Living the Hard Life

“Never waste a good crisis,” pontificates friend, Peter Blain (with regrets to Machiavelli).  So here we are making the most of our time on the hard in the Sopromar Boatyard, having avoided a crisis or two.

It all began with a 5 hour delay in Sydney’s Airport.  Anxiety over this delay was further compounded by missing our connection to Faro.  Heathrow in London is terribly unexciting. (Imagine Central Railway.  And you would never guess in coming weeks the UK was to host major events, the Silver Jubilee and Olympic Games!!).  After some misdirection we found ourselves on a bus, Gatwick bound.  Luckily, we were put up in an airport hotel in Gatwick to wait the next day’s connecting flight (the resort hopper).  Swollen ankles averted at least.

Home Again

Trying to leave Gatwick however, proved to be somewhat more of a challenge.  Our (return) tickets were outside the Schengen approved 3 months stay and we could not fly……despite having an ocean going sailboat in a yard in Portugal.  After much teeth gnashing, the situation was resolved by buying tickets (expensive, fully refundable) out of Portugal to meet visa requirements.  Getting a refund later proved to be somewhat trying too!! 

View from Home (Old Town Lagos over the River)

Finally ensconced in the yard, the Captain began to set up WJ3, all ship shape.  “Where are the charts?” he asked.  GS stubbornly refused to accept any blame for their still being in the upstairs desk on Dangar.  With two new computers and no charts (on those disks at home) we weren’t going anywhere in a hurry. 

Even Bruce was feeling a little flat

Meanwhile, our trusty Captain’s wrist took on a life of its own.  Unlike Dr Strangelove’s energetic arm, this one refused to work at all.  With one hand left for work, GS endeavoured to reduce that to none.   A quick attempt to jam his working hand in a floor locker (unintentionally of course!) produced lots of blood, a nasty cut and rude words.

And the spider's camera shy....

So, here we sit watching spiders set up home on our new feathering prop and waiting for duck eggs to hatch.  The Cap’n can barely lift a beer.  Either way, the Nortada (Portuguese trade winds) are still blowing strongly.  We’re hoping to catch them down east to Gibraltar sometime this season…. while it lasts.