22/5/2014

Yesterday we folded up and packed our bikes and took the opportunity of no wind last night to get our sails up. Here is our bike garage, while we were “on the hard”.

 We collapsed into bed at 1am. only to be woken at 6am. by the boat-lift’s arrival.  Artemis V was put into the water without any mishaps and she seemed happy to be there, jiggling her bottom as she touched the water.

 We departed Barcelona soon thereafter, having finished all our maintenance tasks and ready for a summer holiday.  We took leave of “Eclipse” who was moored just a little way from us, having major work done.  She is the world’s second largest private yacht, belonging to Mr. Abramowitz, the Russian oil magnate.  She is 535ft. long with a beam of 76ft. Her tender dinghy is longer than we are!  Mr. Abramowitz has bought Port Velle Marina, the most expensive marina in Spain and has gutted it, just so that he can keep his boat there.  We stayed in that marina when we first got to Barcelona last year, but now all the docks are gone and only superyachts remain.

   About an hour outside Barcelona, looking to the south, we could see a sandstorm coming across from the African coast.  It was a yellow band stretching right across the horizon and rising up several hundred feet into the sky.  Several times while in Barcelona we had woken to find the boat covered in reddish/yellow sand from the African deserts.  This is something one would expect in the Australian Outback, not out at sea!

We have had a beautiful afternoon’s sail, the wind is blowing around 16kn. on the beam, the sun is out, there are white caps painted on the blue sea and the Spanish coast is gradually disappearing into the distance.  We have also seen quite a few fishing and cargo vessels today, either on their way to or from, Barcelona.

23/5/2014

This morning around 10am we were buzzed by two Mirage fighter jets.  They came in fast and low and were just about on top of us before we heard them.  They really gave us a big fright. They did a circuit and then waggled their wings and were gone. Around lunchtime a little refugee arrived.  A  turtle dove landed on our rail and he has been with us all through the afternoon.  I have tried giving him bread and water but he will not have any. I guess that if he stays, he will arrive in Corsica with us!  There has been some very serious wind in the Gulf of Leon and perhaps he was blown far south.  Hopefully he will stay through the night as we are still 100nm  (close on 200km) from land.  He is sitting on our gennoa sheet and I don’t want to disturb him so I won’t let Dimitri put that sail out. Dimitri says that will cost us $100 in extra fuel – c’est la vie.

24/5/2014

. This morning, the sea was covered in blue-bottles as far as the eye could see.  It looked as though it was covered with bubbles. The turtle dove stayed with us all the way to Corsica. The last leg of the trip, he spent warming his toes on the solar panels – it was still pretty cold out there.  He stayed till the very end, only flying off as we rounded the Citadel, just above the marina.   As we approached land, we came upon high jagged peaks, with the highest of them still covered in snow.  

We left Sydney on a sunny Sunday morning, bound for Paris.  We decided to stay in a non-tourist area of the city and chose Montparnasse.  Around the corner was a wonderful cemetery, with both very old and very new graves.  We were fascinated by some most unusual gravestones.  We went to the local street market and bought some of the local produce and a necessary jacket for Dimitri as the fresh spring Paris air was not what we had expected. We enjoyed going  to a  “cave” one evening – basically an old torture chamber dungeon which is now used as a  jazz dive- and saw some awesome ballroom dancing by members of the crowd during the jazz breaks.

We reached Barcelona on 7^th May and Artemis V was a very welcome sight.  She looked bright and shiny with the new work that was being done and her mast was back in place. Over the last two weeks, while the tradesmen were completing their jobs, Dimitri and I have been doing lots of bits and pieces of maintenance and repair. All the stairs have been repainted, the woodwork has been polished and the whole boat has been waxed.  We have however spent quite a bit of each day on our bikes, either going to the yacht chandler or to the supermarket, with a very necessary stop on the way for either tapas and sangria or coffee and pastries. .  We have got to know Barcelona very well (at least our corner of it) and enjoy exploring new restaurants and bars each day.

 On Sunday, while on our bikes,  we came across a Medieval-like street parade with giant puppets dancing down the road.  Later we noticed that the Opera House on La Ramblas had an open day on so we decided to go and look at the décor inside.  It is truly a beautiful building but the highlight was the concert that was being put on.  They had about six young sopranos performing, accompanied only by a piano.  We managed to get ring-side seats and enjoyed an hour of beautiful arias.

We plan on “going back into the water” tomorrow as long as the current front, which is passing through,  is over.  Once our sails are up, we will head off for Corsica, a 48 hour trip.  We will be sad to say “goodbye” to Spain but are looking forward to exploring Corsica.  It sounds like a beautiful and rugged place. It will also be lovely meeting up with all our friends and family who are planning on meeting us either there or in Sardinia.

Well, here we go again.  We had a wonderful time with all the kids in the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera.  We put the boat up on the hard in a shipyard in Barcelona at the beginning of September and went to Morocco for two weeks.  We had a great time travelling around the country in a minibus with a lovely bunch of young people. We arrived back in Sydney in late September and have had a wonderful summer with the family.  We enjoyed all the grandkids and also our lovely trip to Japan for two weeks of skiing.  The maintenance is all done at home now and we are just about ready to continue our journey.  We fly to Paris on Sunday (4th May) and from there we go back to our "second home", Artemis V, just in time for the European summer.  Our first stop will be Corsica, then Sardinia, Sicily, round the "boot" of Italy to Brindisi and then across the Adriatic to Albania, Montenegro and Croatia where we will leave the boat at the end of summer.  On the way we will be picking up lots of friends so the summer should be fun.