Not wishing to alarm anyone, but Oliver (pictured) and Carlota from the Viking Explorers organised a liferaft practice on the beach next to the marina. Few of us were willing to get in the water, and Cate and I had the excuse that we have already completed a sea survival course (done in Falmouth in …
Final preparations! In the last couple of days we have been running around the boat and around the supermarkets. It is amazing how many things we are remembering and trying to sort out, when just a week or two ago we thought we had it all done. Even the passage plan to Cape Verde proved …
The rally begins! …or, any least we have started with the seminars and get-togethers with our fellow Vikings. The rally is co-organised by Carlota and Oliver, who have talked us through a series of subjects from boat safety, to provisioning, with plenty of tips on all aspects of the crossing. The seminars have been held …
We have made the start line! After only one more passage, from Pasito Blanco on the South of Gran Canaria to the capital at Las Palmas, we are now on a pontoon in the marina meeting our fellow Vikings Explorers sailors. The last couple of weeks have been more than a little frustrating. When we …
We have taken a little break from sailing… Merryn is safely tucked away on the hard in Pasito Blanco, on the south coast of Gran Canaria. She is having some minor repair work done so we have taken a few weeks off. Our first stop was back in the UK, where we packed a lot …
https://youtu.be/zOlJHioK1DI Apologies for the tardy posting of this video. I filmed it during our passage from Spain to Madeira, but have only just got round to editing the footage and posting it to YouTube. Funny how the “3 m high waves” don’t look so high in the film!
It has been a slow restart for our sailing adventures, but we have compensated for the lack of sailing by packing in a lot of sightseeing. We started in Valencia, staying in a lovely hotel in the centre of the city – the best bit of the hotel was the air-conditioning! It is a luxury …
So much has happened since our last blog – over a month ago! …leaving Spain, we flew to England and had a whirlwind tour – visiting my Dad, Cate’s Mum, seeing friends, and going to a comedy show (Ed Gamble), two concerts (Abba and the National), and an impressive exhibition of the Apollo moon landings …
We almost waited too long for the passage across to Menorca! The winds had abated so much that we motored all the way, using the sails only to add a bit of stability and increase the boat speed by half a knot or so. It was a gentle passage, with a moonlit night, and plenty …
We start this season back where we began our first full Mediterranean summer – in Santa Maria Navarrese on Sardinia’s east coast. This has become one of our favourite spots – relaxed, beautiful, great value, and with the perfect boatyard to winter Merryn, owned by Umberto in Arbatax. Umberto, as before, had done a great …