We have exciting news and sad news at the same time. We have bought a new boat, a Nicholson 39 which is lying in Preveza, Greece. She's been renamed 'Scrabbler' to maintain the brand name. That means that the old 'Scrabbler' has had to be renamed 'Scrabbler II' and she is now for sale. We plan to sail Scrabbler to Lagos, Portugal over the summer and Scrabbler II will be hauled out in Lagos at the end of June. We're very excited about the new old boat and our trip in the summer but sad to say goodbye to our bonsai tall ship after all of our adventures.

We still had 'unfinished' business in Cádiz and took the chance today and went over by ferry. First time ever in Spain we had some churros for breakfast. They never really appealed to us but we have been told of by Spaniards for not trying. It wasn't [...]

Making the most of being together and having free time we went off to explore Jerez de la Frontera, one of the corners of the Sherry Triangle and of course famous for the horses as well. We wandered the ancient streets, had some tapas and educated ourselfs at the Bodega González Byass, most famous for 'Tio Pepe', a pale very dry white wine. The founder of Gonzalez Byass, Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, named 'Tio Pepe' after his 'Uncle Joe' who created his wine in 1841. The other attraction are the sherry drinking mice. They have their own little glass with ladder but are rarely there during the day. We tried to get locked in for the night but weren't allowed to.

Amazing, how much we left undiscovered during our stay in Rota last year. The Feria Primavera 2013 is on right now and they have a whole village on the edge of Rota just for the purpose of partying. Little houses functioning as bodegas with shady court yards, bars, restaurants, dance floors, live music and flowers and horses (and mules) everywhere. They people of Rota come dressed in the most amazing traditional outfits. Apparently one has to buy the dress in January or February to make sure that you don't stand in front of empty shops. By now everything is sold out! The ladies wear a different dress every day of the fiesta. We had lovely tapas and got chatting to some locals and their friends from Sevilla, watching the world go by. We have to get ready to do a whole or at least half a night. This is where siestas come in handy so people actually make it through the night.

We set off from La Linea at 17.00 for an overnight hop to Rota and we arrived at 0830. It took a while to get through the straits with an adverse current and it was a bit bumpy of Cape Trafalgar, otherwise a pleasant and uneventful trip with a beautiful sunset off Tarifa, at exactly 36 degrees latitude, the southernmost point of the European continent.

My parents came for a short visit to Jerez and the surrounding wonderful places. Amongst them of course Gibraltar and Jana, James and Scrabbler. Only draw-back was, that James had nice dreams and a deep lovely sleep and missed his plane from London to Gib today. So it was just the little family going off to explore The Rock. Up with the cable car to the amazing view in a stiff Easterly breeze and down through the old town and this time also to Europa Point. The Rock is covered in the most beautiful wild flowers and it is so green! WHat a difference to last time James and I were here.

We finally made it to La Linea after a total of 73 hours at sea, 262 nautical miles, all going upwind.

Blue sky, fluffy little clouds, gentle winds, people on the beach, children in the water... It is all an illusion and probably a result of our tiredness.

to be treated like that? We never throw rubbish in the water, pick stuff from the beaches, like all the sea creatures, sing and play didgeridoo for dolphins and whales and generally enjoy being in and on Neptune's kingdom. And what do we get? An again wrong forecast (actually 5 different sources being [...]

Still hiding out!