Since I last blogged it has been an interesting time. I nearly bought an Oyster 406 just before Christmas to live on in Brighton Marina when I am in the UK. Unfortunately she had a bad case of osmosis so I withdrew after the survey. It was a pity as she was a lovely boat in otherwise good condition. Probably not a bad thing as owning two boats is a bit over the top.

The Oyster 406

Plan B was to buy a property in the south east to make my UK base and I was fortunate to find somewhere affordable in a little village called Ashurst near Tunbridge Wells. I have spent the last couple of months decorating and so on and have now moved in. It is very close to the village where I spent my teenage years so it has been great meeting up with old friends.

Minka in Cartagena (centre) with all her winter fenders on.

I have been back to Minka a couple of times over the winter and have continued to buy her new toys. We now have a furling cruising chute and the storm jib is now rigged as a staysail on another furler.  By using endless line furlers I am still able to put these sails away when not in use. The No.3 working jib which used to hank on the inner forestay is now on a similar furler.  I now have five furling headsails, in order of size, cruising chute, code zero, 140% genoa, working jib, storm staysail. Of course I also still have the spinnaker.

The new cruising chute……………..

The plan is to stay on Minka until the last week in August and to travel east. ……. Balearics, Corsica and Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Greek Islands with a view to ending up in the new marina in Kas (Turkey) which is apparently offering cheap winter rates.

Minka was lifted out on Friday for a couple of hours and had her bottom pressure washed and I cleaned the propeller, changed the propeller anode so we are pretty much ready to go.  My friend Gary took me out to lunch in a great restaurant and between us we managed to reduce the Spanish stock of alcohol in a positive move to improve the economy here. It certainly did nothing for my balance…………….. if any readers come here I would recommend the Barrio de San Roque Restaurante………the food was outstanding. Well, at least the first four courses as after that I don’t remember much.

Weather permitting we will leave here on Tuesday after a few more farewells.