This is a summary of the first season 2019-2020.
Open the map and expand the view to get the destinations and routes.
- Start of the adventure…Well the boat is bought …..Almazul is a Beneteau Oceanis 473, currently in Catalonia.Now the work begins!!We are looking forward to the road trip from Stockholm to Barcelona……really!! The car will be jam packed with everything we can possibly fit to fix and live aboard a boat.Now tongue firmly in cheek here but….I am secretly …
- Getting to Almazul – Road Trip from Sweden to SpainOur express no frills road trip traversing Western Europe from north to south in the jam packed but trusty Saab is complete! The car was completely jammed with boat requisites, and the tightly packed contents caused a few unexpected moments with the electric seat and window controls… (I was NOT crushed against the dashboard as …
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- The “marina”ing of Life, and of Almazul…Week 2 of marina life at Port Ginesta, and we now know what “Almazul” really means! Lots of hard work of course, but the actual meaning of our boat name was revealed when we we met a Spanish speaking German couple (of course!) who gave us the translation….It means blue soul 💙! (Alma-soul; and Azul-blue) …
- The Man and the Mast, and Spanishifying the Saab…This week has been hot hot hot, and even us newbies are noticing the increased rate of tourist influx. The beaches are literally packed, and the crammed writhing masses are providing very good fodder for my new addiction – parasol photography!! We have adopted a local summer survival tactic of avoiding the beach on …
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- So many primeros…Week four at Port Ginesta has been brimming with firsts… ”primeros” in Spanish. Some new experiences this week included: Our first departure from the jetty! Yahoo!! First motor, first sail, first anchoring… at last! A short motor/sail to Sitges and a couple of hours anchored in perfect sand really felt like we were making progress …
- Blood, sweat, and cheers! (Or salud, zivili, santé…etc..)Well, this week unfortunately most of the bleeding was done by our “segundo” visitor; Alex from Sweden…. those Swedes🙄😮.. breaking your nose on the first day of a beach vaycay? Who does that?? And the perspiring? Well, that is our status quo…day in, day out, outside, AND in the saloon, which we fondly refer to …
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- A CRACKING start, and a very sluggish finish…Check out this link describing our perfect storm. https://www.thelocal.es/20190812/reaction-after-storms-hit-catalan-coast-it-was-like-a-hurricane This week started with a bang! We awoke to the deep beats of a trance club and the flashing lights of an enormous malfunctioning strobe light, all the while pitching and rolling as if on a fairground ride!! Our first thunderstorm on the boat was a …
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- The Anchor! (man)This week our most important purchase was a new ANCHOR! The Captain needs his beauty sleep – and a Manson Supreme 27 kg was to be his Stillnox. (A common pharmaceutical sleeping aid!) The New Zealand made anchor was highly recommended- but inversely proportionately difficult to actually get our hands on! (isn’t this often the …
- Crunch time for the man and the mast!Making progress this week has felt a bit like wading through mud or trying to herd chooks! 🙄 Our jobs list is growing like Jack’s beanstalk at one end, as fast as we tick things off the other!! We are preparing take the boat out of the water to paint the hull with anti fouling, …
- Popeye and Olive Oil need MUCH more spinach!!Almazul has been on dry land this week, and therefore so have we. She now has a super slick bottom; sanded, primed, and antifouled – thanks not only to our own elbow grease and grit, but to some shoulders stronger than ours. We must thank Aurum Yachts, and in particular a gentleman technician (let’s call …
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- There was movement at the station …. and it all went south from there.The opening line from the poem The Man from Snowy River seems perfect: “There was movement at the station……” Because we’ve finally flown the coop. Leaving the familiar and cosy “neighborhood” of Port Ginesta felt both strange and exhilarating at the same time; but a necessary beginning to our journey south. Our progress to date …
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- Star struck at Almerimar … and definitely on the rocks!Well! We almost met some YouTube superstars and Magnus wore the pavement thin in front of their boat as he walked past at increasingly frequent intervals in case they were on deck to say hello to. Unfortunately not..And as far as rocks go, Gibraltar is a good one to be on, and the rocks north …
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- Mad for Morocco!We love using “medina” and “kasbah” in everyday speech, as you can in Morocco, as in “I’ll just pop up to the medina to get a few things from the souk, and meet you near the gate to the kasbah.” Oh no, we are not in Sweden or Australia any more. No more gazing longingly …
- That Silken Sahara Sand…We have dug our toes deeply into the silken Sahara sand…. quite a surreal experience, as only a few months ago we were scrubbing it from Almazul’s deck all the way up in Barcelona. The sand is so fine it is almost liquid; and I can well imagine it being carried for many miles on …
- Cool Canary Catch up!We made our first landfall in the Canary Islands on Lanzarote. We were exceptionally pleased to see Arrecife emerging in the distance, as this 36 hour sail was our roughest passage to date. We think we were in 5-6 meter swell most of the time, with wind about 30 knots and no doubt gusting more. …
- Crossing Countdown!We are still in The Canary Islands but picking up the pace now with TransAtlantic preparations. We sailed without incident from Lanzarote to Tenerife, and now Gran Canaria. We have generally found the Canary Island marinas to boast resort like facilities, with caravan park prices! Win win! Currently Almazul is on land for some rudder …
- Feliz Navidad… and ready, set, go west!Today we farewell Europe and head west to the Caribbean. Woohoo! Needless to say, there has been plenty going on here in Las Palmas! Visiting friends, family, Viking Explorers rally revving up, Christmas, New Year, and the small matter of PREPARING TO CROSS AN OCEAN!! We will leave here TODAY, and the boat is as …
- Atlantic Adventure – Canaries to CaribbeanWe made it! Cue the rum punch! Here we are in the Caribbean, after 6 days of pretty hairy weather from the Canary Islands down to Cape Verde, and then 18 days of near perfection across to St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. We had a dream run apparently, as far as long …
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- This is living, Barry!I don’t know who Barry is either, but you know what I mean. (or see *) Since arriving in the East Caribbean, we have been puddling around the beautiful Windward Islands, which include St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, and Martinique, to mention a few. And, to my greatest delight, my daughters joined us …
- Lockdown lowdownLockdown has lifted in the French Antilles, and we must bid farewell to dear Les Saintes as we set sail for the more southerly Grenada. However it is not without sadness that we leave our lockdown paradise and the small cruising community that became our friends. Les Saintes comprises a small group of islands just …
- Our SwedeOz adventure one year on – a fleeting backward glance.This brief post marks the passing of a year of life on Almazul. On the first of July 2019 we stepped onto Almazul near Barcelona, and today we find ourselves on the island of Grenada 🇬🇩 in the Caribbean. 🌴 It has been a year of physical challenge, new places, no haircuts, (for the Captain …
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- Grenada green in quarantine.Hello lush, green Grenada! The island’s verdant emerald hues greeted us immediately as we tied up at the quarantine dock after a beautifully brisk sail to get here. Watching the sunrise over the island as we approached from the north at dawn felt like a “new beginning.” Post COVID 19 lockdown further north, we were …
- Quirky Curacao swansongAfter dodging hurricanes, then pirates; we arrived in relatively quiet Curacao; our swan song port of call in chapter 1 of our SwedeOz adventure. (Excuse the forthcoming patronising tone as I proceed to spell this phonetically for the Aussies. This is so that if, like me, you have been mispronouncing this your whole life, you …