Casting Off - Live the Dream

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The grass might not be greener but the sea is bluer!

More years ago than I care to remember, Philippa and I sat at the mouth of the river Hamble watching yachts sailing off in to the sunset. "I wonder where they're going" I said. They could have been going anywhere, from across the river to the other end of the globe. When news of my redundancy at work came along, we decided this was the chance we'd been looking for. This website is about our journey to the Meditteranean from our home port of Hamble. In its pages we hope to share our experiences with family, friends and anyone else who's interested in life afloat.

Update 24 April 2008

No we have not moved on as yet!The wind howls through the marina for at least 3 days out of 7 with an average of 30 knots which is force 7, or as the ladies like to call it 4 peg winds!Although windy the sun is normally out and with temperatures around 20 degrees it is pleasant.Paul returned from a shopping trip with a washing machine for me “yippee” no more trips to the laundrette.  [Making full use of the wind]We have just returned from John’s -thought we would give him a surprise visit as some friends were driving to Marbella and said they would drop us off; it was great to see him again and probably the last time we will stay at his finca as he has it up for sale.Since our last update we’ve been to Granada where we visited the Alhambra palaces and their gardens which were beautiful; well worth it if you visit this region of Spain.Easter was a busy time for Oscar and his friends, they entered an egg painting competition, then on the Sunday I organised an egg hunt using chocolate Christmas decorations, the Spanish don’t do chocy eggs well at least in this area they don’t, the children didn’t notice,   I hung them from trees, hid them in rocks they were all over the place, the kids found them all in five mins. Flat! To finish the holiday we had a big beach picnic on the Monday.Pondlife has been out for a shakedown sail to Adra; we stayed overnight with 5 other boats, it was like being on one of our little rallies that we used to do on the Hamble. Most of our friends went out to a tapas restaurant that had been recommended, unfortunately Oscar had a sickness bug so we were unable to attend, and the evening was spent BBQing on our lovely and rather eccentric friend Chris’s boat which was great fun.  Paul spent the following morning diving under Pondlife with his new dive equipment; it allows him to breathe without a tank and without doing a paddy course although we probably will once we get to Turkey as it’s cheaper to do it there.Back in Almerimar we set to getting the boat ready, Paul has installed a cold water shower on the back, I have provisioned the boat so we now have 100 litres of water together with enough food to last for 3 weeks and 40 loo rolls!! Every cupboard, nook and cranny is full to brimming.Our American friends Lorna and Lee have gone home but will be back at the end of May. Oscar was very upset to see them go he misses Elliott and Eden, he especially looked forward to having sleepovers; he and Elliott were little monkeys staying up very late and having midnight feasts. They could get away with it on Airbender as it is a huge 60ft catamaran, When we would reciprocate Lorna could not believe that we could get them off to sleep at a reasonable time; well this did entail Paul taking the boys into the back cabin whilst Eden slept with me and we (the adults) would pretend to go to sleep -it had the desired effect.  Just before their departure I made them a cream tea with scones, strawberry jam and cream. Traditional English Fare, they were quite impressed.This is not the only baking I have done, for Carole’s birthday I eventually (I say eventually because it took a couple of attempts to make her Birthday Cake) made a chocolate one from Mary Berry’s cookery book. The problem apart from my inept culinary skills is our oven which always burns the object that is closest to the flame so I have to keep moving whatever is cooking, in the case of the cake baking exercise the sponges were flat as pancakes so I had to make more layers to build it up! By way of saying thank you to Chris, I thought I’d make a curry; it’s Paul’s favourite dish and there aren’t any Indian restaurants here but the market sells all of the required herbs and spices.  Once again Mary Berry to the rescue.  Paul said it was the worst curry he had ever had, Chris who is less blunt promised to copy a recipe for me - although we all agreed the onion bajees weren’t too bad.Carole and I were recruited by David and Lowie, an American couple, to help with their entry into the dog lookie likey competition. They have a doodle dog [half poodle, half Lab, an American breed]. Carole was in charge of make-up colouring in his nose etc. whilst I looked after his hair; David has long hair, when put into bunches they made lovely ears, added to this some matching braids with bright coloured beads, well he looked a picture.  He had good support from other yachties, in fact compared to the Spanish we were rather rowdy, cheering him on stage, the organisers made him face the crowd and pose, he was even given the most TV time. Guess what ,he won!!  [Their boat is called Salty Dog]They say that people come to Almerimar and never leave, well we can see why this place does grow on you, it’s like living in a village albeit a floating one, you get to know lots of people and its very sociable with either  the organised events or dinner party’s onboard, our friend Chris has lived here for 4 years.

Oz at a local Spanish carnival