A long term idea?

Having just watched the opening ceremony for the London Olympics I noticed that the next one is to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Unlike the run around to get tickets for London, they are on sale now.

This naturally leads to the thought that we should think about sailing down there to watch Ben Ainslie scoop his sixth gold (hopefully!!)

So, come on you yottie readers. Lets organise a rally to Rio in 2016.

Getting Closer Again

Well, we are getting closer again and now have a fair idea of where we are planning on going when we head off for the next stage of our adventure.

The plan is to head down to Cueta and on to Morocco for a couple of weeks or so. We will coast hop along to Melilla – the other Spanish enclave before heading back north to Spain. From there we will have to hope for easterlies like we experienced last year as we want to get to Faro for the winter. In between times, we want to spend some time exploring SW Andalucia especially focussing on the two big rivers, El Rio Guadalquivir and El Rio Guadiana.

Now of course we have a lot of lists to make and tick off. Not least is the vexed problem of charts. UK Admiralty charts are simply not sufficiently detailed. The word is that French SHOM charts are OK but Spanish IHM are the best. However, I know how difficult they are to get hold of. After extensive googling, I found an online seller in Madrid but they only stock peninsular charts so cannot help though they do claim to be able to get hold of SHOM ones. We will have to see.

We are also keen to get a good selection of spices to take with us. Spanish cuisine is great but they are not great users of chilli while things like cumin and turmeric are unheard of. And so it goes on!

Visit to Sarah G

It felt like a very frustrating visit at the time. I was not able to get on with installing the windmill (generador de viento and not molino a viento as I said in an email to the Marina). The mounting pole did not arrive.

I also did not feel sufficiently confident to cross the straits on my own in poor visibility. It is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and carries something like 25% of the worlds shipping through it every year so dodging supertankers on my own did not appeal. Then, when the sun did come out, the wind got up as well.

Still, it was relaxing and I was able to give some thought to where we might go. Go we must as it has become clear to me that the Gibraltar area is a bit of a graveyard of blue water dreams. There are places like this all over the world. One of the worst is Glasson Dock in Lancashire where loads of people build their ocean cruiser and never get out of the lock basin! I think that the year round sun and easy communications mean that Gib can be a bit of trap. Also, it is very non trivial to get west through the straits which could also make for a blockage. I am very anxious that we don't fall into the same trap!

Here are a couple of pictures - nothing original mind.

And a closeup of "The Rock" as I played with the extreme zoom on my new lens.

The most positive thing was that I had a chance to give thought to where we will go though o2 benefitted from the long calls while I discussed it with Audrey as well. We are now quite keen on the idea of going to the Mediterannean side of Morocco for a while, perhaps working out way along to Melilla before heading back north to Spain. We will most likely then make our way back through the Straits and slowly make our way to Faro where there is a good sounding boatyard. It has been three years since Sarah G has been out of the water and it would be a good idea to do this before heading south properly and across the Atlantic - probably.

Slowly visiting SW Andalucia will give us the chance to get to know Cadiz properly as well as going up the Rios Guadalquivir and Guadiana.

Faro has a lot to recommend it as a place for wintering having plenty of flights into it's airport.

What we do next spring is very much up for debate at the moment.

Back from Spain

One of the things I forgot to take with me last Thursday was this netbook so I have not been providing up to the minute updates on the exciting few days I had down in La Linea. Suffice to say that I got a lot of sun and a lot of mosquito bites but no sailing. Owing to circumstances beyond my control, I was there on my own and as it was either blowing very hard or was foggy (or both) my plans to get to Cueta and possibly further south into Morocco failed.

Full updates, such as they are, will follow.

Not Sailing as Such

But I have seen this doing the rounds of facefail and I should imagine it must be summing up the thoughts of yotties with a boat based in NW Europe at the moment.

I really miss having the boat close to but this would have been one hell of a frustrating season in UK waters.

Off to Gibraltar the day after tomorrow for some proper sunshine!

Brief Plug

I try to avoid mentioning too many companies here but Force4 deserver a special mention here. They have been very helpful in getting the mounting kit for the wind generator down to Spain as well as having very reasonable shipping costs.

Force4

Wind Generator Fun

We finally got the wind generator shipped down but have not got the support struts or the pole down there yet. The latter is because we simply didn't get Crete Shipping to quote for it (I wasn't thinking very clearly about that). The former is simply because we don't have it.

This leaves me in a bit of a quandry. The luggage limit on Easyjet is 20KG so the support struts would be unlikely to put me over the limit but it is not really clear if I could include it in my normal luggage. Looks as if we will have to call them.

The mounting tube is another issue as I will have to buy it first and then work out how to get it down. Best bet might be to get Force4 to ship it down. Otherwise, it might be worth paying for "sports equipment" on Easyjet.

Decisions, decisions!!

At least the weather is playing ball down there - unlike here

AGENCIA ESTATAL DE METEOROLOGIA

BOLETIN METEOROLOGICO Y MARINO PARA LAS ZONAS COSTERAS
OCCIDENTALES DE LA COMUNIDAD AUTONOMA DE ANDALUCIA Y CEUTA

JUEVES 5 DE JULIO DE 2012 A LAS 21:00 H.O.

PREDICCION VALIDA PARA EL VIERNES 6

1.- AVISO
NO HAY AVISO.

2.- SITUACION GENERAL A LAS 00 UTC DEL VIERNES 6 Y EVOLUCION
BAJA DE 1008 SOBRE EL CANAL DE LA MANCHA, PROFUNDIZANDOSE A 1004
Y DESPLAZANDOSE LENTAMENTE HACIA EL NOROESTE. AREA DE BAJAS
PRESIONES RELATIVAS DE 1014 SOBRE EL ESTE DE LA PENINSULA IBERICA
Y MEDITERRANEO OCCIDENTAL. ANTICICLON DE 1030 AL NOROESTE DE LAS
AZORES, CASI ESTACIONARIO Y SIN CAMBIOS.

3.- PREDICCION PARA EL VIERNES 6

AGUAS COSTERAS DE HUELVA:
NOROESTE FUERZA 4, CON INTERVALOS DE OESTE FUERZA 3 A MEDIODIA.
MAREJADA.

AGUAS COSTERAS DE CADIZ:
- DE GUADALQUIVIR A CABO ROCHE: NOROESTE FUERZA 3. MAREJADILLA
CON INTERVALOS DE MAREJADA PRONTO.

- DE CABO ROCHE A PUNTA CAMARINAL (AREA DE TRAFALGAR):
NOROESTE Y OESTE FUERZA 3. MAREJADILLA.

- DE PUNTA CAMARINAL A PUNTA CARNERO (AREA DE TARIFA):
OESTE FUERZA 3 A 4. MAREJADILLA A MAREJADA.

- DE PUNTA CARNERO A PUNTA CHULLERA (AREA DE ALGECIRAS-CEUTA):
OESTE FUERZA 4 AMAINANDO AL FINAL A OESTE FUERZA 3. MAREJADILLA A
MAREJADA.

For those who don't speak the third most important language globally, the synopsis (Situacion General) reads:
General situation at 0000 UTC on Friday 6 and outlook. Low 1008 in the English Channel, deepening to 1004 and moving slowly to the northeast. Area of relatively low pressur of 1014 over the east of the Iberian Peninsula and western Mediterranean. Anticyclone of 1030 to the northeast of the Azores, almost stationary and without change.

The final bit reads:
From Punta Carnero to Punty Chillera (Area of Algeciras-Cueta). West Force 4 reducing later to West 3. Slight to moderate.

For people unfamiliar with our shipping forecast the slight to moderate refers to sea state. :-)

So, good sailing weather than. The F304 around Tarifa won't please boardsailors or the kite boarders though.