At sea again - hurrah!
12 May 2013 | Morocco
Lin
At last we are at sea again, on our way to Morocco from La Linea after three weeks in the Alcaidesa Marina preparing ‘Sareda’ for our 2013 voyage.
Paul has done so much work to the boat that he positively puts me to shame. He has re-wired and fitted a new wind generator, put a new water pump on the engine and changed the fan belts, fitted a new stainless steel bow roller and serviced the out board motor which subsequently started first time – he still isn’t convinced that he could manage car engines, even though I promised to buy him the appropriate manuals!!! He has also repaired the satellite antennae and replaced the Navtex wiring, so it is now working again, and replaced the jib halyard which was almost worn through in one place, updated the fresh water system and repaired a leak in the tank.
The valves needed replacing in the Avon inflatable and we managed to source new ones in Shepherds, the main chandlery in Gibraltar, but Paul felt the repair needed to be done by someone more capable than he and we were fortunate to meet up with Eric and Claude in the marina who are experienced in boat repairs and completed the job at a very reasonable cost.
Meanwhile, I have cleaned and polished the outside of ‘Sareda’ and re-oiled the teak inside and out for another season.
Between us we have done all the usual preparation works needed to put Sareda back in commission such as putting up the sails and dodgers and stocking up with food including sourcing the best vegetarian options for storage. We did try to pace ourselves with these chores, making sure we took our coffee breaks either in the little marina café/bar or wandering into La Linea for coffee in the small square there that we enjoyed so much last September.
I was delighted to be in La Linea during the Spring season as the flora and fauna was so different - when we arrived the wisteria and the ‘birds of paradise’ flowers were in full bloom.
Paul and I still laugh when we see the ‘bird of paradise’ flowers as on our first trip to Madeira, many years ago now, we stayed in a beautiful hotel in Funchal and much to Paul’s disgust attended a welcome party laid on for tourists. The tour rep was an elderly gentleman, new to Madeira, and started to tell us about the beautiful ‘bird of prey’ flowers that were so popular with the tourists. Noticing titters of mirth in his audience he quickly apologised, backtracked and corrected himself to ‘bird of paradise’, but it was too late, they will always be ‘bird of prey’ flowers to Paul and I.
Now, three weeks later the wisteria and bird of paradise flowers are past their best but the deep red hibiscus is almost in full bloom. However, I love the wild flowers growing on the road verges and around the edges of the marina. I don’t know their names - I need to look them up, but the bright reds, different shades of purple, yellow and other coloured flowers make an outstanding show.
The people in La Linea are still friendly and welcoming and we soon picked up our rather basic Spanish again, at least - ‘Quiero la café con leche y un café solo, por favor’.
We also met some lovely people in the marina – Sid, Harry and his wife Val who live in Gibraltar but keep their boats in La Linea. Sid and Harry are both retired pilots having handled the numerous large ships which come into the port to refuel and bunker. They have many fascinating and humorous stories to tell about their experiences and we have enjoyed listening to them over cups of coffee.
We met Debbie and Luke from the Guyana and Germany respectively who built their own steel Bruce Roberts designed boat and have lived aboard for a number of years and had overwintered in La Linea. We also chatted with Peter on his Holman & Pye yacht from Falmouth, Rod and Lin on Lively Lady, Flora and her Dad on their very modern yacht and a number of others – every one very friendly.
Good to be back!