Yum!

We remained in Rodney Bay to celebrate Christmas but stayed on the boat as we had everything we needed for a full lunch and having had some very sad times this year, just wanted to reflect and have a quiet time. With 2 burners and a small oven, cooking a whole turkey was abandoned in favour of breasts rolled around cranberry stuffing and wrapped in parma ham and these took the same time to roast as the potatoes in goose fat. Despite the champagne start to the day and the fancy dress, the meal still went to plan!

Santa on the Champagne!

Christmas Puddings rounded off the meal and we looked up the Queen’s speech on the internet as we can’t get the TV to tune in here.

Us - Into 2012 on the Beach

Between Christmas and New Year we snorkelled in Rodney Bay and met up with our ARC friends and generally the time slipped away again, as it seems to do these days.

New Year's Eve Venue

Last night 18 of us went to the Bay Gardens Resort, a local hotel on the beach for a party to join ‘Peat Smoke’ and their family, making nearly 40 of us in total. For 75 pounds there was a champagne reception with canapés, then a host of oriental buffet dishes, drinks and cocktails all night, Chinese lanterns to put your wishes into and champagne again to toast in the New Year. The hotel set up tables on the beach just for our group.

Tables on the Beach for the ARC Group

The bay was lit up at midnight by fireworks and flares, whilst the anchored boats looked on anxiously. The mass lighting of the paper lanterns was an interesting spectacle with many not making it into the sky and crashing in flames on the crowded beach! There was also live music and a disco which went on until 2am. The taxi fare back was only 1.25 pounds each for a 20 minute trip which is amazing for New Year’s Eve!

Fire Hazards!!

We had a great time and memorable start to 2012 and also toasted all our family and friends in the UK at 8pm here.

Merry Christmas!

Beyzano is decorated, the Christmas muffins are baked and we have a few friends coming over for drinks tonight. The marina is busy with lots of boats sheltering from the high winds and there is a great atmosphere. Yesterday the ‘Carols Afloat’ flotilla of decorated boats and crew motored around the bay playing carols, followed by a party in one of the Boardwalk restaurants.

Old Traditions Brought With Us!

Different Christmas for us this year and we will be thinking of our children and my dad tomorrow whilst we swelter in the heat cooking a traditional UK lunch for probably the last time in many years! The fruit and veg get delivered around the marina by the same man we saw here 5 years ago, in a dinghy with lots of flags, so Rob is still taking life easy, no rushing to the supermarket at 0700 today for us

Life - So Tough!

Greengrocery Delivery

Hope We Won't Need This!

Safety Demo Underway

Our friends from Haslar, Rob and Caroline, spent yesterday evening with us and brought us a part for our kicker and more food from the UK! They have had some poor weather en route and it looked like posting the items from Portugal might be necessary a couple of weeks ago, in case they didn’t make it here before the ARC left. Our thanks to them for making the trip to Las Palmas through thick and thin. We had a lovely meal together and it was sad to see them go as we don’t know when we will meet up again.

The Crew of Beyzano ARC 2011

Jamie and James have now joined us and all the crew are onboard. Tomorrow we need to buy the fresh fruit and vegetables and get it washed and stored somewhere. The boat looks like a bomb has hit her and on top of all the equipment we have taken out of the stern cabins to accommodate the crew, the spinnaker and large genoa are in our bed in the forecabin!

Rob, James, Jamie, Rhian & Paul (R - L)

This afternoon Rob and I cooked lentil loaf, a ginger cake and rock buns for the trip and having all the ingredients and tins spread all over the boat didn’t help the situation but it will all be stowed away for Sunday – has to be!

Jamie put pipe insulation foam on the spreaders and took a photo of me on deck whilst he was at the top of the mast. Looks a very long way down but he was happy enough up there and had a great view across the marina.

Long Way Down!

We have a pontoon party tonight with music and singing and having practised on Monday on ‘Chiscos’ we should be ready. Then tomorrow the big farewell party is held in the Yacht Club, so it is party frock time again. We have met so many great people and will miss them over the next 3 weeks. There is a radio net to tune into daily, so we will be in touch with the 75 or so boats near to us but we are already discussing the reunions in St Lucia and where one another will spend Christmas.

Dinner on Chiscos

The party was very good, with live entertainment and plenty of food and drink. We haven’t had to buy food for the evening for days and this looks set to continue with a BBQ on Sunday evening and a meal on ‘Chiscos’ Monday, following a discussion on the route we are all thinking of taking across the Atlantic.

R Pontoon

Our pontoon, R, is almost full now and we have met some lovely people. Being so closely berthed together, it is easy to chat and get to know one another. Not a day goes by without meeting up for a drink or meal and as we approach the start of the ARC there is a lot of sharing of tools, advice and general moral support. A lot of the boats have dressed their yachts ‘overall’, us included, and it looks very festive for the opening ceremony on Sunday.

On November 11th, a few of the British contingent gathered beside our next door boat with John from ‘Chiscos’ playing the ‘Last Post’ on his trumpet, as Jon lowered his white ensign. It was a very moving few minutes.

Thanks to Steve, Kym and Sue for the bed for the night and Kym for a lovely meal

Lower Town Harbour at Low Tide

It was lovely to be in Fishguard again, despite it being a day trip from Newbury but I just didn’t have enough time to stay longer. Always good to be ‘home’ though and it has barely changed in the 49 years I’ve been going there! I scattered my mum’s ashes on the bridge where she first saw dad, which is a stone’s throw from the house she was born in and the sun shone as she finally came home.

Abergwaun - Lower Town Fishguard

This time when I left my dad I knew I wouldn’t be back for a long time and will also cross the Atlantic in the meanwhile, so there were a few tears. I know he will track us on the web and I will be careful dad!

The taxi to and from the airport was 32 euros and took about 20 minutes. We have another 6 trips to the airport so are getting a hire car on Monday when we meet Steve and keep it until James arrives on the 17th, so we can explore the beaches and lakes to the west of Gran Canaria.

It is still hot and sunny, currently sitting in shorts in the Sailor’s bar and keeping in the shade. Good for drying the sheets though. This week we are washing all the linen, cleaning every inch of the boat and trying to organise similar items into the same place. Always on boats you hear ‘its on the boat, somewhere’ and we are no exception, bar the safety gear of course. At the moment we can’t find our net hammocks which are supposed to hold the fruit, but with another 2 cabins to clean out yet, we hope to locate them soon.

Beyzano Still Snug in her Berth

Rob bought a few water containers, serviced the engine and ran the cable for the sat phone whilst I was away and socialised with Andrew and Maggie on ‘Jacana’ and Graham on ‘Arabella’. I need to buy a lobster pot I’ve seen in the chandlery but apart from that we are almost done with buying things for the boat – thankfully! The food is next but a company deliver all the drinks and the market stalls will deliver excellent non-chilled fruit and veg which lasts much longer than the refrigerated variety. Same for eggs. Some stalls vacuum pack the meat and the El Corte Ingles will freeze it too, so we have some shopping to do in the next 3 weeks. Then 3 weeks without spending anything.

Las Palmas Marina

Over the past few days we have explored the town centre, found a couple of good supermarkets which between them stock virtually everything we need. The cost of some items is very high though, for example a small tin of Quality Street chocolates is over 40 euros, about an eight fold increase on the UK price. Just in case anyone coming here wanted some for Christmas in the Caribbean!

The marina does an amazing job fitting in the 240 ARC boats and more are arriving every day. We estimate there are about 40 here now with many being empty whilst their crew take a quick trip home before the ARC programme starts on November 4th. The chandleries are quiet so we have been buying courtesy flags and a few small items we need before the bedlam begins.

Tonight I fly back to Gatwick to spend a few days with my dad and to scatter my mum’s ashes in Oxfordshire and Wales. On Monday I return here and we have a week until our first guest arrives. We have a few tasks to do, mostly emptying out lockers and checking on supplies, making lists of where everything is so the crew can refer to them and generally cleaning the boat in preparation for the 3 week crossing. Once the crew arrive we can start the safety briefings and go through all the boat’s systems with them, check the cruising chute and spinnaker lines and pole and get ready for some serious sailing.

We have been impressed with all the equipment on board as it hasn’t let us down and hope it continues! There isn’t anything major to do and by cooking casseroles to freeze and getting everything organised and clean, we hope the 5 of us will have a relaxing and enjoyable ARC.

Sunrise at Porto Santo

He welcomed us to Porto Santo, showed us which offices I needed to visit for customs clearance and we were done, all safely tied up after 505 miles logged in just under 4 days. I had a shower, not wanting to offend the police with the state of me and headed off with the ship’s papers and personal documentation. The police officer was very friendly and the process didn’t take long. I then went to the marina office, got the Wi-Fi info, keys to the showers and found out where the supermarket is and they also offered to call our next port of call for us to reserve a berth when we are ready to leave in about 3 days time. This is a very helpful and friendly marina with a stunning backdrop of arid hills.

View from Beyzano's Berth

In front of us was ‘Full Circle’ a boat we have seen in Lymington back in June, in Povoa and Cascais. This time we had a long chat and exchanged cards so we can meet up in the Caribbean where they are also spending some time next year.

There is a beautiful beach next to the marina, some 3.5 kms long, so we will go there tomorrow and have our first swim of the trip. The island is famous for Christopher Columbus living here as he married the first governor’s daughter and tomorrow we intend visiting the museum in town as well as walk to the summit for the views but due to the heat we may wait until the evening before the climb. We also need to buy paint to leave a ‘Beyzano’ painting on the harbour wall as is the custom!

In the meantime I caught Rob being nosey, something he obviously missed during the past 4 days!

Rob Checking Out His New Surroundings

We now need to sail across to Porto Santo, as we want to visit Madeira in memory of Rob’s parents who always wanted to go there but didn’t live to do so. The crossing will take us about 4 days and the weather looks good from Sunday morning, so we intend to leave then although the wind is from the SE which is unusual for this time of year. Hopefully we will catch some tuna on the way but we are going food shopping this afternoon just in case we don’t.

Andy and Ann from ‘Pipit’ are still in the area awaiting a Raymarine Plotter part, so are anchoring outside the marina tonight and having dinner with us. Tomorrow the ‘low season’ begins so our charge drops to 20 euros plus VAT from 44 euros a night. There isn’t a ‘mid season’!

My aunt gave us a ‘Guardian Angel’ to keep us safe on our travels, so we will hang it up before we set sail on Sunday, which is also the 25th birthday of our son, James. Happy Birthday James xx

Maritime Museum

We decided to book onto the Yellowbus ‘Jump on, jump off’ tour bus as we really didn’t know enough about Lisbon to decide where we should go. It was a good decision as we had both the commentary and good view as we drove round most of the main sites of interest. The bus cost us 15 euros each for a 24 hour pass.

Lisbon

Belem is a particularly beautiful area with the monastery now serving as a maritime museum and the monument to explorers of the past 500 years. Well worth a visit. The war museum is located near the Torre de Belem which is another lovely building. The area also ‘boasts’ a McDonalds and Starbucks!!

Tower at Belem

We hopped back on the bus, found the chandlery near the station, bought a chart of Madeira and Porto Santo which we hope to be visiting in early October and headed back on the fast train, taking about 40 minutes.

Monument to Past 500 Years of Exploration

We were warned twice about pick-pockets in the city but were not victims ourselves.

Last night we drank too much pink champagne aboard, then visited the local ‘Pirata’ restaurant, one of the many at the marina, which served delicious food until late.

Happy Birthday!!

Today we are emptying the fridge and cleaning the boat for a week away, packing the few warm clothes we have, which is basically just a pair of jeans and a fleece and getting ready to head for Lisbon airport in the morning.

Whilst we are back in the UK it will be good to meet up with as many family and friends as we can. On that note, we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has sent us such kind and supportive messages recently via this website and on Facebook. It is much appreciated.

Due to this we moved into the marina this morning and were pleasantly surprised by the cost of 54 euros despite it being high season still. The berth was quite small though as in the pilot book it says boats of our size use the larger basin but we squeezed in with help from ‘Ellisa’ who were also previously berthed in Haslar Marina and doing the ARC. The reception pontoon under the marina office is huge, with the fuel pontoon adjacent, so we filled up whilst there to save time later and allow us to leave early or late if necessary. The pumps are self-service diesel and unleaded and you just pay at the shop nearby, cash or card. You need electronic cards to access the pontoons and showers, requiring a 25 euro deposit each.

There is Wi-Fi but it is quite slow and Rob has found several bars on site and we will test their connection over lunch. Blisteringly hot too and have decided to visit Lisbon tomorrow as early as possible to avoid the heat. The weather isn’t great to leave until Tuesday and last night was really windy with gusts over 35 knots in the anchorage. Stayed put with the spade though, thankfully.

Meanwhile we are in touch with dad in case there is anything we can do but having only just returned from 3 weeks in Surrey clearing their house, he is keen we move the boat on and says there is little we can do at the moment. It is hard being away though at a time like this, no matter what.