Getting hosed in Spain
12 August 2016
Beautiful
Torben carrying back our newly purchased hose the "Danish" way
There are some pieces of equipment on a boat that you just can't live without. One of them is a hose. Let me tell you about our hose. It is of the garden variety. Purchased at home depot. It has lived through multiple passages and ocean crossings in the forward anchor locker with 200 feet of chain, a 5 gal gasoline can for the dingy, a pair of leather gloves (that we never use but have it just in case?") a wench handle, 25 foot line, two snuppers and some miscellaneous pieces of seaweed, and mud at any given time.
We have taped our hose in multiple places in attempt to extend it's life. We even went to the extreme of not using it the entire time we were in the Baltic because it's male fitting didn't like the Scandinavian way of screwing!
But it's fate came past due when it squirted water onto a neighbors transom, who just did a gel coat repair! Ooops. Our mission was clear. The hose had to go. it was a bit like giving up an old friend.
Luck would have it or not, Torben found one of those fancy "boat"hoses that has the material instead of the rubber outside coating. Takes up less room right? Plus he claimed our friend Gary has the same kind of hose. If it's good enough for Tiki, it's good enough for Tivoli. One hour and twenty Euros later, we found the hose could not put up with the pressure and sprung leaks at various places until I was holding a dry end of the hose.
We laughed it off and called the hose a fruu fruu hose as we tossed it into the garbage bin.
We vowed at the next chandlery we see we're buying a new hose. Not one of those stupid hoses but a "rustica" hose! As you can see from the picture, Torben is quite pleased with his new purchase.
So how's the sailing you're wondering? Well for seasoned sailors, the Mediterranean sure knows how to kick our butts. Some days we do 75 miles in 8 hours, other days we do 30 miles in 10 hours! Only once did we get spanked so bad that we tuned around and headed back with or tail between our legs.
The water is bluer and clearer then any waters we've seen and the perfect temperature for swimming. I'm also happy to report there is still a Milky Way, for those who doubt it's existence. It's not nearly as crowded as we expected, but maybe it's because we are anchored of Mallorca and not in a mooring field.
Tomorrow is one more push to Port Soller where we will do some boat chores and ready ourselves for visiting with Torben's sister Berit and her husband Ove.