A Lady trip, avoiding the recession in style
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 9 Nov 2009 14:38
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TUESDAY 3rd November 2009
Woke up at anchor to a lovely sunny, warm
day.
We all went for a swim off the rear end of the
boat. sooooooo refreshing, this was followed by some sun bathing by the girls on
deck.
We had a long light lunch with cold pork, and salad
stuff, together with some light refreshments............... WINE
Later , the great cork swimmer " LEAH" retrieved
the ss weights lost over board a week ago from the davitts.
to find these weights after a week in the water, a
half mile off shore and then retrieve them from a depth of 10m without any
diving equipment,
was simply amazing.. ( well done Leah
)
Later we sailed around to " Puerto Calero "
We were given a preferential berth by the lovely MEL ( Melody, the
assistant harbour master )
Unfortunatly, they forgot to tell us that the
ecectrical connections for that berth were 3 phase, ........... we
plugged in and BOOM ,
We blew up our Mastervolt battery unit, plus the
microwave, plus a camera charger. What ! yeah,
Then , you know , you start thinking, are we just
plain fucken stupid, or what, or should they have, as a matter of course
informed us it was 3 phase.
So now the only way we can charge the batteries is
with the engine. ( So much for doing the readings at MASS )
GOD ! this will have to be all repaired before the
start of the ARC,,
Anyway we gathered ourselves together , went to "
AMURA " restaurant ( Aileens afvourate place on the island ) and started with
very stiff G + T's
Later on that night, we met yet again, Aiden and
Mary Power with their friends, Pat and Helen Murray (city wheels )
Bed , What a day, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Ahh well , thats boats.................never a dull moment
WEDNESDAY 4th November 2009
We spent most of the day trying to sort the
electrical mess, We got hold of JAN , ( an english man , now resident in
Lanzarote )
A good guy, tracked the fault, ( may need a new
unit ) and he got the deep freeze working properly, and told me that the
electrical panel was lying.
WHAT ! we have been shouting about this back in
cork since the new generator was installed, but got no where, now he will
sort it out for us the next visit.
That night we had dinner in the japaneese
restaurant again, It was a great performance by the chef, and we all enjoyed the
evening.
Bunks zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
THURSDAY 5th November 2009
We all got up early ( well early by our now relaxed
life ) The weather was only so,so, Looked into the weather for the nexy
few days on the GRIB file.
NOT looking good ! A big dirty shaggin low over the
AZORES about to give us grief down here, so we decided to head for Las
Palmas tonight, but
in the meantime we visited the " Cactus
Gardens " and the " Jameous del Aqua " center , both up at the northern end of
the Island.
ITS AMAZING what can be done with NOTHING except a
LOT OF IMAGINATION. Ceasar Manrique created some amazing
attractions
on this barron Island with nothing other than sheer
insperation and imagination, ( but he was an architect, of course, of course,
)
OHHHHH He reminds me of ME, BRILLIANT,
Well you have to believe in yourself, because no one else around here will
.............
These Creations must attract thousands of visitors
every DAY, and create a lot of jobs,
But then he had the support of the government, Pity
our crowd at home cant or wont support simular projects, or create an
environment where
they will happen anyway.
Oh Oh Oh, Forgot the objector's, All those worm
weasels, Snail snot's,Tree huggers, and general " GOB SHITE'S " who have managed
to hang their
objection's on the back of " ENVIRONMENTAL "
reasons. These are the poeple who never suggest anything, but will object to
everything.. LANGERS
( And half of them are probabaly being supported by
the STATE )
BACK to the blog, On our way back to the boat, we
stopped off in Peurto Colero for PITZZA'S Yum , yum, love those
things.
We gave back the car, collected the laundry , and
signed out our clearence papers, and prepared to leave Lanzarote for
good.
MIDNIGHT. We sailed out of Marina Rubicon bound for
" Las Palmas " in Gran Canaria, A distance of about 100 n
miles,
The wind was strong out of the nnw, and building,
We reefed down early, and that was a good decision,
The wind eventually got over 40knots and the sea
state was rough, but as it was blowing over our quarter ,we were comfortable
enough,
We decided that we would all stay on deck for the
night.......but the younger models did get to have little long snooze's at times
in the saloon..
FRIDAY 6th November
We arrieved into " Las Palmas " at 5mins past
MIDDAY. A 12hour passage with very little sail up.
We went ashore and signed in at the reception
marina, WHAT was the first thing we saw on the quay wall, A DEAD FECKIN
COCKROACH,
Ohhhhhh, I hope we dont get any of those on board,
dreadfull things on a boat, even though we have traps for them on
board.
We had to back into our berth, and line up with all
the other boats. trickey enough in the windy conditions pervailing at the
time,
Laeh, Johnny and ably assisted by Aileen, did a
great job in handling all the lines off the bow and stern.
The Kid's went off to the beach for a swim, and
later we all went over to the same beech for a steak meal, The best steaks
we had in years..
A night cap on the way back to the boat, S.H. went
to sleep in the bar, as he was the only one who had no " cactch up sleep" during
the day
A great sail, and A great night,
Bunks late,
.............ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZ
Saturday 7th November 2009
S, H. did some exploring of the local chandlery's
and boat stores.
This place ( even though very dirty ) must be a
watersport paradise, EVERYTHING from a needle to a
MERMAID
The biggest and by far the best FISHING shop we
have seen anywhere, along with Chandlery's, Diving shops, Repair shops,
Electrical shops, Clothes shops, Gadgit Shops, Restaurants, and bars,
Later in the morning , we bought a 5l diving bottle,along with the regulator and
pressure gauge,
gloves etc. for less than half what they wanted in
Lanzarote for second hand stuff ( for the same equipment )
Later we all went for a long swim, having had a
lunch inbetween. The weather was still only so so but warm, about
24degrees
Johnny and Leah went off in a taxi about 4.30pm to
catch their flight back to Ireland.
Later on S.H. and A.H. went to Mass up in the old
town. and had a very nice meal in an Oriental Restauraunt close to the
boat,
Aileenwas looking forward to her sister "Michelle "
arriveing tomorrow, Also her mother "Peggy" is getting on in great style in the
nursing home in Killarney.
A great relief to all corncerned.
BUNKS zzzz
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