Monday, November 30, 2009

Where has the sun gone????

Monday afternoon here in Lanzarote. It's a bit cooler here today so I can't top up my tan as I had originally planned! Never mind though because I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity for that later.

On Saturday night, Geoff and I went and found some dinner in Playa Blanca where we ordered beer and got it very chilled. So chilled in fact that it was more of a beer slushy. Worked for me though, I enjoyed it.

Sunday morning, I thought I should try and pretend to be fit and healthy and went out for a run. It's really pleasant here to run along the promenade and enjoy the view of the coast. Well, if you're fit that is. I was busy concentrating on keeping the forward motion going and wondering why it felt like such hard work. One good sign though was that I wasn't overtaken by any walkers. That would have been pretty bad. I'm not so sure however, that Lanzarote is quite ready for my bright pink and white floral board shorts. But hey, I really like them!

I tried getting a few other odd jobs done around the boat. I spent a bit of time taking apart some of the piping leading to the heads to change a couple of valves. This was all going quite well, until I got to the bit I needed and then discovered that I had been given the wrong sized valves! You have to laugh, well it was either that or cry from the smell! Geoff found something to do outside during that time.... It's all good though, we should have the correct sized valves coming down with Julian (the delivery crew skipper) and I'll see how I go at fobbing the job off to him. Wish me luck!

Back on the boat and doing odd bits and pieces today. These last few days we've had a few visits from people who have seen Geoff on the news, or have seen the boat and looked up the website and are stopping by to wish him luck for the crossing. It's really nice and I'm enjoying showing them around a nice clean boat! We keep offering visitors some chocolate to try and make the mass pile go down so that we don't eat it all ourselves, but they are all being very polite and restrained!

Right now though, I've noticed though that the sun has come out so it may be time to repriotise the list of jobs and place obtaining a dose of Vit D at the very top! Ciao for now.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Deckhand!




I think today has been the best day weather wise we've had so far in Lanzarote. A great day then to get out there and scrub the outside of ID. Poor girl, she was pretty dusty after sitting here for a month. I'm told it's all the dust coming up from Morocco. And on a white boat, red dust makes it's mark! But it didn't take me too long. I listened to my ipod and was humming away then became a bit concious of the fact that lots of people kept stopping and looking at the boat. Perhaps I was a bit out of tune....Woops.

But now, I'm happy that ID looks back to her normal beautiful self and is clean on the inside and outside. I will say that we are now officially open to all visitors!!! Geoff did come out and demonstrate his skills with the brush. But then a look of alarm came over his face and I think the exact quote was 'Oh no, I can't let you see that I can actually do this! Next you'll have me making lunch!' Hehehe.

This afternoon we had a visit from Elle and Alan who are ex-Pats living in Lanzarote. They had walked past the boat and emailed Geoff from the website and stopped by. After Geoff saying that I had found all the Maltesers they came with a bag just for him. They must have heard of my reputation around chocolate. They were lovely and have offered to help us in anyway they can, like showing us the best supermarkets for buying bulk food for the crossing and things. It's always handy to have someone with local knowledge when it comes to stuff like that.

This afternoon we have been relaxing. It's been great sitting out on the netting on the front of ID in the sun and catching up on emails in the sun. I could get used to this.
Geoff has been embracing the Spanish culture of siesta. I'll let you see the photo and decide if a certain amount of chocolate had anything to do with it..... Tomorrow though because the internet is being sloooooow! Woop woop! Got them up now :)

Friday, November 27, 2009

Lunch!




Today we were had the honour of joining the Rotary Club of Lanzarote for lunch. It was a really cool afternoon. I'm going to like anywhere that you turn up and then have a glass of champagne given to you straight away aren't I?! The club members were a lot of fun. What I love about travelling is that you turn up somewhere, people ask you if you speak the language, and your answer doesn't matter because they continue to speak to you in the local dialect anyway and yet you still manage to communicate! It's so much fun, I made a few new friends this afternoon and Geoff and I were even given flags. I was a bit disconcerted when I heard my name mentioned during one speech and everyone was looking at me but after that was followed with a round of applause I could only assume all was good. And then they even asked me to sign the visitors book! Does that count as being asked for your autograph? Yeah, probably not hey.
The place where we had the lunch was in the top floor of a hotel with an amazing view over the harbour in Arrecife. And the food was delicious. Life is good!
So that was the main event of today. Tomorrow we are planning to hose down the outside of the boat and try to move some of this sand and dust that has settled all over ID and then see what else we can do. It's all coming together!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

There is a reason not to go shopping when you're hungry




Hi again! Well, firstly, apologies to my friend Dan. I somehow managed to wipe him off following my blog this morning. All I was doing was trying to change the template. Lesson learnt, I won't play with my profile anymore....well not much.

So here we are on day two in Lanzarote. For those of you who have met Teddy before, rest assured, he's coming on this trip, you can see him on the plane with me. It feels like we've been here for ages but I think it's because we've managed to fit in so much in such a short time. Yesterday was the first attempt at making the boat look pretty, (still need to hose her down outside), and we discovered the mouldy bread/mouse thing which was entertaining. See above photo of Geoff gagging. Today was the game of lets stow the food. When we went shopping back in England I think we were possibly hungry because there is a lot of food! We are definitely not going to go hungry on this crossing. Digby, I hope you like pasta...
And as for the amount of chocolate and biscuits we have. Well lets just say it's obscene. Do we really think we're going to get through two boxes of Snickers, a box of family bag Peanut M&M's, a box of family bags of Maltesers, a box of chocolate digestives, a box of ginger nut cookies, a box of Jaffa Cakes, a huge jar of Sherbhert Lemons, a box of Daims, oh you know I've lost count of what we have. You get the picture. What is all this I hear about losing weight at sea? I beg to differ.
Anyway, so I have literally spent my whole day getting all the food up from the forepeak where we had the long term stuff stowed and then finding places to store it. ID is a great boat, she has fantastic storage capacity. Geoff was very helpful when it came to stowing the beers, wines and juices but then when it came to stowing the food, he conveniently had a visitor about some maintenence on the boat.....how convenient. I'm sure he was conspiring and had this guy on standby to come along at a quick sneaky text message. All is good. Now we've just got the fresh stuff to get closer to departure day.
So now, after a good honest days hard work, we're heading back to the flat for some dinner and will sleep well tonight although the prospect of lunch with the Spanish Rotarians tomorrow could very well leave me too excited to sleep.....


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hi!

Well, after many requests I have finally started a blog! Not to mention the fact that I've been promising to do so for ages and haven't followed through on my word.... So thanks for coming along for a read, I'll try to keep you all entertained.
Who would have thought one year ago, that I would now find myself here in Lanzarote, just two weeks away from a huge epic adventure.

It's been a whirlwind few months since June when I first moved down to Southampton. I was still buzzing out from the Take That concert and then went on a sea survival course. Bit of a change of scene and it was about then I really started to wonder what I had let myself in for. But then there was the competent crew course, the ships first aid and medical care courses and not to mention the diesel engine maintanence course to all help me learn a bit more about boats and ropey things (knot tying). Plus I got to tag along with the delivery crew down to Bilbao which was a very educational and fun 8 days.

The last couple of weeks in England were a whirlwind. I had to pack!!!! Somehow my days just vanished. I got to spend a couple of days down in Gosport with MJ who showed me the fun sides of looking after boats in winter (cold and wet is what I seem to recall!), Geoff and I went to the rugby in Twickenham (Go the All Blacks!), farewell drinks on Saturday night in Hambel, I met up with Lenny, Kate and family for a farewell lunch before a farewell dinner with Mike, Martine and Tamsin. (I was a bit full on Sunday). And now after a very early morning start, thank you Elaine and Tim for dropping us off at the airport at silly-o-clock, Geoff and I are now here in Lanzarote.

The days are wonderful and warm, however the nights are a little bit chilly. I am told that this does improve later on when we set sail......I hope so.
Now we're just trying to get ready, and put all our food away (yes the rumors are true, there is an obscene amount of chocolate on board), sort out where we will put things and just generally get organised. It's amazing how much sand and dirt there is around. In the next few days I'm going to have to get the hose out and scrub the decks - got to earn my chocolate rations somehow! I've put my ropey things (knot tying) skills to use with Geoff's directions on what to tie where. MJ, you would be proud of the little trick you showed me for the bowlines. I had to think for a bit though and that did hurt.

One fun part of today though was when I was in the galley going through all the boxes and cupboards. I pulled out one plastic box and lifted out the opened box of biscuitsand had a little jump because I thought there was a mouse in there. (Geoff jumped too, I saw him). Ok, so here is a lesson for some of you (not mentioning names.....delivery crew!!!), if you open up a packet of bread buns, they will go mouldy after a few weeks in a lovely warm boat!!! I'll try dig out the picture of Geoff gagging.

Now we've just eaten dinner, chilling out on the boat before heading back up to the apartment. Watch this space for the next update....