Back in El Puerto del Masnou

Just now catching up with the blog.  I have been writing it while we have been away from access to wifi.  Right now R and I are in an internet cafe´ in Puerto Masnou, but pictures of the last few entries will have to wait til we return to the states on or about the 6th of September.

The good news is the boat is fine and no problems.  We recieved an email from the marina telling us they had added two extra lines to ensure she was fine.  they experienced 40-45 kts of wind and a few hours of heavy rain, but otherwise she withstood whatever was thrown at her.  we are glad we took the time before we left to get it all taken down off the deck.

We returned to Masnou on Saturday.  We left about noon and had a wonderful motor sail back.  Tell you what, their boat is very sound and moves along in the water well for a 46 foot boat!  We made it back to Masnou by 1800, tied up, but a bit tired.  Renne´and I slept well that night for really the first time since we arrived in spain.  Yesterday, we took the train into Barcelona at about 5 in the afternoon and got back to the boat about midnight.  We went in to see the Castle and 1992 Olympic Site at Montjuïc. 

We must have walked 5 miles!!  Barb was a trooper with just having had an arthroscopy last week though!  On our way down the hill to the rail station, we stopped to watch the fountain at Plaza Espanya.  That was especially impressive!

this morning, I made coffee, boiled some eggs for breakfast,  helped Doug hang clothes, then went grocery shopping with Doug, did our wash and hung them to dry, then escorted Renne´over here to the cafe´ to get on the internet.

Tomorrow, we are heading for Giron to rent a car, and the four of us will site see for two days, returning on Sept 1st to get ready to leave on the 3rd.

So for right now, Renne´ and I sent our love, we miss you all, and expect to see you for sundowners here when we return from Giron.  In the meantime, we hope you health, love, and happiness!

JonNe´ abrd Plankton

Sant Feliu de Guixols

Bom Dias!  This marina is in a sleepy little community of Sant Feliu de Guixols (Saint Phillip of Goo-yols).  This is on the coast of Catalonia where French and Spanish are actually mixed as a language.  So instead of Buenas Dias for good day, it is Bom Dias.  So our attempts at speaking Spanish here have been a real challenge.  Fortunately we found a TexMex restaurant yesterday

and our waiter spoke excellent English and we were able to figure out where the Mercadona was or what we would have expected to the be Super Mercado, i.e., the supermarkets.  When Doug and I found it, that is exactly what it was, a ver nice grocery store with about everything we needed.  Of course, we had to search for things.  When we left, fowever, we had to carry it all back to the boat, so we were thankful we had brought a wine bag, two grocery bags, and the backpack Renne´and I had packed some of our clothes in.

 Renne´bought a new yellow bikini and she and Barb looked marvelous on the beach.

 Renne' and Barb, however, decided they needed a break while Doug and I were shopping, so they found a secluded little beach in a small cove next to the marina.  Now when we found them (a note left behind), we realized they were getting a lot of attention from the local young men there, so we didn't have to worry about their being entertained!!

Of course Renne´made the bathing suit look radiant!  Interestingly, she stands out as most Europeans do not wear as brightly colored suits as she likes.  So looking down the beach you can normally find her blonde hair and bathing suit with ease.

Renne´and I have been working on our Spanish, and Renne´is fearless.  As always, she will talk with anyone who is patient enough to help her through her rough Spanish.  She eventually will end up in a long conversation with whomever she is conversing with.  Me? I get one or two sentences out of basically passable Spanish and I go on.

While walking through Sant Feliu, we enjoyed seeing the local monestary (el Monistir).  We found the local architecture and art on the streets fascinating!

This is a beautiful small sailing harbor where many children of tourists spend hours sailing back and forth in small, really nice sailboats.  These kids are 5, 6, and 7 and maneuver these sailboats expertley under the tutelage of teenage kids.  What a wondderful way to spend the day.  Last night, there was a storm passing over, the temperature dropped by 10 to 15 degrees, into the low 70´s and the wind picked up significantly.  But these kids were out here sailing until dark (2130), capsizing in the very cool water, and having a great time.  We were in the cockpit enjoying wine coolers in long pants and jackets!! Amazing what they can get used to

We've been here for two days, and will leave this morning to return to Puerto Masnou.  It is a beautiful day, not much in the way of clouds.  Of course, that also means there isn´t much in the way of wind either, so we will probably motor at least part of the way.

So we will see you for sundowners at the port in El Masnou, slip 1017 this evening.  we look forward to seeing you!

Jon Ne´abrd Plankton!

North to Sant Feliu de Gaixols

We´re up this morning the earliest we have been up since we arrived in Rota.  At least the earliest when we are relaxing.  Finally, after 9 days, we aren´t sleeping until 10am.  we were up at 0730.

I did wash for us yesterday and this morning.  I added a little soap to the ice chest yesterday, dropped our laundry into the chest, added water, then let it sit for a few hours while we sat and relaxed.  About 2030 (8:30pm), I rinsed out the water and put fresh water into the chest, rinsed the soap out, dumped the water again, then refilled the chest with fresh water and let the clothes soak until this morning. 

My project this morning was to wring out the clothes using an old-fashioned hand wringer Doug installed on the stern deck of Plankton.  Then hang the clothes on the line strung around the deck.  We figure if the local residents can hang laundry out of their windows, then we can hang ours around the deck!! 

It is a beautiful day out, the sun is shining, but there is no wind.  We are hoping to leave to cruise up the coast a ways to anchor out and enjoy some of the water on the Med.  We will see if the wind picks up this afternoon or later this morning.

As it turns out, we departed  El Masnou about noon today, and pulled into the marina at Sant Feliu de Gaixols, a lovely town on the Costa Brava, 39 miles north east of Masnou.  We actually were looking for an anchorage along the coast, but all of the anchorages have been turned into coastal beaches which restrict boats.  Also, we were concerned about winds out of the south, so unless there is a hook of land to protect the boat, all of the anchorages were too exposed to potential bad winds and weather.

The exciting visuals were the castles along the coast.  There were four castles, three of which are on the coast, and one up in the hills.  these are all Moorish and Spanish castles from probably the 10-1300´s.  The last castle, pictured here was the second largest and overall was huge.  This one is Torros de Mar.  compared to this, the one in the hiss was monsterous!!

We arrived here about 1900 (730pm) and ended up in a marina on floating docks.  What a relief.  We may be here tomorrow night, but it will depend on the storm we are expecting to hit tomorrow. 

 This is Plankton tied to the dock here in Sant Feliu.

You are late for sundowners tonite, the Tinto Verano´s are almost all gone and tonite is pork tenderloins, beans and salad for dinner.  Bon Appetit!

JonNe

Today is Wednesday

August 24, 1544

We arrived about 1600 (4pm) here in El Puerto del Masnou yesterday. 

 It is a beautiful community, albeit we have only seen the views from the marina and beach, however, we are looking forward to seeing the rest of what we can see on foot.  We are thinking of leaving on Plankton tomorrow to sail up coast toward France for a few days. 

Renne’ and Barb spent the last 3 ½ hours with sketch pads and colored pencils drawing pictures of an old, very interesting building.  Now when I say old, it really is a misnomer.  There was an earthquake here in El Masnow in about 1740 which destroyed most of the buildings here.  So old is only 300 years.  The building they have been drawing is probably 100 years old or less, but it is very quaint.  Doug and I walked the beach to enjoy the local scenery, but after a few hours, the soles of my feet were hurting from the sand, so we had to stop at one of the local restaurants to enjoy a few cervasa's before the ladies joined us for lunch.  People here on the beach play a lot of beach paddle ball.  We will have to try that!

We are back on the boat while everyone around us enjoys a 4 hour siesta.  We have found it easy to follow through with that tradition.  The stores and such then reopen about 1800-2200 and the population is out in force until midnight.  Then again, nothing begins around here until 9 or 10 in the morning.  Now that is hard to get used to!!

I have play Doctor with Barb - - - hey, that is to take some stitches out of her knee,

so we will join you for sundowners tonite!!

JonNe’

On the way to Barcelona, Finally

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

We are en-route to Barcelona finally.  This has been an interesting week as we get used to being in a foreign country with the benefit of moving with relative ease around the Navy base at Rota.

We arrived in El Puerto de la Santa Maria by train on the 16^th at about noon, then hired a taxi to the Navy base.  By the time we had arrived, we had been aboard 4 planes, 2 buses, a train, and a taxi.  To say the least we needed to rest when we arrived.  We were able to pick up a rental car the following day on base, causing me no end of stress.  All I could imagine was having an accident in Spain!!  Damage to the car, injuries to us – Rota has two types of streets!  Narrow and not so narrow, and one way and two way.  We rented a Chevy Spark which turned out to actually be a very nice automobile.  It was small, yet comfortable, with 4 roomy seats, decent power for a small car, and enough storage to get what we needed into it. 

In old Rota, the width of the streets were dictated by the roman chariots with a small bit of additional room.  Therefore with another car parked on the side, passage was basically side mirror to side mirror. Miraculously, we were able to get through the entire week without even a scratch!

Meals in Rota were not spectacular at all.  Swordfish twice for Renne’, pork tenderloin, lamb, many cervaca’s , cupos of vino roja (red), pizzas and Subway sandwiches on base, and a cheeseburger or two to top it off!

Beaches were interesting, including one in Cadiz.  Now time tends to be irrelevant here.  There are still many roman influences here, Moorish castles, Phoenician tombs and sarcofogi, etc.  Anyone coming to Spain to oogle the topless women on the beaches will be a bit disappointed.  Maybe 1 in 100.  This is a very conservative area.  The beaches were mostly dark sand/shells/rocks.  The water was a bit cooler and took some time getting used to.

It took us a minute to realize we were still outside Gibralter and we were in the North Atlantic.  When we realized that, we were surprised it wasn’t colder water than it was.  We did spend a few hours every day except one lying on the beach soaking up the Castillian sun.  Now this is August, and this month and July, the coastline of Spain is littered with these umbrellas (not just Rota) packed with European tourists who flock here for vacation! 

 The romans, a few years before Christ, built retaining walls in the tidal flats at the beach.  These still remain.  You can see the outlines of them in the Google Earth picture above.  The walls allowed fish to enter at high tide, but trapped them at low tide.  This technique allowed locals to harvest fish conveniently without the aid of boats.  They are still functional today. You see these actually in the picture taken from the beach above.

We spent a day in Ca’diz, where we decided to take a tour bus of the city prior to jumping off to see the city ourselves.  It was well worth the money.  Ca’diz is the OLDEST established city in Europe.  Founded about 3100 years ago.  Kinda makes 1492 seem like yesterday.  As a matter of fact, El Puerto de la Santa Maria is where Christopher Columbus departed from on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, and Ca’diz was his second departure point in 1493.  Magellan left from Spain just 53km down the highway from Rota.

We met Janice Bradfort and Zach Lee, friends, but not a couple.  They are DOD school councilors who are newly arrived to Rota.  We spent several evenings with them and we were fortunate to have them deliver us to the train station this morning.

We are on the AVE train from Sevilla to Barcelona.  We are currently doing 250km/hr.  That’s 155 mph.  We just passed another train in the opposite direction and it is a bit of a jolt as the air compresses between the two.  We left Seville at 9am and will arrive in Barcelona at 2:40pm; Then on to Puerto Monsou to meet Barb and Doug.  By the time we are there, it will be three trains and a bus.  We are comfortable, have plenty of leg room, have the time, and we get to see the country side.  Renne’ and I have decided we want to do more of this.  This is great!

Addition:  The concept I hadn’t ever thought about is how in the world do you walk from compartment to compartment at 300km/hr (186.4mph)????  Or worse, use the bano – obviously passengers ahead of us hadn’t figured that one out either!!  I was fine, but it left a lot to desire for Renne’!!  LOL! 

The country side is mostly farm land through here.  We see fields of cotton, hay, sunflowers and corn as we can determine and groves upon groves of olive trees.  Interestingly, they provide a great crop for the hill country.

So meet us tonite for sundowners on the dock with the Schindlers.  We will save some wine for you.

JonNe’

On the way to Rota

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

We are in Espana!  It is 1047 (0347 Houston time) and we are in Madrid.  We have finally arrived.  We have been planning this trip since April.  We are waiting for the flight to Sevilla, then a train to Jerez de la Frontera (one of the premier Sherry producing areas of the world), then a taxi to the Naval Station in Rota.  I think that is all we will be able to handle today.

This past week has been another adventure.  We boarded Amtrak in North Charleston, rode it to Jacksonville to pick up the car which we left at Naval Air Station Jax when we sailed out 3 weeks ago, then left for Columbia, SC the next morning.  We were picked up at the station by our friends Gina and Bruce which gave us time to catch up with them and the work they are accomplishing on their sailboat before leaving in November for the Caribbean.

When we pulled in to Columbia, Renne’s daughter Shannon, was admitted into the hospital for dehydration and unexplained abdominal pains.  She was there for two days.  By Friday we were headed out to “The Cliffs at Glassy Mountain”, an exclusive golf community in the mountains of Western South Carolina to stay overnight with our friends Buzz and Carol Buvinghausen.  Dinner was at the country club at Glassy Mountain.  Although excellent, it made us wish for an evening of gourmet dinners with Greg and Linda Heausler in Houston – Again.  We need to get back there soon.  We were introduced to Owen Waggoner and his wife Chips.  Now Owen is Lyle Waggoner’s brother.  Those of us old enough to remember “The Carol Burnett Show” on TV will remember Lyle as Carol’s straight guy and one of the 5 members of that cast for at least a decade.  Now Owen has the pony tail I am striving to grow.  I was great to meet he and his wife.  We also met a former US congressman from Oklahoma that evening, but for the life of me I just don’t remember his name!

Saturday afternoon, after a full day of golf, Renne’ and I headed west to Ashville to celebrate her son, Erik’s birthday.  Lindsay, Erik, and their daughter, Juniper were very gracious hosts and enjoyed both church and the birthday party with them on Sunday.  We had to leave by 5pm and got back to Columbia Sunday night.

Yesterday, Monday, we had to be in Charlotte, NC to catch the flight to New York’s La Guardia airport and a shuttle on over to New York’s JFK for the departure to Sevilla, Spain.

So here we are.  Thrilled to be here, always a bit apprehensive with new surroundings, new language, new customs, and well, new a lot of things.  We will be here a week, then off to Barcelona to meet our friends Doug and Barb Schindler on their boat, Plankton.  Who knows where we will end up, but we need to be back in Sevilla on the 6^th of September.  So off with our adventure!

We will try to keep you up to date as the weeks go.  We will also try to keep the Spot Messenger up and alive as we traverse this beautiful country.  Until we have sundowners on the dock again, Buenas Tarde!!

Jon and Renne’

Getting Ready to Leave

As I am writing this, I am scanning Renne's illustrations for her new Pre-K children's book, "Nighty Night Sailboat".  As I am waiting for each page to scan, I remembered I had not visited www.handleysail.com for a while.  Mark and Judy Handley have the same Tayana 42 we have, and on June 23rd, they finished their circumnavigation of the earth.  I have been following them religiously for the past 2-1/2 years, have looked at their recommendations for equipment and followed them when we could, read their adventures in the 35 countries, or political entities, they stopped in, and have used them as distant mentors in getting ready physically and mentally for our own adventures.  After all, they were our age when they left in 2005.  I even received an email from them when I asked for their recommendation for the engine for JonNe'.  They are back in Woods Hole, Mass, and I miss reading their daily notes regarding their offshore trials.  But in their log for June 23, 2011, the day they returned, Judy entered this passage - I am not sure she wrote it, but it explains why we are here.

On an ancient wall in China
Where a brooding Buddha blinks
Deeply graven is the message–
It is later than you think.
The clock of time is wound but once and
No man has the power,
To tell just when the hand will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is all the time you own,
The past a golden link.
Go cruising now my brother
It is later than you think.

 Our new friends, Nikki and Sam, whom we met on the dock the other day, have a blog, www.whatdreamersdo.blogspot.com in which we are privileged to be mentioned.  I am proud to pass her blog on, as she is actually earning an income from her talents as a blogger.  Thanks Nikki,


Jon Ne'

We are getting ready

Renne’ and I, it seems, are moving into the modern world.  Last night we met a couple here at Cooper River Marina in Charleston, Sam and Nicki, who have introduced us to Twitter, new ins-and-outs of Blogspot (The Blogger), and Flickr.  I assure you we are going kicking and screaming, but we have found new ways to keep the blogs up, get our pictures added, and expand the number of contacts we have out in the world.  It actually is pretty exciting.  

We know most of you are aware that Renne’s first book, The Last Payload, The MECS Experiment, has been out in the public for two years.  By expanding how we reach people on both blogs, “S/VJonne” and “Sailady Passages”, we might be able to increase her readership and continue interest in her book.  

While here in Charleston, Renne’ has completed her first children’s book, Nighty Night Sailboat, a book for the Pre-K audience – well actually parents of the Pre-K audience, and she is working on the illustrations for it right now.  Nikki spent last night with us introducing Renne’ to the wonders of publishing for e-books.  It was a lot of information, and frankly a bit overwhelming, but with some concentrated study, this might become a bit more fun.

On another avenue, R and I start packing today and prepping JonNe’ for our trip to Spain.  Well, no, JonNe’ is not going with us this trip.  So as we begin to pack, we have to strip the deck of all material that might blow away or be damaged in a storm or hurricane while we are gone.  That involves removing her three sails (main, staysail, and yankee jib) and folding them for storage below, removing the dinghy from the davits, deflating it and storing it under the staysail boom (the way it was stored when we sailed out of Houston), stowing all of the canvas around the cockpit below decks, and then tying down all of the ice chests, jerry cans, and bicycles so they will be here when we return.  It has been raining yesterday and this morning so we are hoping it will quit and dry out a bit.

Tuesday, we are taking Amtrak to Jacksonville to pick up the car.  I expect we will head farther south to St. Cloud to check in on Renne’s parents before heading back up here.  If the sails are dried out by tomorrow and are packed away, we may continue on up to Glassy Mountain to see Buzz and Carol again before heading to Ashville, NC for Renne’s son’s birthday.  Otherwise it will be back here to finish packing up the boat.  We will have to see.

In the meantime, come see us tonite for sundowners here at the dock.  There aren’t many here who are live-aboards, and we definitely enjoy the company. 

JonNe’

This week

Renne’ and I said goodbye to our friends, Buzz and Carol Buvinghausen, yesterday afternoon after a most enjoyable visit from them.  They arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we enjoyed sundowners with them aboard JonNe’.  As the sun was setting, we decided it was appropriate to head in to downtown Charleston for a few drinks and dinner.  I am remiss as I don’t remember the rooftop we enjoyed our beverages on, but we had a great view of both the Cooper River entrance and the Ashley River entrance to Charleston Harbor. Excellent view of Fort Sumpter, all the way out to the Atlantic.  Very nice way to spend time reminiscing with them.  We then proceeded over to at “High Cotton” for dinner.  Very nice,.  Thanks Buzz for dinner!!

The four of us took the opportunity to tour “USS Yorktown” yesterday, and had lunch at Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina.  Renne’ and I commented that we would have much rather stayed their on the boat, but we will only be here at Cooper River Marina for a week, and on the 9^th will be headed south to pick up the car, then Ashville for Erik’s birthday, then off to Spain for a week on our own then to meet up with our friends, Barb and Doug Schindler, whose boat, Plankton, is in Barcelona at this moment.  By 1:45, Buzz and Carol had to leave for their home in Glassy Mountain, a 3.5 hour drive, and we had to spend time collecting our thoughts.

Renne’ got up this morning about 4am with an inspiration for a new children’s book.  She is so excited.

All for now, we will see you here at the marina at Cooper River for sundowners tonight.

JonNe’