Mir, Mandy & Me

  The crossing from Gibraltar to the Canary islands is around 600 miles and takes about 5 days and is a great rehearsal for crossing the Atlantic and testing all the boat systems as well as the crew. We left with 4 other boats in a convoy, friends from our Atlantic crossing group, to get across the straights of Gibraltar as quick as possible to avoid getting our rudders chewed off by the orcas. Day 1 - 126nm We all had our anchors up by 8am and just had to wait for Ralph to go the toilet. Ralph is Matt and Hanna's dog. Goodbye Gibraltar. It seemed like everybody agreed on the weather window as a few other sailboats joined our little flotilla increasing the size to about 12 boats. We planned to hug the 20m contour, as recommended to avoid orcas, to Tarifa then shoot perpendicularly across the Straights to Tangiers then hug the coast again to get around the corner and be free of orcas once and for all. One of the good things about travelling in convoy is you get some good pictures of...

Living on a boat 12 foot off the ground in a dirty, hot, dusty, oily, muddy, windy boatyard is more fun than you think. I had a lovely time one day sitting in the shadow of the boat in the scorcio heat dismantling an outboard engine chatting to everyone who walked past. We've made loads of new friends some not human. Because we can't use the onboard toilets, sinks and generator it was a good excuse to eat out every night and meet up with our new friends, a group of sailors who are heading across the Atlantic this year.  Because our copper coat was going to take some time we had 2 weeks away from the boat. The first week was spent at Trotty and Annie's place in Nerja. A beach holiday where they spoiled us rotten.  Then it was back to the UK to pickup our passport and see family and friends for last time before crossing the Atlantic. Saw my Mum and sisters. Mike made a delicious barbecue. Went for a night out in Conway with Burkey, Shane, Damien and Trotty. Lovely place Conwa...