We are on the verge of leaving Spàin for Portugal. It´s posed some interesting challenges, not least trying to update this blog when all the instructions are in Spanish!
Hopefully this post will work - sitting in Baiona just north of the border. Zenna is moored near to a replica of the boat Columbus sailed when he discovered America. Baiona is the port he landed in on his return. Inspiring stuff for our next big passage across the Atlantic.
We have given ourselves a couple of weeks holiday in the Spanish Rias - if you ever get the chance think about a visit. Like a succession of mini Sydney harbours with lovely towns, bays, islands and further south the weather in very warm. We have met some people who plan to spend the whole summer here.
We went to Santiago do Compestello - Medieval town with fabulously ornate Cathedral where St James is meant to be incacerated. We had a huge lunch (3 courses and a 1/2 carafe of wine) for Euro 18.50... I think it must have been a pilgrimms rate. We particularly enjoyed the journey from the harbour via the town of Noya. We had to keep asking para noya to check we were going in the right direction. (Paranoia) in case you didn´t get my spanish joke...
But we are off on what looks like a long slog along some very uninteresting Portuguese coastline. So we are relaxing and ´partying´ (if being in bed by 10 pm counts) for the next few days as we think we will be putting in 10/12 hour days to get from port to port. No little bays for shelter. Hoping to be in the Algarve for the end of August and have a short spell in the Med before heading off to the Canary Islands.
Our frantic few weeks in the UK seem a long time ago. But we are still benefitting from all the hard work put in by everyone.
Ian´s scrubbing of the fenders and deck. We use your clean bit to compare if the rest of the deck is improving.
Mhari´s curtains (although I have to confess I haven´t got them up yet)
Tom and Katie´s provisions - still eating those M&S snacks
Karen´s car without which we would not have acheived a tenth of what we did
Iain´s tender inflating (sounds rather rude) and our tender line - all still in place amazingly
Phil´s cleaning of the anchors and most importantly the cabin hatch
Ann´s provisions, cleaning of the cooker (I´ve bought brillos now) and the all important catches on the guard rails
And of course Anchormans white paint marks on the anchor line. I think of you everytime Geoff.
Will post some photo´s of the close shave washing machine episode. I have now used it several times with great results. Hard to believe it was the hardest thing to sort out before we left. Who´d have thought 5mm would have meant so much work - taking out the entire hatch and even then not being sure it would fit. Phil´s whoops of joy as it passed through the hatch with no space to spare are etched in our minds. It´s the closest I´ve come to giving birth to anything and I´m sure it was almost as painful.
We are dressing up tonight as we are at Monte Real Club de Yates and are off for a pre dinner drink at the club. We may even try to stay up to see the restaurants open for dinner at 9pm... who knows spanish time may suit us soon.
