Wed 17th March Port Olympic Barcelona to Arenys de Mar
We did the last couple of finishing touches in the morning and Ali went off to the Supermarket whilst I got the boat ready for going on the sea. We had a bit of a wait to get lifted back in and a bit of a wait to get fuel but at around 2pm we set sail!
Finally ALi was at peace with the sails up again!
Byeeeee Barcelona!
Byeeeee Port Forum!
There was a fair breeze blowing and we were sailing at 6.7 knots with just the jib when we left ~Port Olympic, we had to dodge a dinghy race and a broken down rib but after that we just set course for Arenys de Mar, which we decided on after we left port (well prepared as usual!) We passed Port Forum and the girls wanted to go in and say goodbye to everyone but we knew we would end up staying the night if we went in and thought better of it. The wind died about an hour later so we put the main sail up and cruised along at a very pleasant 5 knots the rest of the way only changing course slightly for this fish farm.
It is a solid structure and doesn’t rise very far out of the sea, how it is still in one piece after the storm two weeks previous when the swell was 8 metres high out here is a minor miracle I would say.
Arenys de mar is a fishing/yacht harbour about 20 miles north of Port Olympic. We arrived at about 6pm and got tied up safely and forfeited our registration documents to the marinero which they sometimes require so that you don’t skip town in the night without paying! We were pretty tired so all we did was get the dinner on and listen to the Shetland radio and go to bed! That will teach us to have a big night before sailing!
On the Thursday morning we looked up the weather forecast and it would stay favourable for a few days yet so we decided to stay another day here and have a look around. I did a big school session with the girls in the morning as they hadn’t done much when we had been working on the boat. The girls seem to have the concentration spans of gnats which is incredibly frustrating! Whilst this was going on Ali was cleaning the deck as it had got pretty manky in the boat yard. He was also refitting the safety lines and straps for the girls so they can go up on the deck when we are at sea.
We went into town in the afternoon and found the town to be OK, not much to shout about but pleasant enough. There were some really awful high rise tourist type buildings along the sea front and some really lovely old building and streets hidden away as we got further into town.
The girls found what we thought was a play park at first until I read the signs and discovered it was a fitness circuit for pensioners, the girls still thought it was good fun!
We went for a walk up the hill in the Parc de Lourdes which had some great paths and plants to look at.
Back in town I wanted to take a picture of the old church but there was a funeral just coming out and thought it would be rather inappropriate……
We went back to the boat after getting some things for tea and some sailing supplies. We decided to check out the showers which were lovely and hot and clean, fully communal but you cant have everything! The washing machines looked as if they were free to so this marina seems to be pretty good value if you include the very fast free internet into the equation too.
Friday 19th March Arenys De Mar to St Feliu De Guixols
Asleep as soon as we left port.
I think the girls have got their sea legs back as they felt the need to bounce on the buoys to make the trip more exciting!
We got paid up and set off at around 10 am there wasn’t a breath of air until we got outside the harbour walls and then it was coming straight on the nose so we knew it was back to never being able to trust the forecast! We headed straight out to sea so we could sail back up the coast as far into the wind as we could go. We had a great few hours of sailing, averaging about 6 knots over a lovely sea with only a little swell. Then the wind died so we furled the jib and motor sailed the rest of the way finally giving up on the main sail about 5 miles from port.
It was getting cloudier and a bit chilly by the time we arrived and the girls were getting a bit bored so it was nice to come in to Port we got a bit of a surprise that it was back to finger pontoons and of course I had set out all the fenders and ropes for coming in ’Mediterranean style1’ After a bit of tying and untying and pushing off we squeezed in and Ali went off with the boat papers etc again. Most harbours require you to submit your registration papers to the office until you leave and they all require you take your insurance papers and passports etc up to the office to be checked as soon as you are tied up. This is OK here as they are fairly efficient, just imagine if that was a requirement at the piers in Shetland I’m thinking West Burr firth in particular……. Alan Lauren son would have a field day! For anyone who doesn’t know who I mean think Fawlty Towers on water! Ali had a remark from the harbour master about how long he had said the boat was as we always say 12 metres over the VHF when boat is actually 12.5m. He said we should have been in a bigger berth but thankfully he said it was OK as the price nearly doubles when you go over 12m!
We went for a walk into town and we were pleasantly surprised as from the sea it actually looks pretty horridly built up but that is not so once you get into town. We went into a cake shop to buy something for pudding and the obligatory play park visit which didn’t end well as Alisha managed to give herself a big bump on the head. By the time we got back to the boat it was blowing a fair old stoosh of wind and we were glad we hadn’t attempted to go any further! Ali made a lovely dinner of lamb steaks and steamed buttered veg, it always tastes better when someone else has made it. After tea we settled down to watch another episode of - wait for it ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ I have been reading the girls the books for the last couple of months and we thought we would buy series 1 of the old seventies programme on DVD. I remember loving it when I was little and the girls do seem to like it but Ali and I spend most of our time laughing and cringing our way through each episode as the acting is so funny. Also now reading the book again as an adult I realise the TV programme is very ‘loosely’ based on the actual story. It’s good for a laugh anyway. There is a lot of Christianity in the programme too and Alisha has picked up on all of it telling we shouldn’t do things as they would make God angry and when it is raining it is the angels crying! The wind got up during the night so it was snap with Shetland as you lot were having a gale too for once the weather was the same.
Saturday 20th March 2010 - Monday 22nd March 2010 St Feliu De Guixols
This is the big breakwater that protects St Feliu from the worst of the sea, but wasn't strong enough to stop this happenning.....
This section of marina was wrecked in the big storm in early march which killed two people on a cruise liner just a few miles from here, boy am I glad we weren't out on the water that day!
Regatta day but no wind.
We decided not to rush away as we still had a full week and two days to get to France hopefully this won’t backfire on us! There was a regatta on Saturday and Sunday sadly they got hardly any wind for it at all and the yachts spent two days bobbing around just outside the harbour. The marina was pretty busy with racers preparing their boats each morning and the bar was fairly busy later. The boating club here is a rather plush affair built into the rock face It is really nice inside too with a posh reading and social room which we used to go on the internet, it was all decked out with leather furniture and had charts and many sailing books for your perusal. The girls were on the verge of wrecking the place when Ali had enough and dragged them back to the boat. The prize giving was on Sunday evening with a three course dinner, wine and polite clapping, slightly different from the usual pints and jeers after the yacht races in the Lerwick boating club….
In town we tried to find the sights (and the supermarket) and we found a museum which we tried to go to on Monday and it was closed…. There is this archway outside the museum which the Lonely Planet book says is the only left over from a 10th century monastery, although it has the date 1747 carved in above the door……
The modern buildings nestle in between old buildings and narrow streets join onto wider ramblas so it is a nice enough place to wander around. There are lots of cafes and restaurants if you need grub, a couple of supermarkets and plenty of other shops too.
The town seemed a bit quiet on Saturday, but on Sunday morning when we were on our way to the swimming pool it was buzzing, there was a fruit and veg market on in the square and an everything else market on in the plaza and the esplanade was full of people. We got some veg on the way home and Ali made the best cauliflower cheese I have ever eaten! It was a very environmentally friendly meal as the cauliflower was grown locally and the cheese was ‘carbon neutral’ no less! It had a picture of a windmill and a cow on the packet and how the wind energy compensated for the cow’s methane production I have no idea but there you go - it did melt nicely on our butane gas stove…..
At the swimming pool we came across another funny Spanish rule we hadn’t come across, compulsory wearing of hats in the pool, once we had been in the pool for a moment the guard came over to tell us this. He said we had to go and buy hats from reception for the girls and I, Ali got out of it but only just (what hair??) Ali managed to persuade him to go and get the hats for us and we would pay for them later or one of us would have had to drip off back to the entrance. I presume the rule is to stop hair clogging the drains but it is certainly a money spinner and maybe a trick the Shetland Rec Trust should employ to make more money! Once we were all kitted out we got back to enjoying ourselves (although noticing that some people only had the hat on the top of their heads with the rest of their long hair coming out underneath) we went into the bubble pool until the guard came to tell us that the girls weren’t allowed in that. We got back into the pool and then the guard called me over again….. I was starting to fizz a little and he got, “What is it now??” thankfully it wasn’t more trouble as my horns were beginning to poke out through my hair! Still the girls had a great swim and the showers were fine and warm so alls well that ends well.
There’s not much more to say about SFG except the marina is OK, but pricey in the summer, the washing machines are expensive and the drier does not work very well (typical marina driers) thank goodness the machines at Port Forum were cheaper and actually worked all winter and the showers lasted for more than 2 seconds before you had to push them again…… There are mooring buoys outside the marina which would be cheaper than the pontoon but its still just March so it’s OK just now!
Tuesday 23rd March St Feliu de Guixols - Port Roses
This was a crappy day quite literally! We were preparing to go sailing when the toilet decided to block and poor Ali spent the next two hours trying to fix the pipes etc. The pipes had become encrusted over time - yuck! He gave up trying to fix it and went to the chandler to buy a new hose, alas they had none! The only way to get going was for Ali to tape the pipe back onto the toilet and hope that the next port had supplies! The whole day sailing if anyone went to the toilet when you pumped it to flush it squirted water out of the side, not very nice but thankfully it ran into the shower tray which we bleached when we got into port!
The stinky plumber guy!
The sailing was very good, we were using only the gennaker and getting around 7knots on average, the only problem was that we set off into the mist thinking it would eventually clear but it just got thicker and thicker.
The GPS unit showing the radar screen and speed etc, we did get faster but I don't feel like taking photos once we get over 7 knots!
Ali with the beautiful Catalan coast line in the background.....
Visibility started off at around 200 metres and by the time we got to Roses it was down to about 50. It gave us a good radar practice and since it wasn’t too windy it wasn’t too stressful, except for when we came upon a group of three fishing boats. We had to be very careful as we couldn’t see them until we were fairly close, I was up forward to try and hear or see them. One came looming up from the Port side and Ali said it was OK because it was pointing the other way but it was actually coming astern at quite a rate of knots and we had to lurch off to one side.
We were really disappointed not to have seen this stretch of coastline as we had been told by everyone it is very pretty, we passed the Islas Medes and only saw the buoy that marks the edge of the nature reserve. We decided to take the sail down a couple of miles out from port as we really couldn’t see anything, the wind was picking up and we couldn’t really understand what we were seeing between the charts and the radar. I radioed the port and we were directed to a berth by a lovely happy marinero called Frank. He was funny and looked very similar to Tommy Sheridan our flamboyant Scottish tangerine coloured ex politician! He said that he would love to go off sailing but he needed to find a wife first and as soon as he expressed his love of sailing they were all off like a shot! It was a bit of a job getting tied up as a fair breeze had picked up but we managed eventually and it was below decks for some customary wine to celebrate getting to port!
Wed 24th - Thursday 25th March Port Roses
Some wittier than usual graffiti in Roses.
First on the cards was a shower and we found that the showers were nice and warm but there was nowhere dry to stand and get dressed which is typical of a lot of marina showers. Next was school for me and the girls and Ali went off to try and locate the bits for the leaky toilet. He could find a whole kit here for 130 euros and the odour free pipe would be 30 euros per metre. After a little research he found that he could order the whole kit for £59 and pipe for £7 per metre form England and even with the £30 postage it was still far cheaper than buying from Spain, ridiculous! The only hiccup is choosing where to get them to send the goods to as now we will be moving all the time again. Ali decided to take the whole toilet to bits again (brave boy) and glue up the cracked bits so now we have a toilet which no longer squirts out pee into the bathroom when you flush it! Then it was a complete and utter bleaching of the whole toilet and a showering of Ali!
On the first afternoon we went for a walk around roses and were pleasantly surprised as it has more character than any of the guide books say. We found went to the old ciutadella on the seafront which dates back to Greek times. Almost unbelievably the government gave ownership of the huge walled ciutadella back to the town of Roses under the conditions that they knocked it down and converted the land to farm land. The demolition team had torn down the whole eastern wall before they uncovered the Greek ruins and stopped. It is inconceivable that that is the only thing that stopped them as the main walls of the ciutadella date back to the 1600’s and the Fort has had a huge part to play in the history of the area. Anyway here are some pics of the ciutadella.
The next day the hoover broke! What next I wonder……. A boat without a hoover and two messy little girls on board is not good!
At lunch time we packed a picnic and went in search of megalithic era grave sites which are just at the back of the hill behind roses. We took our two maps of the place which weren’t very good and decided on following the stream up. It did have a path running up the side of it and so we thought we were in the right place until the path stopped and it would have been too dangerous to try and climb the steep river banks with the girls. It was getting hot and it was pretty enough where we were so we decided to give the graves a miss. We had a lovely picnic next to a small waterfall and the girls were very busy picking flowers and jumping from rock to rock in the stream.
Since we got back early we went to an internet café to check the weather and decided that the next day would be perfect for sailing up around to Port Vendres France where we are meeting the Jamiesons.
The wind had been blowing fairly strongly for two days by this time and the swell had started rolling into the harbour which we were surprised at as it seems so well armoured we spent probably the worst night so far with the boat lurching around and the ropes creaking so we had very little sleep by morning.
Friday 26th March Port Roses Spain - Port Vendres France!
You couls see the snow capped Pyrenees as we left Roses.
We got paid up (fairly cheap) and set off as early as we could. The wind was blowing straight in the bay so we tacked out with the mainsail and the jib doing about 6 -7 knots
If you look closely you can see me in my usual position for heeling hanging off the windward rail....
then as we continued to go around the headland we were sailing more and more down wind and the wind was dying down so we put up the gennaker with the main which picked us back up a knot or so and after going between the island off Cap de Creus
we goose winged the rest of the afternoon until the wind entirely fell away and we took the whole lot down. It was a beautiful day there was lots of time for looking around , lovely scenery Cadaques (below) looks like a lovely town from the sea.
The girls even had some lessons out on the deck table complaining only that the sun was too bright and their pens kept rolling off the table!
Ali changed the courtesy flags…….
Down with the Spanish
and up with the French!
We got into Port Vendres at about 6pm it had been a longish day as we had been bobbing along at 3 ½ knots for a part of it. We couldn’t get anyone on the VHF but we found a space and tied up thinking what a lovely looking town.
The entrance to Port Vendres
The marina is bang in the centre of town which snakes around both sides of a long voe. Very pretty, and even though we were in the centre it wasn’t noisy like some other places we had been. What has also endeared the place to us is that on the very first evening four different locals had come to talk to us and no one goes by with out a ‘Bonsoir’ much friendlier than a lot of places.
We spent a lovely roll free silent night in the marina which more than made up for the lack of sleep the night before and both agreed that we had never had such a movement less night in ages, (except obviously when we were on the hard in Port Olympic.)
Saturday 27th March
We checked out the showers first thing and were a little dismayed that is was back to the French style toilets, no seats, no toilet roll, no soap and you can see through from the men’s to the women’s shower rooms……. I love France but I just cant figure out why a nation famed for l’amour and great food puts so little importance on the state of their toilets! Up in Brittany we went to an internet café a few times the place was clean, the bar tender/owner good looking and very nice but the toilets……. Ach well they are not the worst by a long shot that was definitely the marina toilets up the river lock in Douarnenez where we would wait until they had been cleaned at 10am each morning before daring to enter! The public toilets there could be detected from 200 metres away, needless to say we didn’t go inside.
Anyway, after showers it was time to explore Port Vendres and what a lovely little town it is. There are lots of little cafes and restaurants and shops all within two streets of the harbour, a huge reduction in walking for us from all the huge Spanish marinas on the outskirts of town! We did find one play park but the girls were dismayed to find it was locked for residents of a block of flats. We found the laundry which was a releif as we had a lot of washing to do before our visitors came. There were buskers and a clown performing along the promenade at the town hall. Alisha and Kaylee went up for a time with the clown and he tried to teach them to juggle but they just dropped everything and laughed. The market was on too and we bought a few days supplies of meat, veg and I was delighted to find a herb stall so I took the chance and got a couple of things I haven’t seen all the time we have been in Spain. We met an English bloke with a couple of girls just a little older than Alisha who lives here with his wife from Aberdeen.
Ali volunteered to go up with the laundry whilst the girls and I cleaned the boat in the afternoon. I said he should take something to read with him so he took a riveting chandlers catalogue and said that would keep him happy for a couple of hours. We went off in search of the supermarket in the afternoon with the vain hope they might have a hoover but no luck there. We met a nice couple on our way off the pontoon from guess where - Aberdeen again! They filled us in on a lot of info about the port and the town as they have lived here for a few years now. They are active members of the boating club and had just had a Single malt tasting evening where they managed to convert a few locals to the delights of the amber nectar (yuck!)
When we got to the marina the ‘Tramontane’ was blowing and the boat was rolling around a fair bit -so much for calmest harbour yet. As we had dinner and watched a movie with the girls the rolling increased until we felt as if we actually were out at sea. Ali went and fitted spring shock absorbers to all the ropes which calmed the jerking but not the rolling. The last extra thing he did in a vain attempt to stop it was to lower the two 20kg weights he had bought for an anchor chum over the seaward side of the boat, he reckoned it mad a huge difference but I wasn’t so aware of it. Miraculously the girls went to bed and fell asleep straight away. We decided we had better have a few drinks if we were going to get any sleep at all so I cracked open the gin for the first time since we left home (in preparation for a few G&Ts with Susan!) Ali got out the cheap rum he bought at the supermarket (apparently not that nice) and we settled in to watch a DVD. By the time the film had ended and we had had a few, the rolling had stopped…….
Thats all for now, I realise this is waaay behind but here's an update for now - we are in Bandol near the Cote de Azure in a seriously expensive internet cafe to check the weather etc We have been in Marseille for two weeks tied up to Enjah which was a bit of a rammy so the reports for that plus the Jamiesons visit will be next!
We did the last couple of finishing touches in the morning and Ali went off to the Supermarket whilst I got the boat ready for going on the sea. We had a bit of a wait to get lifted back in and a bit of a wait to get fuel but at around 2pm we set sail!
Finally ALi was at peace with the sails up again!
Byeeeee Barcelona!
Byeeeee Port Forum!
There was a fair breeze blowing and we were sailing at 6.7 knots with just the jib when we left ~Port Olympic, we had to dodge a dinghy race and a broken down rib but after that we just set course for Arenys de Mar, which we decided on after we left port (well prepared as usual!) We passed Port Forum and the girls wanted to go in and say goodbye to everyone but we knew we would end up staying the night if we went in and thought better of it. The wind died about an hour later so we put the main sail up and cruised along at a very pleasant 5 knots the rest of the way only changing course slightly for this fish farm.
It is a solid structure and doesn’t rise very far out of the sea, how it is still in one piece after the storm two weeks previous when the swell was 8 metres high out here is a minor miracle I would say.
Arenys de mar is a fishing/yacht harbour about 20 miles north of Port Olympic. We arrived at about 6pm and got tied up safely and forfeited our registration documents to the marinero which they sometimes require so that you don’t skip town in the night without paying! We were pretty tired so all we did was get the dinner on and listen to the Shetland radio and go to bed! That will teach us to have a big night before sailing!
On the Thursday morning we looked up the weather forecast and it would stay favourable for a few days yet so we decided to stay another day here and have a look around. I did a big school session with the girls in the morning as they hadn’t done much when we had been working on the boat. The girls seem to have the concentration spans of gnats which is incredibly frustrating! Whilst this was going on Ali was cleaning the deck as it had got pretty manky in the boat yard. He was also refitting the safety lines and straps for the girls so they can go up on the deck when we are at sea.
We went into town in the afternoon and found the town to be OK, not much to shout about but pleasant enough. There were some really awful high rise tourist type buildings along the sea front and some really lovely old building and streets hidden away as we got further into town.
The girls found what we thought was a play park at first until I read the signs and discovered it was a fitness circuit for pensioners, the girls still thought it was good fun!
We went for a walk up the hill in the Parc de Lourdes which had some great paths and plants to look at.
Back in town I wanted to take a picture of the old church but there was a funeral just coming out and thought it would be rather inappropriate……
We went back to the boat after getting some things for tea and some sailing supplies. We decided to check out the showers which were lovely and hot and clean, fully communal but you cant have everything! The washing machines looked as if they were free to so this marina seems to be pretty good value if you include the very fast free internet into the equation too.
Friday 19th March Arenys De Mar to St Feliu De Guixols
Asleep as soon as we left port.
I think the girls have got their sea legs back as they felt the need to bounce on the buoys to make the trip more exciting!
We got paid up and set off at around 10 am there wasn’t a breath of air until we got outside the harbour walls and then it was coming straight on the nose so we knew it was back to never being able to trust the forecast! We headed straight out to sea so we could sail back up the coast as far into the wind as we could go. We had a great few hours of sailing, averaging about 6 knots over a lovely sea with only a little swell. Then the wind died so we furled the jib and motor sailed the rest of the way finally giving up on the main sail about 5 miles from port.
It was getting cloudier and a bit chilly by the time we arrived and the girls were getting a bit bored so it was nice to come in to Port we got a bit of a surprise that it was back to finger pontoons and of course I had set out all the fenders and ropes for coming in ’Mediterranean style1’ After a bit of tying and untying and pushing off we squeezed in and Ali went off with the boat papers etc again. Most harbours require you to submit your registration papers to the office until you leave and they all require you take your insurance papers and passports etc up to the office to be checked as soon as you are tied up. This is OK here as they are fairly efficient, just imagine if that was a requirement at the piers in Shetland I’m thinking West Burr firth in particular……. Alan Lauren son would have a field day! For anyone who doesn’t know who I mean think Fawlty Towers on water! Ali had a remark from the harbour master about how long he had said the boat was as we always say 12 metres over the VHF when boat is actually 12.5m. He said we should have been in a bigger berth but thankfully he said it was OK as the price nearly doubles when you go over 12m!
We went for a walk into town and we were pleasantly surprised as from the sea it actually looks pretty horridly built up but that is not so once you get into town. We went into a cake shop to buy something for pudding and the obligatory play park visit which didn’t end well as Alisha managed to give herself a big bump on the head. By the time we got back to the boat it was blowing a fair old stoosh of wind and we were glad we hadn’t attempted to go any further! Ali made a lovely dinner of lamb steaks and steamed buttered veg, it always tastes better when someone else has made it. After tea we settled down to watch another episode of - wait for it ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ I have been reading the girls the books for the last couple of months and we thought we would buy series 1 of the old seventies programme on DVD. I remember loving it when I was little and the girls do seem to like it but Ali and I spend most of our time laughing and cringing our way through each episode as the acting is so funny. Also now reading the book again as an adult I realise the TV programme is very ‘loosely’ based on the actual story. It’s good for a laugh anyway. There is a lot of Christianity in the programme too and Alisha has picked up on all of it telling we shouldn’t do things as they would make God angry and when it is raining it is the angels crying! The wind got up during the night so it was snap with Shetland as you lot were having a gale too for once the weather was the same.
Saturday 20th March 2010 - Monday 22nd March 2010 St Feliu De Guixols
This is the big breakwater that protects St Feliu from the worst of the sea, but wasn't strong enough to stop this happenning.....
This section of marina was wrecked in the big storm in early march which killed two people on a cruise liner just a few miles from here, boy am I glad we weren't out on the water that day!
Regatta day but no wind.
We decided not to rush away as we still had a full week and two days to get to France hopefully this won’t backfire on us! There was a regatta on Saturday and Sunday sadly they got hardly any wind for it at all and the yachts spent two days bobbing around just outside the harbour. The marina was pretty busy with racers preparing their boats each morning and the bar was fairly busy later. The boating club here is a rather plush affair built into the rock face It is really nice inside too with a posh reading and social room which we used to go on the internet, it was all decked out with leather furniture and had charts and many sailing books for your perusal. The girls were on the verge of wrecking the place when Ali had enough and dragged them back to the boat. The prize giving was on Sunday evening with a three course dinner, wine and polite clapping, slightly different from the usual pints and jeers after the yacht races in the Lerwick boating club….
In town we tried to find the sights (and the supermarket) and we found a museum which we tried to go to on Monday and it was closed…. There is this archway outside the museum which the Lonely Planet book says is the only left over from a 10th century monastery, although it has the date 1747 carved in above the door……
The modern buildings nestle in between old buildings and narrow streets join onto wider ramblas so it is a nice enough place to wander around. There are lots of cafes and restaurants if you need grub, a couple of supermarkets and plenty of other shops too.
The town seemed a bit quiet on Saturday, but on Sunday morning when we were on our way to the swimming pool it was buzzing, there was a fruit and veg market on in the square and an everything else market on in the plaza and the esplanade was full of people. We got some veg on the way home and Ali made the best cauliflower cheese I have ever eaten! It was a very environmentally friendly meal as the cauliflower was grown locally and the cheese was ‘carbon neutral’ no less! It had a picture of a windmill and a cow on the packet and how the wind energy compensated for the cow’s methane production I have no idea but there you go - it did melt nicely on our butane gas stove…..
At the swimming pool we came across another funny Spanish rule we hadn’t come across, compulsory wearing of hats in the pool, once we had been in the pool for a moment the guard came over to tell us this. He said we had to go and buy hats from reception for the girls and I, Ali got out of it but only just (what hair??) Ali managed to persuade him to go and get the hats for us and we would pay for them later or one of us would have had to drip off back to the entrance. I presume the rule is to stop hair clogging the drains but it is certainly a money spinner and maybe a trick the Shetland Rec Trust should employ to make more money! Once we were all kitted out we got back to enjoying ourselves (although noticing that some people only had the hat on the top of their heads with the rest of their long hair coming out underneath) we went into the bubble pool until the guard came to tell us that the girls weren’t allowed in that. We got back into the pool and then the guard called me over again….. I was starting to fizz a little and he got, “What is it now??” thankfully it wasn’t more trouble as my horns were beginning to poke out through my hair! Still the girls had a great swim and the showers were fine and warm so alls well that ends well.
There’s not much more to say about SFG except the marina is OK, but pricey in the summer, the washing machines are expensive and the drier does not work very well (typical marina driers) thank goodness the machines at Port Forum were cheaper and actually worked all winter and the showers lasted for more than 2 seconds before you had to push them again…… There are mooring buoys outside the marina which would be cheaper than the pontoon but its still just March so it’s OK just now!
Tuesday 23rd March St Feliu de Guixols - Port Roses
This was a crappy day quite literally! We were preparing to go sailing when the toilet decided to block and poor Ali spent the next two hours trying to fix the pipes etc. The pipes had become encrusted over time - yuck! He gave up trying to fix it and went to the chandler to buy a new hose, alas they had none! The only way to get going was for Ali to tape the pipe back onto the toilet and hope that the next port had supplies! The whole day sailing if anyone went to the toilet when you pumped it to flush it squirted water out of the side, not very nice but thankfully it ran into the shower tray which we bleached when we got into port!
The stinky plumber guy!
The sailing was very good, we were using only the gennaker and getting around 7knots on average, the only problem was that we set off into the mist thinking it would eventually clear but it just got thicker and thicker.
The GPS unit showing the radar screen and speed etc, we did get faster but I don't feel like taking photos once we get over 7 knots!
Ali with the beautiful Catalan coast line in the background.....
Visibility started off at around 200 metres and by the time we got to Roses it was down to about 50. It gave us a good radar practice and since it wasn’t too windy it wasn’t too stressful, except for when we came upon a group of three fishing boats. We had to be very careful as we couldn’t see them until we were fairly close, I was up forward to try and hear or see them. One came looming up from the Port side and Ali said it was OK because it was pointing the other way but it was actually coming astern at quite a rate of knots and we had to lurch off to one side.
We were really disappointed not to have seen this stretch of coastline as we had been told by everyone it is very pretty, we passed the Islas Medes and only saw the buoy that marks the edge of the nature reserve. We decided to take the sail down a couple of miles out from port as we really couldn’t see anything, the wind was picking up and we couldn’t really understand what we were seeing between the charts and the radar. I radioed the port and we were directed to a berth by a lovely happy marinero called Frank. He was funny and looked very similar to Tommy Sheridan our flamboyant Scottish tangerine coloured ex politician! He said that he would love to go off sailing but he needed to find a wife first and as soon as he expressed his love of sailing they were all off like a shot! It was a bit of a job getting tied up as a fair breeze had picked up but we managed eventually and it was below decks for some customary wine to celebrate getting to port!
Wed 24th - Thursday 25th March Port Roses
Some wittier than usual graffiti in Roses.
First on the cards was a shower and we found that the showers were nice and warm but there was nowhere dry to stand and get dressed which is typical of a lot of marina showers. Next was school for me and the girls and Ali went off to try and locate the bits for the leaky toilet. He could find a whole kit here for 130 euros and the odour free pipe would be 30 euros per metre. After a little research he found that he could order the whole kit for £59 and pipe for £7 per metre form England and even with the £30 postage it was still far cheaper than buying from Spain, ridiculous! The only hiccup is choosing where to get them to send the goods to as now we will be moving all the time again. Ali decided to take the whole toilet to bits again (brave boy) and glue up the cracked bits so now we have a toilet which no longer squirts out pee into the bathroom when you flush it! Then it was a complete and utter bleaching of the whole toilet and a showering of Ali!
On the first afternoon we went for a walk around roses and were pleasantly surprised as it has more character than any of the guide books say. We found went to the old ciutadella on the seafront which dates back to Greek times. Almost unbelievably the government gave ownership of the huge walled ciutadella back to the town of Roses under the conditions that they knocked it down and converted the land to farm land. The demolition team had torn down the whole eastern wall before they uncovered the Greek ruins and stopped. It is inconceivable that that is the only thing that stopped them as the main walls of the ciutadella date back to the 1600’s and the Fort has had a huge part to play in the history of the area. Anyway here are some pics of the ciutadella.
The next day the hoover broke! What next I wonder……. A boat without a hoover and two messy little girls on board is not good!
At lunch time we packed a picnic and went in search of megalithic era grave sites which are just at the back of the hill behind roses. We took our two maps of the place which weren’t very good and decided on following the stream up. It did have a path running up the side of it and so we thought we were in the right place until the path stopped and it would have been too dangerous to try and climb the steep river banks with the girls. It was getting hot and it was pretty enough where we were so we decided to give the graves a miss. We had a lovely picnic next to a small waterfall and the girls were very busy picking flowers and jumping from rock to rock in the stream.
Since we got back early we went to an internet café to check the weather and decided that the next day would be perfect for sailing up around to Port Vendres France where we are meeting the Jamiesons.
The wind had been blowing fairly strongly for two days by this time and the swell had started rolling into the harbour which we were surprised at as it seems so well armoured we spent probably the worst night so far with the boat lurching around and the ropes creaking so we had very little sleep by morning.
Friday 26th March Port Roses Spain - Port Vendres France!
You couls see the snow capped Pyrenees as we left Roses.
We got paid up (fairly cheap) and set off as early as we could. The wind was blowing straight in the bay so we tacked out with the mainsail and the jib doing about 6 -7 knots
If you look closely you can see me in my usual position for heeling hanging off the windward rail....
then as we continued to go around the headland we were sailing more and more down wind and the wind was dying down so we put up the gennaker with the main which picked us back up a knot or so and after going between the island off Cap de Creus
we goose winged the rest of the afternoon until the wind entirely fell away and we took the whole lot down. It was a beautiful day there was lots of time for looking around , lovely scenery Cadaques (below) looks like a lovely town from the sea.
The girls even had some lessons out on the deck table complaining only that the sun was too bright and their pens kept rolling off the table!
Ali changed the courtesy flags…….
Down with the Spanish
and up with the French!
We got into Port Vendres at about 6pm it had been a longish day as we had been bobbing along at 3 ½ knots for a part of it. We couldn’t get anyone on the VHF but we found a space and tied up thinking what a lovely looking town.
The entrance to Port Vendres
The marina is bang in the centre of town which snakes around both sides of a long voe. Very pretty, and even though we were in the centre it wasn’t noisy like some other places we had been. What has also endeared the place to us is that on the very first evening four different locals had come to talk to us and no one goes by with out a ‘Bonsoir’ much friendlier than a lot of places.
We spent a lovely roll free silent night in the marina which more than made up for the lack of sleep the night before and both agreed that we had never had such a movement less night in ages, (except obviously when we were on the hard in Port Olympic.)
Saturday 27th March
We checked out the showers first thing and were a little dismayed that is was back to the French style toilets, no seats, no toilet roll, no soap and you can see through from the men’s to the women’s shower rooms……. I love France but I just cant figure out why a nation famed for l’amour and great food puts so little importance on the state of their toilets! Up in Brittany we went to an internet café a few times the place was clean, the bar tender/owner good looking and very nice but the toilets……. Ach well they are not the worst by a long shot that was definitely the marina toilets up the river lock in Douarnenez where we would wait until they had been cleaned at 10am each morning before daring to enter! The public toilets there could be detected from 200 metres away, needless to say we didn’t go inside.
Anyway, after showers it was time to explore Port Vendres and what a lovely little town it is. There are lots of little cafes and restaurants and shops all within two streets of the harbour, a huge reduction in walking for us from all the huge Spanish marinas on the outskirts of town! We did find one play park but the girls were dismayed to find it was locked for residents of a block of flats. We found the laundry which was a releif as we had a lot of washing to do before our visitors came. There were buskers and a clown performing along the promenade at the town hall. Alisha and Kaylee went up for a time with the clown and he tried to teach them to juggle but they just dropped everything and laughed. The market was on too and we bought a few days supplies of meat, veg and I was delighted to find a herb stall so I took the chance and got a couple of things I haven’t seen all the time we have been in Spain. We met an English bloke with a couple of girls just a little older than Alisha who lives here with his wife from Aberdeen.
Ali volunteered to go up with the laundry whilst the girls and I cleaned the boat in the afternoon. I said he should take something to read with him so he took a riveting chandlers catalogue and said that would keep him happy for a couple of hours. We went off in search of the supermarket in the afternoon with the vain hope they might have a hoover but no luck there. We met a nice couple on our way off the pontoon from guess where - Aberdeen again! They filled us in on a lot of info about the port and the town as they have lived here for a few years now. They are active members of the boating club and had just had a Single malt tasting evening where they managed to convert a few locals to the delights of the amber nectar (yuck!)
When we got to the marina the ‘Tramontane’ was blowing and the boat was rolling around a fair bit -so much for calmest harbour yet. As we had dinner and watched a movie with the girls the rolling increased until we felt as if we actually were out at sea. Ali went and fitted spring shock absorbers to all the ropes which calmed the jerking but not the rolling. The last extra thing he did in a vain attempt to stop it was to lower the two 20kg weights he had bought for an anchor chum over the seaward side of the boat, he reckoned it mad a huge difference but I wasn’t so aware of it. Miraculously the girls went to bed and fell asleep straight away. We decided we had better have a few drinks if we were going to get any sleep at all so I cracked open the gin for the first time since we left home (in preparation for a few G&Ts with Susan!) Ali got out the cheap rum he bought at the supermarket (apparently not that nice) and we settled in to watch a DVD. By the time the film had ended and we had had a few, the rolling had stopped…….
Thats all for now, I realise this is waaay behind but here's an update for now - we are in Bandol near the Cote de Azure in a seriously expensive internet cafe to check the weather etc We have been in Marseille for two weeks tied up to Enjah which was a bit of a rammy so the reports for that plus the Jamiesons visit will be next!
