Back from Spain and back to the Grindstone

We flew back on Sunday and then back to work yesterday. The weather is gray and cold with more forecast while the sun continues to shine down in La Linea. We won't be able to get back down for a little while now but we paid the mooring through till the end of August. A nice little surprise caught us on that as the financial crisis in Europe has actually benefitted us with a devalued euro reducing the 1700 Euro down to £1400 odd.

The last couple of days in La Linea were great as we managed to get chatting to a few of the other long distance cruisers (as I shall slightly cheekily call ourselves).

Here are some pictures which, now we have our speedy broadband, I can put up here.

I had treated myself to a zoom lens in Gibraltar and it gives a nice view of this dry dock.

While down there I had intended to replace both the main and jib halyards and to splice the eyes in them myself. This defeated me. This picture shows roughly how far I got with one of them.

What did it was how hard it was to pull the core or cover up through the already thickened bit above the eye. There must be a technique because I have seen videos of people doing it. I am determined to get to grips with it as the ability to do a bit of rigging work might be a useful way of earning some beer money on the go.

The wind continued to blow hard right up to Friday when we finally managed a day sail in the Bay of Gibraltar or Bahia de Algeciras as the Spanish call it. The wind between the rock and the mountains behind Algeciras make for very flukey wind and we literally had spells of near flat calm from the WSW through to a F6 from the NW. Still, at leas we proved to ourselves that we still know how to handle a sailing boat.

I include this final picture to show just how revolting boats can be. This has been tied up in the Marina for ages but then on Saturday suddenly left.

Happy sailing to all especially to those in sunny climes and blue waters. We're not jealous delighted for you!

Windy days in La Linea

We had the usual 0400 start this morning to get to Gatwick in time for the Easyjet flight. The flight itself was a bit boring as there was a lot of cloud around. We saw a bit of the Golfe du Morbihan and then nothing till we were approaching southern Spain and even then, there was a lot of cloud around. I enjoyed the landing. The pilot had warned us that with the wind just south of west it would be a bit bumpy. There was a bit of turbulence but nothing too much.

The wind has been blowing very hard though and after a bit of nap we were just getting ready to go to the shops when it started raining. It has been belting down and has also shown a leak around the galley which will have to be found and sorted out.

Still, it is nice to be down here still and now the rain looks like easing off I will go and get some supplies.

Thursday now and the rain has definitely gone. The wind has however been in the north or north west which has meant chilly nights though it is nice and warm in the day. We Sunday to walk out to Europa Point and in an extravagant moment, I bought a long lens for the camera. So far it is great and also quite long as well. 300 mm is really at the limit of being able to do hand held pictures.

We have also acquired two 24 m lengths of rope to replace the halyards but now find that the splicing kit I bought doesn't have a needle for threading the core so another visit to Gibraltar is called for.

Lastly, I started looking at the starter motor on the engine as it has not been working properly as the gear has not been engaging with the flywheel properly. Getting it off looked really difficult as the nuts holding it to the main engine block are extremely tight. On a whim, I tried starting the engine and it worked fine. The bit of banging I gave it as well as a long rest has obviously done it some good. We would still really like to replace it with a nice shiny new Beta engine but will have to wait for redundancy or Mr Camelot to help out there! The fuel filters need changing and I should really change the oil as well but will need to check that we can dispose of used filters and such like.

19/04
Well, we bought two lengths of braided three strand rope to replace the halyards along with a couple of splicing needles. I have managed to get so far with the one designated as the main halyard. The essential process is to pull some of the core out at the beginning of the loop and then thread it up inside the cover. You then repeat the process for the excess cover and voilà! You have a loop. The principle is easy enough, it is just the effort in getting the additional core and cover to sit inside the core above the loop. I did eventually get the core to do what it should but have now ground to a halt with getting the needle threaded down to pull the cover up. There must be some technique that I am missing as riggers do not all have forearms like Popeye.

The wind continues strong from the north west which is making a sail across the straits increasingly unlikely. We could have a great sail to Cueta but then a vicious beat back across a very busy shipping lane.

We may wind up getting the ferry in the end.

We have now purchased a day's wifi here so I will post this. The wind continues howling seven most of the time with a few gusts to eight. I don't think we are going to get any sailing in. Still, it is a nice relaxing time here.