One year on
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Fri 10 Jun 2016 16:16
quite quickly, though we haven't done much sailing.
We have done some travelling, checking out where we want to take Chaser to.
We spent a lot of time in Gibraltar. We have driven to Portugal, flew to
Malta, we've taken the kids skiing and driven to England where I am now.
We have sold our apartment in Spain, so no ties back there now. We are
buying a place in the UK but still liveaboard Chaser in the Med. Malta, we
weren't impressed with, the people a little unfriendly, the marinas not
really wanting livaboards, the rules don't allow you to empty sink waste,
shower water, you can't hang washing out, can't have bikes on the dock,
can't have a barbeque. So not to happy with those can'ts
Portugal was surprisingly beautiful, the beaches fantastic but the water is
a little too cold even in summer (for me).
Gibraltar is one of those places you either like or hate. We kinda liked it,
the problem for me when you do a lot of travelling is that no matter how
nice a place is, after a few months you get itchy feet and wanna move on.
We've obviously been to Spain to see Rob, Berny, Susie and the kids. They're
all doing ok, Susie still struggling but managing, though she has to work
hard. Liam our grandson, now 21 months, walking and talking 2 languages.
James is in UK, Chicago now but back Tuesday with the Americas cup race.
Our time in UK has been good, though we have been lucky with the weather.
Kinda nostalgic, we haven't been there for a long time and Portsmouth and
Weymouth is a lovely area.
We stayed with our friends Peter and Sylvia for a few days, we met in Puerta
La Cruz in Venezuela back in maybe 2010, we've been sailing together and
stayed in touch eversince.
Jaco and Christelle, our sailing partners aboard Songerie are still sailing
the Caribbean, we're so envious, but we'd spent nearly 10 years sailing in
the Caribbean, Venezuela being our favourite place. Now though, I'm afraid
it's not the place to be for foreigners. Like Spain they make rules up as
they go along, nobody really knows what the rules are, so we were concerned
we have the boat taken from us for one excuse or the other. The country
desperately needs money and looks for any excuse to take yours, again just
like Spain. So we're out of Venezuela and out of Spain, but of course we
carry on visiting Spain because our family is there. We are UK residents now
so we are allowed to visit Spain with a British boat but only for 6 months
even though we are in Europe, for the time being. If we leave Europe we'll
probably be able to visit for 18 months, strange.
Venezuela we have to put on hold, the president is crazy, looking after his
own ego at the expense of his people. Everything from medicine to toilet
rolls and food is almost impossible to obtain. Still. hopefully we will be
able to return once he's gone, shouldn't be too long now, though it'll take
a few years to get straight and get rid of the corruption. Spain too! it's a
shame such beautiful countries, Spain of course not in such a serious
situation because of the EU support, but we do miss the warm winters.
We are now waiting for our new mainsail to arrive, hopefully next week we
get back to the boat to fit it and the repaired air con unit.
Our life style changing because of our situation, we're not cold weather
sailors, so winters are gonna be more marina based, and summer hopefully,
some day sailing and short breaks, difficult at the moment with the
Grandkids and school holidays, then next year maybe to Greece.
Anyway, when we've been sailing fishing is still good, no spear fishing this
year, no swimming yet either which shows in my waistline. So a few photos
from the past year.
