Were back.

[burgundyben]

I'll leave TCM to give a narratory of the trip cos I am crap at typing but in short I flew to Spain, met Matt and Trazie on the boat and went to sleep, it was blowing a bit, monday morning we fulled up in Gib which is a very big rock and motored along to somewhere in Portugal and filled up again and then onto somewhere else in Portugal and filled up again and then to Spain to fill up again and then to France ( I woke up) to fill up again and then to Porto Solente.

Easy Peasy.



<hr width=100% size=1>Rehab is for quitters.

 

[mjf]

Welcome back - all sober now?

Michael

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[powerskipper]

Now let me get this right. you arrived at the boat and fell asleep. then woke up to see the big rock and then each time you refueled, and then when you got to port solent,

Did you have a good sleep then????/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://powerskipper.mysite.freeserve.com/>http://powerskipper.mysite.freeserve.com/</A>
Julie

 

[longjohnsilver]

No, that was the excuse he gave tcm to get down below and refurbish D2 in a very tasteful beige fablon, much better than leopard skin and other assorted leathers.

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[mainshiptom]

welcome back ,

as my mum would say "in one piece"

Trust you had a good time.

Tom

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[tcm]

BB has pretty much covered the outline. More notes:

1 Thanks to phil cool and is mate at suncoast - the boat eventually started - batteries totally flat and the pasarele ddn't work. Eventualy got enuf power to start the engines. Trazie and i went to duquesa, and I drove back after hardly drinking any cointreau at all, honest.

2. Burgundyben due t arrive sunday 3pm. The weather was windy, so instead of picking ben from the airport, dsecided to have a look at Tarifa by car where the f'cast said it was force 8. Tarifa is the southernmost part of spain, and very windy -there are lots of kitesurfing schools. Al the windfarms were twilring and for the first time ever I decided to abandon a walk on the beach. Erk. Trazie said that if we don't go this evening then shirley we definitely go termorrer. Ooer. But we want t go asap to catch reasonable weather in biscay later the same week. BB arrived later in the afternoon.

3 Monday 7am off to gib for 8am fuelling, trazie found some food in a supermarket, then of to vilmoura 156 miles away. I am fairkly sure that i asw a large white whale, maybe. Trazie motred in but the alarms went off. Fuel swirling about the bilge and misty in theginroom. Mario the engineer came, diagnosed the problem, and promisd to retrn and fix it. HM at vilamoura confirmed he had not seen any white whales.

4 Tues mario got the bits from another boat. BB reckoned it wd be 500euros, i thort 1500 euros. It was 200 euros so i thort about giving him a 1300 euro tip to make me right and bb wrong, har har. We left for cascais another 156 miles away ish. The fuel chap at cascas was v helpful tho a bit trendy. Ben wondered if he cd get any more fuel in , so the chap had a look in the hole and it coughed back at him. I decided against asking for a slight discount on account of the fact that he had taken away 5 litres on his clothes. Hee hee. By popular decision, we ran thru the night to la coruna, not too rough tho not smooth. Fog and then stars. Didn't look at the stars, far too raggie. Didn't even g outside on deck.

5 Wednesday la coruna. Bort loads more red bull, and another 3000litres after v nifty parking of 75 foot boat in berth for a 40 foot. Then yep, start engines and bomb off into biscay. Lots of texts arriving each time we get near land, al surprised we are making decent time. But BB's girlfriend is a bit narked thathe has come on the trip giving her no ntice, so wants to get back asap, which suits us and the weatehr as well. . BB explains that he will get her some flowers from tescos on his return which will make her instantly happy. I suggest geting two packs and mixing them about and maybe taking the tescs label off. Trazie splutters at idea of supermarket flowers resolving all girly angst and anger, and i agree. He should get her some cocolates as well.
late pm out into South biscay is foggy, bit of a kip for me first then ben sleeps for 7 hours whle we do the middle 100 miles.

Thursday I tried to sleep after ben awakens, but the swell is crashy bang. So i get up and tack east 30 degrees. Should have gone there earlier, as suggestd by a jfm text, ahem...
BB then puts in excellent performance in doing navigating the raz the seine, seemd dead easy, bombed through a big gap and fairly near some saily boats. Not sure how much you should Raz through this bit but i think 25 knots should be enough. Fuel in camaret and then ben navigated again out of the Chenal de Helle - fabulous stuff.

We had a party on the channel crssing back, music on loud for the first time, extreme ironing on the swim platform, drinks on the foredeck, totally flat sea for the only section of the trip. I beat BB at table tennis too, hee hee. Crept back up the needles.

Now back in PS, this was a trip i will remeber for ever. I felt hopelessly embarssed signing the rya mileage record for Burgundy when in fact he and trazie should be summarily awarded Oceanmaster certs forthwith. This trip was so long that we thanked each other for a great trip 50 miles from the needles fairlway buoy and started packing up our stuff. Fab trip, fab team, helping each otyher and getting on even beter at the end of te trip than at the start. pix soon, borrowing another oputer, gotta go.










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[Dave1258]

We're back?..You and Matt been away then? Never get to hear a thing on this Forum ...Pah! /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

<hr width=100% size=1> A man should have two things in life, a boat and a wife willing to let him have one.

 

[jfm]

Re: We\'re back.

Excellent, congratulations to the team. I was always sure you'd do it except I was worried by one thing: would some strange priddy voodoo cause you to crash into a fully-charted and illuminated fishfarm? Glad to hear it didn't happen, flukily.

Also you have completely misinterpreted the text messages. They were not to give/receive weather or nav information. They were just to wake you up in case you got within 20miles of land, otherwise you'd surely have hit Jersey or summink. Sounds like this is not a reliable nav method for BB

Are you out in D2 this weekend, would like to hear of head turning reactions to her in the solent!

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[mjf]

Re: We\'re back.

Looks like we have a new fuel barge in Puerto Solento.....

Matt - do you take Visa?

Michael

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[jhr]

Respect.

I'll hope to catch a glimpse of Diana II in the Solent before she turns round and goes back home. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho

 

[Trazie]

Re: Were back

Ben,
How did the Tesco flowers work out? I was mightily impressed with the thought you put into that one. Did you take tcm's advice and really spoil her with Milk Tray too?




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[burgundyben]

Re: Were back

In fact no, I never bougth the flowers, I did however take her to the theatre saturday night and on to a restaurant so fair effort on my part I reckon.

You got back ok?



<hr width=100% size=1>Rehab is for quitters.

 

[mainshiptom]

Great trip great story !

But can we have some picis and some stats ? Miles, hours, Bacon per mile !
etc etc

Tom

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[Trazie]

Re: Were back

Well done Ben,

Sound like you redeemed yourself.



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[milltech]

Where have you gone now then? n.m.

..

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by milltech on 25/05/2004 10:28 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[burgundyben]

Re: Where have you gone now then? n.m.

I haven't gone anywhere, I'm here!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Rehab is for quitters.