Mir, Mandy & Me

How calm is this anchorage Mandy went back the uk to work and left me on anchor alone for the first time. It was for six nights and the first three I had crazy 30, gusting to 40 knot winds. The anchor dragged twice and I had to re anchor alone. Another first. I caught the first drag on video, I hate that noise, makes me jump out of my skin every time. You can see the wind speed on the display on the right. As they say every day is a school day and I learned quite a bit about anchoring on my own with 3 days of big winds. Then they died and I could go ashore to collect my new solar panel from my favourite diy store, Leroy Merlin. It was a 30 minute walk carrying my solar panel in the hot sun. Then I got it in the dinghy and was happily tootling back to the boat when I decided to try and video my journey. Took my eye off the ball and hit a rock with the outboard and snapped the shear pin on the propeller. That's what you get for trying to be a vlogger.  So I had to row back against th...

Mandy is currently working 3 days a week and has to go into the office once a month. This defines our current routine. We have to be somewhere relatively calm for the 3 days while she works and have to be close to an airport that allows her to fly home once a month. So this month she arrived back in Gibraltar and we decided to make our way slowly back to Torrevieja where she can leave me on anchor while she next flys home in March. So we left Gibraltar, after filling up with super cheap diesel, €1 per litre, and had a lovely 35 mile sail to Marbella, visited by a load of dolphins. We wanted to get our gas bottle refilled and there is a guy in Marbella who fills any type of bottle. (https://gasbottlerefill.com/) We dropped anchor a short row from the beach with a great view of the mountains and I went off to get the bottle filled. Job 1 done. Then the both of us went ashore after repairing a broken solar panel for a celebratory drink in the bar on the beach. Job 2 done. Then back to the...