearby Riad Bahia Salam, for the same room rate. Their “bellboy” re-appeared, our packs went on the cart and off we went down yet another maze of alleys to our 3rd riah in Marrakech!!

This is a new property and I imagine they are promoting it - it was the deal of the year. The building has been entirely restored, and what was formally two adjoining properties with atriums has now become one large riad, with rooms and suites opening out onto one of the atriums and the dining rooms, sitting/lounging areas opening out on the other. There was a spa/hammam and massage facility and a very pleasant roof top terrace. It has been exquisitely refurbished with every attention to detail taken. Rooms had wi-fi and cable tv. The location wasn’t as good at the Jnane Mogador, but if you are looking for something really special the Riad Bahia Salam would take a lot of beating.

We spent the afternoon and evening just strolling through nooks and crannies and soaked up all Marrakech has to offer. It is another city of contrasts, there are large divides between the old town, souq and medina areas and the Nouvelle town, with wide palm lined streets, handsome French colonial architecture, upmarket sidewalk cafes and restaurants – they are poles apart but live side by side in harmony.

The bonus for Tony and Mark in staying another night was that they now had cable TV and were able to watch the first 2 quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup, sadly England got knocked out but for the best really, now Mark can concentrate fully on supporting the All Blacks!! (not so sure he agrees with that line of thinking!!!) We had both Australia (Tony is Australian) and NZ playing the following morning so finding a hotel in Casablanca with cable TV was a priority, we chose one recommended in the Lonely Planet, the riah phoned them for us, confirmed they had the right sports channel, then booked us two rooms. We checked out, taxied to the train station and headed to Casablanca.

Other cruiser friends had visited Casablanca and had not spoken highly of it, but we wanted to go to legendary Ricks Cafe for dinner and it broke our journey back to Rabat. Somehow Casablanca either didn’t have any wonderful old buildings to be converted into riahs or they just haven’t bothered, all the accommodation was in hotels and our choice of the Hotel Guynemer was one huge disappointment, if this had been the pick of the bunch for Lonely Planet I would not have even ventured in the front doors of the rest. It was an absolute disgrace; old, smelly, cracked hand basin, toilet bowl that leaked, mould under the window, threadbare towels, not very clean, NO RUGBY coverage, no wi-fi in our room and all for the same price we had paid for the exceptional quality in Marrakech. The only positives were that the bed linen was clean and we were only staying one night.

We checked with the helpful reception staff to see how long it would take us to walk to Ricks Cafe and were told around 3 hours or 30 mins by taxi, what???   Seriously doubting their answer we took to the filthy streets by foot, garbage lay rotting in piles everywhere, ‘fresh’ rubbish blew around in the wind, potholes the size of small cars were a definite hazard for the inattentive, homeless people squatted in doorways, beggars were everywhere, pollution, dust and dirt filled the air – what a dreadful place. We soldiered on and found Ricks Cafe after about 20 minutes of walking, but alas – it was closed!!! It was due to open for dinner shortly so we milled around, took some photos, looked at the menu and decided it had gone rather more upmarket than what we expected, certainly no burgers or tacos on the menu any longer, but the Filet Mignon looked very good!

Thankfully they let us in, even in our sandy Sahara clothes, and we secured one of the few unreserved tables that evening. We sat and watched Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman on the big screen, their Casablanca looked far more appealing and romantic than the one we had seen so far. We had an excellent meal in company with Tony in splendid surroundings, they have done a wonderful job of recreating the Ricks Cafe of the movie “Casablanca”, the pianist played in the background, the only thing that was missing was Humphrey himself. We stayed in comfort as long as we could but eventually we faced reality and caught a cab back to the horrible hotel.

Marks stomach started doing somersaults in the middle of the night, not a nice place to feel sick. Tony and I tried our best to get the rugby in the morning, even the wi-fi in the lobby was so poor that radio coverage was flaky too, but we got updates and both our teams won, so a good result for both the All Blacks and the Wallabies. We bunged up Mark with Imodium, cancelled any thoughts of visiting the 3rd largest Mosque in the world, got a cab to the train station and got the hell out of there!!

Shifting Sands and Sahara Storms ….. October 2011

2011-10-27T16:35:00.003+02:00

02 –06 October 2011

We could not come to Morocco without trekking into the Sahara Desert on camel back and staying the night in a tented village surrounded by sand dunes. It had been on our “bucket lists” for quite some time and this was our chance to do it.

We rounded up a few other interested parties in the marina, and set to organising 8 of us to travel to Marrakech, then do an organised 3 night tour through the Atlas Mountains and down into the Sahara. I felt like I had returned to a previous life working for Thomas Cook Travel as tour operators were researched, emails fired off, quotes received, comparisons made, itineraries chosen, hotels booked and train schedules investigated.

So we left our boats safely tied up in Rabat Marina and travelled by train the 4 hours down to Marrakech, arriving early afternoon. We piled into a minibus taxi, gave the driver the riahs (small Moroccan hotels) name and address and headed for our prebooked accommodation. However after 2 phone calls the poor taxi driver still could not find the riah, hidden away down a tiny lane that was definitely not designed for cars!! Eventually we were met by a riah staff member on the road and taken on a magical mystery tour the short distance to Riad Nouzha (see our next posting for other Marrakech options closer to the centre). As we had been in Fes, we were immensely impressed by what can lie behind the doors in some of these ancient medinas. An open courtyard alive with ferns was the centrepiece, our beautifully decorated rooms opened out onto the 1st floor balcony and open atrium, 2nd floor was home to the hamman (Moroccan bathhouse) and massage suite and the rooftop terrace was furnished with sun loungers and comfy seating and there was even a plunge pool.   Everything was going well so far!!!

After mint tea and Moroccan cookies, swims or snoozes - or both - we were revitalized enough to hit the maze and attempt to navigate our way to the centre.   The 20 minute walk was along a dusty, noisy, busy road, the footpath was an obstacle course littered with potential hazards for the unwary, but eventually we arrived unscathed at the entrance to Place Dejmáa el Fna, “the place” to visit in Marrakech by night.

Coaches lined the road and there were tourists everywhere, the square was abuzz with life. Street performers were setting up for evening performances, snake charmers approached the unsuspecting and placed snakes around there necks – yes, that really is a snake around Marks neck!!! then they demanded the equivalent of €20 for the pleasure of getting up close and personal with a snake and getting a photo (no €20 from us!) – around a hundred small food vendors set up each evening and the smells of various meats cooking wafted through the air as the staff anxiously tried to get our business. There were stalls selling almost everything, from freshly squeezed orange juice, to Moroccan teapots to Eritrean baskets and Nigerian beads - it was total sensory overload and a little overwhelming. After dinner from a street stall followed by a reasonable look around we decided to head back to the peace and tranquillity of our riah and enjoyed the night time vista from our peaceful rooftop terrace.

Next morning we were collected on time by Sahara Services, the company we had booked our 4 day/3 night “Nomad Living” tour through. We had 2 very comfortable Toyota Landcruisers, and 2 drivers called Mohammed (well it is the most popular name in the world), and we were off on an adventure of a lifetime. We headed southeast, away from the sprawls of Marrakech and into rural Morocco. The countryside was spectacular, changing each time we turned another corner. The road wove along an almost dry riverbed for a while but then we were soon climbing, high up over the Tizi n’ Tichka switchback pass to the summit of this part of the High Atlas Mountains. Enroute we stopped at a roadside women's co-operative where oil was extracted from argan nuts, a somewhat labour intensive operation, and then processed into cosmetics or food products. We even managed to sneak in a coffee break – Moroccan coffee is very good and a necessity after a 6am alarm!!

We started our descent down the other side, again the scenery changing all the time, sheer cliffs gave way to rolling hillsides of rubble and scree, then hardened volcanic mounds were followed by high peaks with almost vertical strata lines. The geology and landscapes were outstanding. Around here somewhere the movie Babel was filmed, we were hoping we didn’t have the same experience they did. There was always something different to look at, no chance at all for napping!! We took a turning off the main road for a short detour to the village of Aít-Benhaddou. This 11th century kasbah (walled village) is well preserved as it is a popular location for filming exotic movies, Lawrence of Arabia and more recently scenes from Gladiator to name just a couple.

Then came our first meal break, boy oh boy did they feed us well, all our meals were included and they were exceptional; excellent quality, quantity, service and in some stunning locations, all 8 of us were very impressed, and probably gained a few pounds too!!

It was a long afternoon as we had many miles to cover. We dropped down into the Dráa Valley, an oasis of green bordering the slow flowing Dráa River, the longest river in Morocco coming down from the High Atlas Mountains and meandering all the way to the Atlantic. It is a beautiful area, the vibrant green dates palms weighed down with fruit ready for picking went for miles and miles, mud brick Berber villages lay hidden against the valley walls, women were camouflaged under bundles of palm fronds, children fished at the rivers edge, goat herders watched their herds; we sat back and took it all in.

It was just after dark when we reached our overnight accommodation outside Zagora, no roughing it tonight – CNN and BBC satellite TV in the rooms, WIFI in the lobby and dinner served al fresco by candlelight adjacent to the swimming pool. Day One had been absolutely superb and we hadn’t even got to the ‘good bits’ yet.

A late 9am start on Day 2 was welcome. The skies were overcast and the BBC Weather was showing a band of cloud and thunder storms for the Sahara over the next couple of days – what!!!, didn’t they know this was a desert, and the reason it is a desert is that it doesn’t rain there? The 2 Mohammeds arrived and it was off for another day of exploration. First stop was the small town of Tamegroute. The town has been an important base for learning the Quran for centuries and houses a small, old and dusty Quranic library. What it lacks in glamour is certainly made up for in authenticity – a collection of astrological guides, dictionaries and religious works bound with gazelle hides dating back to the 13th century lay displayed behind murky glass doors.   We had a long walk around the partly subterranean kasbah here, it was dark and closed in, with overhead beams going across the alleys, something we had not seen before. A sneaky peak into a couple of open doors revealed few signs of the 21st or even 20th century having arrived, donkeys nudged past us, children played happily with a few broken twigs, women carried their trays of bread to the local baker for cooking, men squatted in doorways discussing the days events – time has stood still here.

We visited a local pottery co-operative and followed the various steps undertaken to make Moroccan pottery. The pottery colour of the area was a vivid olive, almost lime green and there were hundreds of beautiful pieces on display. Our group did well in contributing to the local community and we purchased some lovely pieces.   It was time to leave the lush Dráa Valley and head for the desert.   We followed the road to the end of the line, M’Hamid about 40 miles from the Algerian boarder. After another excellent meal all we felt like doing was snoozing in the Sahara but our camels awaited ….. it was time to trek off into the dunes.

And so began our trek on camel back, firstly we went through some cute little “mini dunes”, there were a couple of tented villages nestled amongst them and we all thought this was to be our home for the night, but no, on and on we went. Through these sandy dunes, over dried river beds, up over ledges, down the other side across pebbly rubble and still we continued, not a tent in sight – for a while not even a sand dune. Our Berber camel handlers seemed happy enough, singing together as they lead us on, into fading light and strengthening winds. At last we went over the final ridge and glimpsed “the dunes” just as the last light of day vanished.

Lowering the camels and disembarking is a challenge in itself, especially after a long afternoon in the saddle, but as we watched fork lightening strike and thunder roar in the distance we were pleased to have arrived at our home for the night. We all hobbled inside the comfortable Berber tent, collapsed onto cushions, drunk tea and wondered if we would ever be able to walk again!!! We were treated to another excellent meal, watched the lightening show in the distance then retired early to our cosy tents, it had been another excellent day.

The skies had cleared by daybreak and dawn on top of the dunes was a magical sight, it was just beautiful and certainly worth 3 hours on a camel! We had the option of returning by 4WD, but all 8 of us voted to retain the services of the camels, what a hardy bunch we were. So after an early breakfast it was back onboard our humpy friends and we headed for M’Hamid before the heat of the day. It was a good trip back, its amazing how different landscapes can look from the other direction. We were back before noon, said our farewells to our camels and camel drivers, had some tea, took showers then headed off on our next big adventure.

We joined the old “Paris to Dakar” off road rally track and into the desert we went. It soon became apparent that the spectacular lightening show we had witnessed the previous evening had dumped a lot of rain into the desert, it wasn’t long before we came across another 4WD well and truly sunk in the mud. Despite all efforts to free them they remained stuck in the Sahara, back up was called for so we continued on our way. Our drivers, both from local Berber villages, seemed very knowledgeable about where to go and areas to avoid and did a great job of keeping us out of the sticky stuff.
We stopped at a sacred oasis for lunch under the palm trees,. You can understand why these places were sacred, barren landscapes for miles around and then this tiny pocket of greenery, a trickle of water bubbling up through the sand from an underground spring, sustaining life for centuries past and to come. This had been an important stopover for camel trains across the desert from Africa to the main trading hub of Marrakech , amazing how they ever found it.

Soon after, we completed our 60 km’s of off-roading for the day and arrived on the fringe of the Erg Chigaga dunes.   Our tented village lay hidden between dunes and first impressions were that it looked good. Second and forever lasting impressions are that it was one of the most special places you could ever hope to visit.   Great tented accommodation even with ensuite bathroom tents, very impressive, but the highlight – just a short climb up the adjacent sand dune revealed a 40km stretch of Saharan sand dunes 300m high, as far as you could see – it was just magical. The boys went off to explore distant dunes, the wind started picking up and it got dark prematurely, a quick look in the opposite direction showed why -a sand storm was heading our way and approaching fast.
Everyone managed to safely return to camp but it put a stop to any further exploration activities for the day.

Eventually the sandstorm eased but then the rains came, along with thunder and lightening late into the night, not quite the picture we had pre-painted for our starry starry night in the Sahara, but how many people get storms in the Sahara – we were special !! We had another tasty meal and even some local live music to keep spirits up, the tents kept us dry and eventually the storms passed us by.

Mark and I were up before the sun, we had come all this way and we weren’t going to miss sunrise on these dunes. The rains had cleared the air, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We climbed to the top of the highest dune and sat in total peace as we watched the sun peak over the horizon and slowly turn the desert from shades of browns to beige, then as the sun rose higher the Sahara turned golden.   Wow!! For miles and miles we could see towering dunes, shadows lay between them and formed folds and layers, it all looked totally untouched – not a sign of life, not a whisper of wind, total silence…it was a magical vista, it was better than we could have hoped for.

We walked off into the folds of the dunes away from our camp, it was an amazing feeling, they just drew us in, each one we climbed seemed to want to catapult us on towards the next, it really was quite an uncanny feeling and the others that ventured away from camp had the same sense, being pulled towards the heart of the Sahara. Sadly we had to be practical, and reluctantly returned to camp in time for breakfast.

Because of the overnight heavy rains our itinerary for returning had to be changed. Our drivers weren’t happy with taking us on our original route off road via Foum Zguid and Tazenakht back to Marrakech, there was no phone coverage out there so they were unable to check whether it would all be passable. Not wanting to be stuck in the mud like the other 4WD we had passed the previous day we were more than happy to follow their guidance, go for Plan B and retrace our steps.

Instead we were off on the ride of our lives, Plan C kicked in when yesterdays dried out river beds turned into todays fast flowing rivers, what a difference some rain can make. What ensued was a most entertaining and very bumpy totally off road ride across parts of Morocco that I suspect very few tourists ever get the opportunity to see. Just how they knew where they were going or if we would get through we are not sure, but we can not compliment the 2 Mohammeds highly enough for their excellent driving and navigational skills for several hours to get us back to civilisation (a paved road!!!).

But a paved road did not necessarily mean a passable road, several section of the road we had travelled south on just 2 days prior were now washed out, most cars could not get through but our trusty Toyota Landcruisers just climbed up the rubble and went down the other side, then came a bridge totally underwater and the swollen river flowing really quite fast over it. We watched a couple of trucks go across, then a van, then another 4WD then the first of our 2, then it was our turn – exciting stuff I can tell you!!

It had been a very long morning and our lunch stop back in the Dráa Valley at Chez Yacob in Tamnougalte was an unexpected treat. Tucked away down a maze of alleys in yet another spectacular setting was this restored restaurant and riah, we sat down to the best meal we experienced in Morocco and recapped on the fabulous 4 days we had just experienced. We carried on all afternoon and into the evening: our drivers safely negotiated us past the never ending convoy of trucks which travel after dark, up and down the twisting narrow bends on the High Atlas Mountains and eventually the loom of the lights in Marrakech got closer and closer.

Just after 9pm we were back in crazy, busy, noisy, dusty Marrakech - read more on Marrakech and then Casablanca in our next update.

Take me back to the desert!!!!!!!!!!!

Made Landfall in the Canary Islands ..... Oct 2011

2011-10-21T14:38:00.002+02:00

Testing updating via email from the beautiful anchorage of Playa Francesca in the northern most Canary Island of Graciosa. The anchorage backdrop is a stunning volcano, the small beach has beautiful fine white sand the slightly chilly water is clear to the bottom. We have found another paradise.

Still another installation from Morocco to come so no more from the Canaries just yet.

Fascinating Ancient Fés ….. September 2011

2011-10-10T20:07:00.004+02:00

22 – 23 September

Our first inland excursion from Rabat was to the ancient imperial city of Fés. It sits just north west of the Middle Atlas mountains, around 3 1/2 hours by train from Rabat so we decided on an overnight trip, travelling in first class luxury by train with Australian cruisers Andrew and Clare off Eye Candy and Arnie and Jo off Just Jane.
Fés is the oldest of Morocco’s Imperial Cities, the old town medina area was expanded around 800AD and fully walled, the wall still stands to this day with just a few parts missing. It has been home to so many races, cultures and religions over the centuries, each leaving their mark on the city.

The main attraction for us was Fés el-Jdid (Old Fés), an absolute rabbit warren of dusty streets, tiny lanes, dead ends, overhanging buildings, tumbling ruins, hidden souqs and historical sites – what a challenging and interesting place to explore.   We had prebooked our accommodation at Dar Fes Medina, a beautifully restored riad (traditional house) with a handful of tastefully decorated rooms, surrounding a central courtyard and topped off by a pleasant roof terrace. We were made extremely welcome by the helpful staff, and enjoyed mint tea and Moroccan cookies before deciding to go explore the medina.

We split into couples, with so many nooks and crannies to stop and explore, countless twists and turns, it was hard enough just the two of us not to lose each other.   We spent a few hours getting lost and found again as we made our way through the never ending maze of lanes.

We discovered the produce market overflowing with freshly picked vegetables; smelt the live chicken market minutes before we were surrounded by feathers; got nudged out of the way by several donkey carts passing us in the impossibly narrow alleys; sampled dates, apricots and olives from an array of colourful stalls; resisted the temptation to slip into a carpet shop or three; mused at cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and donkeys sharing the same piece of real estate; and stopped for a break in a local ‘hole in the wall’ eatery to try b’sara, a butterbean and garlic soup – yummy.

Getting lost on the way back to the riad was par for the course, but nothing a few dirham to some local lads couldn’t sort out, thought they were pushing it a bit when they wanted €10 for their efforts though – we weren’t THAT lost!! Actually, while we were lost we found a parade, in honour of the King. There were several groups of men in traditional regional dress, horses, bands, singing; then we spotted a sacrificial cow tethered to a post with a hood over it’s head – barbequed steak for dinner perhaps??

We, on the other hand, had decided to go with a recommendation from the riad to visit a traditional Moroccan home, with small adjoining restaurant for dinner, Restaurant Dar Hatim. A family member came and collected us and escorted us deep within the bowels of the medina down countless dusty, dark lanes. Just as we were starting to doubt our judgement on whether this was a good idea we reached a beautifully carved door and stepped into another world. It is truly hard to describe the difference between the dusty, dirty, noisy, chaotic life lived outside these doors, compared to the peace, serenity, cleanliness and often luxurious life on the ‘other side’ , you could never guess from the outside what may lie within.

We had a tour of their exquisitely renovated home, sat on the roof top terrace and sampled a vista of Fés by night, while sipping on an excellent Moroccan white wine, then enjoyed a wonderful meal in their “tented restaurant”. What a finish to an excellent day.

Inside the Restaurant/Home – work of dedicated craftsmen.

Imagine living in here, wow.

With a mosque as our neighbour the familiar call to prayer woke us on Day 2 in Fés, however at 4.30am I think it is quite reasonable to roll over and try to snatch a couple more hours sleep! After breakfast the 6 of us left on a walking tour with an official Tourist Office guide – he took us back into the medina and shared his local insiders knowledge.

So it was another assault on our senses as we wove our way through even tinier lanes than we had dared to venture down the previous day. Tucked away behind what could only be described as derelict looking buildings, we experienced firstly a weaving business, the looms, threads and finished products were located under the shaky, bowing eaves, while the centre courtyard was completely open to the elements – somewhat hard to heat in winter I expect.

The next Aladdins Cave was the Carpet Co-operative, it seems even on a Tourist Office tour you can not escape being taken to a carpet shop.   But it was worth seeing, if only for the beauty of the building, 3 stories high, fully tiled and truly magnificent. The 360 degrees view from the rooftop was excellent then looking down into the atrium from the top floor, with carpets cascading over the banisters, well, it was hard to beat. The carpets, well they were somewhat impressive too, and I confess, we did make a purchase and now own a small Moroccan Cactus Silk carpet - we probably would all still be there if we hadn’t!

Next up was the leather tannery, just how to describe it leaves me lost for words. When you arrive (via a leathers products retail shop!) you are given a bunch of fresh mint, something to sniff on when the dreadful smells of the tannery processes just gets way overbearing. You can see livestock lined up over to one side, unawares of their plight. Luckily you don’t see what happens next, but then you can see all the skins hung around the place, drying out before going into the pits. The tanning pits are in two sections, the white ones are full of lime and pigeon pooh (truly), the men working in them almost up to their thighs – they did however wear rubber gloves, hardly much protection. The other pits have natural dyes in them like indigo, saffron and poppy - the men designated to these pits must go home looking like a rainbow each night.   The men are paid “by piece”, the faster they work the more they can earn, we understand the maximum daily wage to be around €30, I don’t know how many hours they work to achieve this. Sons get the “opportunity” to learn from their fathers then take over his pit when the time comes. When you next think you are having a bad day, not appreciated at work, need a pay rise etc ….. spare a thought for these guys, it looked like hell down there, and I can’t even imagine how bad it would be in the middle of winter.

We moved on to some historical sites, took a look at a Water Clock - an interesting piece of work with 12 windows and spouting that runs along, as the water fills up the window shutters move to indicate the time. It no longer works and is in desperate need of restoration but is seems nobody actually can work out just quite how it worked so restoration plans are on hold!!!

There were mosques, museums, markets and more – we saw it all – after nearly 4 hours it was time to call it a day before our brains went into total overload. We relaxed in a square drinking coffee as hundreds of men passed us having just finished Friday prayers. This is very much a lived in medina, 450,000 people live within it’s walls in buildings that have stood for centuries – most of them looking much the same as when they were built.

However time has not quite stood still - power cables run on the outside of the external walls, pavement levels have been risen to allow for pipes to be laid and when you get to a roof top vantage point the skyline is dominated by cheap Chinese satellite dishes, cellphone towers peek over the high walls, all to remind you it is the 21st century..

But overall the ancient imperial city of Fés still has a mystical medieval feel to it, and it was great to get the opportunity to spend a couple of days exploring it.

Roaming about in Rabat ….. September 2011

2011-10-02T21:35:00.003+02:00

18 –30 September 2011
The days are slipping by here, tied up in the Bouregreg Marina in Rabat, Morocco’s capital. We are finally back with the international cruising community, it is certainly the united nations here with the French outnumbering all of us, Australia flying four flags, New Zealand and America represented with 3, then we have Canada, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Finland and Austria – and we are all heading for the Canary Islands then on across the Atlantic in December, there have been a few dock parties already to get to know each other.

We have been exploring both Salé, where the marina is situated and across the river in Rabat. It’s all very interesting - the medinas, souks, Kasbah,, the wail of the prayer call, it’s easy to remember that we have moved onto another continent. The local medina just a couple of minutes up the road in Salé is still surrounded by the original city walls, in excellent condition hundreds of years on. Inside is a maze of tiny alleys, hardly a foreigner in sight (just the odd lost cruiser!!), the hustle and bustle of modern day life across the river in the capital city has hardly touched here – it is a world away.
One day we ventured out of town and visited the local pottery co-operative. It was a large group of buildings that you could wander through and watch all the processes take place, starting with them shovelling the clay into wheelbarrows, bringing it inside where it got mixed with a little water, divided into big slabs and then placed on various wheels and turned into all manner of shapes and sizes. Different outbuildings housed the painters, glaziers, kilns, and rows and rows of pots and plates lay baking in the sun. We are not talking modern industry here, not a conveyor belt in sight, just people power. We watched several men load a truck (in the photo) with pots and plates, it was overflowing then they still added more – utilising even the space above the cab. Then a net was thrown over to ‘secure’ it all, I imagine the percentage of breakages is very high.

Across the river in Rabat is a true blend of the old and new. A modern motorway bridge spans the river and an excellent clean, regular and very cheap tram system is an easy way to get around.   The ville nouveau district has wide boulevards and classic French buildings are a reminder of the years of French rule here. But then you walk downhill into the ancient walled medina and souk area and you are transported right back into the heart of Morocco. There are literally thousands of little stalls selling everything you could ever need, the trick is in finding the right stall!!

As you move through the souk the produce, meat and fish markets display an interesting and often unrecognisable array of products. There is a section selling gold, another with dozens of stalls just selling perfume, another lane is full of women's underwear, another with woolly blankets! Finally you move through to the almost touristy end, much more orderly and clean it is overflowing with colourful Morocco carpets, artwork, jewellery, pottery and leather products.   But the best thing about the souks here in Rabat is the stall owners don’t hassle you at all. Mark had such a look of horror on his face as I stopped to look at a carpet, then actually touched it – the Egyptians would have taken that to mean you wanted to buy it, the Turkish were a little better but we definitely would have been drawn into their shop for apple tea to start the buying process, but here- well the stall owner just ignored me, I admired the carpet and carried on my way, amazing. It just makes wandering through the souk so much more enjoyable.

Just outside the medina walls and guarding the river entrance on the southern side is the Kasbah. Kasbah are fortresses, just like the small walled medieval towns we have seen throughout Europe. We have seen a few Kasbah now but they have all been empty so it was a real surprise to see that this one is still home to a large community. We felt like we had been transported back to a cute Greek Island in the Aegean, all the buildings were white washed, with boarders of what we always called Med Blue, for now renamed Moroccan Blue. The tiny lanes were swept clean, potted plants framed doorways and bougainvillea added a wonderful splash of colour.

We are enjoying our stopover here in Rabat and will leave Balvenie in the marina here while we explore inland Morocco.

Cruising Info for Rabat, Morocco Sept-Oct 2011

Before arriving The marina sits on the northern shores of the Bouregreg River, about a mile inland from the river entrance. The entrance has a bar across it between the outer (new) breakwater and inner (old and partly submerged) breakwater. The marina should be contacted on VHF 10 about 5 miles out to advise your arrival and then again when 1 mile out. If conditions are ok they will then send out the marina boat to the entrance to escort you over the bar and up to the Customs Dock. If conditions are not good enough for crossing the bar they will either advise to standoff until the tide rises/swell drops or if the harbour entrance is closed suggest you continue to Mohammedia (apprx 30 miles south) which can be entered in most conditions.   Therefore you need to time your arrival accordingly. It seems they bring in boats from around 3 hours before high tide until 3 hours after high tide, however on the outgoing tide the bar can get more unruly so try to time arrival just before high tide. It is also very important to watch the swell forecast. http://www.windguru.cz/ is one site that has the wind and swell forecast for Rabat. It is unlikely that the harbour will be open if the swell/wave height is over 6 feet, if over 5 feet it will depend on the conditions but expect an exciting ride in – with the possibility of turning the boat so the bow rides the breaking surf!!! We came in with a 3 foot swell and very little wind and all was fine.
The marina staff seem to use only handheld vhf’s so can be hard to hear, also only a couple of staff speak English (all speak French), however they monitor 24 hours and escort boats in 24 hours. If you can’t raise the marina staff call for any boat in the marina to relay, most boats keep channel 10 on.

Once in the river
The marina pilot boat will escort you to the customs arrival dock (North side of river) approx 1 mile inside the entrance. Generally a port side tie up. All arrival paperwork is taken care of there, it takes about an hour or so. They also board the boat and have a good look through, some boats had a sniffer dog, we didn’t. Everything was undertaken in a professional way.
The berths in the marina are all finger berth with very short fingers that don’t have cleats. Its rather an interesting challenge to tie up. There are clean showers and toilets and a token operated (50 dirhams approx €4.50) washing machine.    Security is excellent. Wifi is free and is quite good.

More info on the services around the marina will be added as we explore on our Cruising Info blog - view by clicking here

Made it back to Morocco ….. Sept 2011

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16 – 18 September 2011
PORTUGAL TO MOROCCO

Time to say goodbye …………. Not so easy to leave probably the best anchorage we have had in 4 years but autumn is here, the birds are migrating – and so must we.
Our passage from Culatra in Portugal to Rabat in Morocco was around 190 miles, and we needed to time our arrival into Rabat just before high tide and preferably in daylight. Of course you never know how fast or slow you will sail, and will there even be wind – maybe we will need to motor. We needed a forecast of light winds because if there is too much wind and Atlantic swell setting on the Moroccan coast then the bar entrance, even at high tide, is unsafe and the harbour is closed. The skippers had mulled over it for many hours (and beers), Clare and I had turned into galley wenches and prepared meals and snacks for the journey, with spare meals made just in case the bar was closed and we had to continue on.

1pm on Friday the 16th of September was deemed to be the optimum time to depart Europe's shores and head south to the African mainland and back to Morocco. We had some interesting tidal whirlpools in the Faro/Olháo channel as we departed but once we cleared the entrance and headed out into open water all was calm, we pointed to windward, raised sails, set our course and had a very pleasant sail south in the light afternoon seabreeze.

We really could not have wished for better conditions, the seas were flat with very little swell, the light winds just in front of the beam, not a cloud in the sky, a perfect sunset, and an almost full moon, magic.

The wind died out around 4am, but we had had a very good run so accepted our fate and continued under motor. At dawn we noticed a school of fish swimming along besides the cockpit, we think they were getting a free ride in our slip stream and they stayed with us all day until we got just enough wind to sail again at 3pm.

Our 2nd night kept us on our toes. The winds were still light but we had the shipping coming and going out of the Gibraltar Straits to contend with and then just over 20 miles off shore we hit the fishing boats with long surface nets.

Actually we didn’t hit them, but we came very close to some of the nets and without the two of us up on watch we might well have ended up in the fish market for sale the following day. The nets were a couple of miles long, with a big flashing light on one end and the fishing boat at the other, some of the floats had little lights that were impossible to see. With much care and skilful sailing by Skipper we navigated our way safely through the maze of lights and popped out the other side into clear water and headed straight for the river entrance. We rendezvoused with Eye Candy, radioed the marina and awaited their escort to guide us over the bar, up the river and to the Arrivals Dock.

Day was just breaking, the tide was high, the swell was low so there wasn't too much surfing required to get over it, the kasbar (fortress) at the harbour entrance was silhouetted by the rising sun, the city was coming to life for another day.

It had been a tiring but good trip - and an excellent welcome back to Morocco.

The end of Europe ….. Sept 2011

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12 – 16 September 2011

We stayed at anchor off Isla de Culatra for our entire stay in Portugal, it was such a great anchorage, the weather was lovely, the company good, we just couldn’t justify moving - so we didn’t. The days slipped by, we decided to visit Faro one day with Andrew and Clare off Eye Candy, so planned to take the ferry to Olháo then the train or bus to Faro, as there is no direct ferry. The Olháo ferry came and went, without us on it – they said they would be back in an hour and we must wait here (well that was our interpretation of it anyway!!). So off we went for a coffee and we duly returned in an hour, however the ferry did not. But there was another small ferry there so we asked if they were going to Olháo, no they said, wrong ferry – they were going to Faro. We had a hard time convincing them we wanted to get on and that we really did want to go to Faro!!!!

The ferry trip was quite interesting, it’s a real maze of marshes at low tide and the ferry wove its way up through them, ignoring many channel markers. We arrived at the small ferry dock located just outside the old town walls and stepped through into a world of rambling bougainvillea clinging to dilapidated buildings on a tiny lane which led us onto the open main square framed by the Town Hall, Bishops Palace and the Cathedral.

As with much of Portugal, Faro has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, following raids by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, the Moors, Spanish and then the English. Then along came earthquakes in 1722 and 1755, basically its had a hard life, and it shows!!! The Cathedral dates from 1251 but has been rebuilt many times over the years. Located in the Cathedral gardens stands the 18th century “Bone Chapel” built out of skulls and bones to ‘remind us of our mortality’. The view from the top of the Cathedral over the rooftops out over the marshes was excellent.

We adjourned for lunch after exploring the walled town, and confess that we ordered 4 excellent burger and fries at a pleasant little waterfront cafe, we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to go “local” and have grilled whole sardines!!!!, As the wifi was allmost non existent at the anchorage we had come prepared for a very anti-social lunch complete with 2 laptops, an iPad and iPhone, how on earth did we ever manage without all these toys??? We were on a mission though, we were looking for a weather window to leave Portugal and head south either to Morocco or the Canary Islands so the two skippers mulled away at all the weather information while Clare and I did the emails and business end of things.

The weather window was looking good for a Friday departure so it was time to do our final preparations. The northern hemisphere autumn is upon us and soon the North Atlantic lows will begin tracking toward Europe. It was time for us to leave. Once again Balvenie would sail before the trade winds carrying us southward and eventually westward. This was the end of a huge chapter in our circumnavigation, we have enjoyed Europe immensely and our 4 summers here have left us with countless magic memories ….. but it’s time to move on.

Cruising info for Culatra

Isla de Culatra 37 00.036N 07 50.470W

5m sand/mud. Should be good holding but some boats did drag when we had 20knots one night. Possibly a few fishing nets on the bottom? Wonderful anchorage totally enclosed, can get some chop in high wind but no swell at all. Dinghy Dock go into fishing boat harbour and tie up right in the far right corner under the walkway. It says no parking but everyone was leaving dinghies there, none were locked only tied. Facilities Ashore A few small local bars/cafes, all very cheap. Minimarket with good range of fresh produce, bread (need to get in morning before they sell out), small selection of good meat and plenty of cheap Portuguese wine Wifi No wifi ashore on Culatra. Several signals with external aerial, Vexfree is a free signal throughout the Algarve but we couldn’t get a strong enough signal. Managed to get reasonable signal intermittently on FON ZON, it was a pay site but only €3 a day and was enough for the essentials. Ferries mmm….. there was a timetable ashore but maybe we were there in the changeover time from summer to winter. The once a day ferry to Faro left at 12.35pm and returned at 4.15pm €2.60 ow or €5.00 return. We got a ferry to Olháo at 9.30am to make the most of the morning market but the return was either 11am or 3pm so stayed for lunch too. Think there is a 1pm back normally. Supermarket in Olháo Pingo Doce Go straight ahead inland from the ferry down Rua da Conserveira its in the 2nd block on the left, poor signage till you are on top of it but there is a modern looking cafe with modern plaza grassed area outside that is easy to see. Very good selection of everything, prices similar to Spain. Fresh Market the fresh fish and fruit and veg markets are located right on the waterfront in the red brick buildings. A couple of cafes outside markets have Wifi. Can take own dinghy to Olháo at high tide, follow a local boat. We tied dinghy on inside of fishing harbour floating dock. Know of someone that got dinghy and outboard stolen over there recently, got dinghy back but not outboard.

Balvenie in Portugal – Country No 30 ….. Sept 2011

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04 – 11 September 2011
And so we have said our final farewells to Mainland Spain. We very much enjoyed our months in Spain and there are many things we will miss, one being the wonderful little tapas bars!! The Spanish people have been wonderful and we even understand and speak ‘un poco Espanol’ now, but there is the 2nd half of the world waiting for us out there so we exited the Rio Guadiana and headed west.
We tacked out way along the Algarve Coast, again in light westerlies with flat seas, it was around 30 miles to our first Portuguese anchorage at Isla de Culatra. With the sea breeze starting to strengthen and the breakwater for the entrance to Faro in sight, I in my official capacity as Admiral (which does outrank Captain !!!) exercised my right to put a stop to all this tacking - well we had done 11 already and needed 3 more. So we put the motor on, dropped sails, entered through the well buoyed and deep channel, turned right and found paradise!
And that was a week ago, we are still here. Sometimes the wind kicks in late afternoon for a while just to remind us that there is a wind, but for the rest of the time, Balvenie along with about 40 other yachts sit happily in calm, flat water and watches the world go by. What a lovely welcome to Portugal.

For the first time this season we feel like we are cruising again, yachts come and go daily, the cruising community spirit is again in the air, it is so different to ‘marina life’. Then two days ago our Australian friends Andrew and Clare on Eye Candy arrived, they have been cruising in the Med for 7 years and are making the big break too and will be amongst the fleet crossing the Atlantic with us later in the year. It is great to catch up with them again and I am sure some competitive sailing will resume once we are both out again in the big blue wobbly stuff.
Meanwhile we have filled our days doing little jobs, our Powersurvivor Watermaker has finally been recommissioned and will now have a busy season meeting our fresh water requirements, all the galley supplies have been logged and stowed, safety equipment has been rechecked and is in easy to access locations, small canvas repairs have been completed – each day that passes signals one day closer to leaving mainland Europe, flip!!!
The small settlement ashore on Isla de Culatra is rather cute and quirky, there are no cars or bikes – just a tractor or two – it’s just one big sand dune island, most of the houses are small single storey dwellings, there are several cheap and cheerful cafe/bars and a couple of small mini markets. It is very much a local fishing community, the mainstay being cockles. The area supplies over 80% of Portugals cockles, did I mention things smell a little fishy at low tide when the cockle beds dry out!!!
Over on the mainland is Olháo, we took the dinghy over at high tide a few days ago, there is a bustling waterfront area comprising of a large fruit and veg market and very busy morning fish market. It is all so different to Spain, the buildings are different shapes, the people look different, the spoken language is totally unrecognisable – but the written is very similar, we have definitely arrived in Portugal.

Making a U-turn & a peek into Portugal ….. August 2011

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27 August – 04 September 2011

Departing from Mazagón was straight forward, timing our arrival into the Rio Guadiana was definitely not.   We needed to go over the very shallow bar no more than 3 hours before high tide, preferably in flat seas with no swell and in daylight. We confess that our first attempt did not meet enough of those requirements!!

For the first time EVER we sailed 17 miles towards our destination then made the call to return back to where we had come from. We had a 34 mile day sail for Balvenie to stretch her legs, and a lesson for us not to under estimate just how quickly the sea state can churn up in these shallow waters with a sea breeze of over 20 knots coming in from the Atlantic.

We had a great sail to start with, around 10knots hard on the wind with flat seas and we were whizzing along. That was one of the problems, we were going too fast and the tide would not be high enough for us, then the sea breeze really kicked in and the waves and swell built very quickly. With about 10 miles to run we had a quick board meeting and decided the sensible option was to return to Mazagón, so we did and had a very fast downwind sail back to the anchorage.

We did “take 2” a couple of days later, starting again with a great sail along the coast in light winds and flat seas. This time the wind died out completely and we ended up motoring up to the river mouth in flat water about 30 minutes before high tide, perfect timing. We had a 3.3m tide and we saw a minimum depth of 4.1m so we were very pleased that we had aborted our earlier arrival.

The Rio Guadiana is the river that marks the boarder between Spain and Portugal, on the Spanish side is the town of Ayamonte and on the Portuguese is Vila Real de San António. All seems at peace between them now, but there are ruins from Roman and Moorish forts on the Portuguese side a reminder of a more turbulent past. We anchored on the Spanish side just past Ayamonte and all was well. We stayed at anchor a couple of nights, but we were nearing spring tide and the tides combined with the strong river flow created quite a current. For the couple of hours a day at slack tide all was peaceful and serene, but for the rest of the time the anchor chain was as taut as a guitar string and down below was the familiar sound of bubbles roaring passed the hull. It felt and sounded like we were underway and doing about 8 knots !!.

We couldn’t leave for a few more days as we needed an early morning high tide to depart on, we didn’t like to leave Balvenie at anchor to explore ashore so we decided it was time to check into yet another marina. We chose the Ayamonte one over the Villa Real option, we were ready for a change of country but the Spanish marina had much less current running through it - so Spain it was.

We spent the next few days in Ayamonte, literally waiting for the tide to come in!!! We had originally hoped to go up the river as it had come highly recommended, but the clearance under a bridge about two miles upstream was a very tight fit for us so we had ruled that out. Instead we explored the small town of Ayamonte, it doesn’t look much at all from the river front but just inland is a delightful town full of pedestrian lanes and shady plazas, really rather pleasant.

One day we caught the local ferry across to Villa Real and walked on Portuguese soil. It is a lovely town and they have made a huge effort with a palm tree lined promenade along the marina and river, some long cafe lined pedestrian streets and a very pleasant town square. The town was rebuilt in 1774. It, along with most of coastal Portugal had been devastated by the 1755 earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis. The town was rebuilt in a grid pattern, one of the first in Portugal – I prefer all the little higgledy-piggledy rabbit warrens of lanes myself. But it was all very nice and just so different to Spain.

We had a couple of days of very heavy rain while in the marina, now normally rain in these parts deposits dust and sand all over everything but for the first time since arriving in Mediterranean Europe four years ago, the rain was clean !!. Certainly cause for celebration. Sunday morning we slipped out of the marina and then crossed the bar just on dawn and with the tide about 20 minutes away from high, we saw 3.8m – gosh 1.3 metres to spare!!! Adios Espana….. for now anyway!!

Cruising Info for Ayamonte on the Guadiana River, Atlantic Spain – August 2011
Guadiana River Entrance   The shallowest part was by the 2nd green marker, it doesn’t last long but sure gets your attention and deserves your respect. We had no swell at all but if there had of been there wasn’t much margin for error
Ayamonte at Anchor   37 13.169N 07 24.651W 4m at LWS. Very gluey mud bottom. At springs the current and flow was really quite fierce and we didn’t feel happy leaving the boat at anchor to going ashore. Dinghies can be left at the seaward end of the ferry dock, we asked and they were happy enough.
Ayamonte Marina We went in a slack low water. There was over 3.5metres in the entrance but we did get some very shallow readings in the marina but didn’t run aground.   Cost €36 per night including power, water and very poor signal wifi (it was even poor sitting outside the office under the aerial). Very good showers and toilets, no laundry. Excellent info board outside office with computerized Weather gribs and Windguru info. No marina staff on the dock to help but they did allocate us a berth via VHF so we only had to dock once. Finger berths. There was some current in the marina but not too bad.
Supermarkets – there is a Jamon just behind the marina, it’s not great but it sure is convenient. Meat section was good and I found some “TV dinner” vacuum packed type Meatball and Cannelloni meals that I haven't seen elsewhere that have been stowed away for the Atlantic Crossing. There is a Supersol on the Riverfront which was pretty ordinary too. Tracked down the excellent Mercadona on Avienda de la Constitution, can catch the circular route bus but we got a map from the tourist office and walked, less than 20 minutes. In town is the Abestos Market – the fruit, veg and fish market, only open mornings, excellent produce. Vodafone easy to find
Ferry to Vila Real Every 30 minutes on the hour / half hour, last one 9pm Spanish time, 8pm Portuguese time. €1.35pp each way, buy tickets from kiosk before boarding.

Grumbling Anchor Chains and Cristóbal Colón (who???) ….. August 2011

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15 – 27 August 2011

We ended up staying in Puerto América Marina in Cadiz for a week. We planned to do a quick supermarket run then head on out, but alas, yet another public holiday in Espana and everything was closed, oh well. We decided to leave anyway and head over to the north western corner of the Bay of Cadiz and anchor off the town of Rota. It was a beautiful day and I’m sure that everyone that owned a boat in the area had let the lines go from their marinas and also headed for Rota, it was jam packed. We found a good sized empty spot (the fact that it was empty probably should have been our first warning), but we dropped and set anchor in the sandy bottom. By 9pm everyone had left except for a large powerboat nearby then just before dark they attempted to lift their anchor but it was snagged. It took them an hour to free it and we suspect their anchor windlass motor may never be quite the same again. (This should have been our 2nd warning). During the night there was a slight breeze off the land which swung us around and we started to hear the anchor chain grumbling and then it snatched tight – (3rd and final warning!!) not a good thing at 3am so we let out some more chain and looked forward to dealing to it in the morning.

Morning dawned damp and foggy. Sadly a miracle hadn’t occurred overnight and the anchor was still snared. We tried the usual back, forward, this way, that way – then Skipper jumped in to dive down and investigate, visibility was very poor and his ears wouldn’t equalize so I volunteered. Swimming at 9am in the Atlantic in a foggy bay, what was I thinking? I could see the chain going to the bottom but then just disappearing, it was wrapped tight around or under something but I couldn’t stay down long enough to investigate properly.

It’s times like this when you wish you’d learnt to dive and had dive gear onboard, or at least a hooker (power driven apparatus that pumps air down a tube), or another boat nearby that has one, or had trained our lungs to hold breaths for much longer. But none of these were options, so we set off into the nearby marina to see if we could arrange for a diver to come out. Must add here that finding the marina was a challenge, it was maybe 500 metres away at most and the fog was now that thick we couldn’t see it!! The marina staff were very helpful and called a diver for us, but it’s August, in Spain, and he is on holiday. They direct us to the nearby chandlery who also have a diver. A quick phone call and guess what …….. he is also on holiday. Feeling somewhat dejected we return to Balvenie. The tide was going out, the wind had completely dropped and the fog was clearing – these were all in our favour, visibility was now much better with the sunlight on the water and the water level had dropped over 1.5 metres so not so deep to dive, and with no wind there was no pressure on the anchor chain. Lets try again!! Skipper tried first but was still having trouble with his ears, so in I went again, 2 Atlantic swims in one day – good grief. First time down I got to the bottom and could see it disappearing under a big flat rock, second time I managed to start pulling it out from under and freed a couple of metres which Skipper pulled up onto Balvenie. Third time down I gave it all I had and freed as much as I could, Skipper took it all up and the anchor windlass just kept on going, yippee, free from Mother Earths clutches at last. We re-anchored, hoping to be in a huge sandy patch and celebrated with an espresso coffee.

It was now too late to leave so we dinghied back ashore, went for a very long hot walk to the supermarket to stock up on much needed fresh provisions, treated ourselves to lunch out after our hectic morning then took the afternoon off. Next morning was far less eventful, we lifted anchor, hoisted sails and sailed out of the Bay of Cadiz heading north. We had lovely conditions, clear skies, flat water, light breeze off the land so we put a little westing in, in preparation for the afternoon seabreeze which came in every afternoon from the west. Well every afternoon except this one, the wind dropped out completely and we ended up motoring the last 4 hours of our 43 mile trip to Mazagón.

It was a pleasant surprise to see 4 other yachts in the anchorage inside the wide river entrance, but next morning they all left!! The small town of Mazagón sits at the entrance to the Rio Huelva, further up the river it joins the Rio Tinto and it was from this area that back in 1492 Cristóbal Colón set sail to discover ‘The New World’. When exactly his name got changed to Christopher Colombus I have no idea, it’s on the list of things to google one day!!! We spent a day visiting the Muelle de las Carabelas, a museum that has replicas of the 3 ship fleet. Barely longer than Balvenie but much more beamy and higher, you just can’t imagine how all the supplies, livestock and crew managed in such small confines. Inside the museum there were several interesting exhibits, charts and treasures but unfortunately all the information was only in Spanish.

We ended up spending a few nights in the marina - just can’t seem to keep away from them this season – we had checked the weather and saw over 40 knots forecast from the southeast, the only quadrant we were exposed to so moved in and tied up. We ended up getting 47knots so were pleased with our decision. We also got covered with sand from all the beaches south of us and we looked like a boat shaped giant sandcastle, we are getting used to it now but great to have the chance to clean it all off again before leaving the marina.

Seville – Simply Stunning ….. August 2011

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13 – 14 August 2011

There was one more Spanish city on our ‘to visit’ list before leaving Spain’s shores - Seville. We had the option of a) taking Balvenie up the Guadalquivir River which snakes its way nearly 60 miles inland to Seville, or b) leaving Balvenie in the marina at Cadiz and taking the train. We decided to go for Plan B, so once the strong winds had eased and we had cleaned the layers of dirt off Balvenie, we organised our next ‘citybreak’

It was another long hot walk to the train station in Cadiz, but we allowed time for a quick cafe before catching the train. I have to add that the Spanish Train System has been exceptional, the stations are all clean and well presented, timetables are displayed and the staff helpful (we always try in Spanish, they often answer in English), all the trains we travelled on were quite new, comfortable and clean, and they all ran on time. It’s just under 2 hours by train to Seville, the scenery wasn’t anything special but pleasant enough. We walked to the Hotel Alcantara in the Barrio de Santa Cruz area of the old town, its tucked away in a tiny lane, within a maze of similar lanes, but amazingly Skipper the navigator found it first time.

After dropping our bags then frequenting one of the local tapas bars for lunch we were off to hit the sights. In honesty Seville is just one big sight to behold, it is truly a beautiful city. Hours can be spent just wandering the streets and tiny lanes and taking in the magic of it all. It is full of handsome buildings, the outstanding Cathedral, bullring, riverside walk, the impressive Plaza Espana and the glorious Alcázar, to just name the main ones.

They say that August is “off season” in Seville as it is too hot for most tourists, it was busy enough but certainly not manic, and it wasn’t TOO hot!

We joined the short queue for the Alcázar, a “must see” with origins back to the 10th century. Having visited the Alhambra in Granada over winter, an outstanding example of Moorish architecture and craftsmenship we weren’t expecting to be quite so impressed. This was every bit as spectacular as the Alhambra and I actually thought the interior of the buildings were in far better repair and displayed such fine examples of tile work, engraving, panelling and carvings. Everywhere you look is an absolute masterpiece, they certainly knew how to design and build to last all those centuries ago. We wandered from room to room, very impressed with each one.

We explored the large shady gardens - small private areas with cooling pools lay hidden between the hedges, knarled old trees make you wonder if they have survived the hundreds of years since the first plantings in the 16th century.

Back inside we discovered the Casa de la Contratación, it is written that it was here that Magellan’s exploration of the world was planned. Hanging on its walls are enormous tapestries, produced from the explorers charts, it took us some time to work out the Mediterranean one as it is depicted upside down and really didn’t look quite right!!

We did a quick tour of the Cathedral enroute to the hotel. There was a church service on so we did not spent much time in there. I have visited it before and it is surely up there with the best, and it definitely it up there with the biggest being the 3rd largest in the world.

Seville by night is just as impressive as by day. All the major buildings are beautifully lit, street performers gather crowds on corners, evening diners spill out into the cooler evening air; it is just lovely. The walk from our hotel into the main Cathedral Plaza was about 400 metres, yet within that short space - on a direct route - there must have been about 30 cafes, well it just would have been downright rude to just walk on by. And so the tapas and wine tastings began, very pleased to report that they were all excellent.

We managed to find our way back to our hotel by 10pm, but no – not for an early night. Next door was a Flamenco Dance Show at La Carboneria, and we had bought tickets for the hour long performance. We had enjoyed our flamenco show in Cadiz and were eager to see another. This one was quite different, the setting was more atmospheric however it was a little over subscribed and visibility wasn’t as good as it should have been. Because there is alot of foot work in flamenco dancing it really is important to be able to see those feet flying around the dance floor. Still we managed to see everything (by sitting on our chair backs!!!) and it really was an excellent performance. Again there was a guitarist, a solo singer and two dancers. First the male danced alone for about 20 minutes, then they had a very short break then he danced with a female partner. I found the atmosphere electric between the performers, the dancing was superb and it seemed to have quite a story to it, of perhaps a lost or forbidden love. It really was very good and I thought it better than the show in Cadiz, whereby Mark preferred the Cadiz one – just as well we went to both!

It had been awfully hot in there though, no aircon, fans or open windows – phew, so there was nothing for it but another stroll around Seville by night, and another tapas bar – or two.

On Sunday we walked a little further afield, along the river, past the bullring and the Torre del Oro. At one time it was supposed to also be the Maritime Museum but it seemed well and truly closed up. We continued on through some lovely shady gardens, the Parque Maria Luisa and ended up at the Plaza de Espana. Every Spanish village, town and city has a Plaza de Espana but Sevilles is really something quite special. Much of this spectacular collection of buildings were built for the Hispo-America Fair back in 1929, there is a colourful array of tiling depicting all the different regions that were represented at the fair.

It was time for an early tapas lunch so we headed back to the Barrio de Santa Cruz area. The Cathedral doesn’t open until 2.30pm on Sundays so that was left for our last stop. At 2.30pm we wandered over to the entrance, the queue must have been about a mile long, in the sun. We decided that our short visit into it the previous night had been adequate and crossed it off the list! We spent the extra time just wandering aimlessly through the little lanes and alleys, discovering hidden treasures, ornately carved doors, brightly tiled entranceways, internal courtyards crammed full of lush palms and tiny plazas. Seville has it all and showcases it in its natural splendour.

We caught a late afternoon train back to Cadiz, did our regular walk from the train station to the marina and were back onboard Balvenie well before dark. It had been an excellent citybreak in a stunning city.

Fancy a Sherry? – well just the one! ….. August 2011

2011-08-31T12:10:00.002+02:00

Being grounded in Cadiz with the Levante winds blowing gave us a chance to explore inland. One day we decided to take the train to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain's home of Sherry. It was a hot day and once we got away from the coast the temperature rose considerably. By the time we had taken the long walk into the station at Cadiz, waited for the train, undertaken the journey, walked into the town centre and found the orange tree lined main square in pretty Jerez the only thing we could concentrate on was shade, food and cool drinks.

On reflection we really should have checked the times of the Sherry Tours first as we narrowly missed the 2pm English speaking tour at the Bodegas González Byass, one of Spain’s biggest sherry distilleries and home to Tio Pepe sherry. The next tour wasn’t until 5pm so we skipped the opportunity of learning all about the making of sherry and went for a stroll around this rather lovely town instead. There is a rather small but impressive g 11th Century Almohad fortress - the Alcazar, a lovely church closeby and of course the cathedral. In so many of these Spanish towns we have visited the Moorish and Christian buildings sit contently as neighbours and it always makes for an interesting blend of architecture and history.

Cafe lined pedestrian lanes led onto more plazas, and although it is a reasonably small central area we enjoyed exploring the shady streets. Many of the buildings had very heavy woven wicker (I guess) roll down external blind for shutters, something we had not seen anywhere else. They all looked rather old but I can’t imagine them wearing too well with all the summer sun then winter winds and rain.

Eager to at least partake in some sherry of the region we took time out from our busy sightseeing to have afternoon coffee – and a sherry. To be honest neither of us actually think we have ever had a sherry before, so we sat and read some info we had about now it is produced and supped away at our glass of Tio Pepe. So in case you want to know ….

Sherry is technically a wine and is produced mainly in the Andulucian region of Spain. It begins its life as white wine but then has some grape brandy added to it to fortify it, this also stops fermentation and makes it end up as sherry. Ours looked just like a glass of a light white table wine but sure didn’t taste like it. I suspect it is a taste that one develops with age, and quite clearly we are still way too young to fully appreciate its fine qualities!!!! Needless to say we did not return with our bags full of Sherry, but we did however have an enjoyable day out.

Cadiz – Europes’ Oldest City ….. August 2011

2011-08-21T22:55:00.005+02:00

08 – 13 August 2011
The weather was calm enough for us to enjoy 4 nights at anchor at Puerto Sherry. We had been lucky to meet Ted, a fellow cruiser, who did some work on our Single Side Band Radio for us, it had been having intermittent problems - always the worse kind - but he happily sat and took it apart, fiddled about, cleaned inside and presto, it is now as good as new. It never ceases to amaze us the skills different cruisers have and their willingness to share them whenever they can.

We were ready to move across to the marina in Cadiz, we wanted to explore the city, take in a flamenco show and do some inland touring. We checked the weather sites and one out of four (we like plenty of opinions when it comes to the weather) was showing building southeast winds on Monday evening, our anchorage was exposed to the south, so it was time to move on. We motored across the bay in light winds on Monday and secured a berth on the visitors’ pontoon at Puerto America Marina. We thought we had a great spot, easy access by the entrance, a view out into the harbour, chance for the breeze to come around the breakwater, other cruising boats nearby ……. and then the “levante” started blowing. We had heard about the levante, winds from the east, which in these parts come off the land, carrying with it all manner of dust, dirt, sand and anything else it can pick up enroute.

Our easy access by the entrance gave us no shelter from the waves building across the harbour, they came straight in, crashing over our stern and causing us to snatch constantly on our lines, our view out now meant we had very little shelter, and the breeze coming around the breakwater turned into a gale over 30 knots for 3 days and nights!!!! There was very little rain, but salt water flew around freely, giving the dust and dirt a great moist layer to stick to, they blended well and almost turned into cement … never before, not even with all the sand and dust in the Red Sea, has Balvenie been so dirty, inside and out, oh well what can you do?

So we abandoned ship and took to the streets day and night - we had the wonderful city of Cadiz to explore. Historians say it may well be the oldest city in Europe, dating back to 800BC when Phoenician traders arrived. In more recent times it became a very important harbour following Colombus’ trips to the Americas.

The cobbled streets in the old town area are the narrowest we have seen in a city, I am sure neighbours could pass the odd bowl of olives across from balcony to balcony without a stretch. There are countless plazas, old knarled trees provide much needed shade, sidewalk cafes spill out and the smell of calamari frying fills the air. The Central Mercado was a bustling place, with the catch of the day not smelling quite as appealing as the fried calamari, but we have never seen such a collection of prawns and shrimps, and in such pretty colours!

As with all Spanish cities the Cathedral is huge and dominates a large plaza, it took over 120 years to build so displays several types of architecture. Nearby is the Roman Theatre, excavation is still a work in progress as it was not discovered until 1980, yes the Romans have been here too!!

We spent a few hours in the Museo de Cadiz. There was excellent display of archaeological findings from settlements and burial sites, dating from prior to the Bronze Age. Then there were two exceptional sarcophaguses (burial chambers), we have literally seen hundreds of them, lying around all along the coast of Turkey, but these two were in ‘as new’ condition, sculptured in marble and dated 5th century BC, one was discovered in 1887, the other as recently as 1980. Imagine digging up the back garden to plant a lemon tree and finding one of these, amazing. There really was an excellent display of statues, glassware, tools, pottery and art, it was well worth the visit.

The following is a contribution from Skipper -

Interestingly, although Cadiz is steeped in nautical history, there is absolutely no mention anywhere of the great sea battle that took place off Cape Trafalgar just a few miles down the coast in 1805. The course of history changed on that day. Napoleon had 250,000 troops ready to invade Britain and was camped on the northern coast of France. All he needed was for his navy to turn up and secure the English Channel. One problem….the British Royal Navy had the French and Spanish fleet trapped in Cadiz harbour. The British endured two North Atlantic winters at sea, on a lee shore, positioned outside Cadiz just beyond the range of the Spanish and French guns, effectively blockading them inside the harbour. After two years the Spanish and French fleet made a run for it and were obliterated off Cape Trafalgar by Nelson and his much more battle ready British fleet. So…there would be no invasion of Britain…. and Amanda, who has spent most of her adult life striving to learn French, lost her best opportunity to have become a fluent speaker at birth…along with the rest of us !!.

One evening we booked a table at La Cava Flamenco Bar. Cruisers passing through in previous years had recommended so it was on our ‘must do’ list. Flamenco dance, music and singing are very much part of the history and culture of the Andalucian people. We arrived early, ordered our drinks and plates of tapas and settled in to enjoy the performance. And quite some performance it was, the Spanish guitar player was exceptional, his fingers flew around the strings with ease, the accompanying male singer was both passionate and soulful, the 3 dancers (1 male, 2 female) were just amazing – never before has tap dancing looked so sexy! The energy and expertise of all 5 performers was incredible. The show was 2 hours long and it was certainly a night to remember. (€22 per person including one drink)

Cruising info to follow

The Bullfight – An age old Spanish Tradition ….. Aug 2011

2011-08-20T18:23:00.002+02:00

03-08 August 2011

We had a reasonably comfortable night at anchor behind the breakwater at Barbate and left early to continue our trip northwards up into the Bay of Cadiz. There was very little wind so we motored along and passed Cape Trafalgar, setting of the very historical Battle of Trafalgar. The shoal water goes for miles off the Cape, and we encountered some more over-falls and whirlpools. I imagine conducting an engagement of battle between the British and the Spanish/French fleets in unmanoeuvrable sailing ships in these currents would have been some feat indeed.

We motored north up the sand dune lined coast, a slight sea breeze finally filled in around 2.00pm so we managed to sail for 3 hours, not a good percentage on a 40 mile day but better than nothing. Finally we nestled into the very shallow anchorage between two breakwaters at Puerto Sherry, on the northern shores of the Bay of Cadiz – there were even some other cruising yachts in there. After our time in the Med and extended stay in Gibraltar we finally felt we were ‘circumnavigating again’.

The weekend came and it seemed as if every boat in the Cadiz area (and there are plenty), had left their respective marinas and came to our anchorage for the day to enjoy the sun and water. Each boat had at least 8 people on board, definitely a family and friends outing, dinghies buzzed around, windsurfers weaved through – some close enough to touch, kayaks drifted by, small fishing boats tried their luck to catch some supper, then the dreaded jetskiers with their noise pollution and annoying chop sped through being a dangerous nuisance and only narrowly missing several swimmers. We decided it was time to go ashore for some peace and quiet!

We took a long and hot walk into El Puerto de Santa Maria, it is one of the regions sherry making towns and a pleasant spot. We had seen a poster on the boardwalk along the beach that it was currently the summer festival of the Corridas de Toros - bullfighting week. Along with Ronda, the bullring here was one of the first in Spain to start bullfights with matadors on foot, whereby previously they had fought on horseback.

Bullfighting is a huge tradition in Spain, especially in Andalucia and although it is something we don’t agree with, sometimes you just have to see things for yourself and form your own opinion – we headed for the bullring to investigate further. It wasn’t hard to find, we just followed the crowds carrying red and yellow stripped cushions.

We discovered that Spain’s top ranking Matador was fighting that night and the ring was completely sold out. Tickets were available for Sunday night at €26 for seats in the sun, (€43 in the shade, the top ticket prices were €158!!) So we bought 2 sunny tickets for the next night, stopped for some tapas and cool drinks to revitalize ourselves then set about for the long walk back to the dinghy.

So on Sunday evening we headed back to the Bullring, there was a festive atmosphere; the audience was mainly over 30’s couples, even several groups of older women which surprised us, we thought it would be mainly men only. It was definately a Spanish crowd, this is not a tourist performance. We purchased two yellow and red cushions – we felt conspicuous without them! – and proceeded into the almost full ring.

Each fight (there were 6) started with a parade of the “participants” (bull excluded!) around the ring to considerable applause, then the ring is cleared and raked and the bullfight commences. There are several stages to the fight, and really it was quite a performance.

The bull is never going to win, that is something you need to accept or you may as well leave, however the art of the matador almost hypnotising the bull to the point where he is touching its horns, was in itself quite something to watch. The crowd go wild in their support for the more skilled Matadors, the fights last around 25 minutes and at the end if the crowd are impressed by the Matadors performance they all wave white handkerchiefs.

It seemed like the thumbs up or down of ancient Roman times when the gladiators were fighting. Although we do not agree with the killing of the bull at the end of each fight it appeared to be done as quickly and cleanly as a bullfight allows. It is something we will never do again, however this has been a huge part of Spanish culture and tradition for hundreds of years and was quite some spectacle.

It’s official - Balvenie has left the Med! ….. August 2011

2011-08-11T22:10:00.003+02:00

For a while there we thought the day would never come that we would let the lines go and leave Ocean Village Marina in Gibraltar. We had enjoyed our time there and our extended stay due to freezer and other repairs was no hardship at all. Finally we slipped out of the marina, turned right at the end of the airport runway, (checking the flashing warnings lights for incoming aircraft weren’t on!) and headed into the anchorage behind the breakwater back in Spanish waters at La Linea. When we had last been here the Spanish Coast Guard had evicted us after 4 nights, we were hoping to sneak another one or two in before they did their eviction rounds again.

Our next big adventure was to be transiting the Straits of the Gibraltar, in a nutshell – going through our third gate - leaving the Mediterranean Sea and entering the Atlantic Ocean. There are literally pages and pages of explanations in various cruising guides on how this should be done. In order to get the best ride with the least level of unnecessary excitement and discomfort possible you should combine perfect wind conditions with the correct current and tides. High tide in Gibraltar was 7.30am and you should leave 3 hours after it to make the most of the westward flow. 3 hours after high tide seemed a little late but all the books concurred so we followed their instructions. The wind forecast wasn’t perfect but it was for a very light westerly, so we crossed fingers and toes and lifted anchor.

As we motored southwest across the Bay of Gibraltar our very light wind built to nearly 20 knots, right on the nose, of course. But the sea was flat and there was a catamaran a little way in front of us that we were carefully watching, the water still looked flat out further so on we went. It’s around 15 miles from the anchorage to Tarifa Point, infamously known as the windiest point in the Mediterranean and the idea is that you get there at slack water. The Atlantic is apparently around 1.5 metres higher than the Med, (just how that works I have no idea) but in order for all this water to merge there are some very interesting overflows, whirlpools, and other unusual sea actions where sea monsters are likely to lurk.

We just kept on motoring through it, still on the wind, but apart from the water churned up with the current which Skipper kept chasing wherever he could, I am very pleased to report that it all went without incident. The breeze was a little cool for a while and we felt just a little envious of the small armada of yachts charging downwind towards us, crews lounging around in swimwear – just as excited to be entering the Med as we were to be exiting it.

We have enjoyed our time in the Med immensely, we entered from the Suez Canal on June 15, 2008 and have sailed to Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Malta, France, Monaco, Spain, Morocco and Gibraltar over 4 summers, we left on August 03, 2011. There are a few spots we didn’t get to, but not many, we gave it our best shot. Now we are in the Atlantic, the beginning of the trip home, but there is still a little more of the European Mainland to explore before we start heading south.

After we rounded Tarifa Point we pointed the bow north, not surprisingly the wind followed us around. We raised sails and set off on a tight reach into a building north westerly sea breeze. It turned into a rather lively sail in parts, our recently fresh water cleaned boat now covered in plenty of salt water, oh well, it’s a boat. As we came up the coast we passed hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines, always a bad sign when out sailing and this coastline is no exception. Added to the increasing winds we encountered several more areas of very interesting sea state, obviously caused by currents but they just seemed to be in random places. We sure encountered some churned up sea states, wouldn’t want to be out there when the wind was really howling.

After a busy day we pulled in behind the breakwater at Barbate at 5.30pm. We could tuck in enough to stay out of the Atlantic swell so dropped anchor for the night. It was definitely an extra tot for all for sundowners, or was it a couple of extras as we sat back and enjoyed out first sunset at anchor in the Atlantic, wow.

Cruising Info for Barbate, Atlantic Spanish Coast – August 2011

Barbate: 36 10.96N 05 55.37W 6.4m (at high tide) sandy bottom, good holding. Open to south and southwest and could get rolly, but there is a marina there also, we were anchored just in the entrance. We didn’t go ashore but understand there is not much there. Couldn’t pick up any wifi.

45 Nights in Gibraltar!!!! ….. July 2011

2011-07-31T19:49:00.000+02:00

09 – 31 July 2011

So we thought the freezer was repaired. We had returned from our great excursion to Ronda, I thought I had gone off to Morrisons Supermarket to stock up of English goodies for the last time and Skipper thought he would give the engine and freezer a final run before our departure the following day. Well WE THOUGHT WRONG!!!

When I returned laden down with bags of groceries one look at Mark told me all was not well. The engine had been running smoothly, the freezer had been cooling down – but then the freezer went into overdrive causing the engine rev’s to drop dramatically, and the newly repaired freezer condenser copper pipes fractured causing frion (freezing gas) to escape around the engine compartment. This was not a good thing and we were back to where we had started 3 weeks previously.

It almost goes without saying that it was now the weekend and it was the beginning of a 2 week long summer fiesta in Algeciras, Spain where the shipyard was located that had performed the repairs. We really weren’t that confident in sending the condenser back to somewhere for the 3rd time but Marcus assured us they normally were very good at what they did and and we had been very unlucky, and basically we had little choice. We looked into the options of having a whole new condenser made but it was decided that they could just chop both ends off, totally replace the serpent copper coil inside and weld the ends back on. Sounds straight forward, but then they couldn’t get the right sized copper so Marcus had to source that for us and they were only working 4 hour days because of the holidays – time to sit and play the waiting game - again.

To add insult to injury we noticed our water pump going when we weren’t using any water and investigated further. Our newly installed (in Gibraltar when we arrived) fresh water pipes had all cracked and were leaking into the bilge. How can this be? We decided that when the frion escaped from the gas pipes it would have chilled the air dramatically and possibly cracked the pipes, there was no other explanation, and no solution except to remove and replace them – again. We like to have things to do but this was getting ridiculous.

To keep our chins up, we now had some kiwis in harbour to wait and play with. John and Maudi on Ariki Tai had just brought a brand new, straight out of the shipyard, Cigale 16m speed machine, had sailed it down from France and were having it shipped to Australia. The shipment date kept being delayed so they were playing the waiting game too. Then there was Berserka II with Craig and Pam from Auckland, they have been living in England for a few years and decided to buy a yacht and sail home instead of flying. They had had quite an adventurous crossing of the Bay of Biscay in some big seas and strong winds, then more lively sailing down the Portuguese coast. So they were doing a few repairs and projects before heading across the Med with a view to going down the Red Sea and heading for Asia. This was a talking point over several kiwi happy hours.

Pam and Craig were the first to escape Gibraltar’s clutches. A few days later we joined Ariki Tai for a harbour tour, as we had offered to help with their loading. They had been advised to be ready to be hoisted onboard the ship at 7pm and had checked with the agent at 4.30pm to check all was on schedule and advised it was. We had left the marina at 6pm and at around 9.30pm we finally moved alongside - well they had waited 2 weeks, what was another few hours - the ladder came down and several men boarded, the slings were attached and some time later the hoisting began – eeek we were pointing downhill this is not a good thing so we were slowly lowered again and the slings moved, on the 2nd attempt all went well and Ariki Tai was onboard the Seven Seas Transporter Ship. It had been a long afternoon, we should have packed happy hour nibbles, refreshments and probably dinner but we never expected such a delay. Maudi had emptied all the food off to comply with Australian Quarantine laws (and kindly given it to us), so the cupboards were bare, it was water all round. It was Johns 70th birthday and he got a packet of crisps and a beer for his birthday dinner at 1am!!!! Maudi emailed us to say they finally left the ship at 12.30am, they had spoken to the Captain who had told them that as far as he knew the ship was not bound for Australia – we will be very interested to get further updates, just how many Brisbanes are there????

Friday afternoon Marcus called to tell us the condenser was ready, but it was too late for him to get across to Spain to collect it before they closed, and guess what – Monday was a public holiday!!!! But there was cricket, golf and another Grand Prix on over the weekend so the days just passed by, never has Mark watched so much sport while cruising. Tuesday morning the condenser finally returned and we set about to re-install it. We are getting good at this now, practice makes perfect, but it became apparent to both of us immediately that all was not well. It can only go in one way and it was all back to front. They had welded the ends on the wrong way round and the pipes were now facing in the wrong direction. Not surprisingly we were not impressed. So for the fourth time the condenser leaves Gibraltar bound to Spain.

It is back Wednesday and we finally get it installed for what we hope will be the last time, the gas pipes are reattached, and it is refilled with frion. The engine is run for a couple of hours and the freezer is working, what relief. We have now run it three days in a row and it is still working, so at last we are ready to leave Gibraltar. Yesterday we cleaned all the aviation fuel, dirt, dust, bird droppings etc off the boat, polished it all up and she was looking great. After 44 days of mostly sunshine this morning it was raining and we have had wind gusts up to 30 knots, it has rained dirt and Balvenie is filthy. The rain looks to have passed, time to clean up again.

The weather and tides will now dictate our departure. There is no escape from Gibraltar for Balvenie just yet.

Cruising Info for Gibraltar – July 2011

We are in the Ocean Village part of Marina Bay Marina. VHF 71, phone 00350 20073300, email pieroffice@marinabay.gi Summer rates are £22.50 a day 12-15m. Power is 15p KWH and water 1p per litre. Others on our dock have been charged excessively for what they should have been for water, the water metres are not on the dock so you can’t check on arrival but it may be an idea to ask the office to have them both recorded. We wrote down our power reading so we shall wait and see and report later. We are on floating docks, (but with med moor bow/stern lines) the fingers are very flimsy and do not have cleats on them. Difficult to keep the boat close for boarding! Think we were put here because of our draft but most yachts are in Marina Bay (slightly cheaper), it is all med mooring with very high concrete piers. Free wifi but basically it hardly ever works, they have been upgrading it since we arrived and if anything it is now worse. There are several bars/cafes along the marina front with free wifi. Charlies and The Ship have unlocked signals, they seem to be where the yachties hang out and have non stop sport/news with English commentary on. Sheppards and Marine Maintenance are the two chandlers and are just in behind the row of cafes. Both also perform most boat jobs. We used M.H.Yacht Preserve, Marcus was excellent and can help with most things. He arranged several covers to be made for Ariki Tai and they were very happy. He has a Spanish number 0034 645131988 or Gib 00350 54009394. He also arranges haul outs at the marina in Smir, Morocco. He is English but speaks fluent Spanish also. He is normally found somewhere in the marina. Phones In the marina we are picking up Spanish signal but if I take the phone onto Main street or to Morrisons it goes onto Gibraltar signal.which is non EU. So on Vodafone you go onto roaming and are also charged for incoming calls at over €1.50 a minute. To top up you need to walk to La Linea. On Gymsim Gibraltar is on a higher rate than the rest of Europe and you are charged for incoming, best make sure you are on a Spanish signal! Fuel There is a very long fuel dock on the right as you come down the “runway” to the marina. It has lots of very clean white fenders. Plenty of turning room, even room to drop sails. Diesel is 97p Petrol £1.07 Shopping Main Street is full of Duty Free Alcohol stores, Electronics (computers with English keyboards at good prices), souvenir stores and most UK High Street Fashion retailers. Food Shopping - Marks and Spencers (on Main Street right along the other end) has a small food outlet, I spotted Canadian Maple Syrup. And then there is Morrisons come out of southern end of Marina to the road, turn right cross at 2nd pedestrian lights then take first on the left past church and school. Keep walking, its a one way residential street through low rise blocks and looks like a dead end but carry on and you will eventually see McDonalds and Morrisons. Less than 10 minutes. Leave Skipper at home and find all those goodies you haven’t seen for years if you have come through the med. I didn’t find it any more expensive than Spain (except for wine and beer) and variety, well the lockers are overflowing! Laundry On the lane behind all the cafes self service is £5 a load, also do service washes. Money Remember prices here are in Gibraltar Pounds, and that there is no VAT in Gibraltar. Note that if you have a UK Bank Account and take money from an ATM machine it is not charged £ for £, it was processed at around 96.5p. The NatWest ATM gives out Gib Pounds but the Barclays gives British Pounds (but still charges lower rate). You can not get out euros. Gib Pounds are not valid anywhere outside Gib we are told! Sightseeing Local Buses (except No 5 to the airport which is easy to walk) are free and leave from just across from the Marina

Ronda, Andalusia’s gem ….. July 2011

2011-07-21T22:24:00.004+02:00

With all the repairs completed and the boat systems put back together again we felt happy to leave Balvenie in Ocean Village at Marina Bay Marina in Gibraltar. We changed our original plans to hire a car for a couple of days after reading of the scenic train journey inland from Algeciras. After checking the timetables we voted to utilise public transport so we could both enjoy the scenery.

So with passports, euros, camera and a change of clothes packed we walked across the Gibraltar Airport runway (which doubles as the only road into Gibraltar), left the country and wandered back into Spain. The bus station at La Linea is just a couple of blocks from the boarder, from there we caught the bus around the Bay of Gibraltar to the port town of Algeciras. Straight off the bus, across the road into the train station, all going well so far. With tickets purchased there would have been time for a quick coffee if there hadn’t been a tour party of around 20 people with the same idea. With 3 minutes to departure we finally got to the front of the queue, got two excellent cafe con leches to takeaway (good thinking), ran for the train, settled into our seats and enjoyed our coffees leisurely as we headed inland.

The scenery as we headed north and slowly climbed up the El Tajo valley was just beautiful. It started with orange groves, the trees heavily laden with fruit. Then at times we could have easily been back in New Zealand, huge freshly bound hay bales lay scattered in fields, the rolling hillside in the distance covered in bush, even small herds of cattle grazing in shade of trees. Next we moved through fields of sunflowers, for me there are two things that always bring a smile – dolphins playing around the boat and fields of bright, happy colourful sunflowers pointing their heads high to the sky. They were all in full flower, there were thousands of them. Then to add to the tapestry came orchards and vineyards, it was all just a feast for our eyes.

We passed small farm holdings, with cute bougainvillea covered stone houses built next to the river, colourful pots of geraniums surrounded inviting looking swimming pools, pockets of small vineyards and orchards were nestled in the grounds. This is one of the loveliest regions we have seen in our travels - and then we arrived in Ronda

Several friends had said “don’t miss Ronda”, we have been to several great Spanish towns, cities and cute little villages but Ronda was just something else. It is an absolute credit to everyone that lives and works there, the tourism department, the council, town planners and the mayor.

From the moment we alighted from the train to the clean and well kept train station and walked out onto the orange tree lined streets it just had a really good feel about it. There was no litter, no graffiti, most of the properties seemed to have been freshly painted, the streets all had signs, as did all the important buildings and monuments – all had explanations in Spanish and English. We walked down to the Hotel Morales, which we had pre-booked, checked in and freshened up then hit a local tapas bar recommended by the extremely helpful gentleman on reception at the hotel. We sat outside in a small local side street, nothing special about it but again everywhere clean and tidy, helpful staff, great food and ice cold drinks, Ronda rated as an A+ so far and we hadn’t even got anywhere near the good parts.

Ronda has a population of around 40,000 and is at 744m altitude perching atop the El Tajo gorge, surrounded by the Serranía de Ronda. The river which flows 100metres below, dissects La Ciudad - the Muslim fortified old town, from El Mercadillo on the northern cliff. Across the steep gorge spans the majestic Puente Nuevo completed in 1793, quite some project in its time. Sited in the “newer town” is the Plaza de Espana, large and open, lined with busy umbrella shaded outdoor cafes overlooked by handsome buildings. There is the Paseo de Blas Infante a well planted shady area along the cliff top, with lookouts affording stupendous views out over the surrounding countryside.

Then there is the Plaza de Toros, one of Spain's oldest bullrings, with the first bull fight taking place in 1785. This area is the birthplace of bullfighting with a huge history. Bull fights still take place annually in September. It also houses an informative Bullfighting Museum with many Goya sketches and prints of bull fights, Matadors costumes and other memorabilia. For firearms enthusiasts there is also a large privately owned Antique Fire-arms Collection comprising of 290 shotguns, hunting pistols and duelling sets. Adjacent within the same complex is an Equestrian School and a collection of Harnesses and Livery from the Royal House of Orleáns. Entry fee €6 each.

There was a concert advertised in the Bullring for “Tangos and habaneras in the music of Spain” that evening so we purchased tickets, headed back to the hotel for a late siesta and cool down before hitting the tapas bars again early evening. Something got lost somewhere in translation, the concert was a soloist piano recital in the library of the Bullring (it was a lovely library though!!) and the music wasn’t quite the “tango” we were familiar with – not really our scene but the pianist was excellent and it was just an hour, and there was a complementary local red wine tasting afterwards which perked skipper up a little!!

We went for an evening stroll, all the buildings, statues and bridges were very well spot lit, care and attention really has been taken to ensure maximum effect making sightseeing by night just as impressive as by day. We stopped for more tapas and a nightcap in a busy little lane filled with locals, before heading back to the hotel for a peaceful nights sleep.
Next morning we headed over the bridge and into the rabbit warren of lanes in the old Islamic quarter. We took an exit out and down a long twisting walkway to the bottom of the gorge, everything looked just as spectacular from below as it did from above. We tried to find a walkway that we thought circumnavigated the old city at river level but ended up deep in undergrowth, jumping from partially submerged stone to stone under the foundations of the ancient bridge. We took the sensible option and turned back and completed the rest of the circuit on the Camino de los Molinos, now in the searing hot sunshine, time for a drink.

We discovered the shady Plaza de Mondragón, surrounded by small museums, palaces and churches, its cobbled orange tree lined pavements again adding to the overall beauty. The tiny alleys leading off the square were full of whitewashed homes, window boxes with geraniums flowing down added vibrant colour and the most wonderful collection of heavily carved wooden doors completed the picture.

It was time for a long lazy tapas lunch again, then a final walk around ensuring there was nothing we had missed. We had checked the bus times and there was only one which left early afternoon so we caught the train back to Algeciras, the bus to La Linea and walked back into Gibraltar. Ronda is highly recommended and we both agreed it was one of the loveliest European historical town we have visited. to see the rest of our Ronda photos click here

Excursion Info for Ronda – July 2011

Exit Gibraltar, cross the road, go left past the Diner and Car Hire, take first street on the right. Walk down to roundabout and bus station on opposite side on right (about 5 minutes from boarder). Bus La Linea – Algeciras 1045/1130 €2.15 pp Train Algecira - Ronda 1145/1331 €9.15 pp (This is a “Media Distance Train”, its a local train stopping at all stops but only takes about 15 minutes longer to Ronda and is half the price of the fast trains. It is excellent, reclining seats, air con and both left on time) Return times were Ronda – Algeciras 1616/1807 and Algeciras – La Linea 1830/1945

We prebooked the Hotel Morales, through Expedia at €30 for a double room with air con and bathroom. Advertised rates at the hotel were €42. The hotels location was very good, handy for all the sightseeing, the bus station and the train station. The rooms are a little dark with only a window into the central atrium however it kept the room cool, it was very clean, quiet and comfortable and excellent value in high season. We found a little local cafe for breakfast.

Gibraltar – Solid as a Rock ….. June/July 2011

2011-07-14T18:48:00.001+02:00

18 June – 05 July 2011

After our short lived stint at anchoring we are back in a marina. We have tied up in the new Ocean Village part of Marina Bay Marina in Gibraltar, it is handy to everything and it certainly is a welcome change to be able to speak English and understand people again (well I say that loosely, there is a huge selection of English speakers down here and quiet a variety of different accents.)

Our main reason for tying up again is to get our refrigeration fixed. We have a huge freezer and 2 fridges that are cooled via a compressor driven by the engine. Very efficient when we are running the engine to move in and out of anchorages, but the down side is having to run the engine if we are not moving each day. As a result, we added a 12 volt motor to one of the fridges back in Turkey enabling us to use the boats stored battery power and we have used this fridge for most of our time in the Med. Its enough to keep wine and beer cold and hold a few provisions. So every now and then we turn the freezer on to make sure it is still working, and we did that coming into the La Linea anchorage adjacent to Gibraltar, and no prizes for guessing – this time it didn’t work.

Our fresh water pipes had developed a small leak over winter and we hadn’t been able to source the correct sized piping in Spain to replace it, so that was also on the “to do” list.

We arrived in the marina on a Saturday and decided to take the weekend off, Skipper indulged in watching several sporting fixtures on the very big screen televisions in some of the bars adjacent to the marina, with the added bonus of having a English commentary. There has been a frenzy of summer sport for him, golf, tennis, cricket, Grand Prixs, cycling, what more could he ask for. We decided to do as the Brits do, even in this warm climate and enjoyed a fine Sunday roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, yummy. We had been for a big walk earlier in the day so it was well deserved!

The Gibraltar maintenance diary reads as follows -

Monday - it was back to work, Mark found someone that could come the following day and check the gas levels in the refrigeration.

Tuesday – Marcus turned up with his gas bottle and pressure gauges to check refrigeration gas levels. Hmmm… no pressure. We had no gas. Then as he starts refilling, a loud hissing noise not unlike the noise of escaping gas could be heard. Bugger !!. We had a pin hole leak in the copper piping.

Wednesday – Tony turns up with his welding gear to repair the leak. But the leak was under the wooden support that holds the stairway in place, and it was both screwed and epoxied in, it wasn’t coming out anytime soon! So Tony tried his best to access the pipe with a small blow torch but in doing so burnt a hole in an adjacent pressurised fresh water pipe under the galley. Gave the saloon a nice fresh water hose down. Things had just got worse. It was clear that the copper pipe and attached condenser would have to be removed for a proper welding job to be done.

Thursday – Skipper and able bodied helper (me) start the long and fiddly procedure of removing the condenser from the bilge for possibly the first time in 20 years, it looked suspiciously like the boat had been built around it!! At some point before dark we got it out, after damaging one tube on it, removing lots of engine hosing and disabling the engine.

Friday – We give it to Marcus for repairing, and it makes its way across to Algeciras the big Spanish port on the other side of the bay for repairs.

Saturday and Sunday saw Skipper well rewarded for his hard work with as much sport as he could squeeze in, sometimes watching two big screens at once.

Monday and Tuesday – We found a plumbing store with all the piping and connectors we needed to replace the sizzled fresh water hosing. So it was time to hacksaw up our existing leaking pipes and replace them. Sounds easy enough, but lying upside down attaching pipes with glue that sets in seconds to other parts of pipes you can’t even see, requires a certain amount of skill, flexibility and just as much luck. After the 3 hours required time for the glue to cure we turned on the water pump and no leaks, yippee we have a fix.

Wednesday – the repaired condenser returns and we spend several hours trying to re-house it back in its cradle without snapping anything off. Success at last, the water pipes get attached, the seacock opened, and seawater spurts out of the gas pipes!!!! This is NOT a good thing, there is an internal leak, it should have been pressure tested. Out it comes again and we give it back to Marcus who sends it back to Spain, flip!

So we took some time out and explored Gibraltar, which really doesn’t take that long. We have walked miles and seen most of what Gibraltar has on offer. The Botanical Gardens are very pleasant, plenty of shade on a hot day. We caught the cable car up to the Top of the Rock, (£9.00 each return) it was just too hot to face the walk. The Barbary Apes are definitely the main attraction up there, they are the only wild primates in Europe, although I am not sure how wild they are, they certainly were at ease posing for photos.

There are old derelict army buildings up there, bunkers, lookouts, half torn down fences all in a dilapidated state –and litter everywhere. They really should be investing some of the entrance fees into tiding it all up, I imagine every visitor to Gibraltar (cruise ships by the dozen for a start) goes to the top of the rock and it really is a disgrace up there. The Mayor of Gibraltar and the Head of Tourism should catch the ferry across the straits to the Spanish enclave Ceuta and see what a wonderful job the Spanish have done to restore and preserve the historical fortresses and buildings.

As I was once told…”There are ruins and there are ruined ruins”. I’m afraid the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in Gibraltar is a classic case of the latter.

Tuesday – the condenser and attached copper pipe return with assurances that it has been repaired and pressure tested. We did our own little pressure test with the use of a dinghy pump and water hose. All seemed good. We set to and reinstalled it, we now know which pipe to pull, push, squeeze etc to get the condenser in!

Wednesday – Tony returns and finalises the plumbing, attaching the gas pipes to the condenser, then Marcus comes by to re-gas the whole system, no leaks, this is good. The engine has all been plumbed back together and we run the engine and freezer for 2 hours. It all works, no leaks and the temperature drops at the regular rate – maybe we will be able to stock up the freezer for the Atlantic Crossing after all – or maybe not (don’t miss the next instalment!!!!!)

Back across the Straits to Europe ….. June 2011

2011-07-02T22:55:00.002+02:00

14 – 18 June 2011

We enjoyed Ceuta and our short hop into Morocco, but after the lively sail we had had across the straits we decided to take advantage of a somewhat calmer forecast to venture back out. We had checked the weather sites – the GRIBS give us a good overview of the weather patterns and although they aren’t too accurate for inshore/coastal sailing they are useful, combined with Windguru a windsurfing web site that shows generally accurate wind gusts for thousands of points around the world – the GRIBS showed 7 knots in the straits, Windguru was showing peaks of 12 knots at Tarifa and 6 knots at Gibraltar, looked promising.

I popped up to the indoor market to stock up on some fresh produce and on my way back down to the marina noticed quite a few whitecaps outside the breakwater, mmmm, maybe tide against current as there was still no wind. So we let the lines go and motored out into the outer harbour to raise the main. We hadn’t gone more than 50 metres and it was now blowing over 20 knots, so with 2 reefs in the main and a reefed headsail – yet again – we headed north, pointing as high as we could on a tight reach across the Straits of Gibraltar. This time we were on the ferry route so we had an added dimension of excitement keeping out of their way as they power towards us at speed. The commercial shipping wasn’t too busy and visibility was better than our trip down. Things did get pretty lively as we logged gusts up to 37 knots, but we must have got the current and tide right as the water was reasonably flat and we whizzed across doing over 8 knots, at least you get there quick – so much for the forecast!!!

We entered the Bay of Gibraltar amazed at the the amount of anchored shipping, later when we climbed up the rock we counted 37 ships at anchor – it’s busy out there. We weaved our way into the bay and headed up past Gibraltar and the airport runway and back into Spanish waters. We motored around the outer breakwater in La Linea and dropped anchor inside this breakwater but outside the inner new marina breakwater. There were a couple of other yachts at anchor so we were hopeful that we would not be moved out of the anchorage, as had happened to many of our cruising friends at anchor here last year.

It was great to be at anchor again with The Rock a spectacular backdrop. We settled back into life at anchor, skipper braved the somewhat chilly waters and spent quite some time overboard cleaning the bottom of the boat. There wasn’t too much growth, the two speedy trips across the straits had loosened any nasties that had been hanging on for a free ride out of the Med.

We had developed some more maintenance issues to deal with, they just seem to keep on coming this year, good thing we are not in a hurry to get anywhere. Coming across from Africa our main B&G autopilot was sending out error messages and would not hold a course. Out had come the manual and it suggested a problem with the rudder, everything seemed ok there so skipper kept on looking and discovered both the positive and negative wires had come out of the actual autopilot motor, very strange as this is a fixed unit and nothing could have dislodged both the wires, but it had certainly happened somehow. So off came the unit and at first glance it seemed just a simple case of rewiring them in. We have an excellent selection of wiring connectors accumulated over the years, but did we have the right ones?, of course not, we had never even seen connectors that looked like this so our easy fix was looking harder by the minute.

Time for an excursion ashore, back to Spain. We dinghied into the yacht club and asked if there was an electrical store nearby. Amazingly there was one right across the road, over we went, showed them the connector and presto they produced a little box full of them – we just couldn’t believe it. While we were ashore we went for a walk around and into the small old town area which has been tidied up, restored and turned into a pleasant pedestrian area, we were definitely back in Spain. We walked across the isthmus to the eastern shore, the fog had come down again and was so thick we couldn't even see the sea lapping at the edge of the sand, the fog horns were trumpeting all around us, I was certainly pleased we were on land and not sailing out at sea.

Skipper replaced the connectors and put the autopilot all back together again, all seems good but it will need a good run to confirm it has been fixed. We spent 4 calm nights at anchor, the fog came and went at random, apparently it is most common with light winds and when the wind changes directions, we got used to the fog horns blasting all night long at times. On a windy morning the Guardia Civil motored around the breakwater and approached all of us at anchor and told us we must leave, there was no reason given just that we can not anchor there, there are no “No anchoring” signs displayed and it is shown as an anchorage in the Cruising Guide. It is a huge area and it is not a thoroughfare, rumour has it the new marina in La Linea asks the Guardia Civil to move the boats so we all will up anchor and go into the marina. Well it didn’t work on us, our refrigeration had recently stopped working so we decided it would be much easier to have it repaired by an English speaker so we dropped our Spanish courtesy flag, raised both our Gibraltar courtesy and quarantine flags and motored the one mile to Marina Bay/Ocean Village Marina in Gibraltar, it was time to speak English again, yippee!!

Cruising info for La Linea, Spain – June 2011
1st anchorage 36 09.62N   05 21.81W 5.8m   This was further out and we may well have been ok here the whole time (maybe not moved by the Guardia Civil), but we were getting some chop and the boats further in looked more comfortable.
2nd anchorage   36 09.39N   5 21.71W   6.5m   Great all round shelter in flat water. Dinghy can be taken into the Club Nautico, it is the marina for small boats on the left (Alcaidesa is on the right). Tie dinghy on the outside end of the closet pontoon to restaurant. Gates locked need to buzz to be let out then go to front desk to pay. It is €5 a day but they give you wifi access too but couldn’t get their signal from the boat
Puerto Deportivo Alcaidesa, (La Linea Marina)   Large new marina, not fully finished yet, floating docks – some with finger berths but most med mooring with dock lines provided. Shelter from swell looked very good (would only get swell in west or nor’west), very low lying so may cop the wind. Rates 12 – 15m are €19 plus power, water and 18% tax. Has wifi not sure if extra (it was locked).   About 10 minutes walk into town, found a Vodafone shop on main street and a reasonable Mercadona supermarket (tucked away in a back street). There were also signs for Carrefour but we didn't go there. English speaking British Forces Radio on 89.4FM.

Sampling the spice of Morocco ….. June 2011

2011-06-26T13:12:00.009+02:00

11 – 13 June 2011

With Balvenie all closed up we left her happily sitting in the marina in Ceuta, took a short walk up the road and caught the No 7 local bus the short distance to “la fronteria”, the border with Morocco. The border crossing was relatively straight forward, several men approached us wanting to “help” us, by offers of providing us with entry forms and taking our passports to clear us in. We declined all their kind offers of assistance, did they think we came down in the last shower or what???? Our passports are given only ever to someone official looking in uniform, who is located next to several others in uniform, who are generally behind glass screens and have stamps lined up on their desks , then, and only then do we hand over our passports and today was certainly no exception!!! So we survived the border crossing, pushed through the last gate along with several locals laden with plastic bags full of “western goodies”, and arrived in Morocco, I swear the temperature rose 10 degrees at least!

According to our trusty Lonely Planet (which we have been faithful followers of for 20 years now) we simply needed to catch a grand taxi to the main taxi station in Tetouan then change to another grand taxi to our destination for the day of Chefchaouen high in the Rif Mountains, all straightforward – here we go.

We found a taxi for Tetouan quite easily, well actually they probably found us, lets face it we don’t really look like locals. The grand taxis are all old Mercedes, somewhat beaten up, but there are hundreds of them, depending on your route they are painted different colours – we needed a white one – then they leave for your destination once full (I will just add here we are talking their definition of full – not ours!!!). The same systems apply in hundreds of countries but the choice of vehicle is normally a minivan, here we were thinking a Mercedes was such a good option, so much more comfortable, how naive are we????
The negotiations commenced with over 5 taxi representatives firing information at us in a mix of Arabic, French, Spanish and English – our brains in total overdrive . Quite quickly they realised that we actually wanted to go to Chefchaouen so a deal was offered of a taxi all to ourselves, directly there, and the best price offered was 350 dirhams. (current street rate around 10dirhams/1 euro, so €35), it’s around 130 km’s so yes, this does seem a pretty good deal. But once a backpacker, always a backpacker – we are not decadent westerners, we will share with the locals. So we paid the local rate of 20 dirhams each to Tetouan, much to the disgust of our driver. Quite soon we were ready to depart, but eek, there are 6 of us – plus driver, that equates to 4 in the back and 2 on the front seat (bucket seat NOT bench seat), and we were off, is it too late to be a decadent westerner?

I would like to say that everything went to plan, and we transferred to our next grand taxi without a hitch - but we were in Morocco, and we were feeling very much like we were in fact back in Egypt, nothing and no one are quite what they seem! Eventually in Tetouan our fellow passengers got out and we slowly unravelled our limbs and blood flowed again! But now we were as the mercy of our driver who decided to get one back at us and just deposited us on the street, grumbling all the time that we had not taken his excellent offer. Had we had a crystal ball we would never have left him!!

So here we were trying to work out on our Lonely Planet map just “where we were” when an English speaking local offered help. 'Ah yes', he said, 'just up those stairs and you will see the taxis' – we thanked him and off he went in the opposite direction and we went up the stairs. Mmmm, but no taxis, oh there are more stairs, maybe up there – but no, just a busy market place. Then guess who just popped up out of nowhere to “help” us again. At this point we should have just asked him to go away, but we are out of practice and followed him through the busy market lanes into a street that was indeed filled with taxis. More “help” was given and we agreed a price with the driver of 20 dirhams each, on the understanding that we would pick up more people enroute, seemed about right as it was around the same distance that we had already come, so in we got – so did the “helper” who said he was going there too, definitely dodgey but we certainly never felt unsafe – just like we were being taken for a ride.

And we were in fact taken for a ride, about 2 km’s to the correct taxi terminal, where our current taxi driver deposited us - very happy with his 40 dirham fare. We determined the correct fare to Chefchaouen was 30 dirham and found the next taxi leaving, however the driver would not go until we paid 5€ (50 dirham) to our “helper” for getting us there. Of course it all started getting a little messy then, this was only about 500 metres from where we had originally been dropped off nearly an hour earlier, but the other passengers were waiting, we don’t like making a scene in a foreign country and our “helper” kept shouting that 5€ was nothing to “people like us”, and here we were trying not to be decadent westerners. So we paid up and squashed ourselves into the one front seat free, knowing that “people like him” give places like this a very bad name. Sadly we have met many like him over the years, but we know that they are the exception and we tried to remember this as we sat like sardines very hot and bothered on the winding road to Chefchaouen!!!!

We arrived in one piece, literally stuck together all hot and sweaty. We had climbed all the way from Tetouan at sea level, high up into the Rif Mountains where we expected it to be cooler but it seemed even hotter. It was only 2 evenings previously that we had donned sweatshirts at happy hour, now it was over 40c, phew. We were in desperate need of refuelling so found a little busy place on the main market place square and joined the locals for excellent rotisseried chicken and rice, the staff were very helpful, the locals friendly, things were looking up.

Feeling somewhat revitalised we headed up the hill into the medina (old town), a wonderful place with a maze of colourful twisting alleyways, so much fun to wander around – but not when you are looking for your accommodation. We must have taken a right turn somewhere though as we finally stumbled upon it, the cute little Hotel dar Terrae, (380 dirhams per night - double with bathroom, breakfast and wifi). We checked in, had some refreshing local mint tea then pretended we were still in Spain and had a much deserved siesta!!!

Chefchaouen is a delightful little spot, nestled in a spectacular setting under the 1616m peak of Jebel el-Kelaá. The medina is traffic free (to be honest you couldn’t actually fit cars down most of the lanes) and although there are a few hardy tourists around it is still a very much lived in town and locals certainly outnumbered us tourists. The main square, lined with shaded cafes, faces the Kasbar used over the centuries to defend the town against the Berbers and Spaniards, its a compact area with lovely gardens inside, many birds singing in the trees, it all seemed so cool, calm and serene but I imagine with an invasion imminent it would have had a completely different feeling to it.

It was just too hot to think about attempting the one day hike up to the top of Jebel el-Kelaá so we settled on the much shorter walk out of the old town, across the river, and up the valley to a restored mosque, one of many we could see dotted further up the valley. We had only walked a short distance but had certainly arrived in rural Morocco very quickly. As I took in the view Mark got chatting to one of the locals, he offered to show us his thriving marijuana farm close by, an interesting experience we are sure but we thought it best to give that side trip a miss!!!

We had an enjoyable Moroccan minibreak here, our original intention had been to go onto Fez for a few nights before returning to Balvenie, but the heat and altitude was knocking us about, and my back had taken a double twisting in the grand taxis so I wasn’t feeling too mobile. Maybe we are just getting old and soft but for now at least we didn’t quite feel like tackling more Moroccan public transport. Skipper in particular is always telling me he has plenty enough adventure in his life on the high seas without doing it too hard on the land travel as well.

So we decided to return to Balvenie and will try to get into the marina in Rabat, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco when we are heading for the Canary Islands in September. From there we can travel by train to the main spots, and hopefully it may be a little cooler at the end of summer.

So we headed on down the hill to the grand taxi station and negotiated a rate of 400 dirhams all the way back to the boarder and had the whole backseat of the Mercedes taxi all to ourselves, pure bliss, so it seems even true blue backpackers can evolve given time and money!!! Our driver asked if he could drop a friend in Tetouan enroute which of course we didn’t mind – it actually made us feel a little better not being so extravagant as to have the whole car to ourselves.

We enjoyed the drive back, the road winds down the valley through olive groves and past many vendors selling colourful terracotta goods displayed along the roadside. After Tetouan we joined a motorway that ran just inland from the sparkling Mediterranean, it was a toll road with only a handful of other traffic on it, we were back to the frontier in no time. The boarder crossing was straightforward, the buses run continuously to Ceuta then just the short walk to the marina, all in under 2 hours, this is definitely the recommended option. For a short taste of Morocco one night would do it, with your own taxi each way, accommodation and meals you could easily do it for under €140

click here to see our Moroccan Faces web album

Where church bells and prayer calls blend ….. June 2011

2011-06-17T18:16:00.002+02:00

09 – 14 June 2011
After our disappointing one night stand in Morocco, we successfully navigated our way around the dredger and out of Marina Smir. The breeze was still from the west so we had another comfortable sail in flat water on the beam the 10 miles up the African coastline before turning into the Straits of Gibraltar and motoring the last 2 miles to Ceuta.
Ceuta and Melilla are 2 Spanish enclaves located on the northern tip of the African Continent, both are harbours on the Med and share their land borders with Morocco. As Ceuta was so near we decided to stop by and maybe explore Morocco from there. The marina is not very big and it was packed full with a fleet of leisure fishing boats partaking in a 3 day competition, but the helpful staff found a spot for us and we were tucked up in no time. The marina sits right under the palm lined promenade, handsome restored buildings line the streets, and a large fort dominates the centre. It all has a well looked after and cared for feeling to it, with a definite blend of European, African and Arabic cultures.
Ceuta has been a Spanish enclave since 1640, and because of its strategic location guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, has a long history of various empires warring over it and many invasions over the centuries.
The old city walls have been restored and make for an interesting outing, there are even information signs in English telling the gruesome story of a 33 year siege from 1694 that resulted in an outbreak of the plague and famine, resulting in countless deaths. There is a small museum within the complex that was worth a wander through, I thought it interesting a display of how four different cultures lived here side by side, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews – what interested me was the photographical depiction of these 4 religions…women in their cultural local dress, but the Christian woman was shown wearing sneakers, jeans and a white shirt – it some how just didn't look quite right alongside the other more colourful religious costumes….but probably quite accurate!

We felt happy leaving Balvenie here a few days, we had neighbours to keep an eye on her, and calm weather was forecast. We were only 2 miles from the Moroccan boarder, so it was out with the Lonely Planet and a short sojourn was planned.
Cruising info for Smir (Morocco) and Ceuta (Spanish enclave) – June 2011
Smir Marina - 35 45N 05 20W Entrance currently being dredged least depth 2.6m, stay close to the outer breakwater wall. Depths inside marina around 4 metres plus. Entrance would be untenable in strong (possibly even moderate) easterlies. Need to stop at dock by office on arrival and departure for Immigration. Berth allocation given here also. We side tied on dock by cafes, there did not appear to be any mooring lines to med moor although I have seen photos of yachts stern tied here. Power and water at dock, great water pressure. Cost for 12-15 metre incl power, water & tax 490DHS, converted at 10 to 1 was 49€ (huge increase from Cruising Guide). Showers and toilets by office. No wifi. Some restaurants along quayside, nothing else there. Gymsim international mobile worked, Vodafone Spain went onto roaming. Supposed to be very popular in July and August, not so appealing in June. Travelift and hardstand but no services. Didn’t see any ATM’s
Ceuta Marina – 35 53.46N 05 18.93W Plenty of room in outer harbour for dealing with sails but stay to the east side to keep out of way of fast ferries. There is some current at final turn for marina due to through flow of water in the moat. Fuel dock on left at entrance Diesel €.97c a litre (cheapest for a while). We called on VHF 9 first and they waved us straight into a berth on the wall, bow to with one stern line. If you are too far in there is some noise at night from Spoons Bar which is on the wall (it does however have a wifi signal!) Cost for 12-15 metre incl power, water & IVA 35.56€ p/n (another big increase to rates in latest Cruising Guide). Showers and toilets by office. No marina wifi. McDonalds with free wifi is just outside marina complex on the left. Lidls Supermarket, can see sign from marina to west. Morning fruit, veg & fish market in indoor Central Market. Cross road from marina and walk uphill, just there (its a small town), another supermarket in behind here. Bus No 7 to border (frontier) goes from outside market €.75c each, very regularly, takes about 15 minutes. Our Gymsim international mobile and Vodafone Spain both worked here ATM’s closeby.

Semi-circumnavigated and Crossing the Straits to Morocco ….. June 2011

2011-06-15T18:58:00.001+02:00

08 – 10 June 2011

We are now officially semi-circumnavigators. On 08th June 2011 at 11.27am, Balvenie sailed across the line of longitude which signalled exactly 180 degrees completed since leaving Westhaven Marina in Auckland, NZ on 08 May 2004. We are now over half way at last!!!!!

We had left Estepona with a solid westerly of 15 – 20 knots forecast. It was time for a change of scenery, language, culture, currency, country and even continent. With a double reefed main and a reefed headsail we zipped along in lovely flat water heading south towards Gibraltar. With the wind coming off the land it really did make for pleasant but still chilly sailing. Our plans were to pass “the rock”, and scoot south across the Straits of Gibraltar – just 14 miles of lively water where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea – then we would be back in flat water in the shelter of the African mainland for the last 10 miles down the coast of Morocco, now doesn't that sound like a great day out on the water?

As we manoeuvred through the parking lot of anchored freighters off Gibraltar the seas were still quite flat, the wind was fairly gusty but we expected that, then as we left the stationery shipping in our wake and headed out into the straits the wind increased steadily as it funnelled through the “Gates of Hercules”. Unfortunately it shifted slightly to the south as well which put it in front of the beam,. What followed next could be called a somewhat “sporty sail”, as we peaked with wind gusts of 34 knots, boat speeds of around 8.5 knots and the biggest salt water boat wash we have experienced in a very long while.

Added to this were the somewhat busy shipping lanes with huge freighters coming and going, some wind over tide, and the currents around these parts. It certainly wasn’t a boring crossing and before long we were back into flat water, sure get there faster when you go over 8 knots the whole time! We headed down the coast of Morocco to Marina Smir. We had had this marina recommended as a good spot to go out of the EU, it is located in a security monitored environment within a resort complex, but with no local town or real Moroccan flavour.

We got all the salty sails away, contacted the marina who gave us directions to make sure we left the red buoys to port (its a shallow entrance) and headed around the breakwater. Mmmm, there was a dredger operating and the entrance was closed off with lines across it. Surely the marina office situated no more than 50 metres away knew this. A small boat came out to us to guide us around it, we told them we needed 2.4m to stay afloat, they didn’t look too confident but told us to follow them in. Their lack of confidence was well founded as… not for the first time and no doubt not for the last time… we slid to a stately halt, grounded on the silty seabed. Skipper reversed us back out to deeper water and we dropped anchor as advised.

We would have been happy staying at anchor but anchoring in Moroccan waters is not permitted, so we sat and waited. The tide was coming in, but the tides here are not very big, it eventually appeared that we were waiting for the dredger to finish so we could go through the deeper water that was currently roped off. So after 2 1/2 hours we finally tiptoed in with 20cms to spare and docked at the visitors dock. Of course by now it was late and the office staff really didn’t want to be there any more, no “Welcome to Morocco” from the marina staff here!, just an invoice for 49€ a night to berth! Once cleared in we moved across to the wall to side tie, no marina staff to assist but we managed ok, we were in Morocco and excited to be here.

Unfortunately 3 different types of music booming out from the closest quayside restaurants (empty all night), the constant stream of people walking by peering into the boat, and the totally overpriced berthing fee all dulled our excitement of having arrived in Morocco. We had planned to leave Balvenie here to explore inland, but we weren’t feeling positive about doing so now and had a rethink overnight. Next morning we changed our plans, checked out, yelled across the bay to stop the dredger blocking the channel before we could leave, dropped our Moroccan courtesy flag, raised our sails and left Moroccan waters.

More miles – more marinas and a trip to Marbella ….. June 2011

2011-06-07T17:18:00.000+02:00

01 – 06 June 2011

Summer has officially arrived, but it seems someone has forgotten to tell the weather gods.   The temperature has cooled a little and there has been thunder and lightening around, oh well, not much we can do about it.

The days are passing but nothing much seems to be changing. We have moved along the coast, first of all to Fuengirola and then onto Estepona where we currently are. Both trips were around 30 miles, pretty uneventful with light easterlies that teased us into taking the time to set the sails, only to have the wind drop out after a couple of hours. Our trip here to Estepona was somewhat rolly, and we had stayed in Fuengirola an extra day to give the swell time to settle.

We caught the bus from Fuengirola to Marbella, Spain’s waterfront “Golden Mile” destination of choice for the rich and famous. There is a lovely old town area, compact but cute, full of some upmarket shops and plenty of restaurants. We didn’t take the bus the additional 6 kilometres out to Puerto Banus, we hear it is Spains most expensive marina and full of some very big “gin palaces”, with some rather glitzy waterfront cafes. But we have certainly seen enough marinas in the last month so instead explored all the small alleyways and plazas in the old town which didn’t take long, so there was nothing for it but to find a spot for some early afternoon tapas before our bus back again.

Fuengirola’s waterfront is lined with high-rise apartment blocks and hotels, it is the busiest spot we have seen so far but we still thought it was pretty quiet, considering it is the beginning of June the tourists are few and far between.

So now we are in Estepona, we can see the “Rock of Gibraltar” just down the road, and this morning it was clear enough to see Morocco too. Tomorrow we have a nor’wester of 15-20 knots forecast so we shall head down the coast, our final part of the Mediterranean coastline. If the Straits look a little too lively we might stop in Gib, if we are up to a sporty sail across the straits then it will be onto Morocco – we are ready for a change of scenery and culture.

Cruising info for Fuengirola and Estepona – June 2011

Fuengirola Marina – 36 32.50N   04 36.97W Entrance straightforward but totally exposed to the east and quite a swell rolling in with easterly winds, not too much movement within the marina. Depth at entrance around 4m, 3.5 at berth. Visitors/waiting dock on right after the fuel dock, reasonable room to manoeuvre. Not much room in fairways between docks though. Plenty of bars and restaurants around marina area, (with English, Dutch and German menus!). Closet ATM opposite Club Nautica restaurant in Marina complex. Clean showers and toilets, self service laundry.   Free WIFI, average signal. Good Mercadona Supermarket, head east along waterfront just a few minutes, it is one block back and you will see the sign and the carpark signs from waterfront road. Bus to Marbella from bus station (about 3 blocks inland and slightly to the west of the marina) leaves 1/2 hourly on the hour abut €3 pp one way. Marina €35 per night all incl.

Estepona Marina – 36 24.91N   05 09 .45W   Entrance all ok we did briefly see 3m at end of wall but maybe cut the corner a little closely. Entrance exposed to southwest. Visitors/waiting dock on right with little white office on it. Good area in manoeuvre and plenty of room in fairways for a change. Clean showers and toilets. Laundry (not self service) on alley behind marina. Free WIFI, good signal. ATM by Marina office (max €300). OpenCor Supermarket just across the road, reasonable selection but most expensive we have seen in Spain. Estepona town quite a walk along the front to the North, not much there (found a Vodafone shop) Marina €40 per night, think power and water will be extra, too expensive for what is here really.

Day out to Málaga ..... May 2011

2011-06-04T19:09:00.004+02:00

31 May 2011

We decided to do a daytrip into Málaga while we were in Caleta de Velez, and even had enough sense not to go on Monday when the main sites would be closed!

The bus trip took about an hour and a quarter along the coast road - through all the towns, villages and resorts along the way, somewhat slow with all the stops but interesting to see the coastline from land for a change. It is not all tourist developments, their are many local homes painted white and decorated with local tiles to remind you that you are certainly in Spain.

Málaga is another port city with a very long history, nearly every civilisation that invaded and occupied all the other Mediterranean ports had their turn is Málaga too. It has quite a Moorish flavour to it, the well preserved Alcazaba dating from 1057 is perched on the highest point. We enjoyed walking through the well shaded gardens, and exploring the chambers and rooms. There are ongoing restorations and it is all in very good order.

Set into the hillside below the Alcazaba is a small Roman theatre, guess the Romans were here too!! Some of the pavement around this area is made of thickened glass, there are obviously many ruins underneath and the glass enables an insight into what lies below.

It was one of the warmest days we have had this season and all this sightseeing takes its toll. We headed for a cute little outdoor cafe adjacent to the Alcazaba and topped up our fuel tanks with a couple of cool drinks and a tapas tasting menu, excellent.

Time out for tapas

Next up was the Picasso Museum, located in the ancient juderia sector of the old town, sited in the 16th century Palacio de Buenavista, a beautiful building but it should be, it has recently undergone a €66 million restoration! Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, although he moved to Northern Spain with his family at a young age. His family have donated over 200 of his works, spanning his career. There were two or three that actually looked quite “normal” looking paintings, the rest - well they were definitely what you expect a Picasso to look like.

The other main attraction was the Cathedral, built during the 16th and 17th centuries it displays mixtures of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles, guess that happens when somewhere takes two hundred years to complete, and then they never completed the southern tower. It is an enormous building and dominates much of the old town.

The bus back to Caleta de Velez went on the motorway, for a while we were worried we were actually on the wrong bus but it was an express and got us back in 45 minutes, it had been an enjoyable day out. We had seen everything in the area now, it was time to move on – next stop Fuengirola.

Entrance Fees: Picasso Museum €6 Alcazaba €2.10 Cathedral €6 Buses: €2.56 pp each way

Back in working order ….. May 2011

2011-06-03T15:07:00.003+02:00

24 May – 29 May 2011
Our unplanned stop in Marina del Este was only for 3 nights. The mechanics were fast and efficient and did an excellent job of removing the injectors and injector pump, sending the pump away for servicing, cleaned the injectors, put it all back together and had Olive our Volvo running smoothly in record time. They were even kind enough to let us use their pool car to drive over the hill to Herradura to make daily raids on the Cash Machine so we could pay them!

We left Marina del Este early afternoon and headed another 17 miles west, we were expecting to motor as there was no wind forecast, and thought it would be good to give the engine a good run. However we couldn’t resist sailing when a light easterly filled in, we just poled out both the headsails and had a lovely slow but comfortable trip along to our next marina stop at Caleta de Velez.

We were pleased to be able to make it here by Saturday as Mark’s cousin Sally and her husband Graham were holidaying from England were and staying with their friends John and Barbara inland from Caleta de Velez and we had planned to rendezvous with them.

It was great to see Sally and Graham and to meet John and Barbara. John has built and owned wooden boats so he was very interested in looking through Balvenie, and we are always happy to show her off! We found a great restaurant on the waterfront, jam packed with locals enjoying a long Saturday afternoon lunch. We joined in for an excellent “Menu del dia”, sat down in the shade - the Mediterranean just metres away and whiled away the afternoon eating, drinking and talking, very Spanish indeed!

Our visitors headed back to the hills early evening, it had been great to catch up. After a quick well earned siesta we hit the bars looking for a big screen to watch the final of the European Football Cup. Barcelona were playing Manchester United and we were absolutely amazed to find that every local was supporting Man U and not Barcelona. A couple of the locals that could speak some English explained that if we looked at the Barcelona supporters in the stand at Wembley you would be hard pushed to see a Spanish flag anywhere. They all either flew the Barcelona Club flag or the regional Catalonian flag, they did not see themselves as Spanish. We found this very interesting, we all have fierce rivalry within regions of our countries, but generally if we are playing away we will support the Kiwi team, from whatever region.

Cruising info for Marina del Este and Caleta de Velez – May 2011
Marina del Este – 36 43.67N 03 43.57W
(We only came in here to undergo engine repairs) Approach to entrance totally exposed to the East, there is some surge inside as swells reflects off rocks, even in light easterlies and we met a boat that had left the marina after spending 2 nights in there with 30 knot easterlies as the surge was so bad (they went to windward in 30knots to get out!!) It is a small marina, we ended up paying up for a longer berth just so we could manoeuvre into it. The 2 mooring lines that were pulled up were not attached to the bottom, the chain had worn through!! They did replace them first thing the following morning but this is a very expensive marina and should be maintained accordingly. The staff, however, were excellent, spoke good English, answered channel 09 on VHF and were ready to assist us when we were towed in. There is a fuel berth and waiting berth on the right on entering and room there for turning. Least depth seen 3.5m (on fuel berth). Clean showers and toilets, free wifi, small minimarket, laundry (not self service), a few restaurants, and a couple of shops. Mechanical repairs onsite, reasonable English spoken, €40 per hour. Hard stand with large travel lift, . Very steep walk over hill to Herradura town. Cost €55 per night plus power and water

Caleta de Velez – 36 44.85N 04 04.03W
Huge breakwater, entrance exposed to south. Very big fishing port with a lot of fishing boat traffic but marina is at far end so little noise or wash from the boats, does smell somewhat fishy. The waiting dock is on the left past the fuel dock, it has a huge sign on it, it is only about 15 metres long and is covered in seagull droppings – wear shoes!!! There was no one to take lines. Plenty of turning room, depth around 5 metres from memory. Clean showers and toilets, self service laundry €3, free wifi but weak signal. Cost €19 per night all included still low season until 31 May. Main road just behind marina has good bakery, not so good butcher and a couple of supermarkets (more minimarkets) within a couple of minutes walk. there is also a Saturday morning market on this road, mainly clothes but some produce. Lidls Supermarket is about 10 minutes away, head right (east) on the walkway along the beach until you get to a pedestrian roundabout (cobbled pavement), there is a road roundabout with a boat on it and you can see Lidls just behind it. Buses to/from Malaga leave from main road just by the hotel with the big green hotel sign on top. We caught one to Malaga at 12.35pm and back at 6.50pm €2.56 each one way about 1 1/4 hours there along the coast, 45 minutes back along the motorway.

Oh no – we need a tow!!!! ….. May 2011

2011-05-30T23:42:00.003+02:00

23 – 25 May 2011
We finally departed Almerimar Marina around 11am once a light easterly breeze had filled in, we raised the main, poled out the headsail and even rolled out the staysail too, just to make sure we caught all of the breeze that was coming our way. It was a beautiful day, this is how it is supposed to be, blue skies, almost flat seas, light winds, snow capped mountains in the distance and even the occasional dolphin. But of course good things never last, the wind either dies or you get beaten up, at least today we weren’t due for a beating! We sailed for as long as we could, but the wind just died away and with over 40 miles to cover to our anchorage we had to eventually give in and we ended up motoring for 5 hours.

We were headed for Herradura , one of the few bays on the coast and we hoped we would be able to tuck into the corner away from the ever present south easterly swell. Just after 8pm we passed the nearby Marina del Este, rounded the next headland and pulled into the bay. With the engine in very low revs we slowly nudged our way in towards shore looking for the best spot to anchor the night, and then the unthinkable happened, Olive our trusty Volvo engine just stopped without even a hiccup of a warning. So without any further debate we decided that where we were was by far the best spot to anchor, and over it went!!

Now attached to the bottom, it was time for skipper, Mark the Mechanic, to get the engine going again. After owning Balvenie 8 years now and undergoing most of the maintenance and repairs ourselves, there is really not much that Mark does not know about Olive (his other woman!), but this time she had us totally stumped, the engine would turn and turn, but just would not fire. So after checking everything at 11pm we admitted defeat and headed for a much needed sleep.

We awoke the earliest we have in ages, even managed to check into our morning Cruisers Net for a change and say hi to a few friends dotted across the Med. Then with crossed fingers toes and everything else and hoped for an overnight miracle. But it was not to be our lucky day, still plenty of rrrrrrrrr’s but the ole girl just would not start. More checks were done, fuel filters changed, engine bled, air filters changed, then tried with no air filter, lift pump checked (for the technical amongst you) engine bled again and again….. but no joy. Nigel Calder's “Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual “ (otherwise known as “what does Nigel say??) was consulted yet again, and still we came up with no answer.

Plan B was to wait for the wind or afternoon sea breeze to arrive then hoist some sail and sail the 2 miles into the marina. Skipper was itching to give it a go…after all… he’d done it before… yeah right, but that was a 34 foot race boat with half a rig and 6 blokes on board (you know who you are). I was not quite so enthusiastic. My built in alarm system, honed over the past 7 years, was ringing in my ears. Skipper is the first to admit that he has a propensity to turn a bad situation into a very bad and expensive situation if given too much scope to act unsupervised. However, as the morning progressed the wind just would not fill in.

Plan C was to call the nearby marina to see if we could arrange a tow, they were extremely helpful but unfortunately their own tender is only for use within the marina complex and they were not able to find anyone else that could help us. Coastguard could come and get us, but for the 2 miles it would be €300 – we would save that as a last resort. Our dinghy with its small outboard just wasn’t up to the job of towing nearly 20 tons so we decided to sit and wait, hoping for the wind to finally fill in so we could sail around to the marina entrance then be assisted in by the marina tender.

While we waited skipper kept trying. We phoned Volspec in the UK, we have purchased several spares and our new turbo through them so thought they may have a technical side that could help us. They were excellent, and spent nearly an hour on the phone with Mark, talking him through several options, most of which he had already tried. Although they could not shed any light on our problem either, we found them extremely helpful and appreciated the time and advice they gave us.

And so we waited, but the wind didn’t blow – so the boat wouldn’t go – we definitely needed a tow. Just before 3pm a large local inflatable came into the bay and we managed to wave it over. With a little persuasion and enough euro's to fill his petrol tank a couple of times, it was anchor up and off we went. We called the marina and they were ready for us when we were towed in, our little towboat did a great job and we got tied up on to the fuel dock without incident, phew.

Within minutes the marina had organised mechanics and they arrived within an hour. And so the tests started over again, but still Olive refused to start. With all options exhausted, the air filter was removed and a can of miracle spray produced, one squirt straight into the turbo fan was all it took and we were back in working order, absolutely amazing – we want some of this stuff!!!! It creates a mini explosion in the engine and fires the pistons … so I’m told. They tell us it should only be used when everything else has been eliminated, for obvious reasons.

We moved over into a berth for the night, Olive was starting well but she wasn’t running smoothly, the cavitating revs we had experienced before arriving in Cartagena in October had returned. We had hoped the new Turbo and cleaned injectors had solved the problem, but clearly it hadn’t. It was time for the fuel injector pump to be removed and serviced, it was last done over 4 years ago in Singapore after our engine problems in Indonesia, but that was many miles and engine hours ago. We will stay a few days and get it sorted here.

Cruising info on Herradura - May 2011
Herradura 36 43.56N   03 44.26W
8.5m sand One of the few anchorages with some coverage along this coast. We were able to escape most of the easterly swell and if wind/swell was from the west you could tuck in over the other side of the bay. Totally exposed to south. Long sandy beach, ATM's on foreshore road , some restaurants. A couple of supermarkets a block inland, closed at siesta time. No free wifi, used dongle

Waiting for the weather in Almerimar ….. May 2011

2011-05-26T14:32:00.002+02:00

15 – 23 May 2011
The days just seem to pass by as we stayed tied up in the marina at Almerimar. For the first few days the wind just kept howling out of the north east, bringing with it cloudy skies and even some rain. The Costa del Sol (Coast of Sun) was certainly not living up to its name.

After working every day on boat jobs in Cartagena we now felt somewhat idle, but that feeling doesn’t last too long until you kick back and enjoy the leisure time. Almerimar is situated on a long pebbly beach, going for miles and miles, the shoreline has been developed over the years with a huge range of accommodation for the Northern European sun seekers. There are some upmarket apartment complexes with manicured grounds, swimming pools and tennis courts, then there are blocks that have certainly seen better days with most of the paint flaking off and the buildings crumbling at the corners. In addition there are developments that have clearly run out of money and stand unfinished, scaring the landscape, and amazingly even more developments still with building underway – just who they are expecting to sell these to when there are so many empty properties on the Spanish coastline is beyond us.

We got plenty of exercise and walked everyday, covering a fair few miles in all directions. One afternoon we explored the neighbouring Puntas Entinas Nature Reserve in search of the pink flamingos and white headed ducks that have found that these wetlands are one of the few places where they can reproduce successfully, thereby avoiding extinction. It was an interesting walk through the sand dunes and into the wetlands, but maybe we shouldn’t have gone at siesta time as not a feather was spotted!!

At last the strong winds eased, but of course then there was no wind. The weekend was coming so we decided to stay put for a couple more days so Mark could catch up with all the sport including the Spanish F1 Grand Prix and I could join the local walking group and hike off into the mountains. Sunday morning dawned clear and warm so off I went.

There was a small group of 7 of us, we drove off inland and upwards into the Sierra Nevada foothills for about an hour then embarked on a 13 kilometre walk. Part of the walk was following an ancient water canal system first built by Moorish settlers hundreds of years ago. It was used until quite recent times when the steep heavily terraced land was still planted but now lies overgrown and decaying, most the land is no longer used.
However there were still a few pockets of farmed land, some small vineyards, horses grazing, wild flowers waving in the gentle breeze, streams cutting through the rocks and even some waterfalls. It was an enjoyable walk, great to get back inland and up into the hills, everywhere was still green after winter but I suspect the hot sun will having it all looking rather dry in no time at all.

Meanwhile Skipper had enjoyed his sports fix, having had the added bonus of English commentaries on television. Due to the large expat community living both in and around the marina there is a selection of English/Irish establishments to while away a few hours with a pint, and perhaps even some fish n chips!!

We enjoyed our time in Almerimar, even throughout the period of strong winds there were boats coming and going all the time so always new neighbours to talk to. All of them were heading east, into the Med and into the headwinds and big seas. None of them were enjoying it much, but the ones that kept going were all crewed boats and the owners wanted the boat in a particular place, by a specific time – and it was the crews job to get it there. We value having the time and flexibility that our cruising life allows us so we can minimize the unpleasant passages we have.

Monday was forecast to be 10 – 15 knots from the east, clear skies and slight seas. It was time to say goodbye to all our new friends and move forever westward.

Cruising info for Almerimar Marina is on the previous posting.