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Leaving today for Cape Verde
We're Off After six weeks of hair-pulling frustration and, admittedly, some relaxation time, we are leaving today for Cape Verde with Cornell Sailing. It's a journey of 830 miles from Santa Cruz - approximately six days under sail. Although looking at the weather...
Big news in a small package
Introducing Ollie Orme, our second grandchild. Jake (grandson number one) is very pleased and intends to teach him wrestling. Maria and I flew to Rochdale to meet Ollie and to spend some time with Jade, Col and Jake. It was all too brief.
Lanzarote to Tenerife
13th September 2017 - It's Only A Day It's only a day so it'll be fine. So we thought. In theory, with the wind coming from the side of the boat, the sailing conditions are optimum, so the sail to Tenerife should have been fine. Unfortunately, however, the swell also...
Agadir to Lanzarote
A bad time for sheep The few days following the 31st August is not a good time to be sheep, or probably a goat. Eid al-Adha celebrates the story of God providing a male goat to Ibrahim to sacrifice instead of his son. A fair trade in anyone's book I would argue. To...
Marrakesh Madness
A Quick Tour of Marrakesh Immediately we stepped outside the sanctuary of the Art Place Hotel the street vendors were on us. Watch floggers wasting our time, perfume sellers leading us off the scent, and shady looking sunglass vendors trying to blind us with their...
Agadir
Leaving Salé Clearing out of Salé is an easy enough process, you agree a time and head to the fuel pontoon to clear-out with the officials at the appointed time. First, you need to give the marina, customs, and police folks 24 hours notice that you want to leave (this...
A Side Trip to Fes
Change of plan Our new Aussie neighbours in Marina Boureg, Craig and Julie, came over to say hello after returning from a couple of days in Fes. Their enthusiastic description of their time there conjured up images of an ancient city unspoilt over hundreds of years,...
Rabat
Kasbah les Oudaias Our journey to Rabat started on the bow of a small boat, expertly steered by the ferryman who rowed standing, incongruously dressed amongst all the disarray in his immaculate white dish-dash. The five minute journey across the Bou Regreg river from...
Salé and Casablanca
Salé 16th August 2017 We seemed to spend most of our first day trying to work out where Salé railway station is. Google maps thinks it is somewhere it certainly isn't, and the signage is woefully inadequate. So, with no data roaming available, there was only one thing...
Algarve to Morocco
Leaving Albufeira The Sunday delivery of pink-skinned tourists, mostly from the UK judging by their accents and pallor, wandered the promenade of Marina Albufeira in various states of undress as we prepared to leave. We've been here long enough to spot the new...
Sailing from Lisbon to the Algarve
The Return of the Trades The Portuguese trades made a thankful return for our overnight journey from Lisbon to the Algarve, making for a great downwind sail most of the way. And darkness never really materialised because the full moon shone brightly throughout the...
Lisbon
Lisbon After paying a visit to Carlos, our friendly Peniche harbourmaster, and paying him a reasonable amount for the nights berthing, off we went to Lisbon to spend a few days at Oeiras marina. This is another nice marina, similar to that at Douro in so far as the...
Douro to Figueira da Foz and Peniche
Saturday 28th July Figueira da Foz The reliable Portuguese trade winds decided to go on strike just before our journey further south to Figueira da Foz. As a consequence, the engine stayed on all the way... a journey of seven hours. At least we had a reprieve...
Port in Porto
Wednesday 26th July Viana to Douro The sail from Viana do Costelo can hardly be described as relaxing. With the wind blowing between 18 and 22 knots from behind, and the distribution of lobster pots creating a bizarrely uncoordinated slalom course, we were frazzled...
Viana do Costelo
It's all Sunshine and Margaritas There's a well-worn saying countering the romantic image of lazy days, freshly-shaken cocktails and beautiful sunsets following a warm day in the sunshine: It's 'sailing is about fixing your boat in exotic places.' Or in this case,...
From Ons to Portugal
I think the nudists shrivelled up in retreat at the news of our arrival. Only one small minority remained in one corner of the beach. Not that I was deliberately looking of course... merely scanning the beach for a safe dinghy landing. Fortunately the rest of the...
Muros and Santiago de Compostela
Muros - 19th to 22nd July 2017 Until now the weather has been, let's say, a little temperate. So, when we read in the pilot book that the southern rias offer up a change in weather - things get warmer - we quickly changed our plans to set a course to Muros. The...
On the way South: Corme and Camarinas
Corme - 17th July 2017 Our first anchorage after leaving A Coruna was Corme. It's only a few hours sail away from A Coruna, reasonably sheltered from the winds, so it seemed a good place to stop for the night. What the pilot book didn't make clear is this... as well...
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