We left Mar Menor to pass through the bridge at 8am – only to find that the bridge didn’t open until 10! Oh, well. We just dropped anchor there and waited for a while. As it happened it worked out for the best probably anyway.

As soon as we were out of the harbour, we put up the spinnaker. But it just sat there for about an hour until the wind filled in. Finally the wind picked up and we were on our way! The forecast was for gradually increasing winds, veering at the same time, reaching 25kts (force 6) by the evening and overnight. With the spinnaker up in 12kts we were going too fast – at that rate we would arrive at 5am. So we took it down and left just the genoa unfurled. We sailed like that the entire trip – mostly doing about 5 – 6 kts, though at one point in the middle of the night the wind dropped completely before it filled in again on port tack. Daylight saw us approaching land, as planned.

We were expecting a NW Tremontana wind to arrive tonight, so we wanted to be sheltered from both the SW wind we arrived in, plus the NW wind expected. Which is why, half way through the crossing we decided to go to the south of the island rather than the north.

We passed through Freu Grande, the gap between Formentera island and Ibiza island, a gap about a mile wide, and turned left to find an anchorage.

The first two didn’t work out, with poor holding, so we sailed on a bit more (still under genoa only!) to Ibiza town, and anchored in the Cala (bay) just next to it.

Now we are at a cafe ‘famous’ for its croissants, having hiked up the hill to Ibiza’s citadel first.

A good crossing in some fresh winds. Good to be cruising again, but my is it blowing here!

My parents came our for a week´s visit, so we went out for some day sails in a very pleasant 20kts with blue skies. Which also gave us a chance to tune the rigging and, hopefully, get it just right.

The boat has now been here for 6 months plus 3 days, so it is definitely time to move on. We will go first to Mar Menor, which is just 30 miles around the corner. The wind is against us until Friday, but it is a short enough distance that we should still be able to do it as a day sail.

Mar Menor is a huge saltwater lagoon with just one small entrance through a bridge. It is a lively place for windsurfing and kitesurfing, so I am hoping to get my new board on the water.

Unfortunately all around Mar Menor, particularly on the thin strip that separates it from the Med (known as La Manga) are rather unattractive apartment blocks and hotels. Not really the best atmosphere ashore.

The wind is supposed to change to Westerly on Friday, so at that point the plan is to move onwards across to the island of Ibizza, which is an overnight sail.

Cartagena has been a great place to stay for the winter, but it will be good to get out of the marina, onto the anchor, and back into cruising mode again.

The rigging was supposed to arrive last Friday, but it is still sitting in customs. SO frustrating.

But at least as places to sit and wait Cartagena is not too bad.

While we were waiting last week we hired a car and drove across to Portugal for a week. Then last week we took a day trip to Mar Menor which is a large lagoon just around the corner. Lots of windsurfing and kite surfing but the towns were pretty unimpressive.

Anyway, hopefuly soon we will be able to get on our way.

By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, we have now added a photo gallery to the blog, plus also a google map showing all the places we have visited. Hope you like them!

After almost 10 years of hiding, Noel Swanson has once again emerged into the forefront of the artistic world with the release of his latest oil on canvas entitled “Ceu and Raphael in Piódão” based on a recent visit to a very traditional village in central Portugal

Everyone told us that is was the warmest sunniest winter for years but, of course, as soon as we get here it starts to rain. No matter, we still had a bunch of stuff to get done.

First was to service the engines. This time Ceu did the job! Yes, there she was, pumping the old oil out through the dip-stick. Then a quick change of the filter, pour in the new oil, and she was good to go, with nary a spill of oil. Good job done.

Then we tried to hoist the genoa up the new forestay. Oops. Sito had installed the channel pieces backwards, so the grooves for the genoa luff didn’t match up. So that was an additional few hours of work for him.

However, in the process, his English-speaking friend Sem came around, and then drove us around town to some of the key shops, which was very helpful. He is also organizing a new engine battery for the port side, as that seems to have died. Today he drove us around town so that we could get our bicycles fixed (well, one of them, anyway, the other is not worth salvaging), buy a couple of new paddles for our kayak, and a ladder out of which to make a passarelle. It makes a huge difference having someone who knows where to find stuff in town, and can take you there.

And finally we are putting up the new standing rigging, having lugged it all the way from Canada.

Apart from that, all is well with Life Part 2 – she seems to have wintered well with no problems.

Ah, yes. The joys of traveling through airlines with BAGS and WINDSURFERS. Well, we did it. With careful calculations of allowable weight we got everything here, including a brand new windsurfer and three sails. Can’t wait to get that rigged up and on the water! Actually, it turns out that we had no difficulties at all with either the flight from Canada to UK or with EasyJet from Gatwick to Murcia. And then at Murcia we found a large taxi that took us straight to the marina. Couldn’t have been easier. The trick with EasyJet is that there is no weight restriction on hand carried cabin luggage. As long as it is small enough to fit in the racks, and you can carry it, you can take it on board. So we put all our books and stainless steel in the back pack for a total weight of 30lbs! You can see it on the trolley below.

Oh, and almost forgot – a brand new Canadian flag to replace a rather beaten up old one!

’tis good to be back on board

Stainless steel rigging is subject to crevice corrosion. The problem with that is that you cannot see it until it actually breaks. Then it is often too late.

For that reason it is recommended that the rigging be routinely replaced every 8 – 10 years.

Ours is at that 10 year mark, so we are in the process of replacing it. And just as well too!  Look what we found when we took down the old shrouds:

See that nice crack in the swaging? When we actually took the shroud down, we could see that already the wire cable had pulled out about 3mm. Just as well that as soon as we saw that we doubled up and used the spinnaker halyard as a second shroud – and we also avoided sailing on starboard tack.

We have now replaced it with some nice new Dynex Dux rope rigging.

But that wasn’t all…

Today we took down the forestay and jib furler in order to get the wire inside that replaced.

And look what we found at the top of that:

As you can see, the bracket holding up the forestay is completely broken on one side, and already cracking on the other! Another very close call. I think a few more sails in some strong winds and that would have given up the ghosts.

So, I am glad that we had the replacement schedule in place. Remember, at the time we started to plan for doing the replacements, neither of these cracks were visible.

In fact, that is one of the reasons I am switching to the Dynex rigging: at least all the damage to that occurs on the outside, where you can see it, rather than on the inside where you can’t until it is (probably) too late.

After crossing the Gibraltar strait,  it was very impressive arriving in the large Algeciras Bay at dusk. I was surpised by how many huge tankers there were sitting at anchor in the bay. They were all lit up like Christmas trees, making it very pretty. Apparently the bay is officially international waters, so they can anchor free for a month without hassle as they wait for their next shipping job. And of course there was the Rock, towering over everything.

It was at this point that we discovered that our chart plotter charts didn’t cover the area!  I had planned to buy new charts for the Med when we got over here, but a) had forgotten and b) in any case, no one seems to stock them. All it gave us was the barest of shore outlines.

However, we did have our back-up charts on the laptop, using the free OpenCPN chart plotting software (which is excellent). This is what we used for our trip all the way to Cartagena, as we couldn’t buy any charts in Gibraltar either.

We managed to find our way in to La Linea, Spain which is right next to Gib. We anchored, in the dark, inside the harbor, but outside the marina, despite warnings that the police might move us along.

As it happened, they didn’t, and we had a pleasant stay there, along with a handful of other boats, for a couple of days.

On the Monday we then moved over the Queesnway Quay marina in Gibraltar. There I picked up my new shrouds without any difficulties. It was a straight forward process of going to the FedEx office, where I picked up some papers and took them across the road to the Customs office at the Airport. There I presented the boat papers and my passport. They filled in a form, and that was that; no duty or tax to pay.

We then went back to the anchorage at La Linea where I spent a couple of days getting the new shrouds installed.

Meanwhile we did, of course, do some sightseeing in both Gib and La Linea.

In Gib we took a bus tour to the tunnels, saw the monkeys (who sat on my head), visited the Pillar of Hercules monument, and wandered through the botanical garden.

The 32 miles of tunnels dug into the Rock are very impressive. Certainly you don’t get a better fortress than one made of solid mountain!

Unfortunately I managed to delete all the nice photos by accident. A real shame as there were some fun ones of the monkeys sitting on my head.

It was a good half day visit.The trip to Morrisons supermarket also allowed us to buy some English mustard and mint sauce.

Beyond that, Gib is not  recommended. Very busy with traffic. Not a pretty town. Not a lot to recommend it really.

La Linea is the same. It is clearly a very poor town, with lots of run-down housing. The small historical downtown is quite nice, with cafes on the streets, but that is about it.

We had to pay5 euros a day if we wanted to leave our dinghy somewhere safe when we went ashore, otherwise it was likely to be nicked. You can walk from La Linea, through customs, across the airport runway, and into Gibraltar. There is also a bus (number 5) available at the airport that will take you into town and right to Morrisons.

Anyway, we got the jobs done, and we then had a great sail on a broad reach in 25kts to Fuengirola, where we met up with Mark Thompson and had a lovely carvery roast lunch. All very English on the Costa del Sol!

This was the view from the restaurant:

And here is my internet marketing buddy, Mark Thompson. That is the cool thing about internet marketing – you get to meet people all over the world. We have talked many a time on Skype over the past 4 years, but this was the first time that we actually met in person:

The next day was another fresh sail past Nerja (where I could see the apartment I used to own) to the little bay at Herradura. There is a small marina there (Marina del Este) but we anchored just outside it, and then went ashore for a lovely pasta meal.

From there we had yet another fast sail,

past acres and acres of plastic sheeting (for growing tomatoes and other crops) backed by the snowy Sierra Nevada,

To arrive in good time at Almerimar. Almerimar is easy to get into. The fuel and reception dock are just on the left, immediately after you arrive.
Then you get allocated a berth, which is all med moor with bow lines that are tied up to the dock and you then have to walk them forward to tie up the bow. We were parked in that big space, just next to the other cats:

We then walked around the docks to find Bob and Connie from Meridith (fellow Canadians we met in Portimao).

They had a car. So the next day we went to visit one of the Pueblo Blancos (White Towns) – that’s Bob in the photo:

where me met a crazy German who had retired to this tiny village of 15 inhabitants. He proudly showed us around all the upgrades he had been doing to his house, including a lovely patio:

On the way back we picked some prickly pears – and managed to get lots of prickles in our fingers. It wasn’t worth it – they don’t taste of much!

Next day we were on the move again.

We rounded Cabo de Gata, and now were in the Costa Blanca (so named because of the limestone cliffs – though most of them were still the same rock as the Costa del Sol). We had a brief overnight anchorage at Carboneras, tucked in behind the northernmost harbor wall.

The next day we pressed on to Cartagena. This time we had to motor, but a headwind was forecast, so we wanted to get moving. We arrived without fuss just as the sun was setting.

Good thing too – when I got the old shroud down I could see that it had already pulled out about a 3 millimeters. Imagine if I hadn’t spotted the crack and we kept sailing! Kaboom! We could well have had a dramatic mast overboard situation. To see what that would look like, take a look at the videos on this page: Mast Overboard and other sailing disasters. They are very interesting and very instructive!

So, after another wet and windy storm, today it is sunny, the wind and tide are right, the shrouds are up, and we are on our way. We now start to work our way East, aiming for Cartenega where we will leave Life Part 2 for the winter.

First stop today is Fuengirola, just past Marbella, where we shall hopefully meet up with internet marketing buddy, Mark Thompson.

We had it all figured out. A neighbor in the marina lent us Colin Thomas’s guide to sailing the straits (yes, the same Colin from Summer Breeze that we sailed with two years ago), so we had all the gen on the tides, which are very complicated. This book is the definitive work, and is pretty much essential if you want to get these 3 knot tides figured out. You really don’t want to be trying to sail AGAINST a current like that!

The forecast was for Force 5 Northerlies, decreasing through the day to end at about a Force 2 or 3 Westerly in the Strait.

High tide at Gibraltar was about 4:45pm. We wanted to be off Tarifa at High Water so as to catch the strongest tides across to Gibraltar.

I figured out that if we left Cadiz at 6am, then we would make a good 5 knots in that wind (with engines to help if needed), and so we would be at Cabo Trafalgar (Where Nelson did his stuff) at about HW minus 5 hours, giving us 5 hours to complete that final 25 miles to Tarifa. At Trafalgar we would still have some current against us, but it would be turning over the next couple of hours.

So we went to bed in a howling gale (or at least it sounded like it) and hoped that the storm would have settled in the morning.

At 5:30 we got up, picked up the forecast (still the same) and decided to go.

Leaving the harbor was a bit bumpy with big waves and 18 knots of wind against, but as soon as we turned south it all disappeared. Soon we were motoring in a flat calm, doing barely 2 kts against the tide. Meanwhile, the weather updates on the radio were still talking about the Force 5. How can these forecasts be so wrong??????

We arrived at Trafalgar 3 hours behind schedule. Gradually the tide turned, and our speed (but not the wind) improved. We arrived at Tarifa about 2 hours behind schedule. But now the tide was strongly with us. Soon we were moving at 9kts, with the wind picking up too. The sun was shining, visibility was good, and the sea was smooth. There was constant chatter on the radio with all the ships going by and checking in with Tarifa radio.

Some poor soul was getting heck from a Spanish warship who said he was in a military practice area, even though the other ship’s chart said he was outside it.

Then, on top of everything, our autohelm decided it didn’t want to work any more. So now we had to hand steer for half of the journey. Well, at least we didn’t have to do that for half of the Atlantic!

We arrived at Gibraltar just as the sun was setting. Spectacular! So many ships at anchor in the bay, so many lights on the ships and on the shore. Could have been Christmas.

Now all we had to do was find our way to La Linea (the Spanish town that borders Gibraltar) even though our chart plotter didn’t have a detailed chart for the area. It seems our charts only go as far as Tarifa! Fortunately we had a backup chart on the laptop.

We pulled into La Linea harbor in the dark, found a nice spot to anchor just next to another catamaran, poured ourselves a rum punch, and sat down to write this.

A full and interesting day! We look forward to exploring ashore tomorrow.

We just left Sevilla 2 days ago. We had a great trip back down the River again. First day made it to about half way, and the next morning we weighed anchor and set off at flood time. It was a lot more traffic around this time, ships, motor boats, maybe because it was weekend?? Even a couple of guys crossing the River on their paddle, surf boards carrying goods: boxes and a big tin.

We were sure coming down fast with such strong current, till the wind picks up to 20 kts against us, about then, tide was turning too. Timing was good at least….we were just about arriving at our planed stop for the night at Bonanza. It was a beautiful sunset and we anchored just before dark. That was last night.

That was the night, we had our first winter storm. And no! Noel is not going to write about it, because the title would be THE STORM…and my kids at home get very worried! (I just prefer not give it away in the title, prefer a smoother approach!) Noel would also tell you though, it was fun. About midnight the winds had picked up and lots of rain too. The river was not smooth either, there were big waves and noisy anchor chain with all the current rushing by. This morning was dark till almost 9am. Although we enjoyed our lazy morning in bed, we got up and checked the wind, it was up to 39kts. Still raining too, but it didn’t stop Noel from walking in the rain all around the boat and enjoying it. We had not seen rain for months and temperatures have always been 30 and over, up until Sevilla.

After lunch the rain had stopped and the sun was out. We crossed the River into the town of Bonanza in search of internet, or most importantly to recharge our data Vodafone stick. After many stops, which they all seemed to be Movistar, Noel practices little but real Spanish, and I practice lots of my Portinhol. Sometimes they understand me, sometimes they don’t. But that’s only because they’re not speaking the right Spanish which I was just speaking in the last city, the language seems to change as we move along! Seriously, today I asked for matches “fosforos” at the store, she didn’t understand me, I even confirmed on my dictionary before I went out. She called them something else. And sure enough it’s even written fosforos in the box!

Still hunting along for internet. They all tell us to go ‘recto’ ‘deretcho’ (straight on) …we finally get to a Vodafone place. Only to find the doors closed! They had just closed for lunch. But not just for lunch. They close at 1,30 and reopen at 6pm. That’s a nice long siesta!

We bought the stick in Sevilla, paid 30 euros . They told us it was good for 3 months, or 1gb. Thanks to the beautiful work Noel does here with the blogging…..it also lasted only 2days, and we are still now searching for a place to recharge our stick. After not having success with that, all we wanted to check was the weather as we plan to leave tomorrow am.

Finally we found an internet café. Great! Not so great. We were not allowed to plug in our laptop. Noel has all his grib files on there.

We kept walking and Noel turned on cell phone and checking for some wifi in the area. Sure enough, we had some connection. But don’t bother looking for any comfy seat or a park bench. As you walk there, or even few feet forward, or backwards, you lose it and there goes the weather! Just sit down now, right here in the side walk. It was quite funny! It worked well. Did some grocery shopping and came home.

We are now checking tides for when to leave in the morning. We have a short trip to Cadiz. But Noel is busy also getting lots of info about sailing the tricky Gibraltar straits, that’s where we are going in a few days.

Looking forward to visiting Cadiz.

Will get back to you when we find a Vodafone store. If you can read this, congratulations to us! Only then, this blog post will be uploaded.

Update: just arrived at the marina in Cadiz.