Wed 9 Sept, on departure from Baiona
Slipstream Web Diary
Bill Cuthbert
Thu 10 Sep 2009 08:21
Baiona on Tuesday night, a walk into town lead Nick to discover the best shop ever which had a tap wrench & a thread cutter and all sorts of bolts & bits to fix the mast.
Because this was the Homan Boys last night (well it almost wasn't: it was only sound work by yet another member of the shore-based team - Alice - in booking the flights out of Spain which was finalised only late in the
afternoon.) we had a couple of glasses of cold beer after sorting out the boat. It was noticed that the boys had escaped their allotted task of scrubbing the decks and washing the heads by pretending to be booking their flights. After this Mr Homan changed for supper into a particularly fine pair of linen trousers, which were well set off by deck shoes, the open-toed sandals being considered too casual by the group.
Supper was at a pleasant fish restaurant, Nick being mothered by the waitress who was concerned that he didn't know which bits of his spider crab to eat, Even in her hands the gigantic creature produced only a measly amount of flesh. At the end of the meal she produced a bottle of yellow liquer which the crew were obliged to drink (out of politeness) and will doubtless blame their sea-sickness on should any result tomorrow. The crew had a coffee in a bar adjacent to the marina & then bed as Tom & James had a 5.30 taxi-ride to catch a train to the airport.
The rest of us got up later, breakfasted in a café after showering & sorted the washing, the boat, the food, ourselves. Nick performed particularly well cutting a new thread for the bolt which supports the main mast. Baines bought a particularly fetching hat (you'll have to wait to see the pictures, it's difficult to describe the hat) for 2.50 Euros & Nick bought a fine pair of swimming shorts for 5 Euro's from Wang's Chinese bazaar. Nick purchased a hat which he would be able to wear other than 10 miles r further offshore or ata fancy dress party for slightly more than 2 Euros. Billy was so impressed by the service from the local laundry (which extended to driving him around the town to find a zip to fix the lazy jack that he rewarded the lady with a bottle of pink champagne.
Baiona is a lovely town and the locals seemed universally very pleasant and helpful and although the only ones we found to speak English were in the marina everyone tried to understand and help us, most impressively with the bits Nick wanted which none of us (apart from Nick) even knew the English for.
Off the mooring to fill up with water & fuel in the late afternoon
Wednesday 9th May leave Baiona at 1615, motoring out of the harbour, sails up engine off.rather too soon as the wind died so we ended up dropping the sails & motoring on for another hour or so till the wind grew to the mid teens, allowing us to hoist the sails & switch the engine off. Shortly followed by a visit from a couple of atlantic dolphins So now we are only three Billy (skipper) Nick (chef & chief engineer) & Baines (comms & doc). Some discussion about how to work the night.autopilot & bed all round was the most favoured option.I guess that means there may not be another update.