The Unintentional Mariner

10th August 22 16N 035 08W Today is Thursday!  Tomorrow we will have been a full week at sea.  Woke up at 630 and went on deck to be told that we had changed course 20 degrees – we have gone as far south as we will go and are finally heading NORTH!  Our router has informed us… Continue reading Northward Ho!

8th August 23 03N, 025 16W Hard to believe that it’s been four days since we set off.  In some ways it seems like yesterday; in others years ago.  We are starting to get into the rhythm of the days at sea; on watch; sleep and wake and cook and eat …. Read in the middle; do some… Continue reading South Till’ The Butter Melts

4th August 26 47N, 016 20W First night at sea and already everything is different.  For one, we have a bit of wind and in a nice direction so from cruising for a while on one engine doing around 9 knots we tacked and are now doing around 9 with no engines at all.  Yup;… Continue reading Hasta la Vista Baby.

4th August   Las Palmas!  Well gosh as unprepossessing as this place looked from the sea; it sure didn’t turn out that way on land.  Our first few hours here weren’t fabulous – apart from the (now usual) grim approach to these ports – full of industrial cargo ships and the like – we came… Continue reading Me gustas tu

31st July So this morning I was lucky enough to wake up just in time to help the boys raise the other gennaker (this one is much bigger and looks more like a spinnaker to me; maybe it is – must ask!) So after a few minutes on the winch at the back and a… Continue reading Land Ho!

29th July Day One of the Atlantic proper and we have wind; not too much but enough to make the GC decide to try one of the two gennakers we picked up in La Ciotat.  We’d been talking about getting one of these for years to use in the light Omani winds; it’s a light… Continue reading First taste of the big blue

Friday 28th July Cruising down the Straits of Gibraltar with Spain on the right and Morocco on the left … sea is flat; no wind against us; and it’s a lovely day; what can I say.  After a morning in La Linea to do our last minute shopping (Betrave and I took a taxi to… Continue reading Fair winds and farewell Europe

23 – 28 July – La Linea Our first impressions of this little town were not the most flattering; arriving as we did late on a Saturday afternoon when all the shops were closed apart from the supermarket.  Like so many places, without people it was dirty and dead.  That early impression wasn’t changed much… Continue reading Some places just grow on you

23rd July – Gibraltar Spent the day here looking around and it’s very quaint and British.  The access is a hoot; the airport runway (military as well as civilian; Gib is still an important military base) crosses the road so ti’s the only road I’ve ever been on where you are stopped for a plane… Continue reading The Rock

21st July – Almeria No chance to look around this town; just put in for fuel and buggered off. Apparently the marina manager recognised the GC from his catamaran racing days … when this was the biggest (and first) marina on this coast.  It’s now acres upon acres of greenhouses; interspersed with high rise buildings… Continue reading Pit stop