Approaching Gibraltar

After leaving Benalmádena on late afternoon, Saturday, the sky looked something like this. Black and heavy clouds were covering the mountains and great parts of the sea. We realized that the thunder clouds could create some problems and messed up winds, especially with the wind that already were building up, but we wanted to give it a try anyway. Went OK for the first hour, 15-20 knots of wind from the land giving us relatively good conditions, but shortly after we lost it and the winds kicked up enormously.  More to the point, right after we passed by Fuengirola, we noticed the strong effect of the tides (there are no tides to fight in the Mediterranean, they are supposed to start in the border between the med and the Atlantic).

We were hoping to find a current right by the coast which could go our way, but unfortunately we had both wind and currents against us, no matter how we changed direction. The winds were completely erratic, clocking from SW to SE in some seconds and then back to NW where we started. Irregular gusts to 45 knots kicked us back and forth and spray and 1,5 meter (5.7 foot) waves splashed us and the boat full of water from all possible sides - for hours - and then it all went back to completely dead and calm with 5 knots of wind for ten minutes only to recharge and then it all started again. Do I have to say that we did a minimal progress? Ha! You should see the track on our plotter. Back and forth, back and forth.. After fighting with the completely non sense conditions for almost nine hours and only making a progress on the actual route with 18nm, we decided that we have had enough of getting beat up and we called it a day. I suggested for us to go to Marbella to get wasted and forget about the battle for a while and so we did.

We tied up in the fuel dock in Puerto Banus around midnight and went out for dinner and wine. We didn't get wasted though because 1. Alex drinks alcohol only on very rare occasions so I had to be the only one taking on that project and 2. Because one glass of wine was perfectly enough to knock me and my tiredness out. Oh god were we tired. 48 hours of non stop sailing (with a 30 min stop in Benalmáden) totally hit us hard. Haven't done this much sailing in a row since our summer vacation in Corsica/Sardinia/France in August. 

The day after (yesterday) it all looked much better. The sun was back, the dark clouds were gone and we got a pleasant 25-30 knots of wind straight on the beam with occasional gusts to 40 kt. We flew straight towards Gibraltar and we are now safely docked up in Marina Bay. Will show you a video from the passage, later on. /T

Soon in Gibraltar

Because of all the projects we still had hanging over us since we left Barcelona, and because we needed to pick up parts and things here and there along the coast - we haven't had the possibility to make longer passages until now. We left Aguilas around 9am yesterday morning and have now arrived in Benalmádena. 29 hours later and 160 nm away from where we started. There has been very little wind and we had to unfortunately have the engine on almost all of the time. Luckily it's still alive and working good.

Wouldn't we have had the need to stop here in Benalmádena to pick up one more thing for the air generator, we would have head straight to Gibraltar - but we'll make that last leg of 50 nm tonight. Better get used to longer journeys now as we have a 600 nm passage* to make to the Canaries in a couple of days from now, and then the exciting 2800 nm** crossing to the Caribbean in December. I don't think you can be even close to imagine how much we look forward to get out from the Mediterranean sea and enter the Atlantic side in a couple of days from now. And not to mention the thrilling day of when we will be able to cast off from the canaries for the long Atlantic crossing.. /T

Photo from last nights sunset. 

* This will take approximately 4-5 days.

** This leg will take approximately 3 weeks.

After rain ...

... comes sunshine. The air seems to be a bit warmer today than the other night. The engine seems happier with a new thermostat*, the windpilot from Sailomat is installed again and is working perfectly, we're on our way again and we have only one more cape to round today before we can head straight to the West to eventually get out of the Mediterranean in the beginning of next week. We feel ultimately happy and blessed for having this opportunity to do what we are doing and to be able to follow our dreams - and despite some smaller technical or mechanical problems that occurs some times in between, it is all so worth it in the end. Thank you universe for this beautiful life we have been given! /T

*still need to replace the head gasket in Gibraltar though - hoping that this will make it enough for the engine for this time.

Winter weather

Wow it is really cold over here now. As a cold front is sweeping through Spain, we have not much more than 15°C (59°F) to look forward to in the nights. Brrr. Totally not what we find enjoyable, so similar to Scandinavian weather and that is exactly what I'm trying to run away from! Hoping that our journey around Cabo de Gata tomorrow will bring us one step warmer in direction. Here's some cold photos for you, it looks like winter doesn't it? We spotted a couple of large black Cormorants yesterday before arriving to Mazzarón, or at least we think they are cormorants. They were approximately 1,5 m (4,7 foot) between wings. And another large white bird that looked like a penguin of some sort, although we understand that here are no such things as penguins in Southern Spain, in case they didn't flew in wrong with the terrible cold front from Antarctis... (penguins don't fly, I know) Any bird lovers maybe can tell us what species we've seen here? Thanks.

Mazzarón is by the way where we still are and will be sailing away from in a couple of hours. (Find exact location here.) The stupid SPOT tracker requires by the way Lithium batteries only, not Alkaline. Alkaline batteries in size AAA are for your information very easy to find, so are not the ones made of Lithium... They are simply nowhere and in no town of Spain to find so no tracking until we eventually find what we're looking for. Hopefully they have them in Gibraltar at least.

/Taru

Mar Menor

Don't worry if you can't find us on the SPOT tracker, the batteries are dead and we'll get new ones tomorrow. We've just arrived to Mar Menor, some miles South of Torrevieja and just before Cartagena. Looks like a beautiful place, although it was a bit thrilling to enter. Under a bridge and through a couple of channels linked to each other with a depth of 2 meters (6,5 foot) in the lowest part. It was a bit scary to maneuver the boat in strong wind and currents but Alex made it well just like expected and now we're here and it's time for a home made dinner and some nice wine (or me wine, Alex probably juice as he doesn't drink much wine and rarely alcohol in general. Did I tell you that nights like this always ends with me drinking the whole bottle and Alex's totally sober? Nice balance.) Cheers and good night.  /T

Varnishing in Torrevieja

The five layers of varnish on the new cockpit sideboards* in okoume looks fantastic. Gives such a new, fresh feeling to the boat. Will show you more pics later on when the framings are mounted. 

We landed in Torrevieja late last night after a late departure from El Campello, 32 nm away. We've done some engine part shopping here today and will probably move on in a couple of hours when some additional things have got installed. This boat life is really a never ending project and we should be very happy if we arrive in the Canaries before December. Thank god we're not part of a race! /T

* is this the name of it in English? 

Various pics Spain November 2010

Captain filling up with vitamin C. 

This is how most of our nights looks like. 

Tired but happy..

Alex have found himself a new sport. 

Good spray going.

Pasta salad with goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, rucola and salami for lunch.

Fishing-boat in fire.

Amazing skies... sometimes it feels like you're inside of a colorful painting. Surreal and magnificent.

Fruitsalad...

Docked up to the gasolinera in Moraira.

Check in paperwork in marinas.

Sailing outside of Benidorm.

The look from inside thorugh our new portholes.

Tonight's sky between Alicante and Torrevieja.

Morning in El Campello

Good morning folks,

It's a beautiful day today! I will now take my little shopping cart and do some provisioning for the next few days. Heading towards the Mar Menor area later on and the winds seem to be in our favor, this morning. Hopefully we do not have to motorsail today again. Fed up with having to hear that noise all the time. We want wind in our sails! /T

Afternoon tea on the sea

Some chai tea and english biscuits makes for a perfect warming on chilly afternoons on the sea. Cause even though the weather might be as close to summer you can get daytime, the nights are still pretty cold - for a few more days before we get even closer to the African coast I suppose. We're enjoying the last sunshine hours tonight like this. /T

Celebrating life in Moraira

One of our Facebook friends, Jeremy, advised us to go to Moraira which apparently was very pretty - and after doing some shorter research on Google, we found out that Moraira indeed could be something worth trying. We arrived very late in the night, like always, 25 knots of wind was pushing us from South straight towards the tight entrance full of rocks and shallow water. But we made it through safely and could get a more or less peaceful sleep docked up to the gasolinera. When we woke up this morning we realized what an incredibly beautiful place it was that we've arrived to. Such a genuine and somewhat untouched (at least very quiet now in off season) little fisherman's town with class and sophisticated style. 

We decided to make the Sunday breakfast into a champagne breakfast to celebrate a couple of things. Firstly, as we just received some wonderful, fantastic news from home which involves two very dear friends of ours - news which also reminds of what, too, is a beautiful meaning of life, and second of all because we just noticed that we are now closer to Africa than we are to where we started - and it suddenly feels more real than ever, this journey that we have embarked on.

We will stay here in Moraira for the day to finish a couple of smaller boat projects and move on towards Torrevieja later on. The weather is fantastic, 26°C (78°F) already in the morning and perfect Westerly winds are forecasted for the afternoon.

All of my love today goes to you two at home, I so wish I could have been there with you as we speak. /Taru

The further down South we sail, the warmer it gets

Unfortunately we haven't had the chance to practice any kind of physical exercise more then sailing for the last eight weeks or so. All the stress with getting the boat ready have locked us up to the extent that barely nothing have been tempting else than working on the boat but now it's time to get back in shape again. Many of you have been asking for bikini pics for some reason, and now when the sun's back for real and I'm back to work on my curves and abs again, I will do my very best as the blog administrator of this blog to light up your cold and dark winter nights in New York, Gothenburg, Austin, München, Moscow, Stockholm, Trondheim, Paris, Berlin, Toronto or wherever cold y'all might be located. Easier now also when we hopefully will be cruising around the equator and nowhere colder, for the next two years or so. One has to stay faithful to the blogs duties, right!? /T

Last night

We didn't reach Denia last night like was planned. The wind died out and we're trying to use the engine as little as possible until we'll have it fixed - so we went to Gandia, 30 miles away from Valencia. Gandia is a sleepy tourist town, empty on tourists now in late November. 

When we are too tired to cook or in a need of getting out of the boat, one of the major projects in smaller towns like this is always to find a proper place to eat. Having lived in Spain now for some years (alex 7, me 2 in total), you're pretty fed up with the traditional tapas and to find something else in off season in a small village/town like this, is pretty damn hard. Often we end up in the local arabic kebab place just to get some variation - but last night we were lucky. We had walked for maybe 20 minutes by the beach and in between smaller streets, when we finally spotted it from a far. A cozy, candle lit hole in the wall - so untypical Spanish in it's style that we almost ran to it. The Italian restaurant was owned by an Argentinean man who hosted the place with his son and the food was out of this world. Simple and nothing really special in the sense of products or even preparations, just so untypical to what we are used to when searching for a restaurant in the middle of the night in a small fisherman's/tourist town. 

We ate and we ate and we ate till we couldn't eat anymore and I think I am still full from it all this morning. Extra plus also for not serving cold red wine but normal room tempered! The average Spanish restauranteurs have normally a (strange) tradition to store their red wine in the fridge and serve it ice cold to their clients. But this little restaurant scored all right. And not to forget the typical Argentinean dulce de leche pancakes we had for dessert. So freaking tasty mmmm. Just what we needed and on top of that, we had to only pay 48 Euros for the whole gormandizing. A perfect bargain for an excellent dinner.

This restaurant in Gandia is called La Tarantella and is located on C/ Navegante nº 1, Tele: 96 284 16 51

/T

Valencia

Right after we left our berth in Vinaròs for an 68 nm passage towards Valencia, we received an email from Gustavo Benavent, the manager of Marina Real Juan Carlos I - one of the official marinas for the Americas Cup. He told us that they've been following our blog for a while and wanted to invite us for a complimentary berth for our stay in Valencia. Of course we accepted the invitation! Although we couldn't stay for much longer than 1,5 night (we arrived 5 in the morning on Thursday) - it was a very pleasant stay. The Marina Juan Carlos has an excellent location, perfectly accessible entrance when coming from our direction and the harbor boasted with first class service and facilities. We would have loved to stayed some more but we needed to proceed with our journey today. We can much recommend this excellent marina to anyone who're ever around. 

Thanks for this time!

And special thanks to our dear friend Armand for the wonderful Paella lunch!

Check out their website for more information. 

Far away from it all

The forecast is not to be trusted in this area, also called the Mediterranean, that is something we learnt for a long time ago. Although the Costa Brava coast in the Northern parts of the Med might be even one step ahead in unpredictability. The 20-25 knots of wind we were looking forward to were instead something around as little as 12, and from a total different direction than predicted - but nonetheless it was a beautiful day and night. A very calm and flat sea where our Caos sailed along in a smooth and peaceful pace.

Astonishing world, what have we done to deserve your beauty.

Safe sailing with my Sperry Top Sider performance shoes on and the ultimate Sailing Manual at hand. 

Many times when on land, when in company of people - normal people/the others - I can sit and wonder what the hell are they talking about? Where is the substance, where is the interest in true things and why don't you talk about/feel/ask for something real? Why are people not interested in neither being true to themselves or to indulge in genuine things? Things that could bring out their true selves. Something that has a real meaning instead of all that crap and nonsense and hunger for a perfect, yet fake, image or the so called ideal way of living - things that most people seem to occupy themselves with day in and day out. I've been for long time longing for something more real and profound and every time I have got too close to too much of BS I've luckily been fast enough to cut it off from my surroundings. The falsehood and the lack of truthfulness and brutality in this world have always disturbed me immensely. So it was about time to take the step over to the real side of life. And this is it. As simple as it might look, this is as close to the reality you can come. The nature and the sea is so brutally honest and real and without any type of superficiality, that it has got me addicted. I'm not even going to try to imagine how much closer this journey will bring me/us with the nature, each other and the honest and raw reality that is to be found out there - and how far away it will push us from the other side. Just leave me to soak this beauty in now and ask me the same question in a year or so. This is what I call the meaning of life. 

This is real. 

This is real. 

One other thing that, unfortunately, also is reality. Is that our engine just failed.. Just in the moment when we mentioned "oh, everything on this boat is perfectly new and freshly replaced, except the engine" - we found a larger leakage of oil coming from it. But that's how it is, I guess. Machines are as unpredictable as the weather, especially when depending on an original Volvo Penta MD 21 b from 1982... Let's just now hope that this will not be a tremendously expensive repair. Will get back with updates later on.

/Taru