Part VII. Riding the blues... (Snowy White)






Music, sunshine and bare feet... Utopia

A former boss once said to me that his staff with screen-savers bearing Utopian images of setting suns, beeches or desert islands, were dreamers with no ambition. I learnt a lot from him, but how wrong he was on that occasion... he saw everything very clearly, in either black or white...

I arrived back in Cascais last Thursday, much later than I'd originally planned. I'd managed to pick up a stinking cough and cold plus the skipper's arrival was delayed by more than a week; that worked out well for me as it happened. Anyway, it's really good to be back here, still quite warm with fewer tourists - Utopia? Well almost. The music and sunshine are good but not quite bare feet conditions yet.

So now I'm installed on the boat with Gunnar, the skipper Grunde and their friend, also from Fredrikstad, Stenar. One Brit with three Norgies.
The crew - Me with Stenar, Gunnar and skipper Grunde

Last week Gunnar informed me that our voyage to Las Palmas will be via Casablanca in Morocco - sounds great. I've been to Casablanca once before on business. I made a fruitless trip to a cement plant somewhere near the harbour. I do remember having a marvelous lunch though at a harbour-side fish restaurant there. Will I find it again though?

Now Gunnar tells me that there could be another detour on our voyage. It's to Norway's only colony, known by the name of Bouvet. Gunnar and his fellow countrymen have a rendez-vous arranged with one of the island's 23 residents - Naoh junior. I've no idea where Bouvet is but they assure me it'll be worth it...


The welcoming coastline of Bouvet where they plan to stock up on diesel, Percy Pigs and whale meat...


Grunde and Stenar are like Gunnar, initially quiet and reserved; a typical Norwegian characteristic. But after last night's late session, I can see there's much humour and fun as well as a serious side behind those taciturn faces.

The weather app I'm using is www.Windy.com This gives a 10 day rolling wind and sea forecast that has proven to be pretty accurate so far. It's also very easy to use, even for me! Yesterday we had 35kt winds here and the sea today is pretty massive but hopefully we'll be going tomorrow, Sunday 24th Nov. It should take us about 3 days to reach Casablanca. As there's no deadline for any of us, we can poodle along and try our hands at fishing because the forecast past Monday looks almost windless. Some fresh sardines or mackerel will be very well received, at least by me.

Additional lessons I've learnt to add to my first four...

Does the skipper want to be doing this voyage?

This may sound a strange question but I now realise it is so relevant. Skippers don't always go to sea for the shear pleasure of sailing as I'm slowly starting to realise.

The first skipper was also the owner of the boat and his agenda was to get his boat back to Lymington for some maintenance and repairs over the winter. He was used to sailing with just his wife and had previously paid professional skippers to deliver their boat, as and when his business dictated. He was clearly uncomfortable sailing with 'strangers' which soon became obvious.

The second skipper morphed into an anxious character, lost in his own little world once we were at sea. For his own personal reasons, he shouldn't have been at sea. When he emerged from his cabin to relieve me from my watches, his mood was usually tense and often unpleasant. We only sailed for 3 hours in 5½ days because he needed to collect a forth fee-paying, crew member from Cascais. This heavy (33 tonnes) motor cruiser, needed 20kts of wind to push it past 5.5kts and he wasn't prepared to compromise, so we motored for 131 hours and 32 minutes. He shouldn't have been away from Lymington and I actually felt quite sorry for this rather sad and lonely figure.

 Note to diary: Look behind the bearshit, does the skipper really want to be making this voyage? If there is any doubt, keep well away!!!



God bless, 🐷 x


Next post will be from Morocco, hopefully around end of next week...





Comments

  1. Aeron Tall Ships23 November 2019 at 07:12

    Either your skipper is having a laugh or you are pulling our legs..... Bouvet is in the South Atlantic matey near Cape of Good Hope.......
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvet_Island

    ReplyDelete
  2. Porky & Beluga cook at sea23 November 2019 at 07:32

    Remember what I've said previously about anything written italics....?

    ReplyDelete

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