Reel 'em in, Sashimi time

Day 11 - Tuna Time on the final straight

With Are-beef-er in sight there was a great disappointment that 1,300 miles hadn't produced any fish for dinner. Boom. The lines went nuts. This one was going to need the belt harness lads. With victory in sight he was brought along side to hook up until all happened again, slipped lose almost ripping through the gloves. Round 2. Reel in again. 

Hooked up on deck, bludgeoned to death with a crank handle and here we are, dinner for 5 for 2 nights...

Guts out, meal for the sharks...

Some prime filleting time...

A serious sashimi cut...

Sushi time boys n gals...

Shame you missed this mr fishy ;)

Sea to plate in 2 hours, sashimi and savicci...

Now for the money maker, Caribbean style blackened fish n chips. 

Full. Now that's a way to keep the copious amounts of snacking on the final night watch down.  

Last night watch complete. Fluent in Spanish. Professional solitaire player. Expert radar watcher. Chocolate and sweet connesseur. 

Day 12 - Ibiza to Palma de Mallorca

Only 70 miles to go to Palma, this is the nicer side to Ibiza ...

Change of plan, running low on fuel so pulling into Ibiza to grab some grub and fuel for the afternoon. 

Old town Ibiza...

The final destination in sight, Titos get ready...

It's been a great journey, 16 days, 1600 miles, 1 storm, great crew, good sailing, great food, serious sea legs. Now for the beers. Cheers. 

Gibraltar battle ships

Day 10 - good morning Gibraltar 

fishing on the approach to the Gibraltar straights. 

Two tuna in the first hour, not big enough for the chef to cook up a feast. 

Breakfast pie on and the crew eagerly await a big catch after releasing the grande louwers. Time for some Gibraltar battle ships, all lined up at anchor waiting for fuel prices to drop before filling up an oil fields worth. This is where your Tesco 2p off a litre actually matters...

Lunch with Spain on the port side and Africa to hour starboard. 

Lovely Jib-brolll-taaaa

Dolphins are becoming worryingly common now, literally surrounded by at least 40 of them whilst tucking into lunch. 

Lots if great sailing through the straights, boom out, 12 knots. 

Back on the seas

Well days 4,5,6 & 7 we're spent in the not so glamourous port town of Leixoes. without being able to lower the tender the crew started to develop some serious cabin fever. The most exciting outside event would be the neighbouring Dutch yacht going ashore every now again. It took some persuasion to off load just one bin bag alone!!

Day 8 - catch you later Leixoes

A nice early start to enjoy the last of the low pressure. All cleared up to an awesome calm day on the sea albeit with no wind.

Casual cruising all day at a steady nine knots. Great sunset, tops off warm enough for some alfresco sunset dining...

And so the night watch begins, 4 hours on, 4 hours off, 4 hours on, 4 hours off. 

 Absolutely buzzing from the Indonesian  extra joss, the dolphins were living the dream playing with the current from the boat. Some sort of Trippl silowet of an obese man on the fordeck, actually just the storm jib folded up. Decent meteor shower. 

Few deceptive fisherman. Time for some crazy creamfields style von deep house to vinish ze night through ya. 

Day 9 - Micheal Cain-ing it to Lisbon

Heading past the controlled shipping lanes up to Lisbon with lines out in search of some fat fish.  

Got surrounded by at least 20 dolphins with a tornado of water being propelled into the skies in the distance. 

Lost a fishing line the bugger was so big!

Sunday lunch alfresco, roast chicken salad...

Smooth sailing to the most westerly point of Mianlnd Europe. 

This is what panorama was for...

Duck on the decks...

Bon soir...

Bye Bye Bingland Bello Bbbbiscay

For all you Face Jacker fans out there you will get the title (lol) if not then please ignore. 

Departure

The last hours on British soil were spent on a  lovely train down to Falmouth. Upon arrival Lady Mariposa was there to greet us...

With a few navigational issues on board the time was spent giving her a good old polish ready for the notorious Biscay crossing...

After a smashing evening pizza at the Stable, the crew rose at 5am for final preparations to slip lines ready for the crossing to Palma de Mallorca...

First few hours were a little choppy with some pale faces however the dolphins brightened up the day. Day one done to the breast of Biscay and a beautiful sun set to close it off...

Not much else to note, just cruising along and smashing out a casual 200 nm in the first 24 hours. The first mid-night watch saw another impressive show by the dolphins and lit up plankton. 

Day 2 - Biscay

The sun rose, wind dropped and slightly less swell. Engines on for a tad of motor sailing. Followed by cruising at nine knots over ground and a relitivly mild wind of 15 knots true wind speed. 

Selfie time at the bow a third of the way through Biscay...

Now sailing with the lines out in hope for some tuna sashimi for lunch. Waters pretty deep at 4,770metres. Yes that's metres, not feet.

As night fell the dolphins came to play with the whales not far in the distance, not too shabby!

T bone for dinner, can't complain...

A quick 2 hour snooze before hitting up the graveyard night shift, sitting on night watch 10-2am...

What happens on night watch:

Maybe catch a boat on radar 20 miles away if lucky. 

Watch out into sheer darkness

Coffee

Music/enthusiastically learn Spanish 

Snack

Watch out into sheer darkness

Coffee

Music/try to learn Spanish 

Fridge

Watch out into sheer darkness

Coffee

Music/give up on Spanish 

Day two, Biscay done. Coast of Portugal next. 

Off to sleep for four hours for the 6-9 watch. 

Day 3 - Portugal

The night was spent on a serious slant, having got to know the cupboard to the side of the bed very well it was time to get the blinds out to see what this fuss was about...

The majority of the evening was evidently spent below sea level as the starboard side sunk down. Around breakfast time the boat eased up to Portugal whilst going past explosives dumping grounds and sea mountains (underwater land masses that went from being 4,000m deep to a meer 30m). You can know see why the option of a fried egg was out the window...

What you would you like sir, scrambled egg or scrambled egg?

Day 4 - Portuguese fun!

This was the first time in the boat's 19,000 mile history that she's had to pull over for safety. 

Being woken up by a fan and a plum flying across the cabin and being held in all night by a sail was pretty fun. 

Top wind speeds of 63 knots was also fun. With the bow leaking and the tender almost snapping free amongst the almighty waves.

Pulled into an interesting industrial port for the night, equipt with a luxury private beach. Night. 

Day 5 - Mad Chilling

Still in the harbour, unable to get to land. Od jobs and repairs on board etc. 

Fact of the day:

The word "posh" was derived from the early cruise ship days whilst crossing to the Carib... "Port Out, Starboard Home"

Cruise ships, for the newly wed, over fead and the nearly dead. 

Bournemouth Air Show weekend @ Koh Thai & sailing on the Whitbread Round the World Yacht

The gang arrived at the Koh Thai beach bunker, complete with canvas shelters, festoons, beach bars and a 'high flyers' restaurant. Smartly done, something similar to the boutique camping areas at the likes of T in the Park "the residence".

After some impressive helicopter performances the Fulcan made it's first appearance in some years. Definatly worth the wait, the roar in the sky was unbelievable, imaging 5 Concordes in a sports hall, that was it. 

The Red Arrows setup was pretty awesome, with some precision moves...

As usual, bringing out the patriotism in the British Public...

Air show antics over, the crowd moved on to a casual game of boules over a glass or two, or three... 

Dinner was served under the night sky with the Red Devils giving off an impressive performance...

The standard of the Thai food was very impressive ;despite being on the beach the food was still their usual great restaurant standard. King prawns on the menu? More like emperor prawns! These were huge. Unfortunatly due to the great strong coctails the photos came out a bit blurred and didn't make it! Staff wise, not sure what went on here, more of a mad house in all honesty, definatly not the military style operation put on in the skies in the day. An all round cracking evening though guys, nice one. 

The next day saw an early rise for a day out on the Whitbread 60 Blue print round the world yacht. A seriously impressive machine having set the world record for the most miles covered by a yacht in 24hours! 

You could definatly understand why, with some serious sails powering this beast...

Due to the wind conditions (or lack of!) , captains weren't too shaken up and casually cruised through the Solent waters...

Time to get the spinnaker sail up to catch  some breeze. With all sails up she really did pick up! With the captain describing her as "bringing a machine gun to a knive party" he definatly wasn't wrong. 

With all the excitement over it was Now back to planning the season ahead...