Month: August 2014

Every day in August there are movies, music, folk this, rock that….and like the museums everything is for nothing, nada, nicht…totally free entertainment. Not only that; it is all masterfully staged with the latest technology and relayed on screens throughout the crowd. No police, no security beyond a couple of guys around the lead singer when he went into the crowd. The stage is set on the beach. The pictures are of Misterioso Viaje a Holanda, Delafe y Las Flores Azules (they were great and the front man/rapper was brilliant), and Love of Lesbian (seems to be a bit of

I have to admit that I….. have….. had….. work…… done! It’s hard to hide in fact. I said to the plastic surgeon at A Coruna hospital that really I have had enough of the Tom Cruise look and I want a blend of Clint Eastwood, George Clooney and Harrison Ford. I think she’s done a good job so far despite the fact that her makeover subject was semi-drowned and the free work was a complete surprise. When i came out of surgery and the tannoy started calling for Marcela I thought ‘hang on is that me?’. I mean you hear

Stuk being a four letter word of course. So we are due to leave La Coruna tomorrow. Engine fluids checked. But better check that pinhole in the exhaust with over 500nm to go. Run up the engine and gases are obviously escaping. Let’s say we need 40 hours or so to get home and quite a bit of that could be in fast running tides close to the coast and in river estuaries. With little wind that would be a problem if the exhaust deteriorates. So a quick chat with Marina Coruna and the Marina Seca guys will do the

Definitely if we were planning to head this way again our journey south from the UK would result in a cross Biscay arrival at Viveiro, then a third week of July arrival at La Coruna and roll on from there; to catch the music and fireworks across the bay at La Perla to attend the medieval fair to catch the Peniche fair to catch the Cascais music festival to stay a few days in Cadiz where there is always something on attend the Gibraltar National Day cruise the Canaries

Held annually for three days and we have caught it two years running, just. It’s fun and the atmosphere around town is always special.

Anyone at the ARC Welcome Party 2013 will remember the Pink Panther. We were in a bar, no, no, surely it was a pizza restaurant, a couple of days back when the Pink Panther was on mainland TV doing the same act shaking his tail standing about eight feet tall. It was interesting to see the whole bar totally absorbed by this guy and they looked at each other not knowing what to make of it. Could we stand up in the corner and say ‘yeah we know those guys they are absolutely brilliant, we’ve seen this act’…..ehhhhh, nope. see

We picked up a photo kindly sent to us by a spectator who was on the wall as we left Las Palmas and this is almost the opposite of the WCC ARC’s own photo. That’s pretty cool;   Going out through the harbour exit with 3,000nm ahead of us was a launch into the unknown and the send off meant emotions were running high. Pity we were launching straight into a cold front! Our thoughts on this in the future; head for Mindelo. It’s fun and the floating marina bar served us the best wahoo and chips with hot chilli

Can nobody sort out an exhaust elbow? Our original gave out off Trafalgar Point on the way to Gibraltar when the exhaust clamp joining two sections split. The sections were then too badly corroded to re-join. So we were quoted about 4k euros with a leadtime of maybe never by the local boatyard in La Linea. Instead we had Lancing Marine  make a new elbow for about £500 gbp which was supposed to be one piece but turned up as two. The new exhaust lasted a few engine hours when the clamp between the two parts again sheared and we

A trip to Coruna art museum. What a great experience to have the whole four storeys to ourselves.