Swanning around

Its been a long time but we have been busy. We left the Algarve on a Tristan's birthday heading for Sagres, a very pretty anchorage just around the southern tip of Portugal. We had a fantastic upwind sail with  full sail up around Lagos, then it got windier and lumpier so we thought 'Why'? We turned around and flew back to the anchorage at Ferruguda. The next day we tried again and kept going. The sail to Porto Santo was very lumpy and not my favourite. I was ill for three days. We had waves breaking over the top of the coach roof, then two seconds later it was as if someone had switched a tap on inside the boat.. The mast leaked and I didn't plastic bag the fore peak so that was wet as well. I think I left my brain cells in Portugal, but had got out of the routine of having to bag the boat up before a long passage. Stress and seasickness go together.

We enjoyed Porto Santo.

 Time to stop, clean up and restock before we moved on. That was the next problem. The alternator wasn't charging the batteries so that took priority over mending leaks. The solar panels worked so Tristan bypassed the solar panel charger and we switched off the fridge. It's easy really. You just go to bed when it's dark and get up with sunrise.

We sailed to Madeira and anchored of some  beautiful geological features, Baia de Abra.

We spent a few day here while Tristan fitted new  underwater anodes. That was challenging......mainly making sure he didn't drop the grub screws whilst holding his breathe and hanging on because of the current. Also holding his breathe under water meant he couldn't swear until he reached the surface!

After four nights our hips hurt from the rolling so we gave in and went into the marina at Quinta de Lord.  We both had to visit a dentist......a brilliant guy who certainly earned his money.

We spent a day in Funchal .....I never realised that there were so many varieties of passion fruits.

My favourite shellfish!

                                             These Pyracantha reminded me of Cornwall.

We met some wonderful people and we all set sail to the Canaries  together. Keith and Claire on Spirit and Shaun and Pauline on May. The banter was hilarious and we were all envious of May's cottage pie.  Spirit left us standing but we sailed a couple of miles apart with May the entire trip.

We had a couple of weeks at anchor in Playa Franchesca  chilling out, walking and swimming then headed for Lanzarote where we still remain.

 Its been frustrating as we have had so many jobs to do, bits to replace and all of it had involved waiting for a week which has invariably turned into two, often four weeks.
On the upside we have yet again met wonderful people. Caught up with our friends Ralph and Henrika on Dolphin and had visits from Wendy and Leo and Jo and Andy.

I fitted in a quick trip back to the UK to see the big and little girlies, and I miss them all.