May 17, 2005
We're back in Gibraltar. As we entered the bay, a group of dolphins came to swim with the boat. They love to jump in the waves made at the bow. Its always a challenge to get the perfect "dolphin" photo. As you will see over the summer, this one is a bit off of the perfect photo, but it was a fabulous welcome back to Gibraltar!
This visit is really just a working visit. Our goal was to rendezvous with the pallet and load it on board. We have now successfully "swallowed" the contents of our pallet onto the boat! It took five trips up and down the dock bringing the boxes to the stern of the boat. Then we started unloading each box and bringing the contents close to where its new home on the boat would be. The neighbor boats were quite amused. We got "extra points" for not dropping anything into the water as we were loading them onto the boat.
We set up the sewing machine right away and Jan spent a day making up most of the canvas we had shipped. All in all, it was a "3 bobbin" day of work: New winch covers (4), a cover for the dingy motor and a cover for the windlass (which raises and lowers the anchor.) We've cut out covers for the overhead windows but those will have to wait for the next port. These things weren't so important the last 2 summers because we weren't in "hot weather climate." The Med is known for being tough on boats.
Steve's also been busy on projects. We now can run fresh water through the head and the deck washdown pump (normally they are run using salt water). That's particularly important for the head because after awhile, things start growing in the pipes, then they die off, then they start to smell. With the fresh water, we can kill them off quicker so they'll smell sooner. Hum, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. We bought a book at the last boat show on how to splice rope so Steve has been making splices for a few days. They're starting to look pretty good!
When we left Seattle, actually before we left, we tried to anticipate the various boat projects we wanted to complete and then send all the parts needed to complete them. Trying to find the right parts is impossible in these ports. Even in Gibraltar, reputed to be the best port for spare parts in Europe next to London, there is a selection of 20% of what West Marine carries in just one store. It is a real challenge of making do with what is available and what can be jerry rigged. Our wish list of projects is pages long. We got about 6 of them finished. We could spend the entire summer doing projects, or we could finally get going. We have decided to get going.
We've found a great internet cafe a few blocks away that lets us easily upload files back and forth on our laptops. We've been finishing up the last orders to China this week and today submitted them all. We have been working on Screamer business the last two days solid. So it is not all play out here.
Tomorrow we officially cast off for Morocco. We'll be glad to leave. Its really expensive here and half the city seems to be under construction so its very dusty and noisy.