Starting Line

Ahoy,

well the Ol' Girl has reached the starting line, with a little help from me.

It took six and a half days, in that time we were becalmed for a little over a day, we passed electrical storms and Dave the Auto pilot snapped. These minor issues aside all went well, one night I thought I heard children playing, which was unlikely as I was one hundred and thirty miles off the coast of North Africa and four hundred miles from Lanzarote, of all the things to imagine.

Back in Vilamoura, my friend Graham gave me some Expedition Foods, freeze dried foods in a bag, just add water, they are amazing. No artificial anything, thanks Graham.

Another great help on the crossing was weather information from the Royal Marine Commando's, thank you Sandy, it was all spot on.

In fact I met some very cool boaties in Vilamoura and will miss them chatting about life on the sea whilst I take notes. Thanks for the beans Mike.

So now the Ol' Girl and me are in Lanzarote, alas in our first Marina in the Islands, we are not welcome, or at least feel less welcome than anywhere else to date and have to leave tomorrow, they did allow a few nights on the reception pontoon(without electric or water) so I should count my blessings. (One of the members of staff was cool, you know who you are, thank you) It has shaken my confidence a little, still everyone else on the adventure so far has helped so much, I am probably due such treatment just to bring me back down to earth.

So tomorrow it's off to Marina Rubicon, maybe, just maybe, our luck will improve. I hope so, as we need to be here on the Island's for over a month, leave too soon and there is the chance of Hurricanes.

As a friend says, do you want to be a Grizzly or a Koala (perhaps this only works with the hand gestures)