skipper

We invested a wonderful two weeks on Lanzarote in the delightful company of fellow local liveaboard expatriates Sam and Terrie. The Euroballgames were on, a bizzare spectaculum whereby seemingly sane apes of the species sapiens rally around a flag they were assigned due to sheer geographical coincidence at birth, and huddle in front of their teleprompters to watch 22 select hairdos prance about a pretty lawn. When in Rome do as the Romans do, they say, and, accordingly, we invested a few weeks living by their panem et circenses [bread and games] recipe to keep […]

A long winter of hard work and no play nearly made this humble narrator a dull boy. Barry R turned up a full month early to help bodge the boat up to ocean travel standards. And turn the aft cabin into a fully fledged orgy platform. My local friend Sandra helped redo the name on the stern with a stencil. And we mounted some solar panels. And my neighbour Klaus gave me a lovely rotting rib, which should do us for a season or two. And we […]

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Portuguese postal service was taking its time, but pretty Ayamonte turned out to be rather enjoyable, especially after we’d activated some local couchsurfers. The plutocrats on a neighbouring motor yacht kindly gave us some tuna and what may have been bonito, which promptly resulted in a long-overdue sushi orgy.

We were soon joined by Maria “Norwegian person” J, who turned out to be an excellent addition to the crew. We finally set off for Cadiz, sailing most of the way, anxious to make it for the Friday night outing. On our way in, one of the drive belts failed, and I spent an hour swearing and sweating in the engine room. We finally landed at 0400, but were all too knackered for the disco.

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

The journey towards Gibraltar a few days […]

Many moons have passed since the last update, I hear some people were even wondering if we were still going. Well, reports of my death are an exaggeration, as Mark Twain said – I was simply too involved with the project.

But let’s start from the beginning. The last crew of Walde, Elin, and finally Kenny departed from Figueira da Foz, leaving me to my own devices. I crammed all the gymming and relaxing into the first week of my stay until Marco “el subcommandante” G turned up, who very kindly lent me a few days of his time to install a few beds on the boat. He brought with him Italian cuisine, taught me a few phrases in his native language, and generally turned out to be excellent company. Thanks Marco!

Later that week, we were joined by charming Jo G. I bought a moribund […]