Most of the chat around the marina is focussed on ‘when’ do you plan to leave?’ When…..It’s a simple little word that basically asks for a time. Western society runs by the clock. Tenerife, particularly the postal service and the courier companies work on their own particular brand of time.

It stretches out like knicker elastic, interrupted and skewed by customs and a supposedly helpful email tracking system.

We await the delivery of four packages. One, which contains a new starter motor from the UK, we know has been on the island only a few kilometres from the marina for several days. Our ‘when’ is dictated by the arrival of these packages.

Several days later……Hurrah. Christmas has come early. 3 packages turned up yesterday teatime. Tomorrow will involve lots of scrabbling around the engine in uncomfortable position in preparation for an engineer coming onto the boat on Tuesday. I have knee pads. Dave is hard core being a caver in the past.

To celebrate our packages we went to a beach bar north of Santa Cruz for early evening drinks. It was Friday after all. The sun was pretty much down but we walked and paddled then sat chatting with a drink. The throng disappeared until there were only 3 or 4 punters left plus a local band of 4 musicians. They came over; two guitarists, one violinist and a guy playing percussion. They said they wanted to play so we were treated to 4 talented guys putting on a Friday night show for just us. Completely random, lots of fun, an array of pointing, smiling and gesturing to get over the language barrier and all in all a great way to end the week.

We have done a bit of exploring too. Our friend Pete has been to Tenerife before and recommended an area to go climbing so we had a fun afternoon near Arico. Julian came to stay for a few nights and helped with on going programme to remove squeaks from the cabin floor. We ate well, laughed lots and shared many stories.

So we hope middle to late next week will be our ‘when’. We need to do the Big Shop but have sussed out a supermarket that delivers to boats. Very handy. There’ll be more boat checks before we feel ready to depart. 20 ish days is what we expect for a crossing to Barbados. So we’re likely to have Christmas at sea. Can you get turkey in a can?

You may well have experienced this. We both certainly have. You’re in a situation where others think you’re confident and skilled to do the job in hand and you’re being looked at as the expert, but actually what’s going on in your head is the exact opposite.”I’m going to get found out here. Others have loads more experience and knowledge than I do. I truly hope no one asks me any difficult questions because I’m feeling completely out of my depth.”

Chris Lake, a Unique Solutions client and more importantly a lovely bright entertaining chap who works as Head of Professional Development for the NHS Leadership Academy has written a blog about this in relation to leadership. http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/blog/imposter-syndrome/
It’s a feeling I’ve most definitely had in relation to work occasionally and when I read Chris’s blog, I though bang on. I’ve had that!

I mention this as we have successfully arrived in Santa Cruz, Tenerife after pretty much 5 days solid at sea. We’ve been here for a few days but have been drawing breath, hence the radio silence. All around are boats preparing to cross to the Caribbean. I do feel a bit like an imposter.

Grace stands out as being quite different from many of the boats here and draws attention because of that. (Much prettier too in my opinion!) She looks like the kind of boat that will cross an ocean and be sailed by competent knowledgable people who have oodles of experience to draw on. Ocean experience on this boat…. None.

We do now have 5 solid consecutive days at sea in our experience locker after our passage from Lagos. Think it was about 670 miles. At night doing 3 hours on, 3 hours off was at times pretty exhausting but we’ve always said, in no way feel sorry for us as this sailing jaunt is all of our own making. We had the amazing super moon that lit the sky from sun down to sun up. Stunning.

Having poled out twin headsails worked brilliantly for the downwind sailing conditions. It was a bit rolly but apart from a bit of motoring out from Lagos, we sailed all the way. That’s what we signed up for. Oh, until the end of the trip when the engine wouldn’t start again and we had to get towed in the last ¼ mile into the marina. Pesky starter motor. Thought we’d sorted that but obviously not. Grrrr. The boat that towed us in was driven by a lovely mad Spanish lady with two guys in support who did the donkey work with the lines and fenders. We’ve been to see her today and shared a coffee and an hour in her company. I hardly ever drink coffee so consequently am now quite wired. I may be writing complete gobbledegook here.

We’re relaxing into life though and very nice it is too.. Lots of walking around town finding out where things are. Chandlery. Supermarket. Post office. Cafes with good wifi. Nearest beach etc. We’re gonna be here for a couple of weeks. Our friend Julian arrives today so looking forward to seeing him and tapping into his woodworking prowess. We have squeaks when sailing along which will mostly likely drive us mad on an Atlantic crossing so we’d like to be squeak-less.

And there’s some great walking and climbing here on the island so once a few jobs are ticked we plan a couple of days exploring. Should be fun.

Next destination. Well not totally decided. Barbados or possibly Antigua. Departing west is a couple of weeks away and who knows what may happen between now and then.

 

Many things just work. The pencil….. you may have to sharpen it occasionally but it’s a bloody brilliant thing and works superbly well. I like pencils. Okay it’s very simple object, like a single cell organism in comparison to the highly enhanced life form of the iridium sat phone.

Dave has devoted several hours over the past couple of days trying to get this allegedly straightforward yet technologically advanced bit of kit set up so it talks to the phone and iPad and will allow us to download weather files and weather routing data from a company called Predictwind. All stuff that Joshua Slocam or Robin Knox Johnson had no need to concern themselves with back in their day. Their technical gremlins were more straightforward I’d imagine. A compass doesn’t need  a password, a log in, an app, a satellite fix or a 12 volt power socket.

When we’re at sea on passage and out of wifi and 3G range, the sat phone will provide us with a link to land and all you good people out there. Good news is the contract we have allows us to both receive and send text messages for free. Not long messages just 160 characters. But a simple and quick way to keep in touch. We have some inclusive voice minutes each month tied up in the contract so we will be able to chat if we need to. And we can receive calls too but the caller pays and it’s pricy. Emergency contact only really. In order to text us, you’ll need to know our sat phone number. I don’t really want to write it here but drop us an email or leave a message on this blog and we’ll get it to you.

The reason for the technology push is we plan to head off from Lagos tomorrow to the Canaries. It should be about 5 days at sea. The information that Predictwind provides is quite stunning. You click on your start and finish points on an electronic chart, a bit like google maps. Then enter your proposed departure time and the speed of your boat and hey presto, up come four different suggested routes based on four different weather models. We plan to sail somewhere in the middle of the four routes.

Grace is in pretty good shape. We rigged twin headsails today as we’re expecting lots of down wind sailing. Water tanks are full, food cupboards are stocked, batteries are charged, book shelves reinvigorated  with new reading matter and charts have arrived.  Need a good nights sleep now.

 

Miv came to stay for three nights. It was lovely to see him and enjoy his company. There was some work and some play to be done. The Unique Solutions office has moved from Derbyshire to Miv’s house in South Wales. Catching up on what’s working, what’s not, current clients, new opportunities and day to day business requirements took some time. But we also found time to hire bikes and head off along the tracks along the coast for an explore.

We got to Praia da Luz,  then watched the surfers from a cafe while eating lunch at a  beachside cafe. Top Sunday.

Today has been a productive day in preparation for heading off to the Canaries. A bit of heads down and ‘get stuff done day’ until the unscheduled entertainment started.

There are many boats here preparing for a similar trip to ours. About 2.30pm we were putting some eyelets into a lee cloth on the pontoon when there was a bit of a commotion behind us. Two guys on the front of a boat  were staring into the water, obviously having dropped something into the deep.  Next thing we witness is a bloke stripping. Not to his underpants but stark bollock naked. He prepares to jump in, decides that’s probably not a good idea then walks back and forward up the pontoon a few times. Some conversations take place and the crew reassemble together in the cockpit. None of them appeared interested or concerned that their friend had been strutting his stuff in full view of folk passing by for a few minutes in his altogether. And he was in no rush to find any clothes.

I did (cheekily maybe?) thank them for the entertainment this evening. What goes through someone’s  head to think the only way to solve the problem of dropping something into the water to get naked… INSTANTLY!  And if you do need to go in the water, it’s okay to keep your pants on. The associated boat isn’t carrying a British or Portuguese flag. Perhaps you’d like to guess the nationality of the crew.

Our sat phone sim card arrived from the States today. Dave is trying to get it sorted. It’s not just a plug and play thing. Anyone got a spare 17 year old techo whizz kid out there?

 

 

 

We do loads of reading on the boat. I thought the kindle / iPad option would be the way forward but the good old fashioned paperback is best because you can trade them. Apart from news and as we’re both news fiends, the tablet / phone option comes into its own here.

During this week’s reading two names have stuck in my mind. Newt Gringrich whose name has popped up in the US election propaganda and a lady called Binky Urban who has a credit in one of the books I’ve just read. If you have a name like Newt or Binky does that colour how other’s perceive or interact with you? When I was about ten at school, there was a girl in my class called Sarah Major. She was adamant that if she had a kid, she was going to call it Barnaby Frog. At the time it seemed outlandish and well, just mad to me. However in 2017 it sounds pretty run of the mill! When I next have wifi I will google Barnaby Frog and see what transpires. Perhaps there is a Barnaby Frog somewhere out there. Funny how I don’t remember any useful physics or historical dates …..just Barnaby Frog.

When we first bought Grace, she wasn’t a Grace. She was a St Wilfrid. St Wilfrid was an early Christian saint from Northumberland who headed off on lots of pilgrimages enjoying a party along the way. Because of the parties he then had to go on a pilgrimage to ask for forgiveness. Sounds like he existed in a relatively persistent cycle of behaviour but had a nice time along the way! Good on you St Wilf.

I liked the Northumberland connection with it being my home county but having a boat named after a Christian saint didn’t fit for us. There is a bit of nautical folk-law that renaming your boat is unlucky. When I delved into this a bit further, the name of the boat would traditionally have been carved into the bottom of the boat. Any renaming involved chiselling and sanding to remove the old name then more wood routed out to carve the new name. Hence less wood gives you a less structurally sound boat and perhaps a more vulnerable / unlucky one too.

Our biggest quandary about renaming the boat was what to call her. Boats are usually female and we wanted something that reflected the boat’s character and kept the Northumberland link. We take little credit for the name Grace of Longstone. It was all my dad’s work. Grace Darling was a young Northumbrian lighthouse keepers daughter who participated in a rescue of several crew after their boat ran ashore on the Farne Islands in 1838. She rowed out with her father from Longstone Lighthouse in a storm after first spotting the floundering vessel. Grace subsequently became a bit a of a local heroine and is still remembered today.

So that’s the backstory to the name of our boat. We think she’s pretty graceful and the name sits well with her.

Yesterday we left behind the Atlantic Portuguese coast and headed along the Southern Algarve coast and are now in Lagos as our chum Miv is coming to visit for a few days. We’ve been around Lisbon and Cascais for over a week, enjoying the city and to Dave’s delight we found some climbing too. The engine has been serviced with filter and oil changes, the gear shift cable has been replaced and the outboard has been overhauled too amongst other boat jobs. Our friend Danny gave us some help with the self steering. Still some work to do to get the thing set up properly but definite progress. We need it to be in fine fettle for when we head to the Canaries. Hand steering for 5 days is not a prospect to cherish.

A particularly windy weather forecast is looming over the next couple of days so here we are holed up in Oeiras Marina, a short train ride into Central Lisbon. It’s been an eventful 48 hours.

We crawled into Péniche from Porto a couple of nights ago in darkness and hideous fog. In meteorological parlance you could see bugger all. It was bum clenching stuff and big thanks go to a Danish Yacht who talked us in and allowed us to moor up along side them for the night. We took a bottle of wine over as thanks and chatted to them for 20 Minutes before heading off to bed. They mentioned they plan to go trans Atlantic this December so Dave casually asked the skipper if he’d crossed before…… the response, this will be my 41st crossing. Guess that is officially a yes then.

From Peniche, we motored on a glassy oily sea to Cascais, the upmarket holiday resort which attracts the rich and trendy from Lisbon. We anchored in the bay, dinghy –ed ashore then walked around the resort, lowering the tone and designer clothing count. I had had my hair cut recently in Figuero de Foz, so at least I didn’t look like a bush too.

And on to Oeiras. There are a number of bars and restaurants on the front so after mooring up last night, we moseyed down the strip until deciding on one in which to spend our ever diminishing euros. Bang… as soon as we got in the door, we were ‘Phat Bouy – ed’. The Phat Buoys are an unofficial possy of guys who get together once a year to sail (and party). There are 8 members, 5 were on this trip, 3 Canadians and 2 Brits. In their 16 years of sailing together they have visited amongst other places Newfoundland, Brittany, Turkey, Iceland, Greece, England and the Channel Islands and this time Portugal.

There was no allowable resistance to their hospitality and I know Dave and I both enjoyed the mad couple of hours we spent in their company. Dressed in matching embroidered shirts and sailing jackets, they regaled tales of previous trips, ice bergs, sleeping on deck to avoid snorers, trophy winners and excess baggage charges to fly said trophy round the world so it can be awarded to a one of their members on the last evening of their sailing trip each year.

This morning the Phat Buoys had departed when we emerged to move the boat to another spot in the marina. In moving from one berth to another, the gear cable snapped so we had no gears and hence no useful engine and steerage. Thankfully we drifted reasonably gently towards the fuel dock and two marina guys who planned to take our lines in the new berth, legged it round the pontoons to help. They weren’t dressed for the 100m sprint in their waterproofs and boots but we’d be happy to award them both medals. Could have been so so much worse and expensive. Did I mention expensive?

Dave removed the cable and threaded a tracer line so that’s how we know it had sheared. Nuno, a really helpful guy at a local chandlery will attempt to get us one asap. To calm our nerves, we treated ourselves to a late lunch in Lisbon and walked round the sea front as a reasonably forgiving way of digesting the mountains of delicious food that we had consumed. There will be no vampires on our boat this evening due to the garlic leeching out of our pores.

Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void based on his real life experiences when he broke his legs on a climbing expedition. He was presumed dead then crawled for 3 days down a mountain to get to the campsite just as the rest of the expedition members were preparing to leave. It’s a reasonably well know tale and even if you’re not interested in mountains, the book is a good read. And actually you don’t need to know anything about mountaineering to enjoy reading it.

One of the notable things that he mentions in the book, which he thought about during his three day crawl is that he wasn’t scared of dying, but he was scared of dying alone. That element of human contact is so important to feeling connected and valued.

I’m fortunate to come from a close family and have close friends who provide lots of love, support and smiles. I mention this as I returned to the UK for a couple of days this week to attend a family funeral. My Aunty Margaret was in her 80’s, had lived a full life and was always generously interested in what family and friends were up to. The tribute written by her three children, my cousins, Graeme, Sandra and Christine was informative, funny and loving. Spot on in fact.

I know funerals are by their very nature sad occasions so please take this next comment in the spirit in which it is intended. On the plane and train back to the boat, i felt I’d actually had a lovely time seeing family and friends and felt totally connected even if Dave and I are geographically distant from people. It’s comforting to know my Aunty Margaret was totally connected too. It was an impressive turnout.

Back to practical things, it’s a bank holiday in Spain today which explains why the supermarkets are shut. Timed that badly. We’re about to head to Baiona this afternoon. Probably have to motor as there’s not much wind. That means we are leaving the Spanish Rias behind. It’s been a pleasure.

 

Choosing  only 8 records to play on your desert island is tough. You’ve probably done this too mulling over the dilemma. And my choices do change depending on mood, circumstance and sometimes just hearing a great record and thinking, bloody hell, that’s ace, I really like that. There are however some non negotiable tracks ….

1. bring me sunshine – morcambe and wise. Had it our wedding, it’s my alarm every day and i love its sentiment. What’s not to like, it brings smiles to faces and it’s easy to sing along to.
2. blue monday – new order. Part of my ‘yoof’. I also think it’s timeless as you play it today and it’s doesn’t need sound dated. Great baseline.
3. stone roses – waterfall. The album this track is from is immense. I can quite happily listen to  it on repeat without getting bored.
4. eagle eye cherry – people will always take the long way round. Upbeat and part of dave and I’s history.

The remaining four allowable tracks as I said, weave in and out of my consciousness. If you’re at a loose end, let me know a couple of your tracks and why….I’m just being a bit nosey.

The reason for the angle of this blog, is that we are on our own desert island. Islas Cies is an island in the national park, not far from Vigo or Bayona. I’m not really going to say much more about it other than look at the photos and enjoy. We are.

It’s not all sunshine and light though. We did have right old pea soup fog last night where seeing the boat from 50 to 75m away was impossible. Glad we left the anchor light on otherwise we may never have found her in the dark returning on the dinghy. Seeing Grace loom up out of the darkness was quite spooky. And lying awake at 4am hearing an engine from another boat that could have been 1 mile away or 20m away was disturbing. I’m thinking, please see us. Don’t the crash into us. We have survived the night intact and will walk up to the lighthouse at the southern end of the island for sunset and views tonight.

Off to Vigo tomorrow. Big city will be a big contrast to here.

Not many photos here. Slow email in our beach bar.

We’ve been liveaboards, boat gypsies, transient souls, work avoiders, travellers (substitute your own word here) for over 100 days. I know that because I read an article in the british press that it’s 100 days since the Brexit vote and we moved onto the boat the Friday the results were announced.

I’m glad to report Europe is still welcoming Brits and as U.K. Representatives, I hope we are received as doing our bit to be friendly, non judgemental, interested and happy to spend money in whichever country we are in.

We went into a café at lunchtime yesterday in Aguino in the Ria de Arousa. We tapped into their free wifi for 45 minutes and bought a couple of beers – cost €3.40. In that time we were brought two little tapas dishes each, one with a few roast potatoes, a mini sausage and a small spare rib and the second with a small portion of octopus stew. Both delicious and flavoursome. As if that wasn’t enough a bowl of crisps and a bowl of olives arrived too. That was lunch unexpectedly taken care of. All for about £3.00.

It’s Sunday. Dave is writing a proposal. It’s sunny but it was a bit nippy this morning before the sun developed a bit of warmth. First indications of autumn maybe…. time to get further south. The Ria here is beautiful and rocky, not unlike Brittany or the Channel Islands. We motored in close to shore through a narrow channel to save 3 or 4 miles. It sharply focuses the mind seeing the rocks looming as we followed a dogleg of transits. How accurate is the chart plotter? Stay on the bearing, 105 degrees to the green and white tower. Breathe, we’re through.

There are some islands off the coast here which form part of a national park. We have applied for a permit to visit and been ‘approved’. So Isla Ons we hope to visit you this week.

Dave’s rope work skills were put to the test a few days ago when Dan and Emily snagged their anchor on a massive log in Muros harbour. The log was longer than their 27 foot boat, incredibly muddy and stank. Between us the log was wrestled and returned to the depths for the next unfortunate boat who picks that self same spot. It was too unwieldy (and smelly) to take to the shore. Sorry.

Today we went inland to Santiago de Compostela. I know our journey by boat and service bus doesn’t qualify as a pilgrimage. I looked up a definition just out of interest…..”A journey especially a long one made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion”.

We chatted to a guy in the Cathedral who told us to qualify officially for the ‘Pilgrimage Medal’ (not sure exactly what the honour is really called) you need to have walked at least 100km or cycled 200km to reach the city.

The Cathedral itself is remarkable. Massive, incredibly ornate and rammed full of what I considered to be three merging groups of people. 1. Backpackers, walkers and cyclists easily recognisable in their lycra kit and possibly from their smell?! 2. Tourists, which is the category I’d put us in and 3. People there for religious reasons and to take part of the daily services.

Even today in 2016, the bling of the ornate gold in the centre of the Cathedral cannot go unnoticed. Who knows what your average local Spanish peasant thought of it in the 1700’s if indeed they were allowed to look.

There is an extension to the walking trail from Santiago to Cape Finisterre. Having had a cracking sail round the lighthouse into the bay, the following day, which was Dave’s birthday, we walked from the village out to the lighthouse on the headland. We pondered how many countries have their own Lands End / Finisterre equivalent. And do they all sell their own variety of tat?

On the way back we sat in a beach bar in the sun having a drink looking out over a beautiful sandy beach framed with hills and Eucalyptus forests.. I’m happy that our sailing journey so far had taken us to some amazing places. Such a view is enough for me. No need for ceremony and bling.

On a more practical note, we have starter motor problems which is pretty key in starting the engine. We may be in Muros which is in one of the Spanish Rias for a few days.