Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Where to canoe in portland
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Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Discuss 14 foot boats for sale in massachusetts
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Friday, December 9, 2016
Ceuta – A little piece of Spain in North Africa
17 March 2013
I think I have mentioned before, the most important thing to remember about cruising plans is that they are just plans, not a must follow to the minute schedule for strict adherence with no flexibility. I raise this again because our plans have changed again.
We arrived here in Ceuta on the North African coast on Thursday planning to stay until Monday morning before heading east. We had intended on lifting Alcheringa out of the water week after next in Almerimar on the Spanish coast for a hull wash, new coat of anti-fouling and to replace a seized seacock valve we haven’t been able to free up. Unfortunately the marina there informed us yesterday that they would not be able to do the work until after Easter. However, we have discovered a very well equipped boat yard right here in Ceuta and after a chat with the British manager we have decided to get the work done where we are.
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| Karen using one of the beautiful hand painted ceramics that are plentiful in Ceuta to point out our current location. |
As a result we will now be spending an extra week in North Africa which we don’t expect to be too hard to take. The boat will now come out of the water on Monday morning and, all going well, we will disappear over the border for a couple of days in Morocco on Tuesday while the work is being done. Definitely sounds like a better idea than sitting around Almerimar while the boat’s out of the water anyway.
We spent Friday getting all this arranged, cleaning the boat down after our crossing from Gibraltar and discovering what’s where close by the marina. We dropped into a fishing store and discovered the fish around here must be extremely dangerous going by the range of automatic weapons on display freely available for sale.
Of course we also needed to establish just which establishment in the vicinity looked good enough to warrant our business and discovered our most conveniently located ‘local’yet in the form of ‘Café Madame Pots’approximately 15 metres from the stern of the boat. Great friendly atmosphere, excellent coffee and a very nice bar with very cheap prices, what more could we ask for.
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| Nothing like great coffee for just One Euro only metres from the boat |
On Saturday we ventured a little further into Ceuta to explore its charms. Ceuta is a small peninsula of just 7.1 square miles (18.5k) whose strategic position on the southern shores of the Straits of Gibraltar has made it an important commercial trade and military way-point for many cultures, beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC. It was not until the Romans took control of the region in AD 42 that the port city assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. It changed hands again approximately 400 years later, when Vandal tribes ousted the Romans and has been fought over by the Byzantines, Moors, Portuguese and Spanish ever since.
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| Click on any image to see larger versions |
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| Ceuta with mountains of Morocco in the background |
In July 1936, General Francisco Franco took command of the Spanish Army of Africa and rebelled against the Spanish republican government; his military uprising led to the Spanish Civil War. The troops were transported to mainland Spain in an airlift using transport aircraft supplied by Germany and Italy. Ceuta was one of the first casualties of the uprising. The citizens of Ceuta were repressed by the rebel nationalist forces led by General Franco, while at the same time the city came under fire from the air and sea forces of the republican government. Sometimes you just can’t win.
When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta was considered an integral part of the Spanish state remained under Spanish rule, but Morocco has disputed this point.
The government of Morocco has repeatedly called for Spain to transfer the sovereignty of Ceuta drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. Both the national government and local population of around 75,000 reject these claims by a large majority and of course the Spanish government insists it's a totally different case to that of Gibraltar. We can't really see the difference but they can.
Ceuta’s architecture is an eclectic mix of styles but combine to make this a very attractive small city. It is well laid out with a number of attractive squares and the harbour front had been developed with extensive parkland and promenades. There’s the usual cathedral and churches but there are also a number of mosques as a significant proportion of the population are Islamic descendents of Berber heritage. Much of the historic fortifications still stand and the ‘Royal Walls’ with their navigable moat reaching right across the peninsula are particularly impressive and quite interesting to wander around. We discovered a military chapel within the thick walls which had been converted to a beautiful café/bar and decided it was a great spot for afternoon communion. Well we had the wine part of it anyway.
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| This moat stretches right across the peninsla's narrowest point opening to the Mediterranean on both sides and would have been all but inpenetrable. |
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| A chapel that becomes a bar, what could be better place for a nice wine |
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| Now that's a big pot. |
A quick trip to the supermarket saw us top up our food and drink supplies with enough for three main evening meals plus half a dozen bottles of wine and a couple of bottles of ridiculously cheap spirits producing a complete bill of 29 Euro ($37 Aus). Yep it’s good to be away from Gibraltar prices again.
After a fantastic meal of Corsican Chicken that Karen whipped up back on the boat, we headed back onto the streets later that evening for Rob to get some after dark photos of the city and to join with the masses of people out and about. Teenagers were socialising in the squares and promenading along the waterfront, while the cafes, bars and restaurants all seemed to be very well patronised. The streets were also full of children happily running around as their parents enjoyed a stroll in the city. It’s such a different atmosphere to anything we’ve experienced at home in Australia.
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| While Gibraltar is unquestionably the northern, Ceuta is believed by many to be the southern pillar of Hercules and the city obviously backs that claim. |
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| We found Ceuta to be an extremely friendly, clean, attractive city. |
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| Hercules Marina at night. Alcheringa is second mast from the far end. |
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| The House of Dragons is a building known for its Moor influenced arches, Spanish balconies, and the infamous dragon statues on top of the roof. |
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| Impressive architecture at every turn makes an evening stroll in Ceuta a delight. |
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Thursday, December 8, 2016
Finally living on board in Palma de Mallorca
On Thursday morning July 5 we loaded up with cleaning gear and Rob’s laptop and headed for the marina to start work on the yacht soon to be known as ‘Alcheringa’. We began by creating a comprehensive inventory of the boat’s equipment, spares, tools etc as an excel file which listed every storage space onboard and exactly what it contained. Not only is it nice to know where things are but it also allowed us to begin an equally comprehensive list of what we didn’t have and would need to buy.
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| Preparing to move on board our Jeanneau 43 DS at last |
Then below decks were treated to their biggest spring clean since the boat came out of the factory. We started in the forward cabin and worked our way all the way to the stern. It’s not that the boat was filthy but rather a bit like the difference in the way a rental house is kept in comparison to an owner occupier. From the following day this was going to be our home and we all wanted it just right.
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| We love the great all round vision from the salon provided by the deck salon design |
We got a message from Juan mid afternoon saying he’d like to take his wife and daughter out for a last family sail on the boat that evening. That was no problem to us. After all, they actually still owned it until the final payment went into their account overnight. Not wanting to intrude on their family time, we locked the boat up and made sure we were gone before they arrived.
First task the following morning was humping all our worldly possessions down to the marina. Alcheringa was now officially ours and this was moving in day. Following the scant instructions in the owner’s manual, Rob and Marc set to unscrewing various walls and re-erecting them in different positions to convert the four cabin layout to two large ones. The transformation was amazing. Marc now had a very nice private space in the bow complete with good sized double bunk, settee, wardrobes and ensuite. The two aft cabins became our huge single stateroom, far more spacious than anything we’ve seen on a boat of comparable size.
After lunch Marc took a walk to the Port Office with Juan to witness the application for removal from the Spanish Register being lodged and then got busy with the online registration of the boat onto the British Small Ships Register and getting the insurance in place. We had not been able to organise the cover in advance of the purchase so we were a little nervous that we were initially uninsured but the risk level sitting in the most protected marina in Palma was fairly low.
Meanwhile our afternoon project was a taxi ride to Ikea with Karen’s very long shopping list. Linen, pillows, kitchen utensils, storage containers, cockpit cushions, etc, etc were piled high in two huge trolleys that made the checkout girl shudder as we approached. We were only just able to squeeze all our purchases into the taxi for the trip back. By late afternoon a second great transformation had occurred as the bunks were made up with their nice, new coverings and all our acquired goodies found their way to their respective spots on the boat leaving her looking lived in and loved.
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| Marc's cabin in the bow looked great all set up |
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| Converting two cabins to one produced a massive stateroom for us in the stern |
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| The best thing is we can put it back to two cabins very quickly when we have guests |
Now Alcheringa was ready to be our home and it was finally time to mark the occasion with a celebratory bottle of champagne sitting in our cockpit. It was a great feeling. That night we also enjoyed our first meal on board followed by three weary bodies sleeping soundly in our new home afloat.
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| Rob, Karen and Marc enjoy a few the celebratory bubbles |
Day two saw us attack the decks and topsides with boatwash and scrubbing brooms giving Alcheringa’s exterior the sort of going over below decks had already undergone. Rob got stuck into scrubbing some life back into the teak which was looking sad. Fortunately only the cockpit deck and swim platform are teak. The timber decks may look stunning when they’re new or very well maintained but they take a lot of looking after. Teak foredecks also get extremely hot in the sun to the level of being painful to walk on. The fact this boat had anti-slip fibre glass decks was a real bonus as far as we were concerned.
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| Alcheringa's cockpit teak scrubbed up beautifully with enough elbow grease |
After half a day of Rob being down on his hands and knees scrubbing seven years of ingrained dirt and oxidisation from the timber Marc took over the scrubbing brush and continued the process. When the final rinse had dried off the end result was well worth the effort. We finished a big day’s work with a slightly less physical but equally tedious task, peeling off the charter signage from the boom and old boat name off the stern. Boy do those vinyl letter stickers hang on. We all had sore fingers before the last letter was removed.
Being a Saturday, we were surrounded by the charter fleet all in for their quick clean, check over and crew change. Looking at our sparkling boat we couldn’t help feel just that bit superior as we settled in for sundowners.
Early that evening, once the charter hordes from all over the world had made their way out of the marina, we took the next step in making Alcheringa ours. The British Ensign was raised on her stern to the strains of God Save the Queen. We didn’t actually have a recording of the British National Anthem but were able to substitute the Sex Pistols version. We’re not sure what Lizzie would think but we liked it.
Apart from getting some of the stainless stanchions and fittings polished we had a pretty quiet Sunday aboard. With a nice breeze blowing we were very tempted to go out for an afternoon sail but with no confirmation of registration or insurance back yet it would have been a little foolhardy so we settled for some homework reading through the operating manuals of our navigation systems, engine etc. We couldn’t wait to wave goodbye to Palma and be on our way cruising the Mediterranean Sea the way we’d all dreamed of. However, we really couldn’t go anywhere until the wheels of bureaucracy had turned.
On Monday morning Marc phoned the Small Ships Register in London to make sure our online registration had been done and to obtain our SSR number. He found himself speaking to a perfect example of a Yes Minister public servant with a flat monotone voice complete with plum in the mouth. ‘Yes Mr Beerts I can see your application is in the system. Oh No! Registration is not issued online merely applied for online. How long does it take? Oh it varies. All registrations have to go through due process of course. It could be up to three weeks. We’re very busy here you know. You’ll be notified in due course. Thank you for your call. ‘
This is where we started running into Catch 22. We needed our SSR Registration number to apply for a British radio license, which we needed before we could be issued with our unique MMSI number, which we needed to transfer the boats EPIRB emergency beacon to our details, which we also needed to change the distress button transmission on our vhf radio. If we ran into a Sir Basil at every link in this chain we could be in Palma until Christmas.
At least the insurance brokers were more positive. We’d printed out their application form at a nearby internet cafe, filled it in , scanned it then emailed them an electronic copy. When Marc called they confirmed that yes they had received it, no they didn’t need to be posted the hard copy in the mail, yes it had the information they needed, they did understand our position and they would be chasing the insurance company to issue cover as quickly as possible. Oh the difference between government and private enterprise.
Despite the bureaucratic obstacle course we were negotiating we did celebrate another little milestone that afternoon when, with due offerings to King Neptune and the winds gods, Alcheringa was officially renamed and the signage was ceremonially affixed to her stern.
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| New name applied, must be time to celebrate - again |
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| To Alcheringa of London |
Days started to slide by a little as we waited for the various wheels to turn. We did visit just about every ship chandlers in Palma picking up bits and pieces and considerably improving Spain's economic status in the process. One major purchase were three new automatically inflating Personal Floatation Devices, harnesses and tethers. Safety always comes first.
Meanwhile we also had almost daily visits from either Juan or his wife Sassa delivering the spare sails, cruising chute and other bits and pieces that had not been kept on the boat. On stepping aboard for the first time after we’d completed our big makeover Juan looked around at the teak, foredecks and gleaming stainless steel and said to Karen ‘It’s very nice. My boat looks very clean.’ To which Karen took great delight in replying ‘Yes. Our boat looks lovely.’
We took the opportunity to work through a lot of the systems on the boat including hoisting the cruising chute in the calm of one evening to check how it all works. Rob went up the mast in the boson’s chair to see why our steaming light wasn’t working and have a good look over all the rigging on the mast. He also took his camera aloft and got some nice seagull’s eye view photos from the top.
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| It's a long way to the top and you don't want to rock and roll |
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| The Cathedral of Mallorca as seen from the top of our mast |
Meanwhile Marc had discovered just how much hard work it is for a heavy smoker to winch an 83 kilo man to the top of our mast by hand and was looking decidedly fatigued by the time Rob was back on deck with the good news that the light simply needed a new bulb but the bad news that he’d have to go back up to replace it. Funnily enough Marc quickly volunteered for the job. Being much lighter it made sense anyway so he is now officially the boat’s boson’s chair man.
The insurance company came back to us with a couple of questions about sailing history etc which we promptly answered and by midday Wednesday we were covered. Phew! What a relief. However there was no sign of progress from the small ships register. After discussing things with Juan we decided we wouldn’t sit around any longer but now we were insured we would head over to Ibiza for about a week and then come back to Palma and hopefully by then we’d have our SSR and MMSI numbers and we’d get the radio etc changed over when we were back.
Now we were getting excited. We spent the day loading up with final provisions, making sure everything on board was ready for us to go to see and poring over grib file weather reports working out our plan. Next day we were actually going to get out there on the water and sail away.
For more about our travels check out and 'like' our Dreamtimesail facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/DreamtimeSail?ref=hl
For more about our travels check out and 'like' our Dreamtimesail facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/DreamtimeSail?ref=hl
Friday, November 18, 2016
Sassafras Tripper latest paddle in gallery
Managed to take a final "finished" photo of the recently completed Sassafras Tripper after coating it with a few coats of oil. It's also been added to the Gallery on the Paddle Image Archive Page.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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