Porky & Beluga cook at sea

Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria West facing view of Puerto Rico's harbour The weather here in Europe's most southerly place is beautiful. Mid-December and it was 25C with light breezes moving a few fluffy white clouds across a cerulean  sky (I've always wanted to use that word). The hotels and apartments are smeared across the surrounding volcanic cliffs and hills to make an impressive backdrop. But there's little else for me to like here. It's full of elderly Scandinavians, hundreds of shops rammed with absolute tat and restaurants that don't cook food they just serve re-heated frozen crap. It feels like a legacy of the 1970s, when package holidays were popular. Not my kind of place at all... A little peace and quiet away from the chaos on H.Breed... Last Friday 6th November I decided to check-in to an apartment overlooking the marina right on the sea front. I was pining for a few days R &R in the relative comfort and space not afforded on a hectic ...

Farewell to Steinar... A special farewell dinner for a lovely shipmate - Steinar (on the right) Tuesday 3rd November: Just prior to our departure for Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria, w e said our goodbyes to Steinar, who's been a great shipmate . Steinar's flying home to his wife and work in Frederiksted. These Norges all live there and met through their involvement in their local scout movements; they've been scout leaders for more than 30 years and seem to do a lot for their local community of which they're very proud. Steinar is a gently giant of a man. He did some 'special' work following on from his national service before becoming a professional diver, laying cables all over the world. He had two spells in decompression chambers after suffering the bends - the diver's curse. Today he suffers acute joint pain as a result of these incidents but a medley of painkillers help and he never uttered a complaint.  He then skippered tug boats and to...

Part VIII - The boat that rocks... We arrived in the marina at Arrecife on Saturday around 1.30pm. We had good winds for most of our voyage. Initially 20kts on the nose that swung through to the west and the last 3 days, directly behind us. Easy conditions for me to cook so no excuses were possible or actually necessary. The marina is quite small but very well appointed with excellent showers, shops, coffee houses and bars and there's even a night club within a stone throw from our boat. A large draught beer is just 1.5 Euros and eating dinner out is around 12 Euros - much cheaper than Cascais. Sitting on the bow with my feet dangling in the sea, sun on my face - life doesn't get much better Our skipper Grunde is into his heavy metal. The boat is named after one of his favourite bands - Hate Breed - he's abbreviated to H.Breed. Music plays from our Spotify playlists most of the day which suits me well. But Grunde dislikes my reggae collections inten...