June / July 2003Beer of the moment : Kronenbourg 1664We have inserted the pictures as "thumbnails" to reduce page download time. To see a larger version of the picture, just click on it.Tuesday 24th June
Finally we are off ! We’ll leaving England at any rate….
Packing the house and putting everything into storage had been a nightmare. Thank goodness Joyce and Bill were there to help. The week before had been full of trips to the storage venue, giving stuff to charity, heavy lifting, selling items we had no room for outside the house and cleaning. Managed to secure a garage for the spider with only days to go. House still not exchanged L
Caught the Portsmouth to Cherbourg ferry, for a fast uneventful crossing. The day had been madly busy and we were lucky to get there on time as we were late setting off. The transit was filled to the brim with stuff. All very stressful !!
We were nearly made to empty the very full Transit because I admitted to customs that we had “explosives” (ie flares) on board.
The drive to La Rochelle took longer than expected so we slept in a lay by on the way down – or tried to sleep J
Drive to La Rochelle very pretty through lovely French countryside and pretty villages and houses.
Wednesday 25th June
Arrival and our first look at the boat. Took longer to find it than expected because it was in the “Basin of Grand Yachts” behind the museum rather in Minimes marina because they were full.
She looks great alongside the first of the new FP 60ft cats.
Busy day unloading the transit and getting everything on board. Weather very hot which made it hard work to unload.
The dinghy was easily the heaviest and most difficult item. Carl, the UK dealer, helped with it – it might be the most useful thing he has done to date !!
Also had to check the boat for faults. Not a nice task.
Carl offered us dinner so we went to the Savoyard “ski lodge” in town for a Raclette. Great chunk of blue cheese melted over coals with potatoes and meat. Beautiful. Nice wine as well.
Thursday 26th June
4am start so Allan can get the van back up to Cherbourg for the midday ferry. Allan was absolutely shattered to say the least given the week before, the drive down and unloading everything yesterday. Boat looked a tip with boxes shoved everywhere.
Chris and Ben, the electrical engineers arrived at lunch time.
The men made a start on the shore power. Chris was anxious about going up the mast, given its 20m high, to fit one of the aerials and managed to secure the services of a Fountain Pajot contractor who agreed to do the work that evening. 4 hours later he came down the mast having had a nightmare getting the cables down. Cost 100 Euro’s so a real bargain. Chris was relieved. Bev took them out for a Pizza and discovered Piri Piri sauce on pizza.
Strange to be on the boat with two strange men and no Allan.
Allan meanwhile was really late getting to his hotel. He had called to collect an SSB aerial that we had been too late to collect on our way to the ferry and then had to cart it across London. He wasn’t allowed on the tube and had to walk from Marylebone to Liverpool St carrying a 3 metre long piece of plastic.
He arrived too late at the hotel for dinner so made do with beer and crisps L
Friday 27th June
Allan arrived at lunchtime carrying SSB aerial. Boat a tip and men taking apart every conceivable panel and drilling holes. Weather very warm. All very stressful on a new boat. Bev spotted more scratches and dents for Fountaine Pajot to fix L
Spent time searching chandlers for things that we needed. Navatlantique, a sort of backstreet Alladins cave have promised to get everything we need and to not charge the TVA (VAT) We’ll see !
Monday 30th June Need to beach the boat in order to drill the holes for the watermaker, ssb ground and forward sonar. Also FP need to repair some damage Allan spotted under the bridge. Early start but the lock gate opened on time and the FP skipper made a good job of getting the boat on the ramp at the marina.
Made the mistake of loaning the Avon dinghy to a French skipper who was careening his boat. He knocked to big gauges out of the bottom landing on the concrete ramp. Other bad news is that there are no spaces at in the Marina so we will need to raft alongside a FP Tahiti 75 cat on the fuel dock until we leave.
Wednesday 2nd July
Ben spending a lot of time on SMS (and giggling to himself) and hours every night on the phone to his girlfriend. Must be costing him a fortune – young love !
Thursday 3rd July
Went out for a calibration and sea trial with Chris and Ben. Chris doesn’t like sailing but luckily it was a calm day. Everything seems to work. Chris managed to fit most equipment apart from a few items like the Iridium and Gas detector so Allan will need to do them later.
Chris and Ben worked hard and did a good job. We were glad to have organised UK engineers to fit out our boat, aside from the language issues we noticed other owners were having problems getting work done and quality was reported as variable.
Its their last day so after lunch they head up to Roscoff for the ferry back. It will be nice to have the boat to ourselves for a while.
Saturday 5th July Picked up Gerard, Daukus and Marco at the airport. We had hired a car to go to Bordeaux to visit the consulate and get some paper signed for the boat registration. Turns out Daukus can do it as she is a solicitor. So we take them to Gerard’s sisters house a few hours south of La Rochelle. She makes us very welcome and prepares a fantastic meal with some great local Rose wine. She is living in, and running a guest house, a beautiful converted farm house with a pool and lots of barns. She is also working part time as an estate agent and is helping UK people find hoes in the area. It’s seems like an idyllic lifestyle.
Wine of the Month – Muscadet, about 3-4 euros a bottle Beer of the Moment - Kronenbourg
Tuesday 8th July Gerard caught the train up from his sisters home near Bordeaux.
Signed off the boat today after an uneventful trial sail. A few niggling problems remain but will have to be fixed later.
Went to settle bill with Navatlantique – guess what ? We have to pay the VAT after all – might not have bought as much if they had been straight with us at the start. They also weren’t able to get many of the things they promised, but a bit of last minute rushing around secured some of what we needed.
Set sail for Finisterre just after 13:00. Gerard dropped his mobile phone over the side and its lost with all his email and a lot of important contacts – what is it they say about backing things up L
Hardly any wind so motor is on.
Wednesday 9th July Still no wind. Spent the night dancing round Fishing boats – they are everywhere and have right of way ! Bevs Sea Sickness tablets have stopped her throwing up but after cooking spaghetti bolognaise it all gets a bit much and she spends rest of evening lying down feeling unwell.
Thursday 10th July No wind and a long gentle swell. The Lighthouses on the North Spanish coast are visible now and comforting. Spotted a couple of different schools of whales and lots of dolphins have come to visit.
Friday 11th July Oh my God ! Finesterre lives up to its reputation. About 30-35 kts of wind and pretty big breaking seas. Did a few hours of hand steering as the Autopilot doesn’t always react quickly enough to the waves. Surfed down one wave at 16.5kts – much too fast for my liking. Have reefed the boat to max on mainsail and jib and things seemed to be more manageable.
All a bit tired so make for first decent looking port – Portosin.
Saturday 12th July Portosin seems a nice quite Spanish village. Small harbour and the town is untouched by overseas tourism. Some sort of live concert being held in the town until the early hours but slept quite well.
Gerard keen to press on, but we are not so confident that leaving in the fog at night is such a great idea.
We can’t see very much at all at sea. Radar is a lifesaver, not too many scary moments, in the end all a great learning opportunity.
Sunday 13th July Arrive in Bayona at 00:45. We could hardly see anything then the castle and lights loomed on the sea front. Then amazingly. a huge Fireworks display started – one of the best we’ve seen and we had a front row seat plus a great guide into the marina.
Little man came out in a dinghy to help us in – we like this place already.
Gerards communication device jinx returns and he lost our new Icom VHF handheld radio over the side – its supposed to be waterproof – we’ll see.
Monday 14th July
Ate some fish at the Marina restaurant, well you’ve got to start sometime. Maybe a while before we have any more mind you.
Gerard has to get back to the UK for business. Torturous journey involving a bus to Vigo, an overnight train to Madrid then flight to London. We are going to stay on a while and catch some rest.
We are very thankful for Gerard’s fantastic help and mentoring on the trip. We’ve both learnt a lot and would have really struggled without him. He also makes a great sandwich J
Decided to let Bev have a go at cutting my hair. Last time I chanced letting a girl cut my hair I had to head for the barbers next day, wearing a hat, to get it straightened out. Fortunately this time everything was fine.
Tuesday 15th & Wednesday 16th Bayona is a beautiful town and a bit touristy. The marina club is in the grounds of the castle, it’s a great setting. Spotted a beautiful Jaguar SS100 in the car park.
We made a trip up to Vigo on the bus. Gerard had visited previously with Dave Farimond. Not as nice as Bayona and glad we didn’t take the boat there, the yacht harbour is tiny and full. We did manage to get some wire cutters from a chandler, so another job done.
Seems like there is a big festival in Bayona, bands and fireworks every night. We are too tired to join in though and just enjoy the spectacle from the comfort of the boat.
We visited a replica of the Pinta, one of Columbuses ships which made its first landfall in Bayona after the “discovery” of America. It’s a lot smaller than I imagined.
We paid a diver 80 euro to recover the VHF. He said that only the tip of the antenna was sticking out of the mud 6m down. Sure enough its full of water and completely toast – waterproof – pah !
Thursday 17th July Refuelled and left Bayona bound for Povoa de Varzim. Bit sore when she holds 300 litres. It’s a short trip and we arrive after 10 hours. There are literally thousands of lobster pots everywhere and any one could wrap its line around the prop and give us a real headache.
Bevs convinced we saw a shark beside the boat, but it was only little.
Friday 18th July Povoa is a nice little Portuguese resort town. Marina is nice and tidy with good showers. We can see the main feature of the town – the Casino from our berth. People get really dressed up for a night out there, so we probably won’t be visiting !
A large fleet of racing yachts arrive in the Marina while we are there but there is still plenty of space, they look like a “serious” bunch with lots of shoreside support and hangers on.
Allan takes the opportunity to change the engine oil and filters. Makes a bit of a mess but will know better next time.
We had a Chinese meal at a restaurant in a square next to the Casino. Best we can describe it as “bland”. Allan also bought a rechargeable 9 million candle power torch in a cheap tacky stuff shop. Seems too good to be true….
Saturday 19th July Left Povoa for Nazaire, an overnight sail. Fishing boats and lobster pots everywhere. Allan often dreams of having a cannon on the front of the boat so he could blow them out of the water rather than keep on altering course to avoid them.
Sunday 20th July Arrive lunchtime. It’s a lovely little harbour but a bit outside the town. Captain Hadley – the salty harbour master makes us most welcome and finds us a good berth in the crowded marina. We were lucky, later boats had to raft up alongside fishing boats. Some Portuguese were on a fishing boat next to our berth. Very friendly. They invite us to try some of the sardines they caught and are barbequing on the back of the boat. Its served on a sort of stale brown bread dipped in oil. I thought it was great but Bev told me afterwards she could still taste it days later. They also poured us a few glasses of local wine, quite quaffable, we later found out it was less than 50cents a litre.
The reason they were in the harbour was that the paying guest fishermen had all got seasick and asked to go back to the harbour – fair do though most of them went back out again in the afternoon.
Monday 21st July Nazare has much to commend it. Beautiful long clean beaches and a funicular railway up to citadel on the hillside. The water is a little cold for swimming though and there are huge breakers on the beach. Irish fellow we met in the Marina had been there for several months paying just 200 euro a month, he said he preferred in to the Algarve which he found too hot.
Mainly Portuguese holiday makers here and every restaurant is a fish restaurant. Eventually managed to find a café which sold burgers, they were pretty unappealing but noticed the other clientele, Americans, were scoffing them like they hadn’t seen food for a week.
We took the bus to Batalha (Battle Abbey) to see the church built to commemorate a famous victory over the Spanish. Its also were Prince Henry the Navigator is buried.
Tuesday 22nd July Early start for our trip to Cascais. All goes well until the final stretch when the wind get up and we have too much sail up. It’s a real struggle to get the sail down and a reminder to “reef when you first think about it”.
The marina is large and fairly empty. It looks like a classy place though. We make a real hash of tying up and I hear Bev swearing more than I have in all the time I’ve known her put together. We are both exhausted.
Wednesday 23rd – Thursday 24th Cascais is a beautiful if somewhat glitzy place. We resolve to stay a couple of days. Bev has been here before, staying in an exclusive 5 star hotel at a conference. We don’t check in there, of course, but even better I find an Irish Bar that sells Guinness and Murphys on tap.
There is a pretty good train service to Lisbon so we pay a visit to check out the Chandlers and see the sights. Lisbon is nice little city, but not as old as we were expecting. Apparently most of it was devastated in a big earthquake in 1755. We make the torturous trip in the midday heat up the hill to the castle, but although the views are magnificent there is nothing to see in the castle – still it was free to get in.
Friday 25th We need to press on to Lagos to make sure we are there for a visit by Callum, James and Bev’s parents. It’s a shame we don’t have much time because we would both have liked to hang out longer in Cascais.
Saturday 26th July Everything going smoothly until we rounded Cabo St Vincente. Like its bigger brother Finesterre, St Vincente has a reputation for higher winds and big waves. We were well prepared this time and although it took a while to get into clearer water we were in no danger. Arrived in Lagos in the early afternoon. Unlike anywhere we’ve been before you need to call the marina to get them to open a footbridge so you can get into the berths. First impressions good – it should be for 95 euros a night.
Sunday 27th Allan hired a car to pick up everyone at Faro airport. It’s a good hour and a half drive with foot to the floor of the sub micro car they have given him. Bill whacked his head on the car boot, Bev thought it would need stitches but we settled on paper stitches from the medical kit.
We paid yet more money to the marina for a pool pass so we can use the facilities at the marina spa – turns out to be a good move as the beach is a little walk and you need to pay 10 euro each for a sunbed there.
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