Still not much sailing going on!

Not a lot of hard sailing as mentioned, settling in to my life in Med on the water mode! After Valencia I headed back to Torredump. Felt like coming home and arrived in time for my police interview with solicitor to assist.

Headed down to Cartagena and met up with some fellow sea gypsies I’d met in Gibraltar. Had police meeting so technically I’m a legal Spanish resident. Expensive troublesome way of not having to count the days thanks to you baked beaners who voted out!

First BBQ on the boat which I retrieved from uk on my flying visit. Every good blog has a food shot!

Artic P . Amazing boat owned by Kerry Packers daughter , berthed in Cartagena. Bloody held me up for two hours on my departure for Ibiza.

Disposed of Ensign and hoisted the Union Jack. Illegal and not traditional but we are the only nation that doesn’t fly a national flag! I may not be very patriotic but it is the best flag design on the planet so in the absence of anything else, I can boast that.

My new post anchor trauma, snubbing line . Self spliced eyes, suspension block and preset length. A masterpiece of design and build by Perdix productions!

Next stop 30 hours later. Formentera again. I went direct rather than up the coast and spent two nights at anchor , swimming ashore and mooching about. The other side from where I was last year and there was still a boat on the rocks from the storm a couple of months back. Owner doesn’t want to pay the €18k recovery costs 😂

Short slow hop to Ibiza next. Went straight to a little bay close to where Rob lives. Clear sea , quiet and only a short swim or dingle ashore.

Nice spot facing East from Robs balcony. 

My bay.

First group day out I’ve made on boat with Robs friends Steve and Marina ( appropriate name if she were a girlfriend!)

This little fellah didn’t come but liked his story. Sitting on fountain side in Santa Eulalia.

Thought these were pretty good castings of

The Ibizan Hound (Spanish: podenco ibicenco

Another one of these familiaris.in town and a lovely hill top church.

Not much sailing going on…

But an interesting couple of weeks. Left Jane in Orpesa which was a gem of a marina and was going to go straight to Torrevieja . Unfortunately just out of the harbour I got my main halyard snagged around the upper mast steps . Tried to use another halyard attached to string to desnag it but they got caught as well! Cats cradle up the mast. Could have gone up the mast but in the rolling sea I opted to use the fore sail only and headed for Valencia again to tie up along side, safer. 

Jane couldn’t find accommodation anyway so she came back to the boat as her flight was from Valencia anyway then we split our seperate ways the next day. I continued to T but pulled into Denia anchorage after about 49 miles which served as a test for the windlass and let the head winds drop a bit. All good next day was a motor sail and anchored outside Torrevieja marina  for budget purposes. 

Sorted my plans for next little trip and checked in to marina a couple of days later. Oil and filter change. Fridge thermostat fitted .

Next activity was to get the plane to UK, meet Nige and wife pick up a car , catch ferry to Santander then drive to their new house in Murcia. Not before a trip to theatre to see Redlands which I thought was a bit shite but fun anyway. 

Ferry out of Portsmouth was rolly in 40 mph winds but fine . My third motorised crossing of Biscay was projected to be rough, disappointingly it was as before, calm .

The 4 little dogs in their kennel.

 I really wanted a rough crossing this time . No doubt Neptune is saving it for if I sail through! Main issue with this trip was Schengen issues as ever 🙄. I left Spain with 95 ( conservative) days on my clock so could have been nabbed at the airport. But my time in UK would not alleviate this so more relevantly I could have been nabbed on re-entry and sent back on the boat. My visa in second passport for Spain has not been fully ratified and leaving the country during process is not allowed but I’m so sick of all the admin fluff that I did the trip and not a squeak from immigration at re entry so a quick 8 hr drive got us to an air B & B 20 mins from the boat . Yesterday keys were exchanged on Nigel’s house and we’re up to date. 

Not sure what next trip will be . Suppose I’ll have to start thinking about where to go for Christmas. I’m thinking Tunisia.

Destination las Calinas.