Las Palmas de Canaria

Costa Brava

Princess with her prince.

And the castle.

We can dream, can't we?

Meanwhile two days after the crew (Barbara and Alicia) left... in real life: It’s four in the morning and NOT a good time to be suddenly woken up to a screeching, howling wind rattling the rigging and pulling on the mooring lines. Looks like we’re having a tramontana and the only good thing about it is that I’m in a marina and not an anchorage.

Even though it’s already past the middle of April, mornings are still cold and the nasty north wind doesn’t help, so the little electric heater is humming away while I quickly poke my head out the hatch to check the wind instruments. Nearly 30 knots. Then I return to the cosyness of the cabin and my very early cup of coffee.

Costa Brava and the Gulf of Lyon are infamous for tramontanas or mistral wind. It appears suddenly out of nowhere and often reaches gale force strength in a quarter of an hour. You don’t want to be at sea when it blows, or a lee shore anchorage. Time to stay put. Also, time to check the engine, which has been misbehaving and the sails that were torn recently. Time to wait for new crew to arrive and also perhaps time to do some sightseeing of this beautiful part of Spain. From land.

The old man and the sea...

I love monochromatic images.
Notice the seagull sitting on the bow of the row boat.

Palamos

So, finally this morning about 11, Harry (a new crew from Canada) and I left Sant Feliu de Guixals and moved about six miles east to Palamos. It took nearly all day at anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 knots. Great wind from the SSE at about 5-10 knots gave us a downwind run. Perfect day: sunny but not too hot.

Palamos is a bit bigger than Sant Feliu and has two harbours: the commercial with a small Club Nautica for the locals and then the Puerto Deportivo on the east side for the rest of the yaties. The town is nestled between the two.

I need to repair the jib here so we´ll be staying put for a couple or three days. Not a problem, this is a gorgeous part of the coast.

Price of four bolts

View from the hatch
Eidos' cockpit during haul-out

While in the middle of the Atlantic two years ago, I decided to tighten a loose nut on a bolt holding the binnacle to the cockpit floor. Instead of tightening, the bolt sheared off - completely rusted. That left three bolts holding the steering wheel in place plus four screws on a metal covering sleeve making the whole assembly impossible to access for repairs at sea. I should have thrown the whole thing over the side right then and there.

Instead, we checked to make sure that the emergency tiller was easily accessible from the cockpit locker, lashed the binnacle to a cockpit winch and prayed for the steering to hold for the remaining 2,000 miles to Portugal. It did.

Once back near land and faced with only day sails, I got slack and ignored what could have been a huge problem when (not if) the remaining bolts broke and I lost my steering. My excuse? I didn’t have a large enough screwdriver to take off the covering sleeve. Until now.

Seeing that the boat was hauled out and I knew a trustworthy mechanic, I asked him to do the job. Change four bolts – what could be simpler, right? I could have done it if I had a big screwdriver and the muscle to turn it. Not!

The job turned into a maze. To take the four rusty bolts off, Albert and his helper had to take of the covering sleeve over the bottom part of the binnacle. Of course the whole bit underneath was corroded, not just the bolts, because water in the cockpit drains that way. So they had to disconnect the chain, the cable, the wiring, and take apart the entire assembly before they could access four measly bolts.

About ten hours later and 300 Euros bill, it’s done and in working order again. And for what? Just to have a wheel instead of a tiller? Whoever thought of this “improvement” should have their head examined and be made to spend ten hours in the space under the cockpit in 30-degree heat.

My advice? Never buy a boat with wheel steering.

Changing four bolts
Another world away from the boat yard.

Day Two of haul out

So here is day two of the haul out. Eidos is getting the power wash treatment and what a difference it makes – she still has some paint left! She has a bit of damage at the bottom of the keel where someone ran aground in Florida (Moi? Never! Well, only once or twice). Anyway, this has to dry out and then will get plugged up with some fibreglass. Meanwhile she needs a light sanding to get the hull smooth and one of the thruhulls has to be replaced.

The other photo is a view of the boat yard and marina – Eidos is way in the back under the white crane. If you’d like to see more photos, go all the way down this page to the Flickr slide show and click on MORE!

San Feliu de Guixols, Spain - Eidos haul out - before

Finally, I have given in and hauled Eidos out. My wallet is screaming in agony but Eidos is smiling, “it’s about time.”

It’s been almost three years since she had her bottom painted and I only scrubbed her in the Bahamas two years ago while she was in the water, timing it with low tide and letting her settle on the bottom so I could do it standing up rather than swimming. However, that only got the top two feet cleaned.

And then last winter, we were on the Guadiana river for a few months, which helped to discourage the salt water critters from hitching a ride on her and encouraged the river rats which got off when I returned to the Med last spring.

But as you can see from the “before” photos, she definitely needs the exfoliation treatment. I’m thinking that I do too, but can’t afford it now. ;-)

Laundry Day

Cobwebs are getting swept, laundry done, plants watered, water tanks topped up, oil changed in the engine, and shopping for groceries just about done. I only wish I could find that pesky leak in the dinghy! All we need now is a good weather forecast and we're off.

Almost Spring

Well, it's a stretch, but March is spring!

I will be back on the boat in March to get Eidos ready for the new sailing season and plan on heading further east in April. Thinking of Rome for next winter.

To those of you who have been asking for more posts - they're coming!

Adios Mallorca, Hola Barcelona

This is the view in the middle of the sea and what I most love about sailing.

I think Christopeher Columbus here is pointing towards India.

And this was home for four days - downtown Barcelona.

Just in case you were wondering why I haven't posted for awhile - been sailing... Always some new place tempting beyond the horizon although I had started growing roots on Mallorca . The sail was about 36 hours.
Winter is here now with thunderstorms, gale-force winds and lots of clouds. No snow because this is after all southern Spain, but the heater is on most days and the portholes sealed with extra insulation from bubble wrap. I think it is time to do some family visiting.

Cruising with Sue and Louise

 Two of my crew, Sue and Louise, who sailed with me along the southern coast of Spain.

Wind is picking up!

 We stayed out away from land and never had to worry about being swept to the rocks. And we had a gorgeous view of the coast to boot. This is the coast near Cabo de Gato rocks.

Good decision not to anchor here! No sign of pink flamingos either.

 Sue is contemplating the surf. This is the shore near Cabo de Gato rocks and a lee shore on this day, so not a good place to anchor. We continued to San Jose harbour around the corner and were safe during that night's gale that had winds blowing up to 40 knots.

Cabo de Gato - the cat's teeth

 Cabo de Gato is an appropriate name for this coast. We sailed right past these rocks, but gave them a lot of room. There is a popular saying among sailors: "when in doubt, stay out". Which means, deep water is safer for boats in unpredictable weather than getting too close to land, hoping to get to a safe harbour. The best thing to do is to stay at least three to five miles offshore where the water is deep.

The very narrow entrance to Solier, Mallorca

 Yes, that is where we need to go to get out of the harbour and of course the rocks on both sides slant down to make the passage even narrower for a sailboat's keel. Good thing it's a calm day.

Some Images of Mallorca...

These photos are from several driving excursions around the western part of the island.

Cruising around Mallorca, Spain

Notice how tiny the white boat is next to Isla Dragonera's cliffs in the first photo. The watch tower at the top of the rock would have been an amazing place from which to watch the sea for pirates and invaders.

The harbour on the bottom right hand corner image is in Solier - the only safe refuge on Mallorca's nearly 50 nautical mile long northwest coast. You don't want to be caught out near those rocks when the Tramontana blows!

The top right hand photo is from Ibiza's west coast - it is just as forbidding as Mallorca's. Don't try to anchor there, the water is often 200 feet or so deep right up to the rocks.

Eidos under sail

This is what Eidos looks like under sail. The photo was taken by Heidi and Hans on the northwest coast of Mallorca and as you can probaby guess we're motor-sailing. Stunning scenery, though, don't you think?

Living Aboard in Spain

I like living aboard in Spain. In Port d’Andratx, I’m two minutes away from the friendly fruit and vegetable market whose owners greet me with a ‘Hola’ and a smile each day. They correct my bad attempt at Spanish pronunciation of words such as ‘tomate’, ‘pimiento’, ‘pepino’ and ‘lechuga’ for my 'ensalada' and teach me new words that I forget before the day is over. Yet, some of it sticks and together with hand signals and the odd sketch on a paper napkin, I’m now able to make myself understood in my daily life. I try not to speak English if possible, even though most of the shop owners and restaurant waiters are multilingual. They have to be, to run a business and I often hear them switch from German to English, then to Spanish and also their native Mallorquin within the span of a couple of minutes according to the nationality or preference of each customer. As for me, learning a new language is one of the thrills of cruising.

Summertime...

Summer time, and the living is easy...

Yes, October can still be nice, but these photos are from July and August. I'm just slow downloading them... Right now we're expecting a bit of clouds and even some rain, so I won't bore you with those images. Ugh!

Oh, and I think I might have crew for the passage to Barcelona. James, an old friend might come from the U.K. if he can find a cheap flight out.