A few words about life in Spain.

Staying in Almerimar and living in Spain is  getting its rhythm — working on the boat, meeting with people, and watching how quickly the time is passing by and how quickly the list of ‘to-do tasks’ is growing on!  As I arrived there,  the major concern was — ‘ The long winter is ahead  of me… What am I going to do ? ‘.  Now,  the major concern is — do I have enough time to do everything what I would like to do…? ;-).    

The weather is still not settled, changing from nearly ‘early fall’ type — with sun,  warm, quite days, to the windy, cloudy, and much colder days….  ( But what am I talking about ?   The day when the Montreal was covered with 20+ сm of snow,  I’ve been complaining that I have to put a sweeter, because of the wind… ;-) 

After  those windy and cloudy days, the peaks of Sierra Nevada are shown with snow next morning… Slowly but surely,  more and more snow appears… Getting lower and lower…. That is a real indicator that the winter is coming…  But again,  that is in Sierra Nevada.  There are two good things about it — a very nice view from the boat in the morning,  and the fact that those peaks are relatively  far away…  ( In other words, there is no snow around me, and the temperature is between 12 C at night, and around 20 C during the sunny days…. And it is plus +12 and it is +20 !   So different from what would be in Montreal soon… ).

A bit of the real inconvenience  — the timezone.  Spain has switched to the winter time — meaning that they are one hour ahead of Greenwich now…  I have no idea why  one hour ahead of UTC has been chosen… ( We are 2:47`W from the Greenwich… ) But the reality is —  at 0730 ( local time ) in the morning it is still dark outside… I probably getting lazy — to avoid saying ‘old ‘ — since I do not like to get up when it is still dark outside…   At 1830 in the evening — it is already dark…. 

Yes, I know. After the end of December it will change and start to move in ‘a  right direction’ again… But for now — it is a bit… well, depressing… ;-) 

 

About ones or twice during the week, I can see on the chart the cold fronts passing over the North Atlantic… I think that is the major reason why we see around a lot of Westerlies winds…  The books say — ‘ on average, one week of  winds from the West,  are followed by one week of winds from the  East… ‘…  My understanding is — the key word there — ‘on average’…  But it is hard to explain to people, who are patiently waiting for the weather to get to Gibraltar,  out of the Med, to Canary Islands,  Verdy islands, and then to Caribbean… 

Most of those people are truly believing and thinking that the crossing of the Atlantic, handling the boat, leaving on the Caribbean Islands — will magically change their life, and themselves… They are putting so much hope in that!  It is even making me jealous for a moment…;-)

But then I remember that there are dreams and reality…  Probably, most of those people do not understand that the ‘unique weather’, being blamed on climate change, Trump, Brexit, and Putin -  is actually making them a favour,  extending the time to keep their dreams, to be in their  ‘Wonder Land’, hiding the fact that they are so different, and so the same, at the same time — 99.9% of them are trying to run from themselves! ;-)  

The work on the boat is going on.  Not so fast as I would like it to go. But it is taking some momentum… At least, I hope so. 

The major task done so far — preparation for changing the windows.  Not so much ‘changing’  but mostly to remove and to re-set the windows, with cleaning, re-varnishing, etc…  That should eliminate some leaks around the plexiglass…  One of the windows in the saloon has been removed, and now it is clear what should  be involved, what tools and materials are needed, etc….   In short - the job has been started and in progress… 

At the same time, a lot of smaller tasks are going on — small repairs and improvements,  equipment servicing, and … cleaning!  

The cleaning process becoming the major concern!  I’m suspecting — ‘cleaning the boat’ is one of those tasks which impossible to do and to finish.  It is only possible to start, and then to force to stop at certain point…  And then to start from the beginning… In the meantime, with cleaning  — it seems I’m running in endless circle! ;-)

The most interesting part of each day — meeting and talking to different people… From  different countries, different ages,  different customs…

Though all have the different plans for the future, only few are talking about ‘return to the life on land’ at certain point… Majority — do not want to talk about it at all! ;-). 

I have also noticed that the sailing community is getting younger!   A lot of people are travelling with kids of all ages.  During the day, the  pontoons are becoming  the playgrounds of all kinds.  For me, it is amazing to watch that for the kids — the language is not a problem at all!  Somehow, they are managing to find the way to communicate… making that challenge amazingly simple to solve!  

With all above activities — the days are passing by quickly… Sometimes, seems even much quicker then I would like! 

But…  Tomorrow is another day, and I’m do my best to keep the eyes on the horizons,  and to find some time to build some plans for the future season!