04/09/2009 by admin.

After considerable deliberations, the judges have awared the prize for guessing where Pam’s tattoo is to joint winners, Wilma Sturrock and Pauline Burnell, who got the closest. The correct position was Pam’s lower back. See photo gallery for pic. They both win a bottle of French cider. Wilma, we will save yours for when you are on the boat in St Lucia, (provided the bottle survives the Atlantic crossing). Pauline, will give you yours when you are on the boat next month.
Chris & Pam

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04/09/2009 by admin.

We left Getzo yesterday, Thursday 3^rd Sept,  late morning just as the rain was clearing, heading for Santander. The forecast was for 20 knots from the west with 2-3 metre swell. As the wind was on the nose, we motored along the coast until we could lay a course SW  for a bracing sail into Santander. We berthed in the Puerto Deportivo Marina in Santander at about 5, and headed off to the marina bar and restaurant to sample the local fare. The local Spanish omelette and the “Mess of Chorizo” were excellent, washed down with a good local Rioja.

This morning, John, Lily and David headed back to Bilbao by bus to catch their flight back to the UK. Pam, Stu, Claire and I headed off to the centre of Santander to take in the tourist sights, including the Magdalena Palace on a hill overlooking the entrance to Santander. The weather has been changeable, with plenty of sunshine interspersed with rain showers, and a consistent 20 knot breeze from the west. As mentioned previously, Taffy now has a set of golf clubs and is itching to try them out, particularly as Santander is the home of Sevi Ballesteros. We haven’t seen him for most of the day, so assume he is playing golf.

Hoping for more settled weather tomorrow as we head round to Gijon, approx 88 miles west of here.

Chris

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04/09/2009 by admin.

Here we are in Getxo, pronounced Getcho, a suburb to the East of Bilbao. The marina here is good, with plenty of visitor moorings, but very expensive. We had a challenging sail down from La Rochelle, a distance of 190 miles, arriving here in Getxo at 17:00 yesterday, Tuesday 1st Sept.
Pam, John and Lily Pryke and Claire Warner joined Stuart, Dave Warner and myself in La Rochelle on Sunday and we set sail for Bilbao on Monday 31st September at 10:30 with bright sunshine, warm temperatures and a steady easterly breeze. The highlight of the day, apart from the sailing, was the shepherd’s pie cooked by these fair hands. This was followed by a keenly contested session of scrabble, with the skipper’s casting vote on what words were acceptable, in the absence of a dictionary. Quite by chance, and much to everyone’s surprise, the skipper won the game by a respectable margin.
At sunset, we settled into the watch routine with John and Stu taking the 10 to 2 watch, and Dave and myself taking the 2 to 6 watch. The girls had the option of keeping the watchkeepers company or going to bed. The wind strengthened steadily during the evening, veering round to the south and then SSW, reaching a steady 25 knots with gusts of 32 knots, force 7, near gale. The seas built in height to 3.5 metres and combined with the swell, developed into a fairly uncomfortable night , classic Biscay weather. It transpired that the residual weather system associated with hurricane Dan had arrived 1 day early in the eastern Biscay. It was not forecast to reach us until the Wednesday, by which time we would be safely tied up in Bilbao. The watch crews soldiered on and did a great job of maintaining boat speed in adverse conditions, while Fizz coped admirably with the weather. We saw the sun rise with regular and at times dramatic thunderstorms with plenty of lightning and the wind beginning to moderate to 20 knots. Just as we were starting to look forward to getting into Bilbao, 26 miles off the Spanish coast, with the wind dying away and the motor on, we felt a judder and the engine revs dropped away. We quickly put the engine in neutral and after a check of the engine, reached the conclusion that we had either picked up an obstruction on the propeller or the gear box had failed. The main and genoa were hoisted and we completed the run into Bilbao very slowly with the wind slowly diminishing. Faced with the prospect of navigating into a busy and unfamiliar commercial port without engine, I notified the local coastguard and they sent a RIB out to meet us at the inner harbour entrance and assisted with a tow onto the berth at the marina here at Getxo. We were totally exhausted having had very little sleep, but I have to say the first San Miguel tasted very sweet.
After a straight 12 hours sleep, we set to this morning to try and find the source of the engine problem. Stu dived first with flippers and snorkel to see if he could see any obstruction round the propeller. He surfaced after only a few seconds saying that there was a large ball of fishing net stuck round the prop. Stu and David then put on the scuba gear and armed with diving knives, managed to cut away the fishing net after 10 minutes hard work. After a quick check of the engine, all was well, much to everyone’s relief as if we hadn’t been able to resolve the problem, it could have resulted in an expensive and lengthy lift-out. Co-incidentally a neighbouring British yacht also reported their propeller jammed with fishing nets in the same area.
Getxo is well worth visiting, with a sandy beach and plenty of restaurants and shops close to the marina. The kids have given it an A* rating on the basis of a Macdonalds and a beach all within 10 minutes walk of the boat.
We are now heading off to find a restaurant with good Spanish Tapas and plenty of Sangria before sailing to Santander tomorrow, hopefully less eventful than the last run.
By the way Taffy has been having fun on board, and is particularly happy with his new golf clubs which were given to him by a secret admirer. More to follow.
Chris and Pam

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