Month: August 2014

Hello again Boatblog®  Fans,

First of all, we would like to apologise to out regular readers for the late publication of this week’s edition of The Boatblog®. This is due to the temporary unavailability of the writers.

HELPING THE POLICIA WITH THEIR ENQUIRIES

Yes, we had a visit from the Policia Maritima, but I am pleased to report that with time off for good behaviour we can now resume normal service.

We have called this episode, “Action & Adventure on the High Seas.” This is in fact a little bit misleading, but if we called it, “More Holiday Snaps,” no one would read it. So “Action & Adventure on the High Seas,” it is. (I’ve worked in advertising, so these things come naturally.)

The main thing that happened this week is that Rory and Joe turned up. Which has certainly livened things up.

SWIMMING…

FISHING…

We’ve still not caught anything. We did get a bite, but the fish escaped with the lure. So the score at the moment is 

FISH                   1

FISHERMEN     0

DIVING…

KAYAKING…

…and of course, DRINKING.

But the highlight of the week had to be diving with tuna. If you are in The Algarve and do nothing else, make sure you do this. It’s organised by Tuna Dive Tours (www.tunadivetours.com) and it is fantastic. You get driven out to the tuna farm in a super fast speedboat, then you pop on your SCUBA gear and get in with the fish.

Of course, at all times it is imperative that you look good.

 

WETSUIT WITH MATCHING LIPSTICK

We got there at feeding time…

That bazooka type thing underneath the crane is actually a Mackerel Gun. Apparently it’s based on an Australian pub game, and it actually fires out mackerel. 

Fish fed, it was time to get into the water. You don’t want to go swimming with a thousand hungry tunas.

Lyn’s Dive.mov

YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED

Now I’m not one to exaggerate, but there were literally millions of them, and they are huge.

They weigh up to 350kg, which is like five of Ju. Ok maybe four, but whatever it is, they are awesome. 

And delicious.

Rory had to go back home on Friday, but Joe stayed with us as we sailed into uncharted waters, up to The Rio Guadiana which is the river that marks the border with Portugal and Spain.

It was on this voyage that disaster struck…

DISASTER STRIKING (reconstruction)

…and we went over a pot buoy.

We came to a very sudden halt, the engine cut out and we were stranded in the middle of the ocean. With complete disregard for her own personal safety, Lyn told Ju to put on the diving mask and flippers and go over the side to see what it was.

Once in the water, he immediately saw the problem.

The propellor was well and truly embedded into the pot buoy, and the rope was wrapped tightly round the prop shaft anchoring us to the bottom. Even if we could free ourselves from the rope, there was no wind, so we couldn’t sail back to port. Somehow, we had to release the propellor. it really was quite a problem.

Not to worry. Super-Ju to the rescue…

Mr INCREDIBLE

With his knife between his teeth he dived into the shark infested waters,  sawed through the tangled rope, and somehow manage to wrestle the pot buoy away from the propellor. All those years in the SAS* weren’t wasted.

Exhausted, but triumphant, he clambered back on board. With bated breath, he tried the engine. 

It worked.

What a hero!

And were were able to sail (well, motor technically)  on our merry way, accompanied by our friends, the dolphins

Dolphins1.mov

And this weeks arty farty photo prize goes to Rory, for his work called simply, “Boat.”

BOAT

And this is a cool picture of our boat too…

Adios Amigos

Ju & Lyn

Ayamonte (Spain – but only just)

* South Acton Scouts

Hello Boatblog fans, and welcome back for this week’s thrilling instalment of adventures on the high seas. Actually, it’s not going to be that thrilling because we haven’t left anchor since last week. So it’s going to be more like the average set of holiday snaps. But hey ho. Even Admiral Nelson had days off.

And thank you again for all those who have made comments or sent feedback, and for the likes on Facebook.

This week’s episode is called “Sea Gypsies, which is probably not very politically correct.  However, most yachting books refer to the type of  sailing that we are doing as cruising, but we thought if we called the blog “Middle Aged Cruisers,” it may attract the wrong sort of reader. So “Sea Gypsies” it is. And in it, we will try to give you some sort of an idea of what it is like to live on a boat day to day.

Mostly life at sea is very similar to life on land. You still take a taxi…

…and just like London, they go way too fast and frighten the passengers. (Sorry Danny)

You still need bread…(and this is boat baked bread – by a Frenchman, so you can imagine how good that is)

OCADO

…go shopping

SUPER MARKET

…visit Toni & Guy

…and do the laundry…

…before popping over to see the neighbours for drinks in the evening.

With TIM & GAIL on their ketch, “WILD BIRD.”

Which is all very tiring, so it’s a good job that Lyn finally found a use for the spinnaker pole.

But it’s not all hard work. We were lucky this week, because our visit to Olhao happened to coincide with the Festival du Marisco, which bills itself as the WORLD’S LARGEST Shellfish and Music Festival. 

READY TO ROCK…AND EAT

Now we haven’t been to that many Shellfish and Music Festivals, but it looked pretty big to us.

LIVE AT THE SHELLFISH & MUSIC FESTIVAL

They said it was going to be Sole Music, but I thought it was more Clam Rock. (Ha ha ha!  Genius!)

And this week’s Arty Farty Photoprize goes once again to Lyn for her work entitled “Street.” This is in Faro, which you thought was a horrible Benidorm sort of place, but in fact is a delightful old Portuguese town. And we’ve got hundreds of photos to prove it. But we thought we would spare you all that.

STREET

And now we are getting the boat ready to move upriver to Faro town itself, to meet Rory and Joe who are arriving at midnight tonight for a week of intrepid sailing. Or lying on the beach. We haven’t quite decided yet.

Adeus for now amigos,

 

Ju & Lyn

Welcome back Boatbloggers,

Apologies to Alan, and any of our other readers who are expecting exciting tales of derring-do and action-filled adventure on the high seas, as I’m afraid that once again this week’s episode is going to be less Robin Knox-Johnson and more Ronnie Knox-Drinksover.

This is because all this week, we have been joined on board by visitors from the Old Country. Firstly Paul Martin who came out at the start of the week, and then Nicho Shaw who joined us for the weekend.

Paul was expecting more of a super-yacht experience than we were able to offer, which is why he turned up dressed in his Gucci outfit and Louis Vuitton suitcase.

GUCCI MAN

Those of you who know Paul will not be surprised to discover that his Hermes shoes cost more than our dinghy.

Nicho on the other hand, refuses to be sucked in by the designer labels, and prefers to dress more practically.

MODELLING ITEMS FROM THE LATEST NY HEADWEAR COLLECTION

Once Paul had settled in, we cast off and set sail to secret anchorage that we had been told about by our friends Julie & Andy Skentelbery.  

NICE LEGS (btw – that isn’t a garter; it’s a lifejacket strap)

Somewhere near Vilamoura, its exact location cannot be revealed here, as it is known to just a few seasoned Old Salts.

 

SECRET DESERT ISLAND

Fortunately, it isn’t completely deserted, and it is possible to get hold of emergency supplies.

 

While we were there, Paul was keen for us to develop our nautical skills, and so very kindly bought us a fishing rod.

SERIOUS ANGLER

He was more than happy to share his many year’s experience of fishing at Roger Daltrey’s trout farm, and soon we were casting away like old pros. Unfortunately our first day was not as successful as we had hoped, as all we caught was a piece of rope and an old sandal.

CATCH OF THE DAY

Undeterred, and with an enthusiasm that only other anglers will understand, Paul got up early next morning to try again. This time we caught a rusty can.

In fact, to date we haven’t actually caught anything remotely fish-like, but this is probably a good thing. We subsequently found out that we were in a marine nature conservation area, and if we had actually got something would have been liable to arrest.

Lyn thought our lack of fishing success was caused by us being rubbish, but fortunately Paul was able to explain that it was in fact because we were using lures and not spinners, the water was the wrong temperature, and there was a full moon.

Not to worry, at least we knew that there were no dangerous fish in the sea, so it was safe to go swimming.

A QUICK DIP

NIGHT AT ANCHOR

Back in Vilamoura, a moment of history that needs trumpeting is that JU REPAIRED AN ENGINE. That may not sound like much, but I promise you this is something that has never ever happened before. The generator had inexplicably stopped working, and Ju managed to get it going!!! OK, it needed some talking through by our yachting expert in the UK, Chris Warwick (chris@universalyachting.com), plus many hours with the manual, but eventually he found the breaker that had tripped, reset it, all by himself, and BINGO! It started working again. Woo Woo!

MR MECHANIC

…while Lyn & Paul swabbed the decks. 

Just in time for some hard earned cocktails…

RELAXING AFTER A HARD WEEK AT SEA

And this week’s arty farty photo prize goes to Lyn, for her work entitled simply, “Bush.”

BUSH

Adeus for now, amigos.

 

Ju & Lyn

Welcome back boatbloggers,

I’m afraid that our voyage half way round the world hasn’t got very far this week. About 21 miles in fact. That’s because it’s just so nice here, that we haven’t wanted to rush on. And we have really bought into the concept of mañana, although that gives a sense of urgency that doesn’t really exist over here.

There have however been a few firsts. In particular, we have spent most of the week at anchor, rather than berthing in a marina. Which has many advantages. Most notable of which is that it is free! It also meant that we got the dinghy out for the first time. Unfortunately, as we were getting out of the locker Ju dropped vital parts of the electric inflator overboard, Grrrrrr, which meant that we had to pump it up by hand. It wasn’t too much of a problem because Lyn likes the exercise, and soon we were off exploring the local caves and grottoes.

A GROTTO

A great thing about the dinghy is that you can get to beaches that aren’t accessible by land. There was one particularly pretty one with only a few people on it, so we thought that we would land there for a quiet lunch by the gently lapping shore. Unfortunately as we got closer, we realised that the Germans had got there first.

GETTING BACK TO NATURE

With everyone else being totally naked, we felt rather overdressed in our swimming costumes, so Ju decided if you can’t beat them, join them. (Sorry girls – no photos on the grounds of public decency) It was as he was striding down the beach for a refreshing dip au naturelle, that we found out that the nudist beach was part of the tourist trail. Hundreds of boats suddenly came round the corner, cameras flashing, children laughing, and the Captain bellowing  “Nude-y! Nude-y!” over the loudhailer.

BEING A TOURIST ATTRACTION

The dinghy by the way, is now our new car.

DOING THE SHOPPING – MORE BOOT SPACE THAN A PRIUS

By happy coincidence it turned out that two of Lyn’s friends, Ann & Heather, were holidaying in Praia, about five miles away from where we were anchored. Don’t bother to look it up, everywhere in Portugal is called Praia. They braved the dinghy ride and we all had a very pleasant lunch on deck.

SHIP’S MATES

Our next anchorage was in Ferragudo, near Portimao, where they put the flags out for our arrival…

…and last night we arrived in Vilamoura, where we are looking forward to our friend Paul Martin arriving in an hour or two for a week’s sailing.

Or fishing.

Or sunbathing.

And it wouldn’t be a true boatblog without an arty farty picture of some sardines.

SARDINES

Adeus for now Amigoes

 

Ju & Lyn