Well on Tuesday the sun came out and the anti-fouling arrived. After one day it was on the bottom of our boat. Thursday evening we were launched back into the water. It was quite scary being on the boat as it was rolling backwards down the concrete slip, held only by a fork lift truck with a ripped tyre. We had to guess what all the men were saying, and communicated, as usual, by a mixture of Spanish and sign-language. Anyway,we got the boat afloat, turned it round, and off we went on our first voyage for 7 months. It was all of 500 metres to the pontoon!
We're still here. Our plans to leave were held up by Andy spending a day taking the outboard motor for the dinghy to bits. There were lumps of rust in the carburettor. Then our friend, Colin, turned up after a horrendous crossing of Biscay, during which he weathered two storms and an engine failure as he tried to come into Cedeira in the pitch dark in a gale. I'm so glad it wasn't me. He's here recovered now and it's great to hang out with him for a bit until he sets off for the Azores.
We hope to go out into the Ria tomorrow for a shake-down, before leaving on Monday, maybe. As ever, it depends on the weather/swell forecast. Yesterday was blistering heat, as we scrubbed and hosed down the boat in our swimming costumes. Today there's a thick fog in the Ria and a cold wind.
We've also bought a gismo for the computer which will give us mobile phone access to internet for when we need weather forecasts in places without wifi. Hopefully this will save us some marina charges.
Andy's out buying cerveza. We're eating dinner on Colin's boat, Tui, this evening. He dined on Sally last night.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Monday, 25 May 2009
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the Ria de Ares.
It's been pouring all night and all day and it's cold and the paint still hasn't arrived. even if it does, it's too wet to use it. Andy's taking the boat apart inside trying to source and stop the water which is coming in and soaking everything in the nav table. It's not that much fun. The Concello internet still isn't working, so I put on my foul weather gear and took myself to the Biblioteca and the free wifi.
Time to go back for a glass of wine now. At least that's cheap here.
Time to go back for a glass of wine now. At least that's cheap here.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Here we are again....... Back in Ares
Prepare yourselves to catch up.
Andy and I are recovering from our heart attacks at the price of “pintura de anti-incrustante” (antifouling paint) in Spain. It’s expensive in England, anyway. We usually pay about £60 or so for 5 ltrs every year, but were left open-mouthed when we bought some from the boatyard here and it was a stonking €180 for 2.5 ltrs! Luckily it turned out that we’d bought the wrong stuff and were able to return it for a refund. We’ve ordered some from the same guy in England where we’ve always bought it and it’s £100 for 5 ltrs, delivered to Spain in a van. Trouble is we now have to wait for it to arrive. They said it should come today. As our friend, Colin, said, why don’t we cover the boat in gold leaf? It would be cheaper and the barnacles won’t stick to it. Colin is on his way single-handed to the Azores, mad fool. We’re hoping to meet up with him somewhere here in north-west Spain in the next week or two. At the moment, we’re not going anywhere, as we’re still on the yard in Ares. At least the sun is shining. For the first week we were here it was cold and raining and I was missing the turquoise blue of the Caribbean sea. All that swimming has faded into a distant memory now.
We did enjoy a couple of weeks in England staying in a delightful holiday cottage in our village. I can recommend Christine Felce’s Didi http://www.cotswoldaccommodation.co.uk/ for self-catering or B&B if any of you or your friends fancy a holiday in Chalford. We were very busy, shopping and shopping for clothes and things for the boat and seeing people and dandling young Esmé (who is now 1 yr old and gorgeous.) We hadn’t bought any clothes for about 2 years and most of what we had been wearing in the Caribbean all winter had worn out, what with the sweat, the sea and the sun damage. I think the same has happened to my skin. We also had dentist’s appointments and eye tests.
As I said, our time in the Caribbean seems long ago. It was interesting and relaxing and a lot of the time I was bored. However, that was one of the things I wanted to find out. I now know that I don’t want to live there. There isn’t enough for me to do. It is also too hot to want to do anything. It was getting very very hot during March and April as the sun came directly overhead and I was glad to be leaving. I was also looking forward to going back to Europe, where there is some kind of civilisation: the streets are cleaned, there’s architecture, art and music and people wear underwear. I know there’s music in the Caribbean, lots of it, but, well, it isn’t exactly Mozart. It’s just loud.
We made some good friends out there, though. We had a little party at the pizzeria on our last night. I’ll put some pix on here when I can get some decent internet access. We usually do have a very good free wifi signal from the Concello, but it’s not been working for a day or two. I went there today, but it was shut for the festival of Santa Rita who is the patron saint of civil servants, can you believe? This meant that the Biblioteca, the other place where we can get free wifi, is also shut for the day.
Meantime we’re waiting for Pedro to come and fix a little bit of damage to the floor of our heads (boat toilet, to you landlubbers). During the winter they had some fierce weather here and Paco and his men had put some extra props under our boat. One of the wedges they’d driven in had bent the hull slightly, which had pushed the floor up inside and cracked it. Paco is used to more modern boats which have thinner hulls and can flex more. We don’t think there’s any damage to the hull, and they are going to fix it for us. Mind you, Pedro has said he was coming every day for the last 3 days, and we’re still waiting. It reminds me of the Caribbean all over again. However, we can see him working on other boats. It’s not that “a man needs to rest”. They are very busy because at this time of year everyone wants their boat fixed up and got ready to go back on the water for the summer. They work funny hours here, though. Start at 10am and go on until 2pm. They start again at 4.30pm and work until 8pm. We eat our meals at English times, and are quite out of kilter with the locals. We go to bed when it’s still light and they’re just having their dinner.
After seeing a lot of friends and family in England, I felt quite lonely when we first got here. We had made a lot of friends in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. It was easy. They spoke English , were into boats, and had lots of time to hang out. Here they speak Spanish. Actually, they speak Gallegan, which I can’t understand at all. They can understand me when I’ve worked out what I need to say in my best Spanish, but when they answer I just stand there looking stupid. I’ve had a lot of practice at that. Also, we’re going to be moving on, as soon as we can. Maybe this is why I feel the need to write my blog again. An outlet for my need to chat.
I’m used to living on the boat on the yard now. I think I’m getting thinner, as I’m up and down a ladder about 50 times a day. I haul containers of water up. I haul the night-time bucket down. I ride my bike to the toilet many times a day. I also use it to go the shops. Even though this is a very friendly little place where people are helpful and polite, we carefully lock our bikes up every night. We haven’t forgotten the inconvenience and frustration caused when they were nicked in France. Still, it will be very nice to be floating again. I just hope that the anti-incrustante arrives soon.
Andy and I are recovering from our heart attacks at the price of “pintura de anti-incrustante” (antifouling paint) in Spain. It’s expensive in England, anyway. We usually pay about £60 or so for 5 ltrs every year, but were left open-mouthed when we bought some from the boatyard here and it was a stonking €180 for 2.5 ltrs! Luckily it turned out that we’d bought the wrong stuff and were able to return it for a refund. We’ve ordered some from the same guy in England where we’ve always bought it and it’s £100 for 5 ltrs, delivered to Spain in a van. Trouble is we now have to wait for it to arrive. They said it should come today. As our friend, Colin, said, why don’t we cover the boat in gold leaf? It would be cheaper and the barnacles won’t stick to it. Colin is on his way single-handed to the Azores, mad fool. We’re hoping to meet up with him somewhere here in north-west Spain in the next week or two. At the moment, we’re not going anywhere, as we’re still on the yard in Ares. At least the sun is shining. For the first week we were here it was cold and raining and I was missing the turquoise blue of the Caribbean sea. All that swimming has faded into a distant memory now.
We did enjoy a couple of weeks in England staying in a delightful holiday cottage in our village. I can recommend Christine Felce’s Didi http://www.cotswoldaccommodation.co.uk/ for self-catering or B&B if any of you or your friends fancy a holiday in Chalford. We were very busy, shopping and shopping for clothes and things for the boat and seeing people and dandling young Esmé (who is now 1 yr old and gorgeous.) We hadn’t bought any clothes for about 2 years and most of what we had been wearing in the Caribbean all winter had worn out, what with the sweat, the sea and the sun damage. I think the same has happened to my skin. We also had dentist’s appointments and eye tests.
As I said, our time in the Caribbean seems long ago. It was interesting and relaxing and a lot of the time I was bored. However, that was one of the things I wanted to find out. I now know that I don’t want to live there. There isn’t enough for me to do. It is also too hot to want to do anything. It was getting very very hot during March and April as the sun came directly overhead and I was glad to be leaving. I was also looking forward to going back to Europe, where there is some kind of civilisation: the streets are cleaned, there’s architecture, art and music and people wear underwear. I know there’s music in the Caribbean, lots of it, but, well, it isn’t exactly Mozart. It’s just loud.
We made some good friends out there, though. We had a little party at the pizzeria on our last night. I’ll put some pix on here when I can get some decent internet access. We usually do have a very good free wifi signal from the Concello, but it’s not been working for a day or two. I went there today, but it was shut for the festival of Santa Rita who is the patron saint of civil servants, can you believe? This meant that the Biblioteca, the other place where we can get free wifi, is also shut for the day.
Meantime we’re waiting for Pedro to come and fix a little bit of damage to the floor of our heads (boat toilet, to you landlubbers). During the winter they had some fierce weather here and Paco and his men had put some extra props under our boat. One of the wedges they’d driven in had bent the hull slightly, which had pushed the floor up inside and cracked it. Paco is used to more modern boats which have thinner hulls and can flex more. We don’t think there’s any damage to the hull, and they are going to fix it for us. Mind you, Pedro has said he was coming every day for the last 3 days, and we’re still waiting. It reminds me of the Caribbean all over again. However, we can see him working on other boats. It’s not that “a man needs to rest”. They are very busy because at this time of year everyone wants their boat fixed up and got ready to go back on the water for the summer. They work funny hours here, though. Start at 10am and go on until 2pm. They start again at 4.30pm and work until 8pm. We eat our meals at English times, and are quite out of kilter with the locals. We go to bed when it’s still light and they’re just having their dinner.
After seeing a lot of friends and family in England, I felt quite lonely when we first got here. We had made a lot of friends in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. It was easy. They spoke English , were into boats, and had lots of time to hang out. Here they speak Spanish. Actually, they speak Gallegan, which I can’t understand at all. They can understand me when I’ve worked out what I need to say in my best Spanish, but when they answer I just stand there looking stupid. I’ve had a lot of practice at that. Also, we’re going to be moving on, as soon as we can. Maybe this is why I feel the need to write my blog again. An outlet for my need to chat.
I’m used to living on the boat on the yard now. I think I’m getting thinner, as I’m up and down a ladder about 50 times a day. I haul containers of water up. I haul the night-time bucket down. I ride my bike to the toilet many times a day. I also use it to go the shops. Even though this is a very friendly little place where people are helpful and polite, we carefully lock our bikes up every night. We haven’t forgotten the inconvenience and frustration caused when they were nicked in France. Still, it will be very nice to be floating again. I just hope that the anti-incrustante arrives soon.
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