Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Post La Graciosa

The jobs list is getting shorter. John seems to be able to get atleast one job done a day, if not more. I've got into a good routine of school in the morning, while John works on the boat, and then we are off doing something in the afternoon. Similar routine to the one we followed in Gibraltar. Thankfully, Adam slots into all of this in his good natured way.




So, after our idillic time in La Graciosa, we headed to Arrecife, Lanzarote, where we bid farewell to Jocelyn, (she is now on a NZ boat who should be making the Atlantic crossing sometime next week). 


While in Arrecife we were able to do a bit of tourizing around the island which was pretty amazing.

The last volcanic erruption in Lanzarote was only 100 years ago. This last erruption lasted 15 years and  left a very dramatic nature reserve on the southern end of the island. The lava flows that can be seen in the nature reserve are smooth in spots, like a slide and others spots the lava is very angular and sharp, taking on a sort of ice storm shape, and yet other areas you can see how the magma dripped from above, like in this picture below.


I have to apologize for the lack of pictures, this is due in part to the fact that we were inside a tour bus for this part of our Terra del Fuego experience, and also due to poor photographic techniques. This picture below is of the caldera of the volcano that last erupted in Lanzarote. 

 

Below you can see Lucy posing, reluctantly, next to a drilled heat tube taping into the energy of the tectonic activity below our feet. It was really very hot when you got close to it. You could slowly cook over the heat, and in the resturant that you can see in the top left corner they do just that, cooking punters dinner in a large volcanically heated pit. Tourist gimmick, but pretty cool none the less. 

 

The other site we visted was the 7km long lava tube on the northern end of the island. This guided tour took us along 4km of the 7km long tube. The tube was created 1500 years ago, which is really not that long in Earth terms. There were places along the walk that were huge open areas, and then other areas where there were many tunnels heading off in different directions where the magma decided to divide its path. Again, I was in awe of the power inside our little blue planet. 





This week we have been focused on Lucy's 7th birthday, 7 years old, where has the time gone. Anyway, birthdays are a really big deal for both the girls, but in particular Lucy. We asked her what she liked about birthdays most and she said, having friends over and the special food. So, special food was easy to cover, homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast, pizza for lunch and a gingerbread castle for birthday cake, but finding other children for her to play with was hard. Thankfully Pacific showed up on December 2nd, a day after her birthday, and we were able to celebrate her birthday with the Pacific family. Below are some pictures of her birthday outing with us, and her party with the Pacific friends.

Birthday Breakfast of Champions!

Yahoo, isn't it great to be 7!

Lucy, Kato, Hang and Tang three legged race.

The "cake" This year the girls did all the decorating.


So that is what we have been up to since leaving La Graciosa. More to come soon...




Tuesday, 18 November 2014

A Short Thought on Gibraltar

As we were coming up to our departure date from the UK, John and I were continuously identifying things that could get done or purchased in Gibraltar. New sails, sail covers, shade tent for foreward deck, a larger anchor, more lights in the cabins, comfort food such as Yorkshire and PG Tips Tea, tinned mackerel, etc. And we continued this mantra throughout our journey to Gib. 


So, the morning we arrived after our 24hours sail there, we were excited and determined to get the ball roling on everything we had been talking about or planning for this arrival. However, when we arrived in Queensway Marina, we shortly realised that what we had planned and hoped would happen in Gibraltar and the velocity in which these plans were going to be carried out was not going to happen the way we envisedged. With Sheppards being the only riggers and the primary marine electricians in Gib they were just too busy and not really interested in our jobs list. So after a few days of banging our heads against the wall trying to get some work done on the boat, we escaped to Andalucia and when we returned we were pleasantly surprised to discover that our Lancashire neighbor in the marina was a highly skilled carpenter. So, he set to work on building us a box for our propshaft so we could use our "generator space" for storage without the danger of something falling into the shaft. He also built a shelf in another cupboard and, most amazingly, he and John fitted the granite tiles we purchased before we left the UK on our galley countertops. It has really cleaned up the galley, actually, I think it is pretty beautiful now. We were also able to get our inverter installed, but other electrical work has been put on hold as we have not been able to find the appropriate 24V lights for the cabins. 


Something else happened when we returned to our boat after our sojour in Spain, the other live-aboards in the marina started to talk to us. We were having nice neighbourly chats with all the boats on our "street." We had John and Dee on our starboard, who have been sailing the same boat for 29 years, are well into 70s and a wealth of knowledge and stories about long term cruising. We had Harvey and Jane across from us who had been living at the marina for 9 years, always friendly and ready to have a chat or help solve sourcing issue for us. Then we had Gavin and Jane turn up, who had been in refit with their boat this past year and had just made the jump to live aboard. I think the highlight of our stay was Halloween though. We asked the afformentioned people if they would mind if our girls came trick-or-treating at their boats on the 31st, and then Jane took it in her charge to get others on our pontoon to participate. It turned into a lovely night for our girls, "the best Halloween ever!" is I believe what Ruth said. 



The communitee warmth and welcome were very tangible. It became hard for us to leave. We were very comfortable. The new park just down the road from the marina was lovely, clean, green and had a fabulous fish pond filled with gigantic carp and atleast 4 taripin turtles. We had met one family who lived in Gibraltar with a little girl whom the girls enjoyed playing with.


 Grocery stores were easy to walk to, the weather was great, everything was just really comfortable, so I can see why some cruisers get there and don't leave. But then we met Jocelyn. 

Jocelyn, smiling, charming American lady from Georgia, had been backpacking through Spain and had been in Gibraltar looking for a boat to take her back across the Atlantic. We saw her "add" up in the marina office and we bit the bullet and gave her a shout. We knew we could do the crossing to the Canaries on our own, but we thought it would be easier if we had one other adult, especially if we found the right one. So, while she did not have a lot of sailing experience she seemed willing to learn and a positive outlook on things, was very okay with sharing a living space with three children and was even keen to help out with them. So, Jocelyn joined the crewed of Dark Horse and we began to make our plans to leave.

I diligently checked the weather forecasts, as many as I could get my hands on, and it looked like November 6th was our day to head out. 

We did not head out of the marina until nearly midday but we eventually got to the fuel pontoon filled up and headed out by 13:30. 

However, the winds were not doing what was forecasted, infact they were doing the exact opposite and that was the prevailing theme for our entire journey. We had left Gib with the intention of landing in the Savage Islands, just south of Madeira, but after nearly 24hours of sailing upwind when the wind was forecasted to be blowing us there, we decided to head towards the Moroccan coast and Casablanca for a few days. However, during my watch I misjudged a fishing net marker and got a very substantial net wrapped around the prop. Thankfully the sun was beginning to rise, and after some angry shouting from the fisherman, we then spent the next few hours with the very nice and very helpful Moroccan fisherman and his not so interested partner detangling the net. Eventually freed of the bulk of it, John dove into the water with the breadknife between his teeth to cut the rest of the lines off the prop shaft with the Moroccan fisherman standing on our stern giving instructions on what line to cut in French, Spanish and Arabic. Our encounter was brought to a close with a bottle of very dark sailor's rum and one of our floatation vests from Nigeria being exchanged. We then arrived in Casablanca to find the "marina" we had read about was only for small boats, there was no chance of us getting in there and the anchorage was being dredged. So we headed back out to sea and that night the winds shifted and we were heading NE doing 9 knots at times. However, by this time the water was a bit confused and the 5m swell was quarting, ie. it was hitting us at about 45 degrees and it made for a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride for another 48 hours. We only had one wave break over our starboard side. It was during the day and Jocelyn was on watch. The kids and I were inside playing in the saloon. However, when the wave hit our starboard there was a great bang and we saw Jocelyn swamped by a large amount of water, much like a floom ride at an amusement park, and the companion way and first few cushions in the saloon got pretty damp.  The first companion way door stayed in for the rest of our crossing. And Jocelyn came in and got dried off. 



So,  what had started out as what we thought would be an easy 4 days down wind crossing with extra help turned into a bit more of a challenging 5 day sail to La Graciosa, Canaries. And boy, was I excited to get there. John and I brought Dark Horse into the anchorage just before sunrise. We awoke to crystal clear water, and a beautiful arrid landscape. We had a swim off the boat and a journey in the dinghy to the beach. We were where we had promised Lucy we would be eventually, a place where she could swim in a warm sea off the boat and play on a sandy beach. Now, to enjoy the next couple of months here before we make the great leap off across the Atlantic. Don't think it will be too hard for us to do that!





Thursday, 6 November 2014

Andalucia


Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! We have over slept and are now rushing to get ourselves and three children breakfasted, presentable and out the door so we can get across the Gibraltar boarder to pick up our higher car in Spain. So, bus stop. Where is the bus stop...Hmm, I could have sworn it was on the corner here... Anyway, we walked the length of Main Street and found the number 5 to take us across the airport runway and to the Gibraltar-Spain border. We walked straight through customs, no line up yet. Then on into Spain. La Linea is definitely a border town. There does not appear to be much tourism here, except for the tourists coming through to get into Gibraltar, or locals coming to Spain to buy cheaper groceries. 

Car keys in hand, thank you Gold Car Hire, we were off in the general direction of Granada. A few things that would have helped speed our journey time up and make the camping even more comfortable: 
a road map of Andalusia
a basic idea of campsite locations
possibly a guidebook for the region
a ground tarp for under the tent and for Adam to crawl on
our Peanut Butter Jar of Light

The Peanut Butter Jar of ligh is just an empty peanit butter jar containing one string of battery operated fairy lights from Ikea. Thank you Jane for showing us the light this summer:) 

Anyway, not having the above when we set off were not deal breakers but once we had bought a map navigation was a lot easier and faster. Go figure.

Over all, though the trip was really nice. We were all awed by the beauty and magic and attention to detail found in the Alhambra. It took us two tries to get in, but it was worth these repeated tries. 

The garden, where the royal family played and relaxed away from the eyes of their court.






The fortificatied walls around part of the Alhambra

Gorgeous flowers in the garden

One of the many ornately plasted ceilings

The Sisters doors in the palace

Reflecting pool in the palace. According to the audio guide we were listening too, they believe that the king's wives each had a room off of this courtyard where they lived with their children. All around the pool sented plants were positioned to create a lovely perfumed air.

Our little Granadians

Other highlights of the trip were:

Playing in the snow in the Sierra Nevada
Skiing:P

 A Snow Penguin

We camped for a few nights on the southern side of the Sierra Nevadas. The weather was gorgeous and this thankfully allowed for one long hike with the kids. Below Adam is showing off his sun protection. He kept taking his hats off, so we resorted to a pair of shorts over the head, much harder to get off and throw on the ground. 
While the first half of the hike up the valley was a rather dull plod on a dirt road, the later part was on a winding path back out the valley through old terraced farms. We found a number of old walnut trees along the path, quite tasty.

Not the best picture, but you can make out some of the terraces on the left side.


John and Adam waiting for the slowpokes.

We left the Sierra Nevadas and joined the highway on the north side. Just before we came to the highway we came across the below castle. We couldn't find anythng in our travel guide but it would certainly appear to be a fort protecting a road up into the Sierra Nevadas. The whole area had once been controlled by the Moors and was in fact the last strong hold for them before the were completely removed from the landscape.


A town on the way to Ronda. 


You can see three countries in this picture. Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco. The bird flying is a gryphon vulture. We were onour way down a secondary highway when we spotted a sign saying "Lookout to Africa" we attempted to get up to the lookout but only managed get our wheels stuck so off John scampered up the steep dirt track to capture this picture. Below Adam was sleeping and Lucy and Ruth were colouring. 

So, that was what we got up to in Andalucia. It was a fantastic week and we returned to the boat refreshed and ready to tackle our jobs. 

Sunday, 12 October 2014

And on to Gibraltar

October 5-6
Flies! Flies! Flies! This is the third time we have been inundated with FLIES! The first time was when we were crossing to Sines, we were sailing dead down wind, spinnaker was up, sun was out, it was warm and then all of a sudden, there were 50 or so house flies inside and on the coach roof, also lots of little fruit like flies. It took days to get rid of them all. We had them again on our way from Sines to Portimao, and then today they appeared all of a sudden when the wind died. But where are they coming from? We are about at least 30M offshore. Are these special migrating house flies? Are they hatching on the boat somewhere, this seems unlikely as Kivu has also been invaded by flies. If anyone has any ideas as to where these flies are coming from we'd love to know. The next problem though is getting rid of the things. How do you get rid of house flies, quickly without using fly spray. We arrived in Faro during a confused tide. Thank goodness for our engine as we were doing nearly 3000 revs and only making way at 4.5knts at times, which is not normal for our boat, 3000revs would normally give us about 9-10knts, when we weren't trying to enter at an ebbing tide.
Day two in Cuturan, which is the dune island off of Faro. We actually went ashore today and had a quick lunch and a walk to the Atlantic beach. Just a nice day. The highlight was a chameleon on the path on the way back. It was very windy, blowing about 26 knots at times. As long as it is not that windy tomorrow morning we will be heading to Gibraltar.

October 7th
Set off as the sun rose, hardly any wind, though we expected it to pick up later in the day as it had the previous few days, unfortunately for us it did not. We were able to fly our spinnaker for most of the late afternoon into the night, but shortly after 10pm the wind died completely and we were left with just the motor propelling us along. The highlight of our day sail was a very large pod of bottlenose dolphins visiting for a bit. When they first joined us they were bow riding about 4 dolphins deep, a pretty remarkable sight. They stayed with us for about a half hour, watching us, jumping,  arguing among themselves and singing. It was wonderful! I know we all look forward to seeing more dolphins throughout our travels!

As is our routine now, John did the first watch and I went to sleep. We do not have a set amount of time for our night watches, we just wake each other up when we feel tired. So, at 12AM I was up and out and John was catching some Zzzs. When I am on night watch it generally involves making a bottle for Adam and putting him back to bed, an occasional visit from Lucy, and listening to podcasts. At the moment I am really enjoying listening to the TED talks NPR podcasts as they are both intersecting and don't require too much concentration to get a lot out of them. My guilty pleasure is of course the Archers Omnibus, and for those of you who do not know who the Archers are, it could be described as a radio farming soap opera. I have always found listening to others talk comforting, perhaps this is because it reminds me of when I was little and would borrow audio books from the library and squirl away listening to them on my Walkman in my bed when I was supposed to be sleeping. In any event, podcasts certainly help to while away the night hours. As does star gazing and phosphorescent watching.

October 8-11
We arrived about 9AM, we slowed our speed way down in the night as we did not want to go through the Straights of Gibraltar in the dark do to the large amount of container traffic. We were surprised at how industrial the Gibraltar Bay was, there were many tankers anchored, and a large refinery just on the Spanish boarder.

We are staying in the Queensway Quay Marina and it is our first experience of stern on mooring. It was very nerve wracking coming in as we had to come in stern first which is not something Dark Horse really likes to do, but John handled it all very expertly and we came in smooth and slow.

We set about exploring the town after formalities were completed. So, now to set about getting our sails from the UK delivered here as well as our wind vain and stocking up on comfort foods from the UK.

So, we have been here for four days now. We've tried to get some work done on the boat but we are finding it difficult to find people, so our idea of getting a whole bunch done before we head off to the Canaries is having to be re-evaluated. We don't have anything that desperately needs to get done but at times we do get overwhelmed with our to do list.

Aside from the jobs list we have had time to head up the Rock on the cable car, see the maracas, walk Main Street, the shopping hub of Gibraltar, and visit their new park numerous times. We've rented a car and should pick it up tomorrow morning. We plan to do a bit of camping and sight seeing away from the sea. I am particularly interested in Alhambra.

Girls are great, Adam is growing lots and has moved from being the happy go lucky guy to being happy but also frustrated that he cannot do more or do what he wants. He is crawling all over the boat now, nothing is safe, and he is cruising around the saloon. Lucy's top two front teeth are just starting to come in now and Ruth is looking forward to when she will have a wiggly tooth.

That's all for now.

Happy Thanksgiving 12 October 2014

"Get up! Get up! It's raining, close the hatches! Quick!" is what I woke up to in the wee hours of the morning. We have had our first rain in about a month and we were not prepared for it. We had left clothes outside, all the hatches were open and the weather board (our door) was not in so the rain was just pooring into the boat. But thankfully John heard it quickly and we got everything squared away before we got too soaked. I really like listening to the rain through the hull of the boat. It is a lovely meditative sound, rhythmic and soothing. Which might be why Adam slept through the night?

It rained most of the morning which meant for a very slow start. John took apart the port loo again looking for the blockage from Ruth's experimenting, but still it is not working, so he thinks it is probably the pump, which is such a shame as these loos were brand new. While John was Mr. Plumber, the kids and I went to Morrisons to get our Thanksgiving feast supplies. No turkey this year, but we did find a lovely piece of beef ready for roasting, so we had a roast beef dinner with yorkshire puddings and apple pie for desert. It was a nice dinner, I was really pleased with how well everything turned out as I cooked it all, and normally when I cook things don't go as planned, (typically dinner is a few hours late due to mis-timing or burning or just general incompetence).

Irregardless of what we eat or where we are on Thanksgiving, this holiday always brings home to me the distance that is between us and our friends and families. That is one of the biggest problems when you leave your hometown to live international; you create a sort of international family whom you think about, care about, and find yourself thinking, if only I could get everyone in the same room together just for a few hours, what incredible conversations would happen, what laughter there would be and how truly happy I would feel, and how distant and separate I feel right now. However, if I had just stayed in Halifax, never left, continued on as I was living when I was 20 years old, I would never be sitting here with my extraordinary husband and three lovely children in Gibraltar about to embark on a trans-Atlantic crossing...really I think a bit of loneliness is worth putting up with for an adventure like this.  


Sunday, 5 October 2014

Hello from Portimao

Good Morning! We’ve awoken to another beautiful sunrise on Dark Horse. This time we are in Portimao, Portugal and are planning to leave in a few short hours for Faro. There are supposed to be some lovely bird life rich dune islands to anchor by there.
I know that I have not been posting much detail on this blog, John seems to be better at keeping the FB page up to date, I am finding it hard to make the time to write. We started a ships log so I am going to copy and past much of it in to give you an idea of what we’ve been up to. I apologize for the poor sentence structure, etc. but at least it gets something up on the blog.
Sept 11 to 23
Overnight passage from La Coruna round Finisterre, flat to start with then force 5 - 6 on the nose. Fishing boats all over and very aggressive. First night picked up mooring buoy and bbq on deck with Kivu crew. Second day, late to rise (8:30). John and Jamieson, of Kivu, tried to fix the fridge, which seemed to work but after picnic on local beach the commutator appears to have failed again. While at the beach Adam took his first trial steps while being supported by Mom or Dad. Girls played and swam.  We completed the day with another joint meal with Kivu of foraged mussels from local beach cooked on the Cob. We stayed up very late. Third day very late to rise (9:30), and then off to Roman Catholic church with Eloise, Alexia and Jamieson, Carel suffering from a migraine on Kivu. After church a wander around town and a drink at local cafe. Rest of the day spent resting, fishing and tidying on Dark Horse. NOTE sand is very difficult to get off the boat. Tried hovering, but I keep finding where I hoovered there is sand again after a few minutes. A damp cloth might work? On the fourth day we spent the morning doing school work, and it took quite a long-time do to poor attitudes from the girls, hopefully tomorrow will be better. In the afternoon we went on a long boat ride up to the top of the ria. The scenery changed a lot as we went, as did the smells. At first the air was very salty like the sea, but as we went further up the ria it smelt more and more like the forests that you find inland. Plenty of eucalyptus trees around and other non-native evergreens. Once at the top we tied the tender up and went for a walk along a track that we think was put in to allow for the hydro electrical plant to be built. The trail led us to a lamprey re-introduction site. We picked flowers for our friends, Eloise and Alexia. On the way back we tried to stop in at Kivu, but the family was already gone to town. The girls were very disappointed and threw their flowers to the sea. We had another late dinner and the girls and Adam went quickly to bed. On our fifth day here we went into Noia, walking over the bridge, the town was not that special, but we did find a very good supermarket and a playground. The weather turned while we were at the playground eating our ice-cream just purchased from the supermarket. We had to take shelter from the rain under the eaves of the grocery store.  When the rain stopped we made a dash back to the boat laden with our groceries, thank goodness for Adam's pram, without it we would have struggled to have brought all the goodies back. When we got back to the beach Kivu crew had left us a message in the sand to come and visit them on their boat, which we did. Unfortunately we stayed too long and we had a very wet and choppy boat ride back as the low that we had been waiting for had started to kick in on our way home. We were all rather wet and poor Adam was just a wee-bit scared. Thankfully we had hot water to have showers in when we returned as John has figured out how to heat the water with the generator. Dinner of prawns and rice, then everyone to bed. It rained pretty much all night and this morning, the sixth day of being here, it continues to rain and blow. We had been planning a picnic with Kivu but it is really not the weather for it, so we are doing school and reading and playing for now. Hopefully this wind and rain will dissipate soon.
Sept 24 to 26
Arrived here, Porto, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Tied up to fuel berth and waited for the office to open. When it did we had three guys help us onto a pontoon, it was the easiest berthing we have had thus far.
Sept 26 to 29
Two nights in Cascais, anchored. Figured out how to use the wifi booster and had an excellent Skype video conference with my parents in Halifax. Though when we tried the connection later in the day it would not work and continued to not work until we left, not sure why, perhaps the bar we were connecting to changed their password, or they have a limit on how much customers can use per IP address. Afternoon on the beach with Kivu crew on the 27th. Unfortunately we were met with a squal in the late afternoon which kicked up a short swell. When things had calmed down we tried to head back to the boat, but timed it a bit wrong and got a knocked by a wave, poor Ruth and Adam took the brunt of it, but we carried on back to Dark Horse, leaving Kivu crew on the beach, waiting for a better time to leave. Thankfully we could have warm showers when we got back and a quick dinner of beans and hotdogs and hot chocolate made everyone very happy.
Sept 29 to Oct 01
Arrived here, Sines, about 7pm after having cruised in company with Kivu. Excellent sail! Flew the cruising shute, with the great big Lloyds stalion on it, turned out to be in fairly good nick and combined with the staysil, another excellent discovery, we were cruising 8knts most of the time. Caught two great big makerel aswell and had them for dinner. Second day after a visit from the Marine Police telling us we need to pay a 2Euro light fee, we went ashore after school, found a wooden xylophone and chimes on the beach, set up as a sort of outdoor play thing for people. The town beach area called Vasco de Gama Playa appears to have been rejuvenated, but the planned terraced gardens have not been put in, or money has dried up. We never found the harbour office for the fee, we did find the Fishing Office and the fishermen were all tucking into their grilled sardines for lunch. Smelt yummy. We eventually had a BBQ on the beach with Kivu crew and the kids were in and out of the water until the sun was setting. A lovely day for all.
Oct 01 to 05 to Portimao

We set off from Sines at 830 with Kivu. Not much breeze but  we had the sails up anyway to help keep the pace up. Neither John or I were really into the motoring, but we did end up seeing basking shark, lots of dolphins, including some swimming just off our stern for a while. We were planning of stopping just around Cape St Vincent, but the anchorages were untenable due to swell, the wind had picked up at this point and we ended up having to sail and then motor here. Got to the anchorage about 2200, not too bad. Girls went to bed then and we soon followed. 2 Oct woke to a beautiful sunny day and lovely beached just off our port side. Did school and John tried to fix the loo, Ruth having taken all the toilet roll paper off the roll and put it down the loo so she could use the roll for something. John also explored the starter engine battery, as last night it was boiling and giving off a very strong melting plastic smell. Not sure why this has happened though could have something to do with the alternator. Girls, Adam and I played on the beach with Kivu girls and I even went for a swim, water is surprisingly warm here, or maybe I am just getting used to it. Kivu girls came over to the boat after the beach to make Karele her birthday cake, as it is her birthday tomorrow We plan to stay one more night and then we will see what happens. After a bit of a disturbed night, Adam was awake and crying for about an hour, we awoke to another lovely sunny day. A Thomas Cook cruise liner sounded its' horn as it entered the river, making sure that if you were not already awake you would be. Completed school in record time, girls were eager to do some writing, which was nice. Adam is now able to climb the two steps from the hallway to the saloon and he is in and out of all the cabins easily. Nothing is safe now. After school was finished we headed into town and found a grocery store. Then went to a museum about the sardine industry here. For 80 years Portimao was the center of sardine production in Portugal. It was actually quite a nice museum and interesting to see, even though most of the exhibit was in Portuguese. Other than the sardines there was also information about the largest stone age settlement in the area and the influences of the Romans and Moors. All in all we quite enjoyed ourselves, especially since we were the only ones there. There is something comforting about an empty museum. After returning to the boat we cleaned and awaited the arrival of the Kivu crew for pre-birthday dinner drinks. The girls, Eloise and Alexia, stayed with us while Jamieson and Karele went for a meal. It was nice, the girls watched a movie and the parents were back before it was over. Lucy and Ruth particularly liked that they got to stay up way past their bedtime. I believe we will be staying here one more night then we are off to Faro. I really want to get some jobs done on the boat, I am tired of looking at the messy port and starboard cabins and unfinished jobs. Today, Oct 4th, was filled with odd jobs, school and a goodbye drink with Kivu crew. While Adam did very well last night, waking at 2AM but after a bottle falling straight back to sleep, he was not cooperating this evening so unfortunately he was not the smiley, cuddly bundle of Adam he normally is. But at least we got to say goodbye to everyone and who knows, we may see them again. I am looking forward to the next part of our trip though. In some ways it feels like we are starting a new, a second chapter and I suppose it will feel like that each time you leave the company of a crew that you have spent a lot of time with.
Goofy crew, minus a sleeping Adam

The mighty fish catcher!

Spinnaker and staysil fking for the first time in Dark Horse thank you Kivu for taking this picture!

Alexia and Adam

Lucy, Eloise and Ruth

Swimming off the boat

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Well it has been a month since we left Falmouth, UK and we have made it across the Bay of Biscay, around Cape Finisterre and after a week in the Ria Muros due to a very stubborn low that would not move, thus leaving us drenched for most of that week, we find ourselves in lovely Porto, Portugal.

There is lots to say about our voyages, many stories to tell and when I have had more sleep and I stop procrastinating about what to write or how to write it I will get them on the this blog. But for the mean time here are a few pictures taking us all from Falmouth to Ria Muros. We have yet to take any pictures of Porto, though we did go for a short bike ride into town with the girls and Adam this afternoon and had a lovely time. More later, so with out further ado here are the pictures with some captions.

Sorry this loaded from the most recent to the least recent.

 Lounging in the grass up the Ria Tambre
 All of the sudden we were no longer in the sea, we were surrounded by Eucalyptus trees and freshwater. Very strange, as we were in Spain...
 Foraged mussels on the deck with Kivu family. Very lucky to have met another cruising family with two girls of similar age.
 Swimming off the beach in Camaret, after our 16hour Channel Crossing
 Dolphins abounded for our two day Biscay crossing. These three stayed with us for a good few hours. We were lucky the water was a flat calm so we could get some great underwater shots from our bow.




 Braved the rain to go to town to get groceries and try to connect to the internet. Thankfully our way back there was no rain, that is until we got back on the boat. Can you spot Bucket Baby?


 Obligatory picture of Adam eating sand in La Coruna.
 Hercules Torres in La Coruna. A light house was first built in this spot by the Romans and there has been one on this hill ever since.

 Adam and John cooking on the cob
 Our passenger for day two of our Biscay crossing.


 On our way to Darmouth
 Falmouth harbour


 Cowes, Isle of Wight
 Grandma and Adam on our crossing from Lymington to Cowes.
First night on the boat

So that is it for now. Hope you enjoy the pictures.