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Malta, Siracusa, Greece and visitors
We settled into a routine of being on the mooring buoys in Sliema bay by doing our shopping early in the day, and resting from the heat of the afternoon sun. Some afternoons after siesta time we went across to a small beach in the dinghy and met up with Andy Gail and Lewkas, to splash about in the water on a small beach just across from our boats. All was peaceful and restful until I got a text from Tino and Ireana asking if I would do some canvas work for them. They wanted a Bimini to keep the heat off their 18 metre boat and also let a breeze flow through.
So for the next four days I worked ten hours a day to complete their order in time for them could sail to Greece. The heat of the mid-day sun reached 48c and even the metal work on the boat was too hot to touch. We had to spray the decks with cold water just to be able to walk around. My number one sewing machine chugged to a stop and refused to sew again, so Keith was despatched in the dinghy to return to 2EZ to get my number two machine......the beast. About an hour later, as he was coming aboard with the machine in one hand, walking along the passerelle he walked head first into the end of the boom and split his head open. Doing his best not to drop the machine into the water as blood poured out of his head. As this was a 1m€ boat we were on he leaned over the side of the guard rails so he wouldn’t bleed all over the perfect decks. The fish loved it, making a meal of the dripping blood.
The following day it was my turn, and as I walked up and down the foredeck adjusting and checking the Bimini, I tripped over a step in the deck that was impossible to see, white top-sides, white step, bright sun, and went head first into the edge of an open window. Fortunately I must be made of stronger stuff and didn’t bleed....but we did look like a pair of idiots with matching ‘dings’ on the forehead.
With our earnings we decided to treat ourselves to a BBQ and spent the next week enjoying BBQ’d meals at every opportunity. Andy Gail and Lewkas came over one night to enjoy a meal, they had been tormented with the aromas of our feasts so it was only fair to invite them to dinner. Plus Lewkas liked to come over to play games with helicopters and chatter on to us. After a few days rest from the work we had a trip to Gozo on the ferry, going to the top of Malta first by bus. Just across from the ferry terminal was the bay where the live version of Popeye was filmed, the film set has been left in place and is another place on the island to visit.
Then, just as we were making our sail plans to leave Malta we had an MSN message from our friends Sven and Marita from Sweden where it was a cold 9c. Sven asked if they could visit us and said they would ‘catch a fly, come see you’. We moved 2EZ onto the town quay in Sliema and prepared the boat for our visitors. It was very hot where we moored up as the concrete held the heat of the day also as the ferries came in and out of the harbour we bounced up and down in their wake. Some of the waves threw out lots of little sardines and we’d jump off the boat to scoop them back into the water before they died.
We went on the bus to meet Sven and Marita and soon settled into a routine of breakfasts, walking, resting, ‘yumping’ in the water, and dinner. The days passed quickly as we had trips out to the blue lagoon at the top of Malta, the blue grotto at the bottom, and Mdina, the old citadel on the top of a hill. There is a tree amongst many others at the side of the road to Mdina that was struck by lightning. The after effects have made the tree resemble Jesus on the cross and the locals have made it into a shrine. Keith took a picture as we passed on the bus, not perfect but enough to see what it looks like.
After a few days of enthusiastically going on walks with Sven and Marita, Keith refused to walk with them again. Sven and Marita are very health and exercise aware which is all well and good in Sweden where you can stride out however in Malta with 48c of heat in the mid-day sun, the locals thought we were a bit mad. When we walked around the bay to Valetta which was just half a kilometre by sight but six kilometres to walk, including a big hill, even Sven had to admit it was a bit much. Keith joined us for lunch in Valetta by catching a bus, we took the bus back! Sven said that Keith was ‘Tøs-oreng’ much to his amusement until I checked out the meaning on our Swedish/English google translator, basically it meant he was a pufter! On their last day of ‘yumping’ in the water, Sven kept his hat on and did moonies as he flipped over in the water, the public has been spared viewing those pictures.
We waved Sven and Marita off at the airport and returned to 2EZ to find the firework barge was only 100m away from us. The fireworks went off four times a day for the next three days. The finale lasted for two hours from 10pm to midnight, even the locals were groaning a bit at the noise pollution. The following days were spent dashing around to provision the boat and say our farewells as we made our sail plans to Siracusa in Sicily. We’d spent eight weeks in Malta at the worst time possible heat and noise wise, we were glad to sailing out to somewhere new.
By now it was late August. We arrived in Siracusa Grand Harbour and anchored there for four days. The small citadel town of Ortiga which is attached to the mainland by a small bridge was lovely, winding streets with bistros and ice-cream shops everywhere. Siracusa was the birth place of Archimedes and I could just imagine him running through the streets dripping wet shouting Eureka! We walked to the Greek theatre which was carved out of living rock, the biggest of its kind and very hot as it soaked up the heat from the sun.
We also made the mistake of looking through our binoculars to see a sign for Carrefour it looked only about half a kilometre from the bay so we thought we’d take a walk there. Obviously our binoculars must be stronger than we realised as we must have walked a 12 kilometre round trip including 2 kilometres up and down the wrong road. We waited an hour for a return bus that didn’t come only to find the timetable was dated 2008....what a day.
Our next sail was to Crotone on the ‘foot’ of Italy, where we stayed only two nights. It reminded me of Seaton Carew and only disproved my idea that all things Italian are sophisticated and stylish. The Crotonians are famous for throwing all the ancient Roman ruins into the harbour to make a breakwater. They also ran Pythagoras out of town for his ‘strange’ ideas, the harbour had four gas rigs in the entrance, so not a place to hope to see anything nice. We were going to go to the ‘heel’ of Italy but on checking the weather Grib files, a storm was coming down from the Adriatic, we decided to run ahead of it and had a great sail with a full moon to show us the way to Greece and dolphins to accompany us.
We were now doing night-day-night sails to cut down on the heat that was now burning us to a crisp. I even had my big corporate umbrella up to try to find some shade. We knew we were approaching Greece when the aroma of thyme and oregano wafted to us on the warm night breeze. We arrived at the entrance to Lefkas at 5am and dropped anchor. There’s a shifting sand bar that makes sighting the entrance a little confusing in the dawn light, plus there is a bridge that has to open to let us into the channel. Once it was lighter we moved into the bridge entrance for the 6am bridge, and couldn’t understand why it didn’t open, so we rafted up onto a fishing boat to go ashore to check it out. A sign said it was now opening every 2 hours due to technical problems.
We had a quick shower and made some breakfast only to hear the hooter that meant the bridge was about to open????? I checked the time with a Greek fisherman only to find we needed to move our clocks forward an hour as we’d crossed a time zone. It wasn’t 7am, but 8am and the bridge was opening. We anchored just off the town quay and went ashore to explore. Lefkas is a lovely old town that has been obliterated by earthquakes often however they just rebuild it to the same style so nothing has been lost to the charm of the place. A labyrinth of alleyways with one main street through the middle to let the breeze blow through and a fine town square with restaurants round three sides and an old church on the fourth side.
Due to the earthquakes buildings are no more than three storeys high. Now they are now built to withstand the tremors, the top floors having corrugated iron for walls on the outsides painted in lovely Mediterranean colours offset by shutters of a different colour at the windows. There are mountains everywhere all covered in green trees. In the olden days the men of Lefkas decreed that the tops of the mountains could only be owned by men with all the fertile land and olive trees they thought they had it made. The women were assigned the scrub land at the bottom. However the tables have turned and now the women are the proud owners of very successful and profitable hotels and holiday apartments whilst the men work hard to press their olives. No wonder they need worry beads.
So here we are in our wintering grounds. We took a trip down the channel to Vlicho, a beautiful bay surrounded by mountains. There, we met Paul and Mo from Ti-Gitu, Martin and Linda from Marlin and also Norman and Jill from Dawn Chaser, all our chums from Bristol and Lagos of 2006, we’re finally catching up with everyone. Keith has joined a racing team and goes sailing just about every weekend and I have joined a stretch and tone class followed by an aerobics class. We also cycle round the lagoon, about 6 kilometres as often as we can.....think we’re going to like it here.
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Out of Africa into Europe
We broke free from the marina in Yasmine on 3rd June after completing my sewing orders and waiting for the wind and the sea to calm down. As fuel in Tunisia costs only 1 dinar (50p) a litre we filled every canister and some to take advantage of the cheap price, the last we’ll see for a while. Our trip to Pantelleria, a small Italian island east of Tunisia took 14 hours. It was a very lumpy ride as the sea hadn’t quite calmed down as much as we hoped once we got out of the Gulf of Hammamet. We even heeled over by 10 degrees at one stage, something a catamaran doesn’t usually do, almost spilt my coffee!
Our friend Kiwi was waiting for us on the fishermen’s quay and guided us into a spot. We rafted up next to another boat, had a quick wash and headed into town for a well deserved beer and pizza. The next few days were spent rediscovering supermarkets and drinking cafe latte, sitting in cafes, enjoying being back in Europe, and learning my vital Italian basis words. Since we’ve been travelling I have compiled my own book of vital words, the usual greetings, numbers please and thank you’s and have made my own phrase book in French, Portuguese, Spanish and now Italian. It’s amazing how similar a lot of the words are but I did keep lapsing into Spanish which is not really the done thing on a Mafia run Italian island!
After a few days, we met Livio, whose boat we were rafted against. Kiwi had befriended Livio as we did, and Keith helped him with some problems he was having with the electrics on his boat. To return to favour he took us out in his mum’s car, around the island on quite a few occasions. Pantelleria is a small volcanic island only 19miles around. The volcanoes are extinct now but there are a few vents that still puff out hot sulphurous steam. We went to Grande Vente, a natural sauna discovered by the Romans which is still in use today. Three steps inside the cave and the heat was almost unbearable. There are also many hot springs around the island that the locals use in winter to warm up, as houses in the Med don’t have heating.
The local name for the island is ‘Sister of the Wind’ and during the winter it can be impossible to stand upright, such is the strength of the wind, which also brings huge seas crashing into this little dot on the map. At times like these, the ferry stops running and the island is in danger of running out of food. Everything has to be shipped into the island, including water and fuel. Also there is an embargo on being able to build houses from the natural volcanic rocks here, the locals have to buy the same kind of rocks from Sicily. The saline plant that converts salt water to fresh water ‘breaks down’ every summer so water has to be bought too. With all that natural wind and sun you would think it would have plenty of eco friendly power, solar and wind generators. Not the case, again oil is shipped in to make electric.....madness.
The houses on Pantelleria are amazing, styled by the Arabs and called Dammuso, they are built from the volcanic rock that is everywhere, that is, until Mafioso took control. Only one story high, the roof is sloped to collect rainwater and channelled into a cistern and painted white to cut down on the heat. The landscape has lots of terraces where vines are grown for local wine however any fruit bearing tree more than three feet tall has a little wall built around it to protect it from the wind. So secret gardens are found at every turn, it is a beautiful island with flowers and wonderful vistas everywhere. There is a volcanic crater that has now filled with water and become a lake, the Lake of Venus; the lake when viewed from a height is in the shape of a heart.
Such a paradise, but the locals turn a blind eye to many things, Mafioso control many things, the schools, the airport, they refuse to allow the budget airlines in as they would lose control of the island. They control building regulations and often refuse planning on house projects that are partially built if they choose. Poor Livio was 3 years into his house build when he was blocked, he tried to fight the system and out of frustration chased the head building man up the street with his fork lift truck almost running him down, and crashed into the planning office. The locals ‘deemed’ him as mad, he had to sell his supermarket and hasn’t worked again since. However, Livio is okay, just very frustrated, he’s a good guy and brought water to us every week in a 400 litre tank in the back of his van.
One Saturday all the Sicily fishing fleet came into port to raft up behind us, despite being sunny and calm, a storm was on the way and sure enough by midnight the wind was blowing a hoolie and the waves crashing over the harbour wall. Keith did a repair job to the lights on our mast and did the same for Kiwi, he got some great pictures of the waves smashing over the wall. In fact Livio felt a little left out and almost demanded that Keith go up his mast too. With Kiwi and Livio heaving on the rope he has never gone up masts so quickly.
We had three good weeks in Pantelleria, enjoying barbeques with Kiwi most nights, and being surprised by Graham (Smiffy) and Gay from Christina Lee when they came on board on night. We wintered with them in Yasmine, where they were returning to, so dropped in to say hello, as did Duncan and Inge from Layla. Pantelleria is pretty much the ‘Scotch Corner’ of the Med. Anywhere that was good enough for the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans is good enough for today’s sailors.
We left Pantelleria on 27th June heading towards Malta where Kiwi told us Tino and Ireana from Siboney 4 were heading from Marsala too. We had a good sail, again once out of the influence of the island and soon had our engines off and sailed all the way on the main. It was an overnight sail of around 135 miles and the stars were incredible, the Milky Way clearly visible, the Great Bear upside down and Venus bright in the dawn sky. We passed between Gozzo and Malta at 16.00 and down the coast into Msida bay by 19.30 a trip of 32 hours.
We arrived in Malta at Festa time, a time when all the Saints from all the churches are brought out and placed on plinths. There are fireworks and firecrackers and great celebrations. However this is not all completed in one night or over a weekend, or even a week. As there are so many churches they each want their own spectacular and after three weeks we have had fireworks everyday, which is a novelty for a few days but after three weeks, no disrespect, but it’s like being in the middle of the Somme. I can understand how the soldiers of the WW1 got shell shock. There’s no warning and we don’t know which direction they’re going to go off, it’s enough to bring you out in a rash! We passed one of the bigger churches bringing their saint out, there was much singing and beating of chests, the locals pay 1000€, yes PAY, to carry the saint and by doing so are absolved of ALL their sins. Bargain, there were a few ruffty tuffty looking nare-do-wells carrying the statues, with a look of self satisfaction at getting their slate wiped clean.
Malta is hot, when the UK was basking in their 30c heat wave and flaking out, we were glad to get down to 30c after two weeks of 45c, now that’s hot. And it was on such a day that we tried to find the Immigration office to check in, we cranked up the bikes and followed the signs up a 1 in 4 hill only to find that we had actually cycled passed it, the ride down hill was most welcome. We thought we had better check in as nobody looked at our passports in Pantelleria and we wanted to make sure we were stamped back into Europe. We had a trip to Valletta on the local buses which charge 47cents for any trip. The buses are anything from a modern sleek air conditioned yellow and red bus to something from the 1930’s people must have been tiny then as today’s people look like adults riding a child’s fun fare bus with arms hanging out the windows and struggling to sit two to a seat.
Malta has lots of UK shops and the supermarkets are full of all the goodies we usually bring back on our trips back home. We are stocking up with all our favourites, Hoisin sauce, sweet chilli sauce, curry powder, for all the typical English dishes we like to make! I found a little church doing classical performances on Sundays and took myself off to enjoy a little culture whilst Keith did boaty things. We met up with Tino and Irena and also Andy Gail and Lewkas from Bora Bora so have plenty of friends and some new friends we have made since our arrival. We got chatting to a guy called Tony, at the cafe we go to, he has kindly taken us out for the day to Mdina a beautiful old walled town at the top of a hill. In fact Tony has offered his transport services to us any time we want which is great when we have to transport bottles of water and cartons of milk. We moved out of Msida marina as 220€ for two weeks is a lot out of our budget and have moved onto mooring buoys in Sliema bay, much to Lewkas’ joy, he’s only four and loves to come over to 2EZ to play games with Keith’s helicopter and radio controlled car. We’re not in any rush to leave Malta and would like a trip on the ferry to Gozzo one day, we’re enjoying free mooring but need to find a water tap soon to fill up our tanks, we think we’ve found one which may mean a covert black ops trip by Keith at night with the canisters.
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Bizarre Moments in Tunisia
The last four months have been spent completing and huge amount of canvas sewing jobs and we quite got into the swing of trips to Tunis to buy canvas, webbing and velcro travelling by bus, Louage and train. We’ve become quite well known in Rue de Moungi Slim where the canvas is sold. In fact we decided to ‘give’ ourselves the business name of ‘Stitch Up ‘N’ Scaper’, and as I complete various orders, Keith would do collections deliveries. Due to the amount of work being carried out, our trip around Tunisia ground to a stop so here are some interesting things that have happened since we arrived here.
During Susan and Emily’s stay we visited the Museum of the Wedding Dress at Hammamet. A wedding takes about seven days during which time the bride, groom and all the guests change into a new outfit every day. Some of the garments are so encrusted with embroidery that they are like cardboard. Each region has a set style unique to the area. We took a few pictures of the outfits that are housed in a typical Tunisian house. Built in the cube style found here, in Spain and Portugal the house is built around a courtyard into which all the windows of each room looks down. The courtyard is quite cool, with big green leafed plants making it feel very relaxing.
One rare afternoon when we were relaxing, drinking coffee in a restaurant in Hammamet Keith thought there was a ‘bed race’ taking place. We soon realised it was a funeral. The deceased is carried on what looks like a bunk bed, on the top deck, just wrapped in a sheet with all the mourners following. No women attend funerals they can visit the graveside the next day. In fact women hardly seem to feature in the everyday life of Tunisia. On the buses, trains around the streets and definitely never seen in coffee bars, women are a rare sight.
Due to the amount of work I did, a trip to Beaulieu boat jumble and Denmark was affordable. We helped our friend Ivor who has a nautical business and against all odds we had a lovely sunny day at the boat jumble. It was a change packing away cardboard boxes in to the van rather than the rain soaked soggy ones of previous years. We saw quite a few people that we met in Portugal, and I had the fright of my life when a saw a strange man who looked as though he had lost something in the grass. When I got near him he jumped up in front of me, it was Aubrey.....who had sailed with us from Cadiz to Tangier, almost gave me a heart attack!
From Beaulieu we ticked things off our shopping list, had a quick trip up north to see Mark and Sam and my mum, then flew across to Denmark for little Clara’s first birthday. We hadn’t seen Clara since she was four months old so didn’t expect her to remember us, but she is such an easy going girl she just played and climbed on us like we always featured in her life. We had a lovely four days with her, Liam and Martine, that were over too soon and had to head back to Tunisia via Stanstead and Madrid. Three flights in 24 hours, three time zones and four currency changes.......confused, we should have been.
Our most bizarre moment happened when we had a shopping trip to Hammamet one afternoon with Kiwi, with my growing amount of sewing bits and pieces I wanted a tool box with a lift out section and compartments for the needles, spools and scissors. There’s a shop in ‘radiator’ street that is like one you’ll remember from your childhood, everything on high shelves, an assistant for just about every customer and a separate cash desk. I explain what I wanted and the little man pulled his step ladder hither and thither trying to find a box I would be happy with to no avail. They were either too big, no sections in them or too small. I thanked him, but no thanks and Kiwi asked for assistance.
He wanted a paint brush, the little man pulled his ladder across to some other shelves, climbed to the top, pulled a brush out and brought it to Kiwi. It was a round one like a pastry brush, Kiwi explained (much of this explaining is done by waving of hands in a pseudo New Zealand/French/Espanola accent) that he wanted a flat brush. With a heavy sigh the little man returned the round brush, dragged his step ladder to another shelf, climbed to the top, got a flat brush and brought it to Kiwi, who said, great, I want 3. I now realised we were in a live version of the Two Ronnie’s ‘Four Candles’ and found it difficult to keep from smiling. The poor old little man climbed to the top of his step ladder again for another two brushes, sighing heavily as he climbed every step.
Great, Kiwi had his three brushes, all his purchases were written on a slip of paper which he had to take to the cashier to pay, when he saw the price of his brushes he said, ‘nah....mucho dinar, non merci’ and left them in the hands of the little man, how we got out alive I don’t know.
The strangeness of the day didn’t end then, we caught our bus which was so full of people our noses were pressed against the windows, peoples elbows in our ears, which was quite painful when the bus screeched to a halt as half a dozen camels escaped from their ‘camel ride’ compound and legged it up the road. In fact everywhere we go it is mad chaos with mopeds riding the wrong way up roads, the riders balance their helmets on top of their ‘Yasser Arafat’ scarves, quite often there’s a small child clinging on for grim death on the seat behind, being taken to or from school. Vans packed up to heaven with fennel or the vegetable of the week, plastic containers, sheep, cows or camels. Everyone over here needs to be over there and vice versa, manic madness, people walking in the road, horns blowing, police whistles blasting, kids running across the road, the Louage drivers touting for business shouting out the name of their destination. Every taxi driver honking his horn telling you he’s free for business, shop keepers telling you they have ‘Asda Price, lovely jubbley’ goods. Phew.......
Now Two Easy is provisioned, the sewing machines put away. Yes there are two we bought a heavy duty one from Monastir souk for 100 dinar. We call it the beast, it’s a reconditioned heavy as hell 30 year old machine that can sew though 8 layers of canvas and window plastic, and when it stops working we’ll use it as an anchor. We’re just waiting now for a weather window to set sail to Pantellaria, a small Italian island about 70 miles north east of Tunisia where we’ll stay for a week or two. Kiwi and many friends from Yasmine are there already, we hope there’s room for us too. Then we’re going to Sicily and to Lefkas in Greece by October.
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More Tales from Tunisia - Eid, Christmas & a Birthday
The weather is starting to turn from autumn to winter and is a lot colder, surprisingly as we are in North Africa, than it was in the Algarve the previous two winters. The winds when they come are very strong, about 50 knots and come down from the Gulf de Lyon and can be quite chilly. We lost a fender in one storm that gusted to 85 knots as recorded by the Capitanerie, but claimed a fender that was floating in the canal to replace our lost one, a case of a salvage claim I think.
We needed to find a dentist as two of Keith’s crowns had dropped out. Kiwi, being the oracle of the marina took us to Barraket-Sahel to introduce us to Dr Mounir, a gentle intelligent Tunisian man who has become a very good friend. The crowns were re-installed for only 90 Dinar (£45) and we were invited to help the Doctor with his sheep for Eid. This is a very important Islamic festival which recognises how Ibrahim was prepared to sacrifice his son to God. After many attempts, as the knife was deflected a ram was sacrificed in place of the son. Now every year 2 moons after the end of Ramadan, Eid takes place.
Anywhere there are any blades of grass flocks of sheep are found grazing and being fattened up ready for the feast. There are usually 10 – 15 sheep per flock, all under the watchful eye of a shepherd. This year Eid fell on 8th December and as the date approached the fattening of the sheep intensified. Just as in Europe, we find pickups bringing Christmas trees in from the countryside for sale, pickups full of sheep were being brought to the towns for families to buy. Some shepherds were enterprising enough to fit a double deck system to the back of their pickups to bring more sheep to town. Each family drags home their chosen sheep, just as we drag home a Christmas tree, and their method of transport is very creative. The best one I saw was an old man on a 50cc moped with a trailer on the back and his sheep calmly standing in it being driven at about 15 mph to his doom.
There was a very sad event in Hammamet a few days before Eid. We had taken the camera to photograph the flocks of sheep and their shepherds on a piece of land near some shops. Someone who had come to buy a sheep had parked his car on the railway lines. When the train came it hit the car, knocked into the air, which then landed on a sandwich trailer and injured 7 people and killed two sheep. This act was devastating for the shepherd as it represented a fifth of his annual earnings, and the sheep couldn’t be eaten as they hadn’t being slaughtered halal. Poor man a great loss to his flock and his family. All the flocks were then moved from the waste land, the sandwich bar was swept up and the car driver lost his car. No enquiry, no insurance.
So, Dr Mounir asked us to help with his sheep. He picked us up from the marina in his car, however the sheep was already in the car, a hatchback, and it spent the journey snuffling in my hair and breathing in my ear, lovely. Poor Barnaby (as we called him) did not travel well and was a little incontinent, the plastic in the boot did not catch the seepage and I expect it will take a few soapy washes to get rid of the stains in the Doctor’s carpet. Keith and the Doctor had to coax Barnaby out of the car and he got a little frisky as he was led into the garden. He was tied up to a stake and given some water whilst we were given a guided tour of the Doctor’s villa.
A light and airy house with marble floors and simple decoration, a roof patio and extensive gardens with masses of orange trees, walnut trees and lemon trees, we were given a huge bag of oranges and I ate walnuts freshly dropped from the tree. When we went back into the garden, Barnaby was laid flat out on the grass, poor Dr Mounir panicked that the sheep had died of a heart attack and rushed over to check him out, however Barnaby was just sleeping off his car ride and was revived.
The Doctor thought it best to put Barnaby into an outhouse for fear that someone may break into the garden and steal him. A sheep costs around 700 dinar (£350), a little more than our turkey at Christmas. Barnaby didn’t want to leave the lawn and had to be pushed by Keith and pulled by the Doctor on the marble path to his overnight accommodation. The Doctor had asked if we would like to come to Eid with his family and I would have been honoured however it was too short notice for his wife and they had a lot of their family visiting. It would have been an intrusion and as we had not yet met his wife we understood our not being able to attend. The Doctor was very apologetic.
Our next adventure was our trip back to England for Christmas. Not being able to buy Christmas gift tags, I set about to make my own with little pictures on each relating to sights in Tunisia. We bought gifts for our families from Tunisia and found some shiny red foil to wrap them in before we left. We took the train to Tunis which was stopped for about 15 minutes, lots of people running up and down the street and people on the train craning their necks. Apparently a man had jumped in front of the train to commit suicide. There was no inquiry, no interviews and no counselling for the driver. They just lifted him off the line and we went about our journey again. No a good way for an Islamic to die.
Our flight from Tunis went via Madrid where we had a 10 hour wait for the connection, so we slept on the check in conveyor as did quite a number of people waiting for connections. We had a lovely time and my brother also spent Christmas at mum’s so a real family treat, with lovely food, good TV (yes, Morecombe and Wise from the 70’s are still funny) and nice gifts.
We visited family and friends from the North to the South and left England as the temperatures dropped to -3, but managed to miss all the bad snow and even colder weather. Our return flights had been changed (we only had 48 hours notice before we left) so our New Year’s Eve celebrations didn’t happen this year as we had to leave our warm beds at 4.30am on 1st January to drive to Gatwick. Our friend Mick picked us up from the airport in a hire car we left him the money for, soon we were stripping off layers of clothing as the warmer temperatures took effect.
The next adventure was Keith’s 60th birthday and a surprise afoot. Our dear friend Susan had booked flights, way back in July to bring Keith’s lovely granddaughter Emily as a surprise. Knowing the flights were booked I had been very stressed since we left Portugal last July, to ensure we were in Tunisia for January 2009 as Keith had thought about us staying in Spain last September when we got back from Mark and Sam’s wedding. The next thing was to concoct a story to justify hiring a car and picking them up from the airport. Clever Susan mentioned that she had two friends, Margaret and Rita who were visiting Tunisia and would we deliver them from the airport to their hotel as ‘Rita’ had just had a hip replacement!
I said to Keith it would be nice if we offered to take the jolly ladies out on some trips and an excuse for us to see more of Tunisia too. Keith being Keith kept moaning about the two old dears and that they’d be boring. I had to cheer him up by saying that if they were friends of Susan they wouldn’t be boring. Enterprising Susan even found the name of a hotel in Yasmine to validate the story. I even insisted that Keith and I should go for a walk to find the hotel! One problem was that I couldn’t prepare the boat for our visitors but I had my plan of action worked out to quickly make beds and meals (another challenge as they’re both veggies and Susan is gluten free!)
So with secret texts and emails flying back and forth as I tried to hint at the weather to help with clothing needed we hired the car and drove to Monistair to collect the jolly girls, I even made a sign saying ‘Margaret and Rita’ So you can imagine the look on Keith’s face when he saw Susan, then when she asked him to get the bags, there was Emily grinning at him. Our adventures started straight away as we went to El Jem from the airport. It was further south and too far for a trip from Yasmine. Luckily it was on Susan’s list of places she wanted to see.
El Jem has a Roman Coliseum which dominates the flat landscape and can be seen for miles when approaching the town. It seems like a strange place for the Romans to have built such a huge structure, one that could hold 30,000 people for the games that took place from 7am to 7pm. It’s miles from the sea, the surrounding land seems to be barren and the water table is 35 metres down and is brackish. But, El Jem is ideally placed between the North and South of Tunisia, and was surrounded by hundreds and thousands of olive groves that provided the town’s income.
We wanted Susan and Emily to experience Tunisian transport so arranged a trip to Tunis using a bus, a Louage a train and a taxi as our methods of transport. Emily had a great time bartering in the Medina however we had to keep close protection of her. Emily is a very beautiful 14 year old girl, without being precocious. A straight A student she was given leave of absence by her teacher to come on the trip, but every Tunisian male from boy to old man couldn’t take their eyes off her and would call our ‘hey baby’ ‘beautiful’ she needed 24/7 protection!
Emily also enjoyed a ride on a camel at Yasmine Medina, and she did a great job of navigating to Dougga, way out in the sticks later in the week. Another of Susan’s selected sights Dougga is a Roman city covering 2 square kilometres and was still being inhabited by the locals until the 1950’s when they were moved out by archaeologists when it was made into a World Heritage Site. Dougga was a thriving city for several hundred years before the Romans arrived and added to over the centuries, a striking sight when seen on approach from the track leading up to the city with the Temple of Jupiter standing proudly on Capitoline Hill. The latrines are very much intact and were probably still being used in the ‘50’s.
Another day’s outing was to Sidi Bou Said, an isolated town in the Gulf of Tunis. It is almost European in its style and a decree was made to ensure that all the buildings are always painted white with the woodwork in a strong blue the doorways are delightful and all individual. The town was a retreat for well off local artists and craftsmen and has only allowed Europeans in within the last hundred years.
All too soon it was time for ‘Margaret and Rita’ to go home, a week that flew by and was great fun, especially the chocolate birthday cake that Emily brought in her hand luggage, and the remote control car/water vehicle from Susan. We decked Two Easy out with balloons and streamers after chasing Keith over to Kiwi’s on a fool’s errand. And at happy hour a surprise joint party was held when Mick and Jo celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary, they had a joint cake with sparklers! It was such a surprise that I didn’t even have my camera with me. Emily was a hit with all the sailors and could hold her own with Richard, a Bristolian too. In fact Keith had great fun setting up (American) Bill with Richard and Emily speaking in strong Bristolian and Graham with his Cockney accent, poor Bill hadn’t a clue what they were talking about.
Now it’s work, work, work as I start my sewing orders. A complete re upholster of Richard and Pat’s boat, two Biminis’s a binnacle cover, winch covers and various canvas work, all to save money hopefully for a trip to Denmark to see Liam, Martine and Clara.
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Tales from Tunisia
We’ve been settled into our wintering grounds now for almost eight weeks and getting used to being out of Europe. A totally different system of course and a bit of a challenge to find our way around. We had just got so used to looking in new towns, for the church, usually at the top of a hill, but it would be a clue as to the hub or centre of a town where we would find a town square with cafes and restaurant and shops and supermarkets close by.
Now, being in a Muslim country there are no town squares as such and a supermarket is a rare find. However the meat and vegetables are more organic than Waitrose! No butcher’s shops as such, only small shops that sell either red meat – lamb and beef or poultry but not in the same shop. You know when the meat is fresh as they hang a cow, bull or sheep’s head in a glass case outside the shop. The butcher usually slaughters his own meat and only does what he knows he can sell so no wastage and not kept in a freezer for weeks or months. The mince meat is a slice of steak put through the mincer so no nasty bits included either as it is done on demand.
There are supermarkets of sorts and it’s not everyday you walk barefoot along the beach in November to the supermarket, after refusing a ride on a camel. The only thing to be bought in a supermarket is maybe washing powder, coffee, milk or water. Bread is bought from the patisserie, a baguette is 380 milles (20p) and they make the best cakes ever!
Fruit and veg shops have huge displays of items for sale, all very fresh despite all the flies, as long as everything is washed before storage there’s no problem. Our cost of living for the week is around £20, a bag full of fruit and veg for the week costs around £2.50 and I bought a huge leg of lamb for only £8! I usually buy my meat for the week and store it in our new friend Kiwi’s freezer. We often put together a meal ie:- your meat my veg, or your BBQ and meat, our beer and wine. Good company and good meals.
The downside of this cost cutting is that we have to catch the bendy bus to Hammamet, about 5km, to buy our meat, fruit and veg and that is certainly an experience not to be had too often. The bus, the length of two joined together with a concertina in the middle screeches to a stop and everyone piles into the back of the bus where the ticket man sits, if you’re lucky you manage to get your second leg on board before the door slams shut and the driver sets off at 50mph. There are only a few seats so it’s standing room only, we have to hope we’ve bought the tickets before we reach the first roundabout as the bus doesn’t slow down. If we have then we’re hanging on to the overhead rails, if not then we’re hurtling down the front of the bus or crashing into other passengers. I think crossing the Bay of Biscay in a Force 9 for 5 days was less traumatic than the bus journey of 20 minutes, but we’re getting used to it now and the bruises are healing.
The bus fare is very cheap only 540 milles, about 25p each. A taxi is only 5 Dinar, £2.50 and there is also a train from Hammamet to other places or a system called the Louage, a mini bus that only leaves for it’s destination when it is full. In each town there is a crossroad and all the yellow taxis and Louages are pointing in the direction of their destinations so mostly it’s chaos as people rush from one street to the next and there are always schoolchildren milling about, they go to school for either the morning or the afternoon, so they’re either coming or going throughout the day!
However their customer service is excellent! We needed a piece of wood cutting to make a floor for the dinghy. Whilst we were waiting for the wood to be cut, the proprietor arranged for cups of coffee to be brought from the cafe next door, he set a table and chairs under a shady tree and then brought a litre bottle of mineral water and glasses to drink after the extremely sweet strong coffee! You wouldn’t get that in B & Q!
We had a trip to Tunis as we heard there was a shop there that sold canvas and as I planned to make a new lazy bag stack pack for the main sail we hitched a ride in a car that Kiwi had rented. The shops are easy to find, you’re either in plumbing street, electrical street or whatever you need to buy street, all the shops of goods you’re looking for are in one street. We made our way to the material street where Kiwi knew the shop to be however we we’re sidetracked into the Souk when a friend of Kiwis thought he knew where the shop was. The Souk in the Medina is a labyrinth of alleyways selling spices, food, clothes material and we wandered around and around until we came out at the other end. Eventually we found the shop where I bought 10 metres for 150 Dinar, around £75, I’d be lucky to get 2 metres for that price in England!
We’ve learnt to be very careful about eating out as you can never tell whether the salad has been washed properly and the ice cubes can be a little suspect, we drink only boiled or bottled water. There was a virus going around the marina which I (Pam) caught. It lasted 3 weeks and the last time I had pains like that I had a baby...only these contractions lasted for 3 weeks and other associated nasty things that come with an intestinal virus, I think I lost well over a stone in weight, however the cure was live yoghurt which got rid of all the bacteria, but the virus is still around and at least 50% of the people in the marina have had it.
One strange event happened when we had to move our berth to another pontoon a few weeks ago. The day after there was a ruckus when a big Swiss man stomped up the pontoon and snatched a passerelle from a French boat. A passerelle is used to get on or off the boat when moored either bows to or stern to, there are no finger pontoons to be able to get off the side of the boat. Ours is made from a 2 metre aluminium ladder laid flat with planks of wood covering the rungs. Anyway, it would seem the French people didn’t have a passerelle and ‘borrowed’ one from the Swiss boat as they were not on board at the time. But when the Swiss came back they were incensed to find the passerelle on another boat and made it quite plain to the French that they were very angry. Within 1 hour the French then ‘borrowed’ a passerelle from a boat opposite them, a boat with no owners on board and being looked after by our friend Mick.
This stolen passerelle had the boat name clearly painted on it, and Mick was a little at odds as to what he should do, he needed the passerelle to get on the boat he was looking after, to be able to check the bilges etc. For a week or two he managed by jumping onto the boat next door then climbing across to do his caretaking. However early one morning he thought ‘stuff that for a game of soldiers’ and ‘stole’ the passerelle back, and took it ‘below’. This made our French couple well actually the lady, VERY angry and she reported the loss to the Capitanerie, who got divers out to see if it had sunk off the back of their boat! The French lady then stomped up and down the pontoon complaining that her passerelle had been stolen. You couldn’t make it up. Fortunately the French couple have now left the boat as I would have been a little uneasy about leaving our passerelle attached when we leave the boat to go back to the UK for Christmas.
In order to stay in the country we have to leave, for at least one day every three months to renew our visas. This works out well for us as our three months is up on Christmas day. If we stayed without leaving it would cost 10 Dinar (£5) each a week until we leave so that just made our flights seem a little cheaper. We are flying back via Madrid as a direct flight is £800, we’ve done it for £400 and as I haven’t spent Christmas with my mum for 6 years, I’m really looking forward to our visit this year.
Meanwhile, our winter jobs are progressing. I’ve made the stack pack, new spray dodgers, a cover for the solar panel, helm seat cover and helm station cover. A lady here who is an agent for canvas and upholstery work on yachts has asked me to do work for her from January, so hopefully we may have some money coming in for a change rather than out.
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Tunisia
Well, we made it to Tunisia, and quite a journey to get here too, as we detoured to England before completing our passage.
The few weeks we were in Cartagena were interesting, the TP52 Breitling Med Cup was due to take place just before we left for England so we enjoyed a few days of the razza-matazz of such an event. King Carlos of Spain was competing, though we didn’t see him. He would be ensconced safely in the Navy base, but we saw his crew and boat. An amazing display of man and muscle working together for the common good (for a change)
We left for England, the first step of the journey being a train ride via Murcia to Alicante. I still marvel at the efficiency of the Spanish rail system, on time, clean and each station with its’ own master. Deja-vu. We stayed over in Alicante as our flight was early the next morning. The town of Alicante was nice, wide Avenidas, good architecture but when we got to the marina, a sad and sorry sight. The usual Brits abroad theme shopping centre, that had seen better days. We did a little shopping, not in the shopping centre, and enjoyed a meal and the cool of air conditioning in our hotel room. Oh the joy of being cool with dry skin!
The novelty of being cool didn’t last long as when we landed in Bristol, we had left a hot 43c to arrive to a cold 15c and, boy, did it feel cold. As soon as we picked up the hire car I donned jeans and fleece! We met with our friend Susan for lunch and a gossip before heading off into three weeks of driving madness. The cost of fuel was a shocker, we didn’t realize just how much petrol had increased until we filled the car up, usually £30 does it, now a staggering £55 with each fill up and with 2500 miles of driving, we did so with regular monotony.
We caught up with friends Caroline and Jim from Moujik who had sailed from Portimao to Emsworth (where we found Two Easy). After nine years of sailing they decided to sell up and become landlubbers. So the promise of fish and chips from Caroline after Loule carnival could now be fulfilled. We enjoyed the whole day on Moujik, though she was mud bound, such is the tidal system in Emsworth, eating our fish and chips and drinking beer.
That evening we drove to Gatwick to collect Liam Martine and Clara as they flew in from Denmark. Clara was only two weeks old last time I saw her, now riding high in a baby sling taking it all in. We then headed up to Leeds to Mark and Sam’s leaving our passengers then headed further north to my mum’s, arriving at 4am.
During the following week, we did much to-ing and fro-ing between Teesside and Leeds with a trip to the Lake District as Liam wanted to show Martine some real mountains, rather than the mole hills in Denmark. It rained, but then it usually does, that’s the nature of the lakes. We had, yes, fish and chips for lunch, and Clara just smiled through the whole journey.
The wedding day arrived and it was, yes, raining. The ceremony was lovely, the vows Mark and Sam made to each other very touching and Sam’s mum and I both had to wipe away a tear. Sam looked stunning and Mark beamed at Sam when he said his vows. We were going to Bolton Abbey for photographs but due to the rain the ground would have been muddy. Instead pictures were taken in the grounds of the hotel, the Devonshire Arms, and on cue the sun burst through the clouds. The Yorkshire Dales were the backdrop of the pictures and the photographer was very creative with her settings, leaning out of a bedroom window at one point. The food was delicious and the party that followed great fun. Again Clara took it all in her stride.
After the wedding we had to head south to Stansead, booking into a motel as Liam Martine and Clara’s flight was early the next day. We enjoyed our final curry together, (it’s amazing the foods you miss) Clara even joined in having rice as her first solids. I soaked up as much Clara time as possible before their flight back to Denmark. We went for a Sunday Roast and before our food arrived we had a text saying they were back home.
We headed off to Glastonbury to friends Ivor and Maggie to stay in their apartment under the house. We visited more friends and went to the boat show in Southampton, having to buy a bigger bag for our boatie stuff and essential books and DVDs we were taking back. We managed to pass it off as two lots of sports equipment and paid only £56 rather than the £90 of excess baggage.
We had a final weekend with Susan and one of her mad parties that includes grandchildren and nephews, 10 for dinner and 5 kids sleeping after a riotous game of bingo. Susan’s nephews are very intelligent, way above their years and got quite a kick from playing nine cards at a time.
We arrived back in Cartagena to an orange boat, covered in Sahara sand so had to hose it down before we did anything. The hateful job of unpacking, the three week wash pile and a shopping trip soon saw us up straight and ready to sail. However when we came to leave the dock the starboard side propeller was stuck. The barnacles had soon made their home in the five weeks since we came in, so Keith had to snorkel down to scrape them free.
Our first stop was Porto Colom, Mallorca. 256 miles/65 hours, of motor sailing, good seas but no moon. Our only encounter was with a Spanish fishing boat, it was my watch and as I tried to move to pass port to port, he moved in the same direction, I tried again and so did he. So I decided I would pass starboard to starboard as fishing boats don’t always follow maritime rules. So did he, by now the 3 miles since he appeared on the radar were soon eaten up so I woke Keith. We flashed him with torches and put our deck lights on calling our co-ordinates on the radio. Eventually a very relaxed and happy Spanish voice asked us where we were heading, we said Palma Mallorca, ‘Ah’ he said ‘New York, I will give you correct co-ordinates’ and promptly disappeared, meanwhile the boat is drifting nearer. Our sails are flapping wildly as we came off the wind and we were only just holding our course. He came back up and told us to go to 004 blah blah blah, we thanked him and wished him a safe journey, what else could we do.
As we entered the bay of Colom our starboard side gear cable broke leaving us struggling against a strong current, we quickly eyed our spot and dropped anchor, breathing a sigh of relief. A quick tidy up, breakfast and we were asleep within the hour. Fortunately the next day when we went to shore we soon found a dealer who had a cable in stock.
We stayed two days and made our next move 265 miles/72 hours, to Teulada Sardinia to a new marina. So new it wasn’t in our pilot book but with the wonders of wi-fi we had checked it out on Google Earth before we left. It was the cheapest place we had stayed, only 16.50 euros a night however we had to get a taxi to town with our fuel containers as there was no fuel berth. The taxi cost 40 euros but we did have the best café latte ever whilst waiting to go back to the boat.
Two days of rest then the final leg of 226 miles to Tunisia, only 48 hours away. Still no moon, the last eight days of sailing have been quite hard on the eyes being pitch black and trusting in the chart plotter and radar, but still looking out every mile. We had lightning flashes all night and one rain storm on Keith’s watch, rain like he’d never seen before. Next morning there were two flying fish on the decks. We picked up a dolphin at Cap Bon, only 40 miles from harbour it seemed quite happy bobbing along with us for company.
Just before Port Yasmine we saw two Spanish galleons at sea, they circled us and sailed either side for a few miles, full of tourists taking pictures and waving, but we kept the dolphin. We arrived 11.30 am and took two hours to clear customs, not officious, just necessary and very friendly. We were guided to our berth and settled in, again breakfast and a big sleep.
We’ve been here now five days and I’m still trying to find the bottom of the wash bag, no launderettes here so all washing by hand, I have my super douper magic wash machine, a little like a butter churn but it can only do about 3 or 4 tee shirts at a time. We’ve met up with Mick and Jo, friends from Nazarre, Portugal and been introduced to Daisy the Dog. Mick and Jo had a Staffie called Yazz when we met them but sadly Yazz died. Yazz had been renamed Aqua dog after she fell in the dock and sank like a stone, Keith and a guy called Jim pulled her out so the name stuck.
When Mick and Jo got to Sines, they heard of a stray that had been living on the beach for two years, surviving on fish. The locals called her Daisy, and a Dutch couple took her on board. When Mick and Jo said they were looking for a new pet they were given Daisy. Here’s the irony, in Alvor when we were telling our Dutch friends of our impending trip to Tunisia and meeting up with Mick Jo and Daisy, they were the Dutch couple who had given them Daisy. We had wintered with them in Portimao!
The picture we had seen of Daisy was a very thin looking girl but when we met her she had put on a few pounds! Happy in her retirement, she now trusts that she will not be left behind. Jo thinks she may have fallen off a boat as she seems used to sailing and was spayed; only Daisy knows the truth, but she wouldn’t get off Mick and Jo’s boat if she heard the engines running, not even for fish. She’s quite independent but happy to have company yet there is still a sad haunted look behind her eyes.
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Adeus Portugal
At long last we have taken down the Portuguese flag and are flying the Spanish flag again. This was quite a moment for us, having seen all our friends from Lagos sail off in 2007. We have received updates of their exciting times in Greece and felt like they were all at a party we hadn’t been invited to. The Portuguese flag had been repaired a few times and was hanging on by a thread but we were determined not to buy another one.
2EZ was relaunched on 3rd July. We sailed to Alvor for a much needed rest and checked that our repairs were all okay. We hooked up with Aubrey from White Shadow who had been our neighbour in the boat yard and made plans to sail in company for a few weeks, planning that we’d meet up in Cadiz. We slipped anchor on 11th July for a trip of 119 miles to Cadiz.
We sailed downwind most of the way averaging 5 knots and completed the journey in 24 hours. There were some huge waves which gave the dolphins a bit of a turbo boost as they leaped out of the water, jumping 2 metres, their tails still wiggling with momentum as they jumped, I was sure one would land on our deck.
We went into Rota historic town on our first trip to Spanish soil. We were treat to an amazing sight of the town square full of people all in their fine clothes. It seems that Saturday evening is the time that couples marry and there is one wedding after another. All their assorted guests, each trying to outdo the other, mingle together in the square whilst photographs are taken in the castle courtyard.
We took a ferry trip to Cadiz which is Europe’s oldest civilized city. Over three thousand years of trade stemmed from Cadiz. The streets are narrow with tall buildings each side which keeps the heat of the sun out through the day. Bourgeois merchants traded in silks and spices from the ground floor, the families lived on the first floor and the servants on the 2nd floor.
A few days later Aubrey from White Shadow and his crew member Porky sailed into the Bay of Cadiz having had a very lumpy sail. We also spotted John from Tanna, in the bay. John had been a pontoon neighbour in Portimao. Aubrey and Porky needed to rest a few days before the next leg of the journey meanwhile we had a very strange experience one afternoon.
We had been ashore most of the day doing shopping and using the laundry services. Our bucket was dangling from the rope into the water and we could see that our chart plotter was twisted and as I got on board I noticed the locked door was open. Thinking it must have been a freak wave that jostled everything I set off inside to meet face to face with a naked woman, all but a tassel belt, coming up from the starboard side hull. After a shocked intake of breath I squealed ‘who are you and what are you doing on our boat?’ It was at this point that it all went a bit strange. My iPod was playing, a quick look round I could see nothing was missing, even if it was, where would she put it! She said she had been swimming from the beach and was swept out and took refuge on the boat.
However if that was the case she should have just sat in the cockpit, this woman who was in her early forties was climbed in through the roof hatch, dropping onto the bed, had a good look round, read my diary, looked at ship’s papers and sacrilege, had touch my iPod! Apparently she had been on the boat for hours, after taking to neighbouring boats, she had been doing yoga on the foredeck, blowing the fog horn and looking through binoculars. She was either completely barking mad or very astute. She may have been dropped off and was blowing the horn for co-conspirators to come and get her and the contents of the boat, there had been a small dinghy buzzing around the night before that made us feel a bit suspicious.
In retrospect we should have radioed the Maritime Police but she seemed to be so mad we just wanted her off the boat. I gave her an old tee shirt and Keith took her back to shore. The good thing that came out of this was that it made us think long and hard about our security. Until we can get some bars for the roof hatches we now close and lock them, despite the heat. We always lock the door but now close the top lid and padlock it, and have moved the sound box for the alarm out of a back locker and set it.
Now fully rested we left the Bay of Cadiz bound for Tangier sailing with White Shadow. Aubrey mentioned he didn’t have a Moroccan flag. I had made ours a few months ago, and have 2 metres of the popular colours on board. I’ve even made the Tunisian flag. So whilst sailing I got the sewing box out and made a flag for Aubrey, not recommended whilst at sea, I must have pricked my fingers a hundred times!
About 11 miles from Tangier we were buzzed a Navy vessel they must have picked us up on their radar. No longer in the EU we had to abide by different rules ie:- not stepping ashore until we had gone through the check in procedures. We hauled up the yellow Q flag and waited for Customs to board, however as it was late no one appeared, so we just had to sit tight until morning when we could go to the port office. They held our passports and ships papers during our stay and we had to go through the port authority whenever going ashore.
But the wait was worth it. We went into the Kasbah and saw some amazing sights, smelled a wonderful mix of spices and heard amazing music, drowned out by the call to prayer 4 times a day. I was quite tempted to buy a traditional original kaftan, long coat dress with hood and hundreds of buttons down the front, and silk trousers underneath for my son’s wedding, but as I’d already held off from buying a flamenco dress, I had second thoughts. A beautifully embroidered Moroccan outfit like that wouldn’t look quite the same in a rainy Yorkshire. But I did buy 10 metres of wonderful upholstery material for only 250 Dirams, about £15!
Morocco is trying to improve its image and after speaking with a very charming President of the Royal Yacht Club, he told us they are cleaning up their act. Wiping out the drugs image people have of them and plan to build a super marina within two years. Most of the street traders are now licensed and those that aren’t, are arrested, which we witnessed. The reason for tight controls at the port is to stop Moroccan nationals going aboard visiting yachts if they do they are arrested along with the skipper of the yacht. Another event we witnessed.
Now 2EZ was ready to put some sea miles between the hulls, having gained confidence in the boats abilities, and our own, we were getting anxious to get as far east as quickly as possible before stopping to book flights back to Mark and Sam’s wedding. Leaving Tangier we headed for Ceuta where we filled every available container with diesel, at 98 euro cents a litre we took on 172 litres!
Next stop was Estepona, a fantastic view as we approach, with a huge mountain behind the town. During our night sails we enjoyed a spectacular sight of shooting stars from dusk until dawn. During the day the dolphins were swimming six abreast between the hulls, all rising and diving as one. Onwards to Fuengirola (a real Brits abroad place) then Mortil, Almeria and finally into Cartagena, where we are fastened to a pontoon again for the next 5 to 6 weeks. The flights are booked, we have wi-fi on board and we’re feeling much better having sailed 487 (trouble free) miles in the last month. We parted company with Aubrey and Porky at Fuengirola but hope to see Aubrey and his wife at the Southampton Boat Show.
Cartagena has a lot of history, the Carthaginians having their 15 minutes of fame around 227BC until the Romans took over. The bay still has its fortifications and there are a lot of Roman remains here. The town is host to a Naval Academy and there are lots of nice sailors walking around in very tight fitting white trousers as part of their dress uniform, though I’m sure Keith is enjoying seeing the lady sailors! The town had a revival in the 1800s when Cartagena had the best fleet of vessels and crew in the Med and tried to form their own Navy, perhaps trying to recapture previous powers. Spain retaliated by declaring the Carthaginian fleet as pirates and informed all other Navies to destroy the fleet on sight!
Other than that Cartagena has a famous son, Issac Peral invented the first submarine, which is on display on the main Avenida, the vessel was constructed in Cadiz in 1888. I’m looking forward to having a good look around the Roman sites before we fly back to England, the wedding and to see Clara again.
Post Script:- I visited the Roman Theater today (Tues 12th Aug) and found it to amazingly fantastic. A complete Roman Theater which lay undiscovered until 1985! As the Roman Empire went into decline the remaining Romans turned it into a kind of shopping mall. Then the Byzantines built little houses on the steps/seating which eventually collapsed so the Islam’s paved over it and built their houses. Once Christianity took over, to crown it off, a church was built, followed by housing which became the poorest area of the town. It was amazing seeing the pictures of three storey houses which TV aerials on the roofs and a van parked on a road prior to the discovery and excavation. Now it is restored, complete with wooden stage. A wonderful sight.
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Trains Boats Planes and a Stork
I am happy to announce the safe arrival of my (Pam’s) first grand daughter, Clara Moldrop Nielsen who, after a (9 month and) 8 day delay was born on 2nd May 2008 at 14.30 weighing a very healthy 8lbs 2ozs. Her daddy was like a dog with two tales and I guess her mummy was relieved, especially as the midwives were on strike and Martine had a very uncomfortable final few weeks.
Keith and I then set about booking flights to Denmark and took 2EZ, as arranged, to Bruce’s yard in Faro. Quite a cheap berth only 30 euros a week, with rough and ready facilities, but a convenient place to leave the boat for a few weeks. We had the train station behind us, the airport in front of us boats all around and storks flying overhead. When Clara was late showing up I told Liam I would point one in the right direction!
We’d had some quite horrible weather the previous month with huge winds and waves, 50 knots of wind some days, we had been tied up on the fishermen’s pontoon in Olhao riding out the storms, one night a wave came over the top of the pontoon, over the top of 2EZ and landed on the other side, at least a 25 foot distance, I dread to think how high the wave was, we snapped 4 mooring lines that night.
We planned our trip to Denmark via Seville to catch up on the places we’d missed when we went with Martin and Linda in February. I was amazed when I opened a book from my library on the bus to find the main character was called Clara, and even more spooked to find our hotel in Seville was off Rua Santa Clara!
We spent 3 days in Seville, visiting the Royal gardens of Alcazares, which were built for the Spanish Royal family and added to over the centuries, including Moorish, Arabian and Baroque influences. There was a display of Ottoman calligraphy going from the 9th century until the fall of the Ottoman Empire which was mid 19th century. The intricate work of the scribes was magnificent with beautiful flowers and patterns which surrounded the writings. Each new ruler of the Ottoman had their individual signature on a scroll which was huge. The gardens were fabulous with blooms of many colours and hidden gardens at every turn. Despite being in the centre of a bustling city, we could hear only the sound of birds singing.
Our flight to Denmark was via Valencia and we had a 5 hour wait in the airport for our connection. The weather in Portugal and Spain had been quite cool until the moment we walked from the airport to the plane when some Danish people mentioned they had been in Spain for 10 days and had been waiting to feel the heat on their faces. I didn’t like to disappoint them by telling them it was the heat from the planes’ jets!
We arrived at Billund airport, only 29 km from Vejle and hired a car. Liam rode out on his motorbike to meet us and guide us in and took us to meet his adorable beautiful daughter who doesn’t scream like a banshee, but bleats like a little lamb. I now had 5 days to soak up every available moment with her. I soon regained my pram pushing skills and find it hard to believe it is almost 30 years since I last pushed a pram! The time passed so quickly, we had a BBQ at Martine’s sister’s house. Martine’s mum took us for dinner and we just spent lots of lovely time with Liam, Martine and Clara. We stayed in a really nice lodge just half a kilometre from their apartment, and went to see their new apartment that they have just moved in to.
Our return flight to Portugal was via London Gatwick and our day started at 4am, baring in mind that Denmark is an hour ahead of the UK that made it 3am and we woke up to frost on the car……brrrrrr. In fact it had been hotter in Denmark than Spain during our stay. Our 5 hour stop over at LGW became 10 hours as our flight had been cancelled. Our friend Susan, who looks after all our post and important matters, came to see us at Gatwick between appointments and brought a bag of post for us to check whilst we had a picnic lunch with our delayed flight voucher and a good gossip. We finally arrived back on the boat at 22.00hrs, a long day.
Once back on the boat we thought we’d only stay another week, as we were on neaped tides and not even floating at high tide. Our berth was only just a snug fit between two pontoons (!) really just some stakes of wood with a walk way which became a plank of wood then a small tree trunk chopped in half, to get to the shore. When we were at low tide the pontoon was 6 feet higher than our decks, it took some climbing to get off the boat. Another catamaran was berthed behind us a day before we left for Denmark, the people not returning until 20th June and it being too windy for us to have swapped places.
We noticed that our bilge pumps kept running every ten minutes and couldn’t understand where all the water was coming from. Then we discovered that the starboard side hull had landed on a log of wood at right angles to the hull, right where a transducer poked through the hull. It had pushed it out of its seating and was letting water in. It was six days before we floated enough to be able to leave. The owner of the boatyard man handled the other catamaran out of our way with the use of ropes and we set off down the very winding channel back to Olhao. Although it is only 3kms away on land, it is 10kms via the winding channel and took us 3 hours.
We beached the boat so that Keith could reseat the instrument, however due to the soft sand he couldn’t reach it. So we asked permission from the IPTM Port Authority to settle 2EZ on a concrete ramp. Once Keith could fully see under the boat, with the aid of a mirror, we discovered a metre and a half crack right on the bottom of the hull. Seemingly that hull had taken the full weight of the boat every time we bumped up and down with the tides. Keith did a quick repair job and we left on the next high tide at 2.30am.
We rang our insurers who told us to go straight to the nearest port that could lift us out of the water, to have the damage professionally repaired. So, here we are again in Portimao, after a 10 hour sail back against the prevailing wind, our bilge pumps running almost constantly. I’m reminded of the German navigator saying to his Captain, ‘We are sinking, we are sinking…..’ ‘Ah’ he replied, ‘vot are you sinking…’
We’re on the very VERY hot concrete, 45c at mid day which goes from 12.00 to 18.00 then the mosquitoes arrive! Under instruction Keith drilled a series of holes in the bottom of the hulls and around half a ton of water poured out. It would seem that we also took a lot of weight on the rudders and skegs and therefore took water in both hulls.
We were told it would take a month to dry out, our insurers (who have been marvellous – Navigators & General plug plug) said that was too much time out of our cruising year and to get some heaters on it. We told them, heaters it didn’t need! So, we’ve scrapped all the antifouling off and the repair of the crack which went right through the hull to the inside, which we discovered when we took the water tank out, is almost finished.
We’re drinking about 6 litres of water every other day thank goodness Lidls is close by! We’re hoping to start the antifouling on Thursday (27th June) and then be back afloat the following week. One good thing has come out of this I always thought our starboard side hull was overloaded (mostly with Keith’s tools) as it always sat below the waterline by quite a bit. So I decided to measure from the rubbing strake down and found it is actually 5cms lower than the portside hull, and on the hulls under the bridge deck a full 17cms, no wonder we always had a dirty waterline that side. The water line has been lifted twice by previous owners, and I raised it by 5cms in 2006, but only measured up from the last line. When she’s finished 2EZ will have a nice blue boot line to match the lines at the top and hopefully we will be rid of the growth on the sides.
Then we plan to have a shake down sail to Alvor, (never say you’ll never go somewhere again, you never know) and if alls well we’ll make our sail plans into the Med bound for Tunisia, our berth has been reserved, and I’m informed by Mick and Jo from Orizabo, that a hero’s welcome awaits!
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Trips and Visitors
After our return from the UK first I then Keith came down with ‘manflu’ though I’m sure Keith’s illness was far worse than mine. It was quite bad as neither of us could move off the boat for about 3 days and offers of help from friends Caroline and Jim (Moujik) were given, however we recovered in time for a pancake afternoon on Moujik.
We had to have our pancakes early as we planned a trip to Loule (again) for Carnival. Earlier this year than last by three weeks, but a very hot day, I’m sure the virtually naked Brazilian girls were glad of that. Caroline Jim Keith and I traveled by bus to Loule, a very precarious journey and at one point I remember shouting ‘look out’ to the driver who almost ran us into the back of a braking car.
My weekend trips to the gypsy market with neighbour Adriano from Ljuba continued, as I had promised his partner Wilma I would ‘look after the little one’ whilst she took a trip back to Germany. Adriano is a fascinating guy, Italian birth, with a French piano teaching mother, he formed a jazz band in Germany and was a pianist for 25 years. He also speaks Spanish Russian and Portuguese and of course English. He had a wealth of funny stories that would have me crying with laughter.
On the 9th of February our status of reserve traveling companions to Eric and Wiggie of Nokomis was moved up to full status and we accompanied them on a trip to Lisbon to the boat show. They are in the market for a new boat and wanted us to join them to chat through options. The Lisbon Boat show is nothing like the London Boat show, hardly any chandlery stalls or clothing but we went on a number of boats and I enjoyed a free massage on my back, lovely.
We stayed in a Holiday Inn Hotel and used the underground train system, very impressive with huge station platforms, clean trains and no rubbish. We saw more of Lisbon this time as Wiggie drove around the narrow streets. Going through one street Keith observed that we wouldn’t want to meet a tram coming round the corner towards us. No sooner said, a tram trundled round the corner forcing us to reverse back down the hill and winding street which was difficult as we all had a fit of hysterics.
A few days after our Lisbon trip our great friends Martin and Linda of Marlin came to stay with us for a week. They are part of our Lagos Leavers friends and had ‘made it’ to Vibo Valencia in southern Italy. Their journey started on Monday 11th February reaching us late on Tuesday 12th. Despite their long journey we stayed up until 3am chatting, laughing and catching up on news.
Caroline, Jim and Adriano visited for drinks the night before they were due to leave. Martin and Linda had hired a car and did the last leg of their journey from Seville so we joined them as they returned. We had two great days in Seville in a very good priced Hotel, only 55 euros a night and very central. Though, to find the hotel by car took us over 2 hours, driving through even narrower streets than Lisbon and the one way system taking us away from the hotel all the time.
We had good food, good company, a trip on the tour bus, which is a little touristy but really the only way to see a city. It took us across the river to Triana, a small artisan town with wonderful old houses with small verandas overflowing with bright pots of plants and flowers. All the shops were full of brightly coloured flamenco dresses as the city was gearing up for the post Easter festival. Keith and I hope to go back again very soon to see the bits we didn’t have time to see.
We said our goodbyes to Martin and Linda and promised we would visit them next winter and they us, no matter where they or 2EZ are. We had a very wet walk to the bus station as the rain had started around 4am with an almighty crash of thunder, it was then that I realised I had achieved the art of levitation as I must have lifted about two feet off my bed. However by the time we got back to Portimao our clothes were dry and the sun was shining.
More visitors on 2EZ for my birthday, being born on leap day I had a birthday this year. We invited Adriano, Caroline and Jim and French friends Nanu and Gee from Albibi. Caroline and I practiced our school girl French with the help of Adriano. I had gifts and cards and even rhubarb and custard on Moujik care of Caroline, later Keith and I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant we used to go to quite often and they brought a plate of fruit and cream with a sparkler to celebrate my special day.
On the 1st of March we moved to Alvor to carry out work on the boat as we dried out on the sand. Caroline and Jim and Adriano and Wilma came to visit often. Keith completed the final works on engine Mussolini with the fitting of the last Ruggerini piston in the world which has taken 5 months to be located and delivered from Holland. Alvor was the designated place for a traditional celebration this year. Fatima is the patron saint of sailors and her statue leaves its home place only once every fifty years. This year it went from Alvor to Ferrogudo accompanied by a flotilla of fishing boats. Many people lined the town harbour to watch the statue leave. The boats were decorated with palm fronds and tinsle, there was lots of shouting and horns blowing as it left.
Keith had trouble with his right knee which had been infected in November. The infection returned and we had to visit the hospital to get antibiotics. His leg was a full 4cms bigger than the other and had to be rested. At the end of the course of antibiotics his leg was no better. The only option was to have a scan to check for foreign bodies in the knee. Kindly Adriano lent us his car for the drive to Lagoa and after a long day we had the results. Basically he has a ‘sac’ of poison in his knee from years and years of kneeling and was told not to kneel again. (on a boat….yeah right!) A day or so later a huge bulge appeared on his knee (thoughts of Alien!) we treated it, making sure we got all the poison out, I think it may have been the ‘sac’ that surfaced.
Being brave and adventurous we thought we had better give 2EZ chance to prove itself and left Alvor on 30th March and had a most fantastic sail downwind to Olhao, with the main and Genoa goose winged we averaged 5 knots (9 at one point) in full sunshine, surfing on the waves. Now we have the luxury of wi-fi on the boat and are bidding our time for the birth of Liam and Martine’s baby in Denmark, due in 22 days from today. We have negotiated with Bruce’s yard at Faro to leave the boat there at a good price whilst we fly to Denmark, but at least we’re feeling a little more confident in 2EZ and are forming plans for the next move…..heads we go into the Med, tails we go to Madeira.
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New Year 2008
With our new engine in place the only thing left to do was have a maiden voyage. We needed little excuse to go to Lagos as our friend Sven had flown over from Sweden to crew on a boat going to the Canneries so we combined both needs and sailed to Lagos to see Sven.
Sven’s plane from Stockholm had taken and hour to be de-iced before they could fly, so arriving into 23f was good for him. His tan had faded considerably when we saw him as he rushed down the boat ladder to give us big hugs and brought us Christmas presents from Marita including a gift for Sven Jnr. It was great to see Sven again, but unfortunately he did not have a very good crewing experience and jumped ship at Morocco. It must have been bad for Sven to abandon ship and when we MSN’d him later he told us there were no provisions on board, only porridge, all the fresh water was lost into the bilges, there was water in the diesel, the auto helm didn’t work or the hydrovane meaning the boat would have to be manually helmed for six days. The genoa furling didn’t work so Sven had to go forward in a Force 7 to deal with the sail. And finally the skipper was like Dr Jeckell on land and Mr Hyde at sea.
Our maiden voyage started with a bit of a surprise as we cast off from Portimao marina. We were eased out of our berth with the help of Alan, our neighbour, Derek and Adriano. As Keith eased up the throttles we came hurtling back in….the new engine ran backwards compared to the old engines. Thank goodness he quickly realized what was happening and pushed the control into reverse, making us go forward! It was soon rectified once we got to Lagos as he changed the cable around. Also thank goodness we have Brunton feathering propellers as they work with the same thrust both ways.
I amazed at how much our speed on engine has increased as we buzzed out of the river, through the moles and along the coast to Lagos. We overtook boats, something Two Easy didn’t do too well with all the live aboard weight that we carry.
We passed the Dutch ladies Olympic sailing teams, out for their daily practice before they head off to Florida in the New Year and then Beijing, after the final selection of three girls for the team. They were berthed on our pontoon and I have never seen so many men who suddenly found a need be on deck polishing the ropes! Especially Hans, who had the upper hand being Dutch. Keith’s excuse was to ask for help with translation of an email we had from a Dutch engineering firm we were contacting for parts for the old engine!
After we left Lagos we ‘motored’ to Alvor with Brendon and Ruth from Tori on board. Ruth had made a big Irish hot pot which we enjoyed before going ashore to the pub. They were picked up by friends who took them back to Lagos. We had our final hug from Sven the next day and waved as we passed them in Alvor channel as they had run aground on the ever shifting sand banks.
The following two weeks of boatie jobs were handed over to me (Pam) as my winter project of reupholstering the cushions and making curtains started. The material had been ordered and collected from Lagos, and the curtaining from a shop in Portimao. The seat cushions have been made wider and beefed up with a duvet wrap making them twice the thickness and much kinder on the ‘bum’ Also they now make a better pilot bed when sailing.
November brought huge swells into the marina and we bounced about for a few days, snapping two lines. We took a very wobbly walk down the pontoon, trying to keep a check on boats without people on board and a few had ripped back fairleads and pulled off cleats. The thunder and lightening banged about for 12 hours and was mostly overhead. Not much sleep that night and it is amazing where the water finds a way into the boat. Little did we know we had another three similar sessions to come before the end of the year.
Christmas was now fast approaching I spent an afternoon online ordering gifts to send to our families. We took a trip to Lagos for Wiggie’s (Yvonne from Nokomis) birthday party. There were 30 on board and it was a lovely sunny afternoon. I believe there were 30 dead soldiers. (Eric speak for empty bottles)
With the sewing done and Lenin commissioned we took a trip to Ferragudo, across the river, in the dinghy to listen to Christmas jazz in the sun. It was a very pleasant afternoon sitting in the town square enjoying good music and feeling like we could relax a little for the first time in a long time.
Two weeks later our friends Ivor and Maggie arrived with their children Rachel, Daniel and David. Their apartment in Albuferia was finished but not completed on yet so we looked around and found them a self contained apartment in Portimao for 500 euros for two weeks, compared to 1400 euros of apartments they found online.
It was lovely having our friends close by for the holiday period and we ate out most nights. Unfortunately they brought the rain with them, Ivor had a bad cold as did I and poor Daniel took to his bed for 5 days! Never the less we enjoyed a sunny Christmas day and a lovely dinner at Jardim das Dunas in Lagos. We enjoyed many trips out with Ivor and Maggie and saw their new apartment, and enjoyed Sunday lunch at Silves.
Our visitors returned to England on New Year’s Eve. Keith and I walked down to the old iron bridge to watch the fire works. Portimao was hoping to take the Guinness record for a display. There was to be 81,110 explosions along 5.4km of river which lasted 15 minutes. It was magnificent and was seen in Lagos, 6km away! (I’m sure I only counted 81,109 though!)
Two days later, Dave, Keith’s son-in-law arrived from England to see the Dakar rally. It took us 40 minutes to walk in the pouring rain to the train station to catch a train to Faro to meet him. (It only takes us 9 minutes on the bikes!) As Dave is prone to queasiness on the boat, and we were going through a rolly period, we kept him off the boat as long as possible and went to Olhao and Tavira until late in the afternoon. I think Dave was so tired, having been up since 4am that he slept through the rolling and got used to it.
We had hired a car at the airport and drove up to Lisbon, the plan was to see the vehicles and stay overnight then watch the lorry stage and rush back to Portimao to see the vehicles arrive at the service area and watch the Portimao stage.
By mid afternoon a lot of the vehicles were leaving. Not knowing what was happening Keith blagged his way into the press tent and asked where the stage was to be the following day. It was at that point that we found out the Dakar had been cancelled. There had been a terrorist threat in Mauritania following the killing of a French family there at Christmas. I have never seen so many disappointed faces once the news filtered out, including Keith Dave and the driver of a big hummer.
I felt so sorry for Dave having come all this way to see the event, but he was very philosophical about it, at least he had seen the lorries (a passion of his). We spent the rest of the week touring around and went to Sagres to watch the waves on the west and south coast of Portugal, Sunday lunch at Alvor and a walk along the beach. A trip out on the big red rib to see the dolphins, and a trip to Ferragudo on the only sunny day we had.
We dropped Dave at the airport and had only one day to prepare for our own trip to the UK. We had rain the whole time we were in England, but managed our usual mad dash around to visit family and go to the boat show. We met up with Will who was our Celtic Raid leader and Sue and Ron from Eala Bhan (Yellow Van) who were also on the raid and thinking seriously about sailing off themselves. (Have you handed your notice in yet Sue?)
We saw my brother who is looking after my cats, Mark, my son and Sam who have a new puppy Milly. (We bonded very well) Up north to see my mum then back down south to see Keith’s daughter Polly then to the lovely Susan for the final weekend which turned out to be completely mad!
We collected Darin and Emily, Keith’s grandchildren from their mum Lucy and had some quality time with them Darin is recovering from major brain surgery to remove a tumor and years of chemo. He featured in a ‘Make a Wish’ DVD being a postman for the day. (His passion) Susan, not one for a quiet weekend arranged a bread baking session, Freddy her son arrived in his Subaru (he’s only 17!) and Susan’s sister in law arrived with her four sons. Darin Emily and three of the boys stayed the night, it was a bit like a sleep over/happening/love in as we all took over Susan’s apartment.
We left at 5am for our trip back to Portugal, stepping carefully over sleeping boys and arrived back to a very hot sunny Portimao. The Portuguese say they’ve had a very bad winter, which is now over. They don’t know what a bad winter is!!!!!
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Return to Portimao
The promise of our solar panel being delivered in one week was rather ambitious by Portuguese timescales. It even makes Caribbean time appear to run at high speed. We had all the usual excuses and found that 1) the order hadn’t even been made despite paying 50% deposit. 2) It was coming from Spain via Madrid and Lisbon. 3) It arrived but was broken so had to go back and start again. 4) Would definitely arrive on a Monday – Wednesday – Friday and 5) The proprietor drove to Huelva in Spain to collect it personally, finally admitting that DHL are not all they are made out to be. The whole process from order to receipt taking three and a half weeks rather than the promised 5 days.
Meanwhile our batteries were very close to dieing so we went to see the IPTM, who monitor the marina, I say monitor as nobody can enter as a visitor. The marina is full with 200 boats waiting to go in so absolutely no room for visitors. IPTM said to speak to the security guard on the marina gate. As he didn’t speak English and we speak very basic Portuguese it involved a lot of hand waving and many ‘faz favors’ before we made ourselves understood and we were allowed in for ‘uma noite’. Happy that we all understood the conditions we went back to 2EZ to lift the anchor.
Being paranoid that we had dragged anchor previously, we had two anchors down and had maintained our position despite the occasional blast of wind. However, when we lifted the anchor, with great difficulty it is a wonder we didn’t wake up in Morocco. The Delta anchor was clean and had not bitten into the muddy bottom at all. The CQR anchor was dangling clean on the rope. The only thing that had held us was the 50 meters on old fishing rope, cork floats and half ton on weed that we pulled up.
As we turned to make our entry into the marina, Keith said he wasn’t happy with the 1.2 knots of speed we were achieving, however when he saw the amount of detritus hanging from the anchors it explained our drag. We made full use of our 24 hours in the marina and fully charged our batteries, used our immersion heater to heat the fully replenished water tanks having a shower, hair wash and use of a hair dryer. The simple luxuries are always sweeter when not readily available. We freed the bikes from their confinement and took a trip to the supermarket to stock up on essentials.
We headed back onto the fisherman’s pontoon after our one night in the marina, and were surprised when we saw a familiar profile and yacht hull. Our friend Paul Kent from Lagos sailed into Olhao on Sula as part of his ‘holiday’, he being resident in Lagos now for 15 years. We had the usual few beers and Paul stayed for dinner. The next day there was a sailing race and Paul asked if we would crew for him. He said, ‘Now Pam, I want you to think, Americas Cup.’ To which I replied I preferred a Rolex watch to a Tissot as my reward for crewing. We had a few hours of fun, shifting our weight from port to starboard with each tack until the wind died.
We were very quickly ‘kicked’ off the fisherman’s pontoon back onto anchor. We learnt that it is a game that is played with the IPTM, come off anchor every few days tie onto the pontoon until they either notice or someone complains to the IPTM, go back onto anchor and start all over again.
Whilst on anchor Kurt, from Vienna whose yacht was called Aleppo asked where he could leave his dinghy whilst he and Karrin went traveling for a few days by car. We said we would be happy to guard it and keep an eye on their yacht. On their return we were invited for a trip in the car and followed a route from Tavira up into the mountains through Loule, Boliquime and Silves. Along the way our map told us of many legends and the history of our journey, one stop being the castle which features on the Portuguese flag.
We stopped in Silves for lunch at Café Ingles next to the castle listening to a band playing a very eclectic selection of music from Arabian to African to Latin American and Brazilian. Silves was a very important place during the 12th century as the Crusading Knights secured the region from the Islamic influence. It became a very important trade route and a lot of the fig, orange and olive groves are still growing around the base of the castle. The city has been modernized which is a shame as the spirit of the city has been lost apart from the small pocket around the castle. It still has the 12th century water tanks that supplied the town below. Now the castle is being refurbished and turning into some kind of theme park, being built over the top of the ancient foundations…..sacrilege.
We were kept amused on our final few days in Olhao by the dogs which set out for the long swim across the channel to Ilha Culatra. At first I thought it was a seagull in the water until I saw their heads pop up and their ears flap as the kept a look out for boats as they swam the at least half mile, or more. My heart was in my mouth as the fishing boats hurtle though the channel like the M25, I felt compelled to watch through the binoculars to make sure they made it safely to the other side. We later found out that the dogs do this trip regularly.
As we had received our Solar panel we knew we could leave Olhao and though we were tempted to go further east to Ayamonte we thought we had better make our way back to Portimao and the marina for winter. We left Olhao on 25th September taking an hour and a half to clear the channel, in daylight this time. However just as we were about to go through the moles the portside engine gave its last cough and splutter, dropping a valve and bending it over 90 degrees. However as Keith was down in the engine bay lamenting over the dead engine, I was on the helm traveling at half a knot and in danger of being blown onto to rocks that lead up to the sides of each mole.
I believe I asked Keith to pop up and pull out the genoa though I think it was more like ‘get your **** up here and pull the ******* genny out or we’re in ****’. A young Portuguese couple who were fishing close by asked if we were okay, when we said no, they quickly put away their rods and came alongside to throw a line to help us out the sea, fortunately the wind in the genoa gave us enough umph to clear the moles, but it was very reassuring to know they were on hand.
We had to tack in and out for the first two to three hours as the wind was on our nose. The trail it left on the chart plotter resembles a very nice herringbone stitch. Eventually the wind turned and we had a great sail back to Portimao with 28 knots of wind at one point giving us a boat speed of 8 knots. We pulled into Portimao at 3am and looked for a spot to anchor as the marina was still on summer rates.
The next day we could see a lot of familiar boats and spent the day visiting or being visited by old friends. Kurt and Karrin from Aleppo arrived and anchored by us later in the day. Our reason for heading back to Portimao ahead of time was to watch the P1 racing, the formula 1 of power boat racing. We watched from the old fort along with Kurt and Karrin and the crew of Witchway. We had a bit of a hairy trip across the channel in the dinghy however, after watching the time trials in the channel we headed across the bay after the all clear being given. I could see two big Sunseekers down the river and mentioned to Keith that I didn’t think they had seen us we were in two minds as to whether we should go in front of them or between them.
In the time it took to weight up the situation they set off at full throttle doing around 40 – 50 knots crossing 10 meters in front of us. They were waving at each other and hadn’t seen us. In the time it took to say ‘oh ****’ their wake came towards us and we were looking at one meter high waves. I thought ‘we’re going for a swim here.’ Fortunately the waves were far enough apart for us to ride each wake wave. All the boats in the marina bounced all over the place, I was just relieved we were safe but I am told the marina reception had seen it and called the Marina Polizia who chased after them and hopefully dealt with them accordingly.
The day before we went into the marina there was a huge swell and everyone on anchor spent the day laying down trying not to be sea sick. We were helped into the marina by the guys who work there. They knew we had only one engine so came over the channel in their little tender to be ready to push and shove as needed, finally we reached our berth and are tied up safely.
The decision had been made to buy a new engine and it left the UK on 18th October by lorry and arrived a few days later. Meanwhile with Matthew’s (Witchway) muscle both engines have been lifted out, one good one made from two bad ones and painted shiny red to match the new engine. Had we not given our head gasket to Hans from Dubble Trubble, also the sad owner of a Ruggerini engine, we would know whether the revamped engine worked. Keith didn’t think we would be so far ahead with our repairs, so we are waiting for a replacement head gasket before we can try it out.
So after a jolly good scrubbing of the cockpit and clearing all the oil out we sit and wait. And whilst waiting we had a marvelous night at the Opera with Hans and Paula of Dubble Trubble. A Gala Night of Mozart, Rosinni and Verdi to mention just a few of the pieces played at the auditorium and all for 15 euros each! (about £10)
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Olhao
We spent our few weeks of free berthing in Portimao very productively, sorting out reefing lines, and provisioning the boat for our next trip. Keith did a dive on Magic Marlin’s propeller and scraped off two inches of barnacles. We were paid with a few beers (the going rate for a dive!) It was windy, very windy and blowing a hoolie and hot, very hot and TOO DARN HOT at one point reaching 43c!
Robert from Mabs came to visit us a few times and we cycled to Alvor to see him and had Sunday dinner on one occasion. We helped Robert shift boxes into a van as he handed over his boat to the new owners and had a few beers to say our farewells.
One very sad Saturday afternoon as I was hanging out my washing I saw Foxy, the Portimao marina stray dog being killed by a German Sheppard. Foxy was a little black and white dog that the guys at the marina had adopted and built him a kennel. He spent the working day chasing after their buggies as they drove up and down the marina, or hitching a ride in their dinghies as they went about the days work. He gave the marina an energy that has now gone. He was friendly with all the visiting dogs which was his downfall. He was circling a 4 x 4 wanting to play with the German Sheppard when it jumped out of the window, obviously feeling threatened, and went for Foxy’s throat, shaking him once which broke his neck. I heard the commotion and saw one of the guys holding Foxy, who was wagging his tail slowly until he yelled and died. Everyone in the marina was devastated and a feeling of sadness was evident for days. Poor Foxy.
We were due to leave the marina on 18th August. The Breitling Med Cup was due to start on 19th so we watched the building of the Med Cup village. Unfortunately in the process a hedge was chopped down which then allowed all the red sand from the car park to blow over all the boats and we would spend everyday washing the decks to try to stay clean. At the same time we had the August meteor showers at night, talk about red dust and meteors, it was like something from ‘Day of the Triffids’!
We went on anchor in Portimao bay to try to watch something of the Med Cup, unfortunately it was so far off shore we couldn’t really see much and couldn’t wangle an entrance ticket into the hospitality tent. We decided to leave as we had some massive waves every time a fishing boat went passed. It was like watching a tsunami heading towards us, counting 3 – 2 – 1 and holding on to everything (especially our drinks) as we rode over the huge waves.
And so, we battened down the hatches, put the bikes indoors and made a sandwich, leaving Portimao and heading off, at last, on the next leg of our grand adventure. We headed out through the moles intending to go 3 miles off shore, however that route was taking us straight into the Breitling Cup course for the day so made our turn East at only a mile out. The sun was shining, the wind in the right direction, the views of the coastline amazing, we hoisted the mainsail, pulled out the genoa, hooked up the auto-pilot and sat back to enjoy the journey. Our plan was to sail to the Ilha Culatra, just next to Faro, a journey of around 33 miles, and anchor for a day or two before the next leg to Cadiz.
After three or four hours, just at that point when the feeling of wellbeing and alls well with the world sweeps over, the wind died so we started the engines just to make sure we would arrive in daylight. Then the black mist hit (not physically – unless we’re talking about the port engine) the moment when it all goes wrong. Alternatively the engines played up, stopping one against the other, a catalogue of problems that surfaced over the next six hours, a blocked fuel pipe, a leaking fuel pipe, a bent water cooling pipe, and the black smoke.
By now we could see the light house beacon for our entrance, another four or five miles to go and pitch black. We checked and rechecked the Reeds Almanac so we were familiar with the entrance and the combination of buoys and were looking forward to dropping the hook. Then both engines stopped, not a breath of wind and three or four fishing boats (yes the big ones) heading for the entrance also, I started to hear the words ‘Pan Pan’ in my head thinking we were getting into a ‘situation’.
Once again the engines coughed into life again and we followed the fishing boats through the moles mentally ticking off the buoys as we approached them We were keeping our eyes peeled for the anchorage, ‘Cat Alley’ we had checked it out as we flew back into Faro in April but couldn’t see any other boats, no bays were revealed so we had to make a quick decision to carry on to Olhao which meant negotiating a very narrow channel through marsh land. ‘Do not attempt this channel at night at high tide’ the Reeds said….urgh, we had both.
Keeping an eye on the depth meter we tried to follow the buoys and hit the bottom at one point with only 0.1 meter of water under us. Eventually we pulled off and decided to follow instruments only, coming in via the electronic chart plotter. Keith kept a lookout for the buoys and I kept my focus on the screen of the chart plotter. This entrance carried on snaking around for about three miles and took well over an hour until we were ‘in’ to town. We looked for the new marina that was being built according to Reeds 2006, but couldn’t find it. As there were a few boats anchored we also dropped our anchor, realizing that both engines hadn’t missed a beat for the whole time since coming through the moles.
We anchored in the shallow channel and spent the next four days bumping up and down with the tides. We also realized where all Simon Cowell’s rejects go when we heard the local karaoke, the get on a plane to Faro, catch a bus to Olhao and howl at the moon, every night, between 11pm and 1am.
Ohlao (pronounced O-LEE-OW) is a charming town, totally unspoilt by tourists, as it hasn’t been commericalised yet and hopefully won’t be. The old town is still intact with all its narrow winding streets and has a nice assortment of shops, cafes and bars. We tried to check in with the Marina Guardia but nobody seemed interested or bothered about where we were. However by the fourth day we were tired of bumping up and down with the tide and decided to moved off the shelf into the deeper channel and found a good spot.
Pleased that we were saving 200 euros a weeks not paying for a marina we thought it was time for a treat and made enquiries about a solar panel as we had little wind for the wind generator and didn’t want to keep running the petrol generator to keep our batteries topped up. The Portuguese are keen for new buildings to have renewable energy and so only charge 12% tax. We managed to get a discount of 100 euros on the panel which we should get some time in the next week.
Even more pleased with our purchase and savings we headed for a bar for lunchtime refreshments, only to look out to find Two Easy wasn’t where we left it and seemed to be going for a trip up the channel by itself. We had a long (too long) run/jog back to the dinghy and as we approached could see that she was tied off. Two guys, both called Mike had seen her drag the anchor and rescued her, but we were tied off in the deep shipping channel. The Polizia were cirling and said they wanted to see ships papers and passports in half an hour. That was five days ago and they still haven’t come back.
We rewarded our heros with beer and dinner and more beer after we tied off on the fishermen’s pontoon. This now meant we could get our bikes out and had a ride to the Formosa Nature Park to see the Portuguese water dogs. A unique breed, they were bred to help the fishermen ‘herd’ the tuna fish into nets and have webbed feet like the New Foundland dogs. They look rather like a large black poodle before the pom-pom trimmings The dogs had a sixth sense as to where the fish could be found, however in the 1930’s the dogs were abandoned to more sophisticated equipment and almost became extinct in Portugal, who breed the most pure form of the dog with no interbreeding of litters.
We have good wi-fi in Olhao which is always a good reason to stay. Keith has been in contact with Mick from Orizabo. They are now in Tunisia and he has had an hour or two or Skype conversations about the engines. Following Mick’s sound advise we (may) have cured our smoking engine and think we may take a short trip to Ayamonte to test them. Meanwhile we have just been asked to move off the fishermen’s pontoon back onto anchor. Amanha……..
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The Trip to Copenhagen
Our journey to Copenhagen began on Tuesday 3rd July when we moved Two Easy into Portimao. We had had a good 4-5 weeks on anchor in Alvor and had made good friends with Robert from Mabs, whose sewing machine I bought to finish our re-designed sprayhood. We had enjoyed dinner with Robert, and left his boat at 3am after drinking him dry and playing scrabble.
However we had a shock as we made our way back to Two Easy, watching the fish leaping out of the mirror calm water and counting the boats back as we passed. I was bemused by the strange silhouette in front of me and questioned it with Keith. Fortunately I looked up higher just in time to see the nav lights of a fishing boat and we turned just in time. There had been no engine sound as it glided ghostly towards us and I rather think the Portuguese fisher men were just as shocked as us as they shouted to the helmsman, which proves that headlights are not just a fashion accessory but a necessary item especially at 3am!
We waved goodbye to Robert as we left Alvor and enjoyed a sail without engines along the now very familiar coastline back into Portimao. The rest of the day was taken up with washing Two Easy, putting her ‘to bed’ and packing our bags for our travels. The journey involved a long walk into town, a six hour bus journey to Seville, we had intended spending the day in Seville however the 110f temperature was not pleasant so we took a taxi across town to the train station and a two and a half hour train journey to Malaga.
As we approached Malaga the train track took us straight through the mountains. At a speed of 80mph for twenty minutes, it must have been a very long tunnel. It broke out into daylight from time to time, giving us breathtaking vistas of secret canyons that we would never have seen unless we became mountaineers. It was a little cooler in Malaga and we soon found a hotel and went out for dinner.
We enjoyed a morning shopping in the mall at Malaga before it was time to go to the airport. Our flight took us via Frankfurt where we had to run from one end of the terminal to the other to make our connection. When we arrived in Copenhagen I was not entirely surprised to find our luggage had decided to spend the night in Frankfurt and catch the 8am plane the next day. Liam had sent me a text to ask if we were in ‘Wonderful Copenhagen’ I replied yes but our luggage was in ‘Sodding Frankfurt’
It was not contusive to a good nights sleep as I looked in my emergency pack given to us by the lost luggage clerk, to find a knee length t shirt. Not what I had in mind to wear at my son’s wedding. It was alarming to see mounds of lost luggage piled in the corners of the baggage reclaim areas all along our journey. I was quite shocked when we returned to the airport to meet the 8am flight from Frankfurt next morning, on two counts. Firstly the information desk didn’t check that we had flown in the night before, or even look at our passports or even scan our hand luggage. We were taken straight through into baggage reclaim to wait for our luggage. (A matter we reported as a huge security loophole as we flew out) Secondly our bag plopped off the carousel just as I was texting Liam to say we were waiting for our bag.
So with many ‘Yeehah’s’ and happy smiling faces we caught the train to Vejle, a lovely town on mainland Denmark and another journey of two and a half hours. Finally as we pulled into the station, there was Liam waiting on the platform and I was able to give him a long awaited hug. (It had been 15 months since I had last seen him as he and his future wife Martine left England via a Harwich ferry)
It had been raining in Denmark for a full two weeks, but I had promised Liam and Martine that we were bringing the sunshine with us an sure enough, within minutes of us booking into our hotel, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We bought an umbrella as an insurance policy for good weather and happily didn’t need it throughout the weekend.
The wedding service was carried out in English, all Danes speak it. I attempted using my phrase book but was told, don’t bother, ‘we’re such a small country, all Danes learn English at school’ Martine looked stunning and the pair of them are so happy. Their story of meeting is quite moving.
Liam and Martine ‘met’ though a computer game similar to Dungeons and Dragons, called War Worlds. There are around 7 – 8 million (yes that many) players, but their characters kept meeting up and they would join together to do battle. It is quite a compulsive game and they would often play until the early hours, each in their own country. Eventually Martine and Liam communicated, then spoke via web cam and finally met. They fell in love straight away as they already knew each other well. So after many tearful flights back and forth between England and Denmark, courageously Liam took the brave decision to move out to Denmark and start his new life. Martine flew over to England, and I met her. A few days later I drove their baggage out to the Harwich ferry as they followed by motor cycle.
Liam not only has met and married the love of his life, but has landed the job of his dreams as a carpenter. Always good with his hands, it was a job just waiting for him. Martine’s family have taken him to their hearts, they are a lovely family and like all Danes, are very proud of their sense of humour. We had a wonderful wedding dinner and ate Deer, which is quite the best cut of meat, eaten only on special occasions. The Dannish custom is to have a toastmaster with whom speeches are booked and he decides who and when the next speech takes place.
If the bride leaves the table, all the women form a queue to kiss the groom and vice versa. Stamping of feet mean the bride and groom have to go under the table to kiss and so the party went. We partied until dawn and wearily went back to the hotel. We had a great time and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
My elder son Mark and his fiancée Sam are planning to marry next year, probably in Italy, at Lake Guarda. That being the case, we plan to sail there next year via Morocco, Tunisia and up by Sardinia and Corsica to northern Italy. Something to look forward to for next year as this year is passing so quickly we will probably go down to Cadiz and Rota and then make our way back to Portimao for the winter.
Meanwhile, we’ve met two people within the last month who were potential previous purchasers of Two Easy! The last one has kindly given us the remainder of his contract in Portimao as he has left for the UK, so we can stay on electricity and piped water until 18th August……then we really must get going.
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Portimao
We had a very busy time in England, and covered some 1500 miles visiting family from one end of the country to the other. We made some very good purchases at Beaulieu, our best bargain being a Genoa sail that had all the correct measurements for Two Easy, it only cost us a £35 donation to the RNLI. (Unfortunately when we tried it was too long and we had to have it altered by Antonio in Lagos) Also we got all our Med charts for only £1 each, Keith is the RNLI’s best customer! We had our injection pumps serviced and were relieved to find they were completely ‘cream crackered’ which means we would have to look no further into our engine problems.
We bought material to make tubes to protect the inner and outer Genoas from UV damage, and filled a bag with other bits and pieces that are difficult to get outside the UK. We had ‘fun’ getting that lot through customs and onto the plane. Fortunately we didn’t have to carry all the baggage too far, the longest distance was up the platform at Portimao train station.
Our New Zealand engineer, Rum, came to install the injection pumps and I am happy to say the engines no longer sound like a bag of spanners. They are running smooth and sweet at last. I settled down to making the sail tubes, they would have cost around £600 in total the cost of materials was only £120! And they work perfectly.
We hired a car for a few days to take our gas bottles to Boliqueme to be refilled and had a trip over the border into Spain to Isla Cristina with friends Bill and Rosemary from White Beard, a catamaran we first saw in Nazare. We went to Ayamonte as we have been looking for somewhere to leave 2EZ whilst we attend my son, Liam’s wedding in Copenhagen in July. Thinking we were getting ahead of the game we booked our flights from Malaga thinking we would be in the vicinity by then, however after phoning half a dozen marinas, we were told they would only take the boat for two days.
We thought that if we visited a marina and spoke face to face we may have more luck. The Ayamonte marina said they had a 12 meter space which I said we would take, but the young lady said we would have to return in three weeks as she would not guarantee the spot. I (mistakenly) asked if she could help with translation by ringing the other marinas along the route that belong to the same government group. She said I must learn Spanish! After all, when she visits England, she speaks English! I said that my second language was French and that I wouldn’t have time to learn Spanish, Portuguese, African, Turkish, Italian, Greek or Maltese for our tour of the Med. We had been pre-warned that she was a bit ‘stroppy’.
So, with friends Bill and Rosemary we drove alongside the Guardiana as Bill knew of a bend in the river at Alcoutim that has mooring. We spoke with the German caretakers of our problem and they will happily look after 2EZ. They are laying another 3 mooring buoys during June and will only charge 4 Euros per day, and will drive us to the bus station or Ayamonte where we will probably hire a car to drive to Malaga.
We have had an ‘enforced’ increase to our stay in Portimao due to the marina overcharging us by 120 Euros. We had suspected we had been charged too much and questioned it 3 times however when Bill and Rosemary were paying fees for another week as we were, they paid much less than us for a bigger boat, the marina could no longer ignore our query, so as they wouldn’t refund us, only offer a credit note, we decided to stay until we used up our credit.
What to do with all that time, as if I thought I could relax! I have now made a new cockpit table, smaller neater that the original, and started to look at the spray hood as I had never been too pleased with it. We weren’t on the boat when we made it and it was rushed a bit when we were leaving last year. We bought some material from Antonio, amazingly exactly the same as the material for the sail tubes and have started with spray hood mark 2. Keith has beefed up the frame work so it should be much better.
We also have upgraded our bikes seats. We’ve gone for the ‘lardy a***d’ version. Next size is a comfee armchair. Also we’ve fitted bigger chain wheels on the cranks and feel as though we have had another 4 gears added to our 6 gear bikes. Luxury!!!!
Our evenings are spent watching out for Darth Vader. A large fish or octopus named by the locals that terrorizes the soft mouthed mullets in the marina. Every so often they get spooked and leap out of the water. A Portuguese chap moored next to us thinks it is a sea bass, but I have a feeling a long tentacle may come out of the water and wrap itself around our ankles as we walk up the pontoon.
We plan to leave Portimao on 3rd June and may go back to Alvor for one day to drop onto the beach again to put new packing in the stern gland, then it will be off along the coast to, possibly Faro, then the Guardiana about which we’ve heard excellent reports, and then by car to Malaga, plane via Frankfurt to Copenhagen and Liam and Martine’s wedding on Liam’s 29th birthday.
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Six Weeks in Alvor
Our stay in Alvor was planned just as a short stop off to drop Two Easy onto the beach to carry out the usual pre season maintenance works of scrubbings of bottoms and anti-fouling.
There is, conveniently, a sand bank that surfaces twice a day at low tide, and as we went up the narrow channel into Alvor we pulled up the daggerboards. The portside board was difficult to pull up as an elastic bungee seemed to be stuck down the chute. Not one that we recognized, so it must have been there since we bought the boat.
Once we were safely anchored we attempted to retrieve the bungee, with us both on either side of the daggerboard pulling back and forth, the strap came out, along with the daggerboard and the bottom four feet missing!!!! Much to our surprise, it took a few minutes to scrape our chins off the deck and close our mouths.
The only time we recalled any problems with that board was entering Cardiff around 18 months before when it got stuck in the mud which makes up Cardiff’s shifting channel. It had stopped Two Easy in its tracks and took a bit of heaving to pull it out of the mud, which is when we either left the bottom of the board behind in the mud or weakened it. Either way it had been missing for some time due to the worm casts and state of the broken edge of the board. It also explains some of the problems we have had with keeping Two Easy on a straight track.
So, apart from anti-fouling, we now had a bottom half of a dagger board to make. It took a little planning and a few trips to Lagos to buy the materials, a lot of dust and mess, and itchy feet and legs from the foam and glass fibre. Any way, it fits but doesn’t go up and down the chute as well as we would have liked.
During our time in Alvor, we were visited by a few Lagos Leavers, also breaking free of the Velcro marina. We enjoyed a few afternoon beers with Stu and Steph from Matador, followed by a visit from Barry and Janet from Ruby Tuesday, and Sunday dinner with Phil and Pauline from Moyle Rose.
We watched the Good Friday procession in Alvor. The streets were strewn with branches of Thyme, making it very aromatic. The local scouts provided the somber drumming leading the effigy of Christ on a stretcher. We were amazed to hear a man behind us ask his wife who the ‘guy on the stretcher’ was supposed to be! Am I surprised that he was English and old enough to know better.
We became friendly with the dogs in Alvor, most of them were quite stumpy legged, but one with longer back legs than front amused us. He was okay going up hill but struggled going down hill. The chief dog was ‘Town Dog’, so called because he busied himself running back and forth to check everything was in order, in and out of the restaurants and back down to check out the old guys sitting under an old fishing market shelter, then back to his house and round again. He was definitely top dog.
We hade a few visits from Martin, of True Light who brought his motor boat slowly to Alvor, saying he thought he had a problem with his engine, and it may have been a rope round the prop. Keith asked if he wanted him to dive and have a look. It took half and hour to ‘dig out’ the gear, and no more the 2 seconds for Keith to come back up with a bin bag that had wrapped around the prop. We had a trip ashore for refreshments in lieu of pay, after which Martin powered back to Lagos at 22 knots!
We have now moved on to Portimao, only another few miles up the coast, but somewhere we can leave Two Easy whilst we go back to the UK for Beaulieu boat jumble, and a quick whiz round family and friends. I have made our bimini which, judging by today’s heat to 40c, we’ll be needing it soon.
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Leaving Lagos
At last we have broken free from the velcro that seems to hold a lot of yachties in one place too long. We had a resounding send off from our friends who gathered on the bridge to wave and blow their fog horns. We sailed out of Lagos on 11th March just a few miles up the coast to Alvor, and have completed our antifouling and polishing works.
As we are not paying for any marina fees whilst we are on anchor, we hired a car for a few days. We had a trip across the border to Ayamonte in Spain. They are one hour ahead of Portugal and don't open their shops until 10am so our arrival at 8am left us wandering the streets for a few hours. We bought some canvas to make a bimini, and enjoyed the sights and sounds. There were three old guys playing some tango music which made it even more atmospheric.
Our friends Ivor and Maggie flew into Faro for a few days to view properties so it was great to see them for a few evenings for a meal or two and catch up with news.
Meanwhile we have just seen friends Stu and Steph from Matador sail into Alvor, they have broken free too. We'll dinghy over to see them later.
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Still in Lagos
The weeks since Christmas and New Year have flown by and we will soon be planning our next move, possibly to Praira de Alvor just a few miles down the coast. We plan to sit Two Easy on the beach to carry out maintenance work, and scrub the Marina slime off the bottom. Then perhaps to Portimao for a month to six weeks whilst we have a trip back to the UK again to attend Beaulieu Boat jumble at the end of April, then to plan our next move through the Gibraltar straits
Meanwhile, we’ve been on quite a social whirl with whiskey tasting, wine tasting, Burns night and Keith’s birthday to mention a few. We had a trip out on Two Easy to Portimao with friends Martin and Linda from Marlin and Davey and Kate from Roamer. Martin had snagged an abandoned anchor when they were last in Portimao but were unable to haul it aboard. They had a good idea of its location so we headed out for the day, also a good time to add miles to the newly rebuilt engines. Keith donned his dive kit and after half an hour of searching he surfaced with a sea horse on his hand. It had curled its tail around his hand and sat on his palm just below the surface of the water so we could see it before he let it swim away. We had a good trip but found no anchor.
Our next adventure was a trip to Tavira to the camera obscura and then to the observatory. We had a convoy of around five cars with people from the Marina. A stone circle had been built five years previously, copied from an original circle and was accurate proving just how much we owe to the ancients and their awareness of the stars and their movements. Clive the owner of the complex gave a very interesting talk with regard to the constellations, their discovery and their movements. The dot to dot pictures were illuminated on a domed ceiling then when the pictures were ‘switched off’ it was extremely difficult to try to find the North Star and other points of reference. The early Portuguese navigators left from Cape St Vincent with little for than what looked like a an engine cog dangling from a string, called an astrolabe, and an ability to mathematically calculate the angle of the shadow of the sun on the decks of their ships. They sailed for three weeks at a certain bearing, changed bearing when the butter melted and discovered Brazil.
Friends Stu and Steph from Matador found a volley ball on the beach and in no time we had a team put together for our twice weekly games. The first few weeks we spent more time falling over and too shocked at getting the ball over the net to return it. That was then, now we have great rallies, playing for about two hours a time, and all feel much for playing too.
Last week was Carnival time. Lagos holds a parade of children however the bigger towns have the more exotic versions. Again we had a convoy of cars we hired one with Martin and Linda for the day and went to Loule. It was quite hot for which I’m sure some of the scantily clad girls were grateful. The whole event was spectacular with dozens of floats, dancing girls with flowers confetti and sweets being thrown to the crowd. No worries about ‘elf and safety, no one got hurt and everyone had a good time. The main Avenida (High Street) was sealed, tickets to enter were 2 Euros, no charges for parking, or programmes.
Keith had another dive a few days ago when he dropped his phone in the Marina! There was little or no visibility and after half an hour he surfaced, phone in hand. We gave it a quick rinse down with fresh water, the phone didn’t work however both his UK and Portuguese SIMs are functional. We bartered an Atlantic Pilot for a brick of a NOKIA phone with Caroline from Witchway, tried the SIMs and they fired up both times!
The latest adventure was the Tour of Algarve cycle race again the Avendia was sealed off as we waited for the riders. Suddenly almost every police motorcycle came roaring down the route, lights and sirens blaring to clear the road for the stage winners who flashed by. Again the programmes were free, it seems the less people are hassled to stay in order the more they behave and enjoy the day, well in Portugal anyway.
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New Year & the Lisboa - Dakar rally
Happy New Year..... we spent our New Year's eve, again in Lazyjacks along with most of the yachties from the Marina. We had free food, good music and company... and fireworks at midnight. The Marina was very quiet on New Years morning as everyone stayed in their bunks until well after midday!
The Lisboa - Dakar rally passed through Portimao (only 6 miles down the coast) on 6th January. Too good an opportunity to miss, we sailed to Portimao along with 4 other boats to see the rally. Saturday was spent wandering around the service areas, looking at all the cars and bikes being prepared ready for the Portimao section on Sunday.
We met up with Martin and Lyn from Marlin and had a meal with them. Later we caught the free bus back to the Marina as we were too tired to walk the one and a half miles back to the Marina. We asked the driver if the 'green line' would take us to the Marina and he said yes, however he didn't tell us it would be and hour and three quarters before we got there!
We thought it was great having a free ride home even if it may go round the houses a bit, but after we stopped at the hospital, went round Maxmart, up into the sticks, round the hospital again and to Maxmart we realised we better check whether we had any survival rations. Lyn found a bag of boiled sweets in her bag, we counted them and hoped they would last for the duration of the ride.
After our fourth circumnavigation of Maxmart we thought we had better limit the sweets to one lick each per hour. Finally we returned to exactly where we started. By now Lyn was incoherant, we thought it may be scurvy setting in however she was just hysterical with a gigling fit. As we were about to get off the bus and walk, the driver said the bus would be going to the Marina now.
By now we had checked the stars and instictively felt the direction we should be going was East......the bus went West, and it was another half hour before we stumbled off the bus, barely able to walk after being cramped in the seat for so long......we declined a night cap on each other's boats!
Sunday morning and I switched off the 5.30am alarm and went back to sleep however we did manage to get ourselves to the rally section by 8am. The organisation was incredible....the section was kept secret so that the roads would be free of cars driving to watch the event. Free buses shuttled people out of town to the rally section which kept the roads empty for the rally vehicles and their entourage. It was quite cold and misty and people built fires to keep warm.
The GNR (police) were present, but there was no trouble, no pushing and shoving no shouting, no yobs. Portuguese people are so respectful to each other. If anybody stood in front of me whilst I was watching, they apologised and moved to the side. The rally was amazing and Keith took over 400 pictures. He was at a hairpin bend and saw a car roll a full 360, land back on its wheels and drive off!
So now we are into the New Year, we are planning our next move, which will be to Portimao for a few months as we will save over 400 euros on fees as they do not charge extra for catamarans. We will probably return to the UK in April to go to Beaulieu, then plan our passage for the next stage of our trip.
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Merry Christmas
After a busy few weeks, the work on the decks of Two Easy is now completed, and she is looking very smart too. We will be going on a Boxing Day cruise with around ten other boats from the Marina, just a few miles along the coast to Portimao. Apart from an excuse for a sail, we will all be contributing an entry fee to the local childrens home. The Navigators Network support the home and many boats have a bottle on board into which we throw our loose change and give the full bottles to the home.
The weather is quite warm still through the day, around 17 - 19c, but it is quite cold at night and we have had to buy a fan heater to keep warm. Our friends Paul and Mo from Ti-Gitu have now left Lagos to go into the Med. Keith followed them down the river in the dinghy for a while, complete with two outboards to keep up!
We had an enjoyable Navigators Christmas dinner on 19th. Around 100 people attended a five course dinner, and every boat received a gift from the Marina, either a cap, key tag or similar and a bottle of Port. There was also a 'Decorate your Boat' competition, the Marina looks very attractive with boats lit up like Christmas trees. Naturally Two Easy is bedecked with as many LEDs as possible along with coloured lights up the mast and along the guardrails! (no, we didn't win!)
With only a few days to go to Christmas, we are not missing the fog or chaos back in the UK. We're looking forward to our Christmas dinner, we're booked into the Jardim Das Dunas with a number of friends and will go to our local, Lazyjacks afterwards. (We may even see the Queen's speech on Sky!)
Keith and I are currently running the Navigators Network club in Terry's absence. We did our first broadcast today and didn't get heckled once, though I'm sure that will all change soon.
Wishing all our web watchers a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR, and looking forward to fair winds for next year.
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Life in Lagos
We've been in Lagos now for 3 weeks and are settling into the 'live aboard' way of life. There is a Navigators Network every Monday Wednesday and Friday on channel 77 which is a way of finding out information and helping other yachties needing technical help or advise of where to buy boatie things.
Lagos is very 'British' as there are so many UK sailors here, all the locals happily like to speak in English as long as you have made an attempt at speaking in Portuguese. Even the local cinema shows films in English with Portuguese sub-titles. (Hope to see Casino Royal this week)
We've been to a few parties and went to a Thanksgiving lunch with the American yachties last week. On Friday (1st Dec) it is Portuguese National day when the monarchy was restored. There will be food and Fado music at one of our 'locals'. Fado music is melancholic and unique to Portugal.
Right now we are working on the boat when we want and going to 'Lazyjacks' for a brunch or off to the beach for a swim, when we don't. I (Pam) am busy working on the decks, as I pulled all the grip matting off. The decks will be painted white which will be cooler on the feet!
Keith did a presentation of the LED lights at a Nav Network evening. We have around 120 Lights on board that we hope to sell as we travel. He has an order of 5 so far and I have an order for curtain making.
There are huge storks nests on chimneys around the marina and a pair of black swans in a pool. We'll get photos onto the website soon.
Regular visitors to the site will notice it has been updated and now links into Google Earth. Unfortunately, previously we only put one decimal place on for our long/lat references, which now makes us look as though we have gone over land. (I thought it was bumpy) However hopefully we should have more accurate references in the future.
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