My dad was asking about how the boat was set up, so I sent him an email about it. This post contains most of the same information.
A few details about the boat and life in the marina...
The grocery store is about a ten-minute walk and we often go together if we are getting heavy stuff. When we see one we will get one of those rolling shopping bags, so that will make it easier too. There is also a market for produce, so sometimes one of us will go one place and the other the other place so no one has to carry too much. Since it is so close, we can take the carts from the marina with us if we have to get heavy stuff, which makes it much easier.
We are starting to find our way around the town as well. There is a historic part of town which is a little complicated, but it's built on a hill, so if worst comes to worst (i.e., I get lost) all I have to do is go downhill and I'll hit the water again.
The train station is literally 200 meters from the boat, behind the restaurants, so that couldn't be any closer. Weirdly enough, we've never heard a train, but we've seen them, so it is a working station!
The bus station is a 10-minute walk, just over the pedestrian bridge, so that's where we'll go to get Max's bus for school. One of us will go with him, of course. We will need to be sure to leave enough time in case the bridge is open for boats, but since they don't start opening the bridge until 8:00 I think it won't be a factor.
The boat is 40 feet long with three cabins and two heads. The second head is totally unnecessary but since the boat was a demo (built 2011) and had never been launched we didn't have a choice of layout. Frank and I have the V-berth and Max has the aft cabin on the starboard side if you are facing the bow. It's a little bigger than the port one, so the port one is for guests.
There is a frigerator which opens both from the front and the top; it's not all that large so that also encourages us to shop most days, cutting down on the heavy stuff.
There is a good-sized table in the salon. It folds out so six can fit around it and it's got a place in the middle for six glasses, bottles, and other dishes, etc.
There is about as much storage as you'd expect in a boat of this size, whatever that means! We've got a small closet with space to hang things and four shelves, plus two large drawers under the bed. We also have a cupboard with a shelf and a larger space. There is a little shelf on Frank's side running along the wall and the top of the cupboard is my dresser.
Max has a closet like ours with a seat in front of it. Under the seat is a compartment where his shoes go. There is space on top of the closet which functions like a dresser and he's also got a little shelf over his reading light. His bed is for two people, so there are two lights and lots of space, so all his many stuffed animals have a place to be. There is also a compartment at the aft end of his compartment where we've stored duffle bags and stuff we don't need to be accessible. The other aft cabin is set up the same way but a tiny bit smaller. There is also a little storage compartment under the mattresses on our bed where we keep an empty suitcase.
Other storage compartments are behind and under cushions in the salon, and I am ecstatic to report that we have empty space!
Max actually has a bit of wall in his room so he'll be able to decorate. He's got three portholes for ventilation and we've got a hatch. Oddly enough, the guest cabin only has two portholes. I have no idea why.
Equipment-wise, the boat has an autopilot, radar, a chart plotter, a GPS, plus the usual life-jackets, lines, and fenders. We also have a gangway, swim platform with ladder, deck and inside showers (all handheld), and two steering wheels. The motor is a 45-HP Volvo Penta, so it's pretty speedy. We also have a TV/DVD, radio/CD with the ability to connect an iPod for music. Am I forgetting anything?
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Computer Woes and Other Things
We've been in Lagos two weeks today and at least so far our days are relatively predictable. In the morning, we often fight with the internet, clean, do errands, etc. Then lunch and in the afternoon we go to the pool or the beach. It really has been a sort of extended vacation--or staycation, since we live here now. However, things are about to change in the next couple of weeks. We went to the sports center here in town yesterday to ask about a soccer team for Max and spoke to this very friendly man (who unfortunately coaches 12 year olds) who directed us to the stadium. There we had a very laborious conversation in English with the very friendly and helpful receptionist, although it transpired at the end of the discussion that French would have been easier for her. We switched to French and--amazing!--it was much easier. I felt like an idiot. I have also got to improve my Portuguese because even the Portuguese think that I am Portuguese! In any case, the receptionist gave us the number to call and it turns out that practice starts on the 11th. Max is thrilled because soccer is his current obsession and we are excited because he'll get to meet some kids before school starts.
His school doesn't start until the 24th, but we have a meeting at the school on Monday at 3 which I am looking forward to. I really want to see the school, plus we need to figure out exactly how to get there and how long it will take. The bus station is right over the bridge, so it will be easy to get there. Max, however, will need to start moving in the mornings, though!
I am STILL waiting for a computer cord. The store here couldn't be more helpful if they tried--they have been very apologetic about how long it's taking. There was much joy in Mudville the other day when the cord actually came until we discovered that the supplier had sent the wrong one. Fortunately, he had a Mac that he's trying to fix for someone so was able to charge my computer for me with the other person's cord. It's back to square one, though...I will scope out some quiet places to Skype and look into a portable hotspot. That seems to be the only answer, since the internet here is quirky.
Max is starting to amaze me with his mathematical ability. Frank has taught him how to play Sheepshead, which is really complicated, and he can add up his score very quickly. This is especially impressive because there are many different values involved. We were watching tennis tonight at dinner (although the restaurant had the sound off) and Max was informing us about triple set point. I thought that was really good, but I'm his mother, so what do I know...
He is ever more curious about spiritual things than he was before. He keeps asking me questions like whether God has a brain and to explain eternity. Needless to say, I don't know the answers. We went to church last Sunday, but it was a Catholic church and all in Portuguese, so none of us really got much out of it. It was a very pretty church, though!
Max tries to speak Portuguese with people, although his language skills are rather limited so far. He does like Portuguese commercials. He is also very smart about getting the help he needs. He went to the bathroom the other morning and left the access card in there. Frank and I could see him coming back and then he went up to the security guard and said something. The guard started walking back towards the bathroom with him, where he let him in and Max got the card back. I thought that showed good thinking.
If there is a dog anywhere, Max has to stop and pet it. He's doing research for our future dog and he has a pretty good knowledge of dog breeds in general, as well as which ones might or might not fulfill our criteria. He is also learning to read dog signals and how to approach them. Now he just needs to learn to ask in Portuguese if he can pet the dog!
Once I get my cord I promise to post some pictures; I am trying to save conserve battery power for as long as possible.
His school doesn't start until the 24th, but we have a meeting at the school on Monday at 3 which I am looking forward to. I really want to see the school, plus we need to figure out exactly how to get there and how long it will take. The bus station is right over the bridge, so it will be easy to get there. Max, however, will need to start moving in the mornings, though!
I am STILL waiting for a computer cord. The store here couldn't be more helpful if they tried--they have been very apologetic about how long it's taking. There was much joy in Mudville the other day when the cord actually came until we discovered that the supplier had sent the wrong one. Fortunately, he had a Mac that he's trying to fix for someone so was able to charge my computer for me with the other person's cord. It's back to square one, though...I will scope out some quiet places to Skype and look into a portable hotspot. That seems to be the only answer, since the internet here is quirky.
Max is starting to amaze me with his mathematical ability. Frank has taught him how to play Sheepshead, which is really complicated, and he can add up his score very quickly. This is especially impressive because there are many different values involved. We were watching tennis tonight at dinner (although the restaurant had the sound off) and Max was informing us about triple set point. I thought that was really good, but I'm his mother, so what do I know...
He is ever more curious about spiritual things than he was before. He keeps asking me questions like whether God has a brain and to explain eternity. Needless to say, I don't know the answers. We went to church last Sunday, but it was a Catholic church and all in Portuguese, so none of us really got much out of it. It was a very pretty church, though!
Max tries to speak Portuguese with people, although his language skills are rather limited so far. He does like Portuguese commercials. He is also very smart about getting the help he needs. He went to the bathroom the other morning and left the access card in there. Frank and I could see him coming back and then he went up to the security guard and said something. The guard started walking back towards the bathroom with him, where he let him in and Max got the card back. I thought that showed good thinking.
If there is a dog anywhere, Max has to stop and pet it. He's doing research for our future dog and he has a pretty good knowledge of dog breeds in general, as well as which ones might or might not fulfill our criteria. He is also learning to read dog signals and how to approach them. Now he just needs to learn to ask in Portuguese if he can pet the dog!
Once I get my cord I promise to post some pictures; I am trying to save conserve battery power for as long as possible.
A Week in Lagos
We've been here in Lagos for almost a week now, so we are starting to feel a bit more settled in. We've spent the week unpacking and learning our way around town on a very basic level.
Lagos is a beautiful town, probably about twice the size of Natchitches, so probably 40,000 people, I would guess. The population will go down about a third, I bet, once the tourist season ends.
Meanwhile, the marina is just adjacent to the old part of the city. You get there by crossing a drawbridge which is opened necessary for boats between 8:00 and 10:00PM, so if you are trying to get somewhere you want to allow for the possibility that you'll have to wait until the bridge comes down. The only time that pedestrians have priority over boats is the ten minutes before the trains leave because the train station is right next to the marina restaurants, so train passengers cannot avoid going over the bridge.
Even though the train station is not more than 200 meters from the boat, we have never heard a train. We've seen them, so we know it's definitely a working station, but it's a very quiet one!
In any case, the old town is lots of little narrow cobblestone streets, and someone decided that all the streets should have designs on them, so they are very pretty. It would be easy to get lost, except that it's all built on a hill, so if you go down you will hit the water eventually and can orient yourself that way.
There are 140 restaurants in this town, which might be a bit much. I wonder if some of them will close for the winter, though. The food so far has been excellent, and with lunchtime main courses for as little as €5.50 it is almost cheaper to eat the main meal out rather than cook in the heat. We can't very well do that forever, but it's quite hot to cook right now.
Fish and seafood are obscenely cheap here, probably because we are so close to the ocean. We spent a hot morning doing errands yesterday and were rewarded with a Japanese restaurant in which you could order endlessly off the menu for a fixed price. Considering how much I like sushi that was a great deal!
There are lots of little shops that cater to tourists, of course, but mixed in with them are other, more practical stores as well. There are several grocery stores near the marina and in town, but the closest one is about a ten-minute walk from the boat--maybe not even that far--and it's large one and very well-stocked. It's very American, though, in the fact that there are never enough cashiers open and it's always crowded.
If you remember my comments about Spanish grocery stores, Portuguese ones (in my negligible experience) are very different. They are organized on basically logical lines so you can feel relatively confident that you'll find what you are looking for in your lifetime.
In lieu of Wal-Marts or Targets, there are stores run mostly by Chinese merchants that sell pretty much everything if you look for it. These are great places for Tupperware, tape, surge protectors, dish towels, beach stuff, etc. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten the 12V cord to plug the Wii into the wall and that sort of cord is proving to be a bit harder to find. I will persevere, however...
The bus station is just over the bridge, and that's where we'll have to go for Max's bus. Since he will have to go by public bus, one of us will go with him. His school doesn't start until September 24th for the first class, although the other classes start on the 3rd, I think.
I hope we've made the right choice enrolling him in the first class, since he'll turn 7 in October. I think so, given that he'll be learning a new language. In any case, since it's such a small school and his teacher will be working with kids at different levels he should be able to easily make adjustments if necessary. Frank was a Waldorf teacher and he says that situation would be easy to deal with.
Lagos is a beautiful town, probably about twice the size of Natchitches, so probably 40,000 people, I would guess. The population will go down about a third, I bet, once the tourist season ends.
Meanwhile, the marina is just adjacent to the old part of the city. You get there by crossing a drawbridge which is opened necessary for boats between 8:00 and 10:00PM, so if you are trying to get somewhere you want to allow for the possibility that you'll have to wait until the bridge comes down. The only time that pedestrians have priority over boats is the ten minutes before the trains leave because the train station is right next to the marina restaurants, so train passengers cannot avoid going over the bridge.
Even though the train station is not more than 200 meters from the boat, we have never heard a train. We've seen them, so we know it's definitely a working station, but it's a very quiet one!
In any case, the old town is lots of little narrow cobblestone streets, and someone decided that all the streets should have designs on them, so they are very pretty. It would be easy to get lost, except that it's all built on a hill, so if you go down you will hit the water eventually and can orient yourself that way.
There are 140 restaurants in this town, which might be a bit much. I wonder if some of them will close for the winter, though. The food so far has been excellent, and with lunchtime main courses for as little as €5.50 it is almost cheaper to eat the main meal out rather than cook in the heat. We can't very well do that forever, but it's quite hot to cook right now.
Fish and seafood are obscenely cheap here, probably because we are so close to the ocean. We spent a hot morning doing errands yesterday and were rewarded with a Japanese restaurant in which you could order endlessly off the menu for a fixed price. Considering how much I like sushi that was a great deal!
There are lots of little shops that cater to tourists, of course, but mixed in with them are other, more practical stores as well. There are several grocery stores near the marina and in town, but the closest one is about a ten-minute walk from the boat--maybe not even that far--and it's large one and very well-stocked. It's very American, though, in the fact that there are never enough cashiers open and it's always crowded.
If you remember my comments about Spanish grocery stores, Portuguese ones (in my negligible experience) are very different. They are organized on basically logical lines so you can feel relatively confident that you'll find what you are looking for in your lifetime.
In lieu of Wal-Marts or Targets, there are stores run mostly by Chinese merchants that sell pretty much everything if you look for it. These are great places for Tupperware, tape, surge protectors, dish towels, beach stuff, etc. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten the 12V cord to plug the Wii into the wall and that sort of cord is proving to be a bit harder to find. I will persevere, however...
The bus station is just over the bridge, and that's where we'll have to go for Max's bus. Since he will have to go by public bus, one of us will go with him. His school doesn't start until September 24th for the first class, although the other classes start on the 3rd, I think.
I hope we've made the right choice enrolling him in the first class, since he'll turn 7 in October. I think so, given that he'll be learning a new language. In any case, since it's such a small school and his teacher will be working with kids at different levels he should be able to easily make adjustments if necessary. Frank was a Waldorf teacher and he says that situation would be easy to deal with.
The Last Leg...
Today we sailed around the southernmost point in Europe and are heading north to Portugal. I had not realized that the Rock of Gibraltar is not really a rock. Instead, it is a peninsula and there is a town on it. Maybe the town was where Molly Bloom was from...
The scariest thing was that there were a ridiculous number of huge ships--tankers, container ships, and freighters, all waiting for the current to change so they could go through the Straits of Gibraltar. They made our little boat seem very small, especially when one crossed (pretty far, but close enough to make me squirrelly, at least!) behind us.
Frank is getting quite good at steering the boat and docking it. I keep trying, but still cannot hold a course. I am getting better with the lines now that I understand the different types of mooring situations. We have developed a routine. Max's job right now is to stay out of the way; we've told him that once he's a little older and we are more confident we'll teach him. Meanwhile, he's very encouraging!
Max seems to have adapted and most of the time doesn't need his seasick medicine, but it was so rough yesterday it seemed like a good idea.
The scenery is interesting, with mostly brown hills that have little groups of green trees on them. Occasionally there will be a little village or group of white houses. There are also wind turbines on the hills on both sides, the European and the African. Now that we are almost in the Atlantic the seas are a lot calmer, for some reason.
It is incredible how many containers they stack on one of these ships--all the way up to the bridge! It's amazing that any thing ever gets anywhere without falling off, especially since it doesn't appear that the containers are strapped down.
Today is the first day that we've actually been chilly! The wind is cool and since it is pretty strong it feels cold--very bizarre to feel cold in southern Europe in the middle of August!
The scariest thing was that there were a ridiculous number of huge ships--tankers, container ships, and freighters, all waiting for the current to change so they could go through the Straits of Gibraltar. They made our little boat seem very small, especially when one crossed (pretty far, but close enough to make me squirrelly, at least!) behind us.
Frank is getting quite good at steering the boat and docking it. I keep trying, but still cannot hold a course. I am getting better with the lines now that I understand the different types of mooring situations. We have developed a routine. Max's job right now is to stay out of the way; we've told him that once he's a little older and we are more confident we'll teach him. Meanwhile, he's very encouraging!
Max seems to have adapted and most of the time doesn't need his seasick medicine, but it was so rough yesterday it seemed like a good idea.
The scenery is interesting, with mostly brown hills that have little groups of green trees on them. Occasionally there will be a little village or group of white houses. There are also wind turbines on the hills on both sides, the European and the African. Now that we are almost in the Atlantic the seas are a lot calmer, for some reason.
It is incredible how many containers they stack on one of these ships--all the way up to the bridge! It's amazing that any thing ever gets anywhere without falling off, especially since it doesn't appear that the containers are strapped down.
Today is the first day that we've actually been chilly! The wind is cool and since it is pretty strong it feels cold--very bizarre to feel cold in southern Europe in the middle of August!
August 11 and 12
I wrote a long message yesterday but now can't find it, so I will try and recreate it.
We left Mauricioa or whatever-it-was called (Spanish towns seem to have many different spellings and many different names, which makes it rather complicated to know where you are) Thursday morning. The winds were variable all day and we've been motoring a lot.
The major event of the day was that we ran into an unmarked fishing net which got wrapped around the propeller, so Thomas went under the boat to untangle it. Frank kept the boat facing where it needed to be and I manned the line that Thomas was attached to. He was able to get it taken care of pretty quickly and said that it was just wrapped around, not truly tangled.
Max has been busy. He spends a lot of time playing games, both on the screen and with us (board and card games), and his dinosaurs are spending a lot of time out of their bag. We have to be careful not to step on them.
He is also doing some reading; he's gotten to the point where he can read some chapter books without help. His current favorites are about The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume about a first-grade boy and his sister. He's got them on the Kindle app I downloaded for his device. My Kindle has died, unfortunately, but it's still under warranty so I will have to get it serviced once we get to Portugal. Frank is using his and I've read everything on it anyway, so that doesn't help me.
It turns out, oddly enough, that I am not a bad cook underway. It helps that the stove is gimboled so things don't spill, and it has these arms that go across the top and hug the pots so they don't move. The food on this voyage is not exactly gourmet, but I haven't poisoned anyone yet. Frank ate a bad anchovy (he thinks) and was under the weather for a few days but is better now. I don't cook anchovies so we know I didn't do it!
Max has been eating a ridiculous amount now that he's adapted to the boat and is no longer seasick. It's a good thing because obviously we don't want him to be on medication and it appears that there are no such things as ginger snaps in Spanish grocery stores. No pickles, either! Spanish grocery stores are another topic which I will get to in a minute...
In any case, Max has finally come into his food inheritance from the Sugarman side (he long ago embraced the Schicketanz love of pudding and sausage) and has become the poster child for the "incredible edible egg," to quote the old slogan. His current favorite breakfast is a cheese omelette. I've been making them with two eggs but yesterday he wanted three--and he ate almost all of it! I don't know where he's putting it because he's definitely not any fatter and doesn't seem any taller (his clothes still seem to fit), so I guess he's just got a fast metabolism.
When we were in Empuriabrava he ate the equivalent of hot dogs and beans most days for breakfast (they didn't have much variety in the breakfast spread there), so I was glad to leave for that reason. Hot dogs and beans do not rank high on my list as an appropriate breakfast for a six-year-old!
The breakfast cereal selection here is awful! So far we've had some horrible muesli with chocolate in it (chocolate is not a breakfast food in my world) and the healthiest cereal I've found so far without raisins (Frank doesn't hate many foods, but he doesn't like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and raisins; I'm not crazy about raisins in my cereal but love them in Mimi Cookies) is Golden Grahams. Oats seem non-existent as well. Sad times on the breakfast cereal front! I was so desperate that I even bought Frosted Flakes, but Max knows that once we get to Portugal that's the end of that.
Spanish grocery stores are weird, weird, weird. It took me two hours to shop the other day! The grocery store wasn't more than a third of a mile away, but I went by myself (Frank was still under the influence of the evil anchovy) and had to carry everything back. The other thing that derailed my plans for speed was that there is absolutely NO logic to the way these stores are organized, so I couldn't shop efficiently at all; instead I had to keep criss-crossing the store trying to find things. Plus there was almost no produce (necessitating a stop at the produce stand) and no meat (so I had to hit the butcher as well). I wouldn't mind shopping like that so much if we hadn't been trying to leave and if I hadn't been carrying so much stuff. I had also only brought one shopping bag and the store didn't have any more so I had to trek all my stuff to yet another store and get one there.
We spent last night in Roquetas del Mar. Today, however, we found a logically organized and stocked grocery store; apparently it is an Austrian company, which could explain it. In any case, we were able to find what we needed pretty quickly.
Last night we also found a sort of cut-rate Target equivalent and were able to get some useful things like a dustpan, plastic containers, and hangers. Yippee--I know, I am (sometimes) easily pleased.
There was nowhere with Internet, though, which is why you are getting this long message now.
Today everything is so wet that it feels like it might never be dry again. It was foggy yesterday and we woke up this morning to an invisible marina. It looked literally like pea soup. Fortunately by the time we had done the shopping the fog was starting to burn off, but it looks more like some mornings on the St. Lawrence River than I would expect southern Spain to look! Our draft was too deep for the gas dock so we have to go to the next marina to fill up.
August 12
We are in Marbella, another town without Internet. It was so rough this morning that we came in here and will leave tomorrow morning heading towards Gibraltar. We didn't do much today but go to the beach and look for an Internet cafe. It is hot here and the whole town is closed down on Sunday.
We left Mauricioa or whatever-it-was called (Spanish towns seem to have many different spellings and many different names, which makes it rather complicated to know where you are) Thursday morning. The winds were variable all day and we've been motoring a lot.
The major event of the day was that we ran into an unmarked fishing net which got wrapped around the propeller, so Thomas went under the boat to untangle it. Frank kept the boat facing where it needed to be and I manned the line that Thomas was attached to. He was able to get it taken care of pretty quickly and said that it was just wrapped around, not truly tangled.
Max has been busy. He spends a lot of time playing games, both on the screen and with us (board and card games), and his dinosaurs are spending a lot of time out of their bag. We have to be careful not to step on them.
He is also doing some reading; he's gotten to the point where he can read some chapter books without help. His current favorites are about The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume about a first-grade boy and his sister. He's got them on the Kindle app I downloaded for his device. My Kindle has died, unfortunately, but it's still under warranty so I will have to get it serviced once we get to Portugal. Frank is using his and I've read everything on it anyway, so that doesn't help me.
It turns out, oddly enough, that I am not a bad cook underway. It helps that the stove is gimboled so things don't spill, and it has these arms that go across the top and hug the pots so they don't move. The food on this voyage is not exactly gourmet, but I haven't poisoned anyone yet. Frank ate a bad anchovy (he thinks) and was under the weather for a few days but is better now. I don't cook anchovies so we know I didn't do it!
Max has been eating a ridiculous amount now that he's adapted to the boat and is no longer seasick. It's a good thing because obviously we don't want him to be on medication and it appears that there are no such things as ginger snaps in Spanish grocery stores. No pickles, either! Spanish grocery stores are another topic which I will get to in a minute...
In any case, Max has finally come into his food inheritance from the Sugarman side (he long ago embraced the Schicketanz love of pudding and sausage) and has become the poster child for the "incredible edible egg," to quote the old slogan. His current favorite breakfast is a cheese omelette. I've been making them with two eggs but yesterday he wanted three--and he ate almost all of it! I don't know where he's putting it because he's definitely not any fatter and doesn't seem any taller (his clothes still seem to fit), so I guess he's just got a fast metabolism.
When we were in Empuriabrava he ate the equivalent of hot dogs and beans most days for breakfast (they didn't have much variety in the breakfast spread there), so I was glad to leave for that reason. Hot dogs and beans do not rank high on my list as an appropriate breakfast for a six-year-old!
The breakfast cereal selection here is awful! So far we've had some horrible muesli with chocolate in it (chocolate is not a breakfast food in my world) and the healthiest cereal I've found so far without raisins (Frank doesn't hate many foods, but he doesn't like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and raisins; I'm not crazy about raisins in my cereal but love them in Mimi Cookies) is Golden Grahams. Oats seem non-existent as well. Sad times on the breakfast cereal front! I was so desperate that I even bought Frosted Flakes, but Max knows that once we get to Portugal that's the end of that.
Spanish grocery stores are weird, weird, weird. It took me two hours to shop the other day! The grocery store wasn't more than a third of a mile away, but I went by myself (Frank was still under the influence of the evil anchovy) and had to carry everything back. The other thing that derailed my plans for speed was that there is absolutely NO logic to the way these stores are organized, so I couldn't shop efficiently at all; instead I had to keep criss-crossing the store trying to find things. Plus there was almost no produce (necessitating a stop at the produce stand) and no meat (so I had to hit the butcher as well). I wouldn't mind shopping like that so much if we hadn't been trying to leave and if I hadn't been carrying so much stuff. I had also only brought one shopping bag and the store didn't have any more so I had to trek all my stuff to yet another store and get one there.
We spent last night in Roquetas del Mar. Today, however, we found a logically organized and stocked grocery store; apparently it is an Austrian company, which could explain it. In any case, we were able to find what we needed pretty quickly.
Last night we also found a sort of cut-rate Target equivalent and were able to get some useful things like a dustpan, plastic containers, and hangers. Yippee--I know, I am (sometimes) easily pleased.
There was nowhere with Internet, though, which is why you are getting this long message now.
Today everything is so wet that it feels like it might never be dry again. It was foggy yesterday and we woke up this morning to an invisible marina. It looked literally like pea soup. Fortunately by the time we had done the shopping the fog was starting to burn off, but it looks more like some mornings on the St. Lawrence River than I would expect southern Spain to look! Our draft was too deep for the gas dock so we have to go to the next marina to fill up.
August 12
We are in Marbella, another town without Internet. It was so rough this morning that we came in here and will leave tomorrow morning heading towards Gibraltar. We didn't do much today but go to the beach and look for an Internet cafe. It is hot here and the whole town is closed down on Sunday.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Moving onto the Boat
August 1, 2012
Last Monday, the 30th, we were picked up in Empuriabrava and driven to Canet to get onto the boat. After what seemed like many delays over the past few days, we were all excited to get to it. I am attaching some pictures, but I don’t think you can really see much. I now have new respect for people taking photographs of boats--a wider-angle lens than I currently own would be a good investment, I think!
In any case, the boat has three cabins--one V-berth in the bow and two slightly smaller ones in the stern. Max chose the cabin on the right because it is slightly larger and has more ventilation. It took us about two hours to unpack and get organized for the sail to Portugal, although we haven’t bothered to unpack most of the large suitcases yet; we figure we can do that once we arrive, and there is more cargo storage space than I thought. On the one hand, there is not as much storage space in the cabins as I had hoped, but I’m sure one more purge should do it pretty well for me. I guess I won’t need all four dressy dresses I brought with me, but I hate to get rid of all of them. On the other hand, there is quite a lot of storage in sort of out-of-the way places like under and behind the cushions in the salon, under the mattresses on the bed, etc. I am feeling rather proud right now because we’ve actually got quite a lot of space we haven’t used yet! I know it will get filled up as we go on, though!
Monday evening after we went to eat we went shopping, but the store was about to close, so it was not a very productive experience. There are still so many things we need, but they will have to wait until we are in a less touristy port.
Tuesday morning I did laundry at a nearby campground and it might have been the greatest laundry experience EVER! All the machines were brand new and they automatically put the soap in. All you had to do was go to the machine on the wall, choose your machine and pay your money and the machine started by itself on the setting you chose. It was pricey--6 euroes to wash and 3 to dry, but the machines were great! The only bad thing was that I didn’t bother to sort and our new turquoise beach towels turned some white underwear this very pretty light blue. Oh well...
Once we had gotten the diesel for the motor and the gas for the stove (which took forever because the marina didn’t sell it and we didn’t have a car), we were off, only 20 minutes later than we had planned. It was a beautiful day for a sail-about 70 degrees and sunny. There was no wind at first, so we had to motor quite a bit.
What I Wouldn't Give for a Target...
What I wouldn’t give for a Target...
August 2
I admit it; I am totally spoiled by the ubiquitousness of Target and Wal-Mart in the US. We’ve got this whole list of things--domestic things--that we need for the boat and nowhere to buy them. I refuse to pay 18 Euroes (about $20) for a bath towel that I don’t even like simply because I am a captive audience in a not-very-big grocery store. This situation is made worse by the fact that I want 4 of them. We need a good bread knife and a couple of others, but again, I am not going to spend that kind of money and get an inferior product.
Part of the problem is that we’ve been in touristy areas which are not conducive to this kind of shopping and I can understand that, but since what we are doing is basically moving house, I need a Target or some sort of European equivalent. The thing that’s irritating is that we had some of this stuff on Behan Street but it wasn’t practical to trek it with us. I will feel much more at home once we’ve got the things in place that will make me feel like I live here rather than like I am camping. I know we’ll get there, but being me I am impatient.
Max likes the boat but unfortunately has been seasick. This would be pretty easy to deal with (I came fully prepared with lots of Bonine) except that I don’t think there is anyone on the planet more resistant to taking a pill than he is; he has constantly refused to take a Bonine, even wrapped in something. I told him this morning that if he didn’t take it in a piece of banana that we were going to hold him down and I would put the pill in the back of his throat and stroke it like I used to do with Hobbs (my dog-of-my-life who died in 2004). He didn’t like that idea at all, but I didn’t either. Unfortunately by the time he took the pill it was too late and I think that he knows now that Bonine will be part of his breakfast for the next couple of days. (In the evening: I think he is convinced now. Since it’s a beautiful night we are sailing through. It’s nice and smooth but I managed to convince Max that if he took the Bonine BEFORE he needed it that he would have a much nicer evening than he might have otherwise--and guess what? I was right! I made omelettes for dinner and my plan was to do Max’s first since all he likes is cheese and then do one for the rest of us with more interesting stuff. I put two eggs in Max’s and he inhaled it. Then he wanted another cheese omelette! I told him I’d share mine, and he ate about half of it. Guess my plan worked...)
On the upside, though, everything I’ve read says that the first couple of days are the worst, so I am really hoping that is true. The other thing we will do is get some of those patches that go behind the ears for him; we tried in Empuriabrava but they didn’t have any. Once we get to Portugal, we’ll be in the harbor 90% of the time, but we don’t him to be miserable the other ten percent, obviously!
We are sailing along the east coast of Spain towards Gibraltar in the event you want to follow us. Max is getting quite good at holding a course. I am not getting any better at it, but I’m working on it.
Even though there are a lot of lines, they are hidden on deck so there is no chance of anyone tripping on them or their getting tangled, and even though we don’t have automatic furling, when you turn the winches the sails go up or down without anyone having to fold them and stow them. That appeals to my sense of order and dislike of clutter!
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