Equinox_2019

The wind continues to blow hard, so it was much to our surprise to find, when Steve arrived at the boat this afternoon, that a coat of anti-fowling had been put on. Progress!!! We had to spend some time, this morning, investigating fridge compressors. The major fridge on board stopped working last year. It appears there are three components and we cannot just replace the broken one, resulting in all three pieces being three times the price. Luis has left it for us to see if we can find a better price over the weekend, but I suspect that this will be in vain. As it’s the weekend, Aguadulce has woken up. The walkers and runners were out in force along the seafront promenade today. The ice cream shop and waffle shop are open. Teenagers, dolled up to the nines, were gathering in the marina area in the early evening, so I guess the nightclub would be in full swing later, when we are tucked up in bed. Steve put the second coat of treatment on the deck and then we could enjoy th...

There seems to be reassuring parallel in the fact that we are not ready to leave Aguadulce on the day that Britain is not ready to leave the EU.  At least there is far less acrimony over our personal situation than there is over the nation’s.  We are both of the opinion that we will go when the boat is ready, but not before.  In the meantime the work continues. We had the team of riggers working on the boat in the morning, re-splicing the mainsail furling line to the right length and working on the winches.   The wind was still blowing strongly, so still no anti-fouling has been applied. The forecast is that the wind will die down over the weekend and Monday should be quiet (although possibly wet). I did manage to get a first coat of the teak preservative on the deck, so this is all good progress. Aside from the inevitable hanging around and passing the time, we met with Luis from the chandlers who was updating us on the progress of various orders. ...

We have extended our stay in the hotel, as it is certain that we won’t be ready to get Equinox back in the water this week. The wind will only truly die down on Monday, and there is work that can only be done when there is no wind.  Anyway, fortunately this is a holiday town with hundreds of hotel beds, and the season has not started yet. We see evidence of the preparations for the new season, but suspect that it will only get really busy at Easter. We hope we will be, at least, living on the boat, if not gone, well before then. It’s just as well that we are not facing any artificial, work related deadlines. Yesterday’s rush of activity raised our spirits but today has been rather quieter on the boat. Just one guy was sanding the underside, this morning, in preparation for the first coat of anti-fouling. However, Luis, the chandlery boss, is turning out to be an absolute star, giving us regular updates on the progress of orders etc. If only we had found him earlier! Usef...

It’s such a joy to open the curtains in the morning and see the rich blue sky above the mountain, which towers behind the town of Aguadulce. Even better, then, to walk outside before 9.00am with only a t-shirt and light jumper. The downside is that it’s been blowing a gale here since we arrived. The wind almost knocks you over, at times. After the frustration of yesterday, today our boat is alive with activity. We have guys working on a variety of areas including the rigging, the electrics, a sea cock, and preparing the bottom to be anti-fouled. The wind instruments show that the wind was a consistent 27-28 knots in the lulls, and the weather forecast says the gusts were up to 50 knots. I felt for the riggers. They clearly cannot do any of the “up the mast” work but they were progressing on the replacement of a couple of the deck level sail control lines. One is a continuous loop, and the rigger had finished a beautiful splice to join the ends of a rope together before he...

Last night, having arrived quite late, we were delighted that our favourite marina-side restaurant was open, one of the few so far to get going for the season. We were very hungry and devoured the huge paella. No chorizo in it, for those who have followed the discussion about that! Steve had set the alarm for a wake up call and we both ignored it, snoozing on for another 45 mins. I wonder if it was thinking what we suspected, that a lot of the jobs we had hoped would be done before we arrived, would not have been. It’s just as Teresa said, you say to Gines, the boatyard owner, “You agreed that you would do these things, but you haven’t”. He just shrugs and says, “No I haven’t”. There’s no apology, no explanation. Despite these huge frustrations, we console ourselves with knowing that we wouldn’t be able to get the boat in the water until next week anyway, as its too windy to do it now. At least, also, we have found someone, from the nearby chandlery, who has indicated that ...