A priest and a flying rubber ducky
Storyteller
Fri 21 Sep 2007 17:57
|
Just a little after three years to the day we are
tied up to the sea wall at the town of Cartagena, a pleasant city on the
south-east coast of Spain.Like so many coastal towns we are revisitng on our way
west to Gibraltar, Cartagena has been considerably spruced up since we were last
here, but the locals still do their paseo past the yachts every evening,
and the disco still bares out until 7am. This time we are prepared and sleep
with ear plugs and a fan running to drown out the noise. As we tied up some
locals told us were lucky that it was Roman Week, with a big fiesta planned for
the weekend, so of course we'll stay a couple of extra days.Cartagena was an
important town for the Carthaginians (Hannibal and all that), and they had big
punch ups with the Romans, who won, just. Evidently there has been a lot of
excavation since we were here last, so it's going to be fun exploring and
revisiting some wonderful restaurants.Cartagena was also one of the last hold
outs of the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, so we're immersed in
Beevor's wonderful history of that dreadful time. It's really astounding the
progress that has been made in just a few decades since Franco died. Spain is
now a very sophisticated place that has caught up with the rest of Western
Europe, and we've had nothing but good experiences here (except for our run in
with the Guardia Civil in Ibiza, where there is now not a single yacht anchored
in the harbour, despite the fact that the marina is always
'completo').
After a hectic couple of weeks meeting up with our
crews in London and in Scotland and preparing Storyteller for crossing the
Atlantic and the Pacific, we're on our way to Gibraltar where we're due on
September 28th, just in time for a big weekend of Rugby World Cup
matches. It's a pity England are playing so badly, because there's no fun
beating them when they are so hopeless. I have my All Black cap to wear in the
pubs, plus a French one, but they're not looking too good either. John will have
to make do with my Australian cricket cap. We're due to leave Gibraltar on
8 October for the Canaries, hopefully via Madeira. We'll be joined in Gibraltar
by our Scottish friend Derrick Classe and our English friend, Peter Beloe.
Derrick and his wife Bernadine crossed the Atlantic last year in a boat the same
as ours, so their advice has been invaluable, especially about the need for a
large Spanish ham.
When we got back to Palma Mallorca we had only a
day to prepare the boat for our Maltese visitors, Edward and Natalie Bencini and
their good friend Father George Bencini, a priest who is a yacht owner and a
wine maker. Our sort of priest, really. We soon discovered that George has a
fund of naughty stories and a wonderful voice in the Mario Lanza tradition. He's
also a church lawyer, so had many fascinating stories about marriage annulments,
as there is no divorce in Malta. Those who know me well can imagine how riveted
I was to his stories. It was awfully useful having a priest on board, as well as
Edward who is an architect, especially when exploring Palma's massive
cathedral.
A highlight of our few days back in Palma was the
purchase and installation of an enormous jamon, the Spanish ham that is rather
like prosciutto in that it is cured and doesn't need to be refrigerated.
Fortunately Edward was with me to sample the different kinds of ham and to visit
the "cuchilleria" the specialist knife shop where a male presence was a definite
must. Then, with the pig's trotter poking out of the shopping trolley, and a
special jamon stand and knife, we made our way back to the boat for a
sampling. But first we had Father George perform a blessing of the ham, the
boat, and all who sail in her.
In Palma we met up with several Aussie friends,
including Diane and Greg Snowball, who are just beginning their time in the Med.
We also spent many happy hours with Christine and Terry from Sedna who we first
met in Sydney before leaving for France to take delivery of our new boats. It
has been great catching up with them in Turkey, Greece, Mallorca and Ibiza. We
had a very long lunch with them, accompanied by Father George's singing which
was applauded by the young people on the yacht anchored next to us. This,
followed by a rather more abstemious dinner of tuna that Terrry had caught
together with Chrissie's excellent couscous salad, made for a big day before our
2am departure for the Spanish mainland. I'll hand over to John now to give you
the technical details of the most amazing sight we have seen in the three years
of our trip. Better even than the water spout!
We'd noticed a run down looking steel yacht
anchored near us, with the Flying Kangaroo flag. Not a feral Aussie, we groaned.
Seeing that his rubber dinghy had what looked to us like a swamp boat air
propeller confirmed in our minds that this guy was a real eccentric. However
when we then saw that he was assembling a hang glider we realised that he had a
home made, powered hang glider that took off and landed on the ocean. He taxied
out of the anchorage, powered up the motor and pilot, passenger and rubber
dinghy climbed steeply and flew around the area for about an hour before
landing. We, and the crews of the other boats in the bay were astonished,
and relieved that a rescue mission was not needed.We joked that Father George
might have to have given the last rites.
Now that all our visitors have departed and we're
working our way westwards along the south coast of Spain, we feel that we're
beginning the next, and most challenging, stage of our journey--the passages
across the Atlantic and the Pacific.We certainly know a lot more history and
geography than we did three years ago and have made some wonderful friends.
There's an 'end of season' feel in the air, and the prices and temperatures are
dropping as we move away from the 'hot spots' of the Med.
Unless something dramatic happens between here
and Gibraltar I'll update the blog before our departure for the Canaries.On our
ocean passages we'll try to write a daily blog reporting fish caught and other
adventures, sea state permitting. For there's nothing as sure to set off a
bout of sea sickness as working on the computer in a rough
sea!
|
