Wander Lost

Month: April 2023

  • Meeting friends

    Last week a friend flew out to visit. Nicola stayed in a local hotel and we went out for meals, sailing and sunbathing.

    I have also been working on another boat in the Marina, Thorenas is a motor boat that needs a lot of work to make it watertight and pretty. I have been painting, fixing leaks in the deck, doing electrical work and restoring a teak deck. It’s slow progress on the deck due to discovering rot in the sub floor, a source of her many leaks.

    Next week I am off to the USA to spend a week with another friend Imke. She is a saddle fitter and has invited me along on a road trip to visit clients in the area around New Hampshire. Nelly (former crewmate) is back in Barcelona and available to look after Dotty, so everything slotted into place. We get a ferry from here on the 24th to Barcelona and I fly to Boston from Barcelona on the 25th, returning on the 4th May.

  • Learning to Sail

    I have been on an expensive Royal Yacht Association sailing course to learn how to sail 😳. Why? To get a bit of paper that says I am competent 🙄. The last time I was checked by the police I was hassled because I did not have a captains license, in Spain and many other countries, you need a license or certificate of competence to be in charge of a boat. However, a foreign flagged boat with a foreign captain comes under international law, not national law. This states that home port rules apply, in my case UK which does not require a captains license. But you try explaining that to the police who want to enforce national laws on you. 😲. I have heard that in Italy, the police are even worse. So, to avoid future hassle, I decided to get my International Certificate of Competance (ICC) and the simplest way to get that was by taking the RYA day skipper course. I did this in Palma last week, I passed the course and my ICC should arrive in the next few weeks.

    On the plus side, I did learn a few things, practiced some manoeuvres like man overboard, I got to sail a bigger boat (a Bavaria 46) and met some new people.

    It’s going to be a busy month. Next week a friend flies in to spend a week in Alcudia and we will spend a lot of time together. I will continue working on somebody else’s boat and, spolier alert… I am planning a road trip.. but not in Spain 🤔. More on that another time.