Rugby World
Cup
We watched the Rugby World Cup semi-finals in
Vilamoura (with TENGY), and the final in Portimão (with TENGY, DRY WHITE, DAWN
RANGER, RAPA NUI and a parrot). We won’t bore
you with the details but the other side won!
Watching the Rugby World Cup final (photo courtesy
of Bryn).
The parrot – possibly a South African supporter,
as he squawked every time South Africa scored, and spent the rest of the time
pulling out his feathers.
Separate cabins for Beth and
Bryn
Settled here in Portimão for a while, we have been
catching up with the ‘to-do list’. One of the jobs was to move one of the
children into the pilot berth (sorry Lawrence!). Beth won the first month on the
flip of a coin, and we spent a whole 2 days sorting and moving toys, clothes and
‘treasure’ from the forward cabin into Bethany’s
new cabin, and Lawrence’s stuff out of it into the now empty
locker in the forward cabin. Both of them are enjoying having a bit of their own
space – and Bryn is determined not to let Bethany back in!
Entry to the forward cabin is at your own
risk!
The saga of the fridge, the cockpit table and the mobile
‘phone
We don’t have a fridge on board CAPE – we have
managed so far by begging salt ice from the nearest fish docks (usually free for
anything less than 25 kg), or buying small bags of ice (at 1.50€‑2.00€ a bag) to
keep our beer and meat cool. However, on the Algarve, the
fish docks are remote from the marinas, and our expenditure on ice has increased
drastically. As we can’t afford the approx. £1000 to install a 12-volt fridge,
we decided to buy a small domestic fridge or freezer for use while in marinas.
Two buses later, we arrived at our local retail centre and found a small fridge
that would fit under the chart table. We got it back to the boat via taxi,
finally managed to get it in to the saloon via an overhead hatch (it wouldn’t
fit down the companionway), plugged it in and sat back to wait for chilled beer.
The compressor got hot and the pipes at the back of the fridge got cold, but our
beer stayed stubbornly warm. We gave it the benefit of the doubt for 2 days,
after which time we got the girls in the Marina office to translate a bit of paper that
had been included with the instructions for use. The Portuguese equivalent of a
“Request for repair” dated 2006 should have given us a clue. OK, we’d been sold
a dud. Back to the shop with our fridge (minus its box – where on a boat can you
store a fridge-sized cardboard box???) on our trolley (by taxi). Despite
thinking that all Brits are barmy – bringing their fridges in on a trolley – we
were give an apology and a new fridge. A taxi ride later, we are now wallowing
in cold beer and wine, hard rather than runny cheese, cold yogurt, and the odd
ice cube! Luckily, taxis here in Portugal are cheap!
We have also managed so far without a cockpit
table. The fishing tackle box does for just drinks, but as the top of this only
comes to mid-shin height, eating off it is a bit of a challenge. We found a
lovely cockpit table in a mail order catalogue, but they didn’t deliver outside
of the UK. No problem – we would get DHL to
collect it from the UK and deliver it to us. We paid for
4-day delivery. 8 days later we were still cockpit-table-less. Eventually it
arrived and we can now drink our cold beer, eat comfortably, do school, and play
scrabble in comfort – in the cockpit.
As using our UK mobile ‘phone
is so expensive, we decided to buy a Portuguese Vodaphone SIM card. Buying the
card was simplicity itself! Topping up the credit, however, is another matter.
We can’t do it online because the website is in Portuguese and we need to have
the equivalent of a Portuguese national insurance number. We can’t do it at the
autobank because we don’t have a Portuguese bank account. We can’t do it through
Vodaphone UK because it is a Portuguese number.
So much for European unity and no trade barriers! We can, however, top up in
post offices, Vodaphone shops and some newsagents.
School, work, boat maintenance, and belly
boarding
Our daily routine consists of school in the
morning (plus work for me if necessary), lunch, jobs on the
boat/shopping/laundry, then off to the beach for a swim or belly boarding if
there are any decent waves. Now that the hour has gone back, it is dark soon
after 6 pm, but still warm enough to sit out in the evening with a
fleece.
Bethany, Bryn, Aline and Maël
(RAPA NUI) indulging in a spot of beach
architecture.
On the film front
The BOUNTY (as starred in the 1962 film of ‘Mutiny
on the BOUNTY’ with Marlon Brando) came to stay in Portimão Marina for a few
days. The children were delighted to scramble around her and learn that she also
starred in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 2’ (as the
EDINBURGH, who was destroyed by the Kraken). We learned about the origin of
phrases such as ‘shake a leg’, ‘son of a gun’, and that boats had figureheads
because most sailors were illiterate and couldn’t read the boat names but could
recognize the buxom wench attached to the front of their boat.
The BOUNTY.
|
|
|
|
BOUNTY’s bottom… |
and her (well covered) buxom
figurehead. |
Another exciting moment was the appearance in the
marina of a black vulture. We looked this up on the internet and think it was
probably a European Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus), about 1 metre in
height with a wingspan of 2.5–3 metres – and a very large beak!
The vulture landed, but didn’t stick around for
long.
My first dinghy sailing
lesson
Today we launched the Walker Bay and I had my first dinghy sailing
lesson. The first half an hour was somewhat marred by the fact that we took out
some poor bloke’s fishing gear (well three sets of gear actually, as he had
three rods set up on the beach), scooping all of his lines nicely with the
bowsprit. We assume that it was Portuguese swear words that he was using to
inform us of what we had done. David and Bethany came to rescue us in the dinghy
and managed to get the fishing line off the Walker Bay and around the prop of the outboard.
Free at last, Bryn and I scooted off downwind and eventually back into a
different part of the beach out of sight of the now very irate fisherman (with a
bit of paddle power assistance from Bryn). David & Beth drifted into the
main beach to remove the prop and the 300 miles of fishing line wound around it!
After about an hour, I got the hang of this dinghy sailing stuff, and Bethany
and I had a cracking sail back across the bay to the marina. David’s main
concern now is whether he will get his sailing dingy back!
Bethany and I heading out to sea, watched by an
amused seagull sitting on the buoy, Ferragudo beach in the
background.
Spotlight on David in the
galley
The CAPE market research department was
delighted to receive positive feedback on our alternative use for beer from
Jackie and Dave (Oxford – the place, not a boat). So here, for
those wintery nights in Blighty, is another pre-publication glimpse (from the
man himself – the unedited version – I wasn’t allowed to interfere with this
one) from ‘101 things to do with a dead mullet’. OK, so it doesn’t have any
mullet in this version, but one could be creative if one had a spare mullet in
the fridge!)
David’s Roasted Stuffed
Peppers
This makes enough to fill 4 large
red peppers and 2 adults and 2 kids after a day at the beach.
Contains:
4 large red peppers, (best to buy
non-bruised ones, and get the kids to drop them a couple of times on the way
back to the dinghy from the supermarket)
0.75 ltrs of Sarah’s left over Corned beef Spag’ Bol’ plus 1 extra
finely chopped onion
Failing that, I would
suggest:
1 finely chopped Chorizo (or 500g
of minced beef)
2 onions finely
chopped
2 cloves of garlic crushed and
finely chopped
1 400g tin of plum tomatoes or
tomato puree
1 onion finely
chopped
Seasoning of your choice to add
flavour to it all
1 mug of cheap long-grain
rice
A big spoon to stir it all
with
Some olive oil
1 large roasting
tin
Pre-heated hot oven (about gas
4/5)
2 large G & Ts with ice
and lemon (This may be substituted for
Vodka and Coke, or a wine of your
choice.)
Now go for it:
Take large sip of G & T and
prepare yourself to attack the food.
Gently fry off the mince if using
and drain off the fat.
In the meantime peel and chop the
onion and garlic (another sip of G & T needed here). Fry off the onion until
just turning brown then add the garlic. Fry for further 2 mins, then add the
Chorizo or mince, fry for further 2–3 mins. Season then add the tin of
tomatoes/tomato puree bring to the boil and simmer until it has reduced a
bit.
Finish off G & T and ask for
another one - you’re far too busy to make it yourself.
Boil the water for the rice, add
rice and cook according to packet. Try and time it all nicely, so it’s all ready
at the same time.
Drain the rice then blend into
the meaty stuff using the big spoon, not a blender!
Prepare the peppers by cutting
off the tops and removing the seeds.
Fill each pepper with the
rice/meat stuff until full, placing the full peppers into the tin (in a nice
neat pattern if that’s how you feel), drizzle over with olive oil. Place tin
into preheated oven and drizzle over with olive oil once more during cooking to
stop ‘em sticking to the tin (and help the washer-upper).
Finish G & T, cook until
peppers are soft.
Serve to appreciative, starving
family with wine of your choice, and enjoy!
An added bonus is that you don’t
have to do the washing up ‑ you did all the cooking…!!!
