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Hugh, Anne and Hector's Sailing Adventures
El Capitano Here
14th April, Andraitx, Mallorca, Sunny, 25C
Well here we go again!
We left the boat in Andraitx at the end of October and returned to a chilly North Berwick. I had "essential maintenance" to attend to so I came to the boat three times during the winter while Anne was enjoying herself at work.
We came back at the beginning of April meaning that I came out a week earlier than Anne and Hector to do a little light dusting. She will write up her own version but as far as I can see, she and Hector travelled on convenient scheduled flights, had a luxury overnight in the Sheraton at Heathrow and continued their journey next day and completed there trip to the boat by limousine (taxi actually). I on the other hand, slummed it on Globespan and the local bus service.
Anyway all is well and we are planning to set off from here at the end of the month to do some local cruising and then head off to Sardinia and Corsica etc.
No adventures to report but what do you expect when we are tied up to the quay all the time (maybe there is a lesson here).
I'll stick our cruising plan at the end of this item so you have a rough idea where we will be during the year.
Regards to all,
Hugh
SALTWATER GYPSY, Seastream 43, Sailing Plans 2006
Update @ 8th May
Last year we started our cruising in June to get favourable conditions for a Biscay crossing (and we did). We put ourselves under some pressure to be at very specific places at very specific times but over the whole piece it worked very well. We were aboard for five months, covered about 3,500 miles, had twelve weeks with guests aboard and consumed 237 bottles of wine, 525 litres of diesel.....( sorry I'm getting carried away with this statistical stuff). Anyway we had a good time, learned a lot and are raring to go for 2006.
The boat is presently wintering at Port Andraitx in the west of Majorca and the general plan is that we will get underway at the end of April, spend a few weeks visiting old haunts and shaking down before heading East.
Dates Planned Location Crew
April 20th -28th Mallorca (Andraitx marina) Christine Brown
April 19th Frank & Renee
May 11 - 19th Mallorca cruise Eliza & Stuart
May 21 Majorca to Mahon 62miles
May 22 Depart for Sardinia Minorca to Sardinia 180miles
May 28th -June 12 Sardinia, Corsica Brian Cavenett
June 24 Elba
July 1 Back to Sardinia
July 10th - 31st Sardinia Julian Wolfram & family
August 5 Maddelena Isles Sherron & family?
31st July to 7th August
August 12 Sicily & volcanoes cruise Palermo Stromboli, Vulcano, Etna
August 19 Head back to Minorca
August 25 Minorca Mahon
September 2 Balearics
September 11th to 18th Majorca Fergus & Julie
September 23 Balearics
October 1 Mallorca (Andraitx) For the winter!
October 13th to 23rd Black family
El Capitano 8th May 2006
Yes we are still in Mallorca. Yes we are still in Andraitx....... But tomorrow we leave! We are heading off to start cruising proper. The boat now has proper cockpit drainage (remember pooping last year) , new batteries and a solar panel. What can go wrong now?.....answers are upside down at the bottom of the page (not).
Stuart and Eliza join us on Thursday for a gentle cruise of Mallorca's East coast. Lots of lovely anchorages warm sea and blue skies. Stuart is an aerial expert with Vodaphone so I have some special up-the -mast duties for him. Eliza is a computer whiz and Germanophile so we have plenty to keep her busy. It's what is known as an "activies holiday" but people don't know in advance what these "activities" are going to be.
We have made some good friends in Andraitx. Petra and Jurgen are enthusiastic Austrians who have been refitting their boat with new rigging, a dog, new dinghy etc. "What" you may say, "a DOG" . Yes as if sailing was not sufficiently expensive a dog adds the finishing touch. Anyway Elle is very nice and would make the perfect companion for Hector if only they could find some means of communication beyond staring.
"Things" have been uneventful recently as we have only moved about 500metres in a month (about 700 centimetres per hour) but now we start our social /cruising programme proper which includes crossing to Sardinia and sailing up to Corsica and on to Elba so progress should become more rapid and interesting for us and you, our avid readers.
Thanks for the messages, keep in touch.
Hugh
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