Newlyn on Tour!

in 'The Doghouse' (not a patch on 'The Star')

Edward Harvey bought me a drink!

????

????

So, after a few drinks Mike is showing off in the dinghy on the way back to the boat............

spot the deliberate mistake!

Hard aground on a sandbank. Just not paying attention........

Had a great night aboard Life O'Reilly with Alan and the mystery woman. Got very drunk on Caipirinhas (what a dangerous drink) - Alans recipe is pretty damn good :)

the morning after......

And suddenly -

aaaargh! our boat needs 2.35m to float

Hard aground ! (well, soft aground really cos its mud - thankfully)

PS I need more signatures in my guestbook!!

Alvor

Alvor is full of bottle white or lobster red English and Irish folks

view from up the mast (again)

Alan and his mystery companion took us shopping to the local hypermarket this morning in their van.
It was great cos we were able to stock up on lots of heavy items such as bottled water, beer and tinned foods and deliver them straight to the dinghy dock.

Can't believe the prices in the supermarket here - more expensive than UK for most things. Don't think the weak pound helps particularly but 6 euro for mouthwash is ridiculous.

Another calm and peaceful night last night on the anchorage though the wind has got up this afternoon.
Joe is on shore leave too at the moment so we have got the boat to ourselves and we can finally run around naked!!! (only joking)
Debating whether or not to call into Gibraltar before we go to the Canaries. We can get really cheap diesel there and they've got a big Morrisons store so we can stock up on all our favourites at good prices......

And finally - the blue canoe!!!

She's a beauty! (with thanks to our friends Norm & Sara)

God it hurts your shoulders!

He's naturally much better at it than me :)

Onwards to the Algarve

Mike investigates the dead body floating by the boat

No wind again so we're motoring - at least we can charge all our computers, ipods, mobiles, toothbrushes, beard trimmers etc etc whilst under power
A real treat is an absolutely huge pod of dolphins with us for about half an hour, swimming and playing around the boat. I even heard for the fiirst time their calls to each other. Wonder why humans have such an affinity with these creatures??
We are able to sail comfortably for a few hours during the day when we get a little breeze on our beam before once again it drops away to nothing and we have to put the engine on again. (Trying not to motor too much the price of diesel being what it is - we burn at least two litres an hour with our Perkins 50 hp engine)
Cottage pie for tea (thanks to Mike) and we will round Cape St Vincent the most westerly point of Europe at about 4am.
Have to wait in the entrance to the estuary for the tide to come in a bit then we are anchored next to our old friend Alan on Life O'Reilly by 11.30am

Skipper is pleased to get us all in safely

A tricky navigational channel into the lagoon and we only touched the bottom once! (ironically in the buoyed bit)

At anchor in Alvor


Dee has jumped ship to go and stay with friends Fred and Carol. The lure of unlimited hot water and Coronation Street has proved to difficult to resist and she has decided a life on the ocean wave is not for her.....

Robbie has also left to go and attend to the demands of his business empire

Wish I'd had my camera with me hahaha

Colin & Mo - they're on their way around the world!!

We'd gone ashore at Cascais to say bye to our old friends Colin & Mo. Needless to say a few drinks are involved........
Now Mike has previously had a bad experience with our dinghy getting caught under the stone pier on our last visit to Cascais a few years back so he decided to use a small anchor on a bungee cord to hold her off this time.
The idea of bungee is its stretchy so you can pull the dinghy in when you want to get back on it.
Well you can imagine I'm sure the combination of darkness, alcohol and slippery steps where the tide has gone out.......Mike starts pulling in the very reluctant dinghy but he's put the anchor out that little bit too far.
Suddenly he loses his footing and is catapulted out into the water by the dinghy overpowering him. Shit it's a good job I'm holding the laptop bags!
He is soaked and has hurt himself on the concret steps but is laughing uncontrollably whilst I am cursing that I didn't have my camera out and asking him to check he still has his wallet.
On the second try he still can't get the boat close enough to step in so before I can stop him he does a flying dive into it but as he simultaneously lets go of the rope the boat catapults out again and he is left floundering in the water. Finally he manages to get into the dinghy, pull up the anchor and come and get me from the steps.

Mikes stuff drying out

Too drunk and fed up to blog today :(

The things you gotta do to blog

I have honestly walked all over Cascais looking for an internet connection so that I can upload my blog
We have finally found an Irish pub with very expensive drinks but free wifi :)

just finished this book - its excellent

Banksy was here???

think it needs a clean...

P.S. can you lot sign my guest book please