Month: December 2016

Where are we now?

You should be able to find exactly where we are by clicking on Where are we now? This will take you directly to our predict wind tracker site and show you how we’re getting on…(I hope!!)

One of my greatest fears, apart from crossing the Ocean Blue, homeschooling my kids,  Mike, myself or the kids falling ill or being badly injured during the duration of this journey or finding myself walking down the street wearing socks AND sandles, has been the kids losing their Spanish.

Early on in the voyage, they would speak to each other in Español as they were playing, singing songs and conversing quite freely if we came across other Spanish speakers.  Little by little their Spanish has begun to diminish as they play with other English speaking kids. They’re no longer comfortable ordering at a cafe or asking for la cuenta, (the bill).

One of Mikes greatest, lets call it a worry rather than a fear, is that the autopilot stops working and the two of us are left hand steering for possibly 2-3 weeks. It comes down to a question of safety. I guess we could do it but you have to really question the reasons why we are taking on this journey. Making ourselves ridiculously exhausted and potentially putting our kids and ourselves in danger due to poor decision making isn’t on the list. There’s still the issue of seasickness to contend with from my part.

Enter Juan. After our trip from Rabat to Las Palmas we started to seriously consider taking someone else with us across the Atlantic. There are posters all over the place in the marina from people looking for a ride across the Ocean Blue. Mike had taken a few photos of possible people and suggested we think about it. I wasn’t all that keen but one morning Juan walked up to our boat and asked if we were looking for crew. Timing is everything and to cut a long story short, we decided to add him to the crew list.

He’s a Spanish native, looking to improve his English but happy to only speak to the kids in Spanish! Bingo, and so continues their and my Spanish experience and Mike is happy to teach him English!

Our planned date of departure was today- ever ambitious, the fact that it was blowing like stink and the sea state was less than favorable has given us a little bit more time to get organised. We spent most of last week provisioning for our trip across, along with maintaining the Christmas Spirit and the boat has been upside down-stuff everywhere, both of us wishing we had a magic wand, a Tardis-like boat or far more storage than we have! As a result we didn’t end up exploring as much as we’d have liked however we did go for a drive and walk up a hill as we like to do. Pictures tell a great story so I’ll leave it there and let you see for yourselves.

Museum of Technology

Xmas street theatre

very cold at the top of the island

Gorgeous scenery

Roque Nublo

Great views

on top of the world

Drama in the marina

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. It’s been different this year for us, and I’ve missed my family and friends, however we have met some wonderful people and shared the festive season with like-minded people far more experienced at cruising than we are. Very valuable to gain their insights and perspective on things and the kids have played non stop with other children.

So from SOL, for now it’s time to head to bed as we are very likely setting off tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy the pics and hopefully next time you check the tracker we’ll have some miles under our belt!

Dec 13^th

So here we are in the Canary Islands and my children along with 4 others have just been told to get back to their boats, (arms being waved, voice well and truly raised), the wonderful gentlemen delivering this tirade calling them coños under his breath, (Seb was able to tell me that little bit of info- coños by the way means c#@ts in Spanish- YES THE C word!!!).

Why might you ask, has this happened? Well it all comes down to perspective!

From our perspective the kids are being wonderfully innovative, they’re playing together, 6 children in total, ages ranging from 6 to 10 years old. There are 2 boys, (one I know for sure often drives his older sister mad) and 4 girls- two Kiwis, two Spanish Aussies and two Canadians. They haven’t known each other for long and they’re using their imaginations and playing with what they can find. They’re not being noisy or destructive and in all honesty we are ALL having a bit of free time. Simple, unsupervised, subtly monitored, unadulterated play.

From his perspective however and I could be totally wrong about this, (although the fact that he called them coños suggests we see things differently), Happy Jack sees wild children who don’t go to school, causing some kind of disturbance to the concrete area they are playing in…

Hmmmm perspective, it’s an interesting thing.

Funnily enough I was quite keen to do a post on this very subject and the afternoons drama provided me with just the intro.

For the time being, this blog is written from my perspective. There will be input from the kids when they are keen to contribute and Mike of course if he’s able. The sailing specific information is probably going to be a bit ‘light on’, I’ll be honest, despite how we are living and what we are doing, it’s not my strong point, (potentially there’s a yet at the end of that sentence…potentially).

We haven’t seen a lot of Las Palmas to date. We arrived on Sunday morning after leaving Rabat, just before midday Wednesday. The passage, as predicted, took us 4 days- total hours just shy of 96. As I said at the end of our last post, the trip was our longest to date. Despite the bit of sailing I did a long time ago, my night time sailing is limited and I’m not YET comfortable with it. I didn’t enjoy it then and I’m not that enthusiastic about it now. I may have at times used slightly stronger language to describe how I feel about it but seeing as I’ve already dropped a few choice words thus far I’ll stick to the tame version.

There are moments, incredible moments when I’m blown away by it all. A pod of dolphins came and joined me on my watch in the wee hours one morning. The moon had gone down and the starboard navigation light, (a green light located on the right side at the front of the boat) seemed to be attracting fish. There were dolphins on both sides of the boat, jumping and zooming back and forth, the phosphorescence reminding me of the last time the kids and their cousins were given a tin of glow sticks! They were with me for quite some time.

I watched the moon come up on our last night before arriving here and then saw it set about 04.30 on my successive watch. There wasn’t a breath of wind at this stage and the sea was like molasses- smooth and black, a sliver streak connecting Slice of Life with the almost perfect ball in the sky.

However, my night time sailing reminds me of when I learnt to drive- and trust me, I had a lot of lessons!!!!! You want me to look where I’m going, check the rearview mirror, side mirrors, change the gears, use the indicator, foot on clutch, foot on break – FAR OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m doing my very best to stay awake, check the radar, make sure we don’t collect a Moroccan fisherman’s nets, stay out of the way of cargo ships and did I already say it, STAY AWAKE! I need to check the sails too? I feel half drunk or drugged and I just can’t get the hang of what happens if it flaps this way or what happens if it flaps that! There is the continued issue of seasickness too…

There might have been a discussion in the very recent past that went along the lines of “ Listen I did my fair share of sleepless nights twice over, for a few years at a time and it nearly sent me loopy. I don’t like being awake in the middle of the night- I want to be asleep!!!!!!!!”

Of course I’ll do my watches and I’ll get used to it and I may even grow to love it. More dolphin and molasses-like sea moments and less cargo ships and fishing nets!

PS. There were an extra 2 kids playing with the 6 already the very next day…

Marina Bouregreg

We are in MOROCCO. It is so cool here, there is so much to learn and do. I’ve learnt so much about the culture and religion.

We are staying in the Marina opposite Rabat, the main town and capital of Morocco. The Souks are my favorite bit. Souks are markets that have everything from fruit and vegetables to traditional Moroccan wear.

I’ve made friends with two new girls, Amelia and Allie and what is cool is that we are all doing the same thing, crossing the Atlantic.

That night they came over for a sleep over. Amelia has a brother who is also 8 so, Seb went to his catamaran and stayed the night.

CULTURE, RELIGION AND INFORMATION

My observation is that many of the women here wear headscarves. Most often it is worn as a symbol of modesty and privacy, but as a tourist you can choose to wear it or not.

FES

We stayed a night in Fes in a very nice Riad. The man who helped us to check in was so kind he even helped me translate the Arabic alphabet. So if you ever go to stay in Fes then here’s the place to go:

NAME: Riad Fes Aicha

TELEPHONE: +212 5 35 76 25 64

E-MAIL: riadfesaicha@gmail.com

SITE: www.riad-fes-aicha.com

Something I noticed was that the ceilings are very high and decorative.

CULTURE, RELIGION AND INFORMATION

The blue gate is 1.6 km away from the hotel, and you have to go through the markets to get there so you will have a pretty good walk, but be careful, some people can be a bit forceful if they now you are a tourist.

The world’s oldest university is here, you can’t go in but you can go to the tannery- just make sure you have mint with you because the smell is horrible. They use limestone and pigeon poo to get the hair off the hides, it is enough to make you sick.

Jumping right ahead now- If I don’t start writing posts with some updated and relevant information, (while we actually have internet) we’ll be finished this trip and back on land trying to get jobs and wondering where the time went!

So… we arrived in Morocco last Friday- the 2nd of Dec to be precise- my 44th birthday. We’ve finally left the Mediterranean with no fixed plans to return and none not to return- (this blog isn’t called from Vacillation etc etc, for nothing! )

We arrived with our new found Kiwi friends- (boat named Drakkar from Auckland, with two children on board almost exactly the same ages as our two- met in La Linea) and settled into our berths after the lengthy but very amicable customs procedures. Celebrated my birthday with Max, Shannon, Cesare and the kids and made plans to explore the nearby Medina of Salé in the morning. We are in a marina located between Rabat, (Moroccan Capital) and Salé. We also met an American family who have been doing the cruising things for 18months and also happen to have a 10 year old daughter! Things are definitely looking up!

We went to the local market in the morning- bought some fruit and veg, sampled some of the local sweets/cakes and had our first Moroccan tea- Ahhh yum. The market place was not totally different to what we’ve seen in the past although I must admit when I heard lots of squawking and turned around to see a chicken being separated from it’s head, I did think that perhaps things were just a bit more pastoral than we were used to! The locals were very kind, offering us sweets and dates and olives to try. You could find everything you needed, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables and pets- lots of birds, (parrots and fish(for a tank) right opposite the veggie stalls.

A neighbor came to introduce herself in the afternoon, Seb had a sleepover at his  friend Boton’s place, while his sister Amelia and Allie, (American families daughter) came to our boat for a sleepover!

Sunday we went into Rabat, more Souks a FANTASTIC lunch for 15 euros that consisted of Harira, (delicious soup), Moroccan salad, a chicken tagine, desert, coffee and mint tea. In the evening had a wonderful gathering on our American friends boat where we met yet other crazy people doing what we are doing! Different nationalities, different stories, very different people, all sharing quite a lot in common.

We went off to Fez on the train yesterday. It’s a 3 hour rain trip from here and it was really interesting to see some of the country. Fez was quite the sensory experience. Lilly is very keen to do a post and is most of the way through hers, so I ‘ll let her describe it from her perspective. We are leaving here in the morning for the Canary Islands- it’s a 4 day trip and it will be our longest passage to date by quite a few days.

For now, I’ll leave you with a visual of our time in Morocco. Bye for now- Slice of Life out!