Nearly there!

I finally sorted out plans for the solar panels, as usual I initially overcomplicated it and had several panels arranged around the deck which were prone to be shaded by the sails. I had been in email conversation with a supplier in the UK and we finalised on a much simpler system of just two panels of 100 watts each to be mounted " floating " between the Bimini and the guard rails. In other words temporary positions dependent on the Suns position. I sacrificed a small amount of efficiency for the sake of saving a few hundred pounds, and all the relevant bits and bobs were ordered from the UK but unfortunately  due to the recent change to my mobile phone number it took over an hour to transfer funds from the bank and I missed the deadline for delivery that day by 5 minutes..

I also hadn't taken into account the bank holiday so delivery was going to be delayed by four days.

To be honest Lynne was not bothered in the slightest by another week in Las Arenas, that afternoon we had had our first swim and had both become fairly pink after sunbathing on the beach.

On the weekend we had gone into Bilbao to find a few bits, like glasses retainers for me! Bought half a dozen just in case......also found some Velcro cable ties a couple of dry bags and We discovered the biggest department store in Bilbao was Cortes Ingles, so big it actually had a supermarket on the fifth floor! More importantly for Lynne it had a huge clothing department.

In the evening we spent some time discussing future plans and listening to the Champions League final  from the balcony of the Grand Hotel in Portugalete.

This is another of our favourite places, we seem to be revisiting a lot of these in preparation for leaving.

In the same vein Lynne had expressed a desire to go back to Plentzia, this is a beautiful place ar the end of the Metro line ( in fact the last two stations are not finished yet so you go by bus ) luckily the thunderstorms were lurking inland and we had a fine day.

The bus drops you off at the unused train station and it's necessary to cross a rather brilliant bridge across the river to reach the old town.

We then walked by the river which eventually brings you to the seafront. It being Sunday there were plenty of people enjoying the day.

The beach is splendid and we watched a couple of yachts coming in to anchor briefly for lunch.

We have walked most of the coast around Plentzia and Gorlitz, 

The beach is fabulous. This building is one of our favourite cafe bars, the coffee isn't the best but the situation is lovely!

This is the rather shallow entrance to the river leading to the small harbour

We walked back towards the town as the thunderclouds began to gather again over the hills. An ice cream by the old harbour and we caught the bus back to Sopela and then the Metro to Las Arenas and Getxo. A lovely day out to another of our favourite places.

We are going to miss Basque Country............

That evening we returned to Dark Tarn just before the grumbling thunderstorms and as the sun set the bay became a lake of gold and the clouds were tinged rose pink...........

Gaffs and gaffas.

Spoke a bit to soon about the Bimini, we discovered a potential chafing issue with the back stays that needed sorting out. I had made a temporary fix that hopefully Oskar could make permanent. He came down to measure up for our cover and will return on Friday when we can discuss modifications. Even now it makes the cockpit a much more pleasant place to be when the suns out. We are very pleased. It also seems to be a perfect place to mount a couple of solar panels.

Obviously this work was going to delay us again but before I could get too upset about this I managed to lose my glasses overboard, again! A quick call to the insurers was followed by a visit to the optician, luckily as in most things there is one very close to the marina. With the help of Eva the. Very helpful optometrist ( I now carry my prescription with me ) I chose a replacement pair and opted for sunglasses for my two for one offer. Ever the optimist!

That seemed to be that so we settled in for a lazy weekend. This turned out to coincide with a terrible weather forcast and we enjoyed a fabulous lightning display on Saturday night, the sky was lit up from side to side with sheet lightening every minute or so, spectacular, Lynne thought it was better than a fireworks display. We then had torrential rain overnight.

The following day was sunny but still very windy, possibly gusting 40 knots in the bay. Our neighbours who are very keen racers went out for a sail for an hour or so and came back with their spinnaker and mainsail in tatters. Someone once said that yacht racing was like standing under a cold shower ripping up £50 notes, probably true......

We decided when the wind eventually dropped a little to cross the river to Portugalete to refamiliarise ourselves with the riverbank. There had been a festival that we had missed however the houses and streets were still decorated.

We made our way up to the church.

Then decended back down the steep streets towards the river and the very attractive tourist information building.

We then felt the need for a coffee, we are both wondering how many years it would take us to have a coffee in every bar and cafe.......we average a new one every few days.

Lynne had been feeling a little below par but seemed to be on the mend.

I was quite relieved that Lynne was feeling better as I had finalised the plans for the spinnaker pole control lines and after a trip to the chandlers to get yet more rope Lynne set to work on the vital splices required in the ends.

As usual these were beautifully done, it takes an inordinate amount of patience to tease the core out from double braid rope, not dissimilar to peeling an orange in your pocket, Lynne is becoming an expert with splicing fids and needles.

At the moment workmen are doing some reinforcing work on the breakwater we shelter behind and I noticed that there was a diver doing some underwater welding ( how hard must that be! )

I cheekily asked Alvero if he would speak to the diver and see if he would have a look for my glasses which he agreed to do once they had finished welding. Sure enough the diver swam around to us ( probably easier than walking ) and in halting Spanish I told him where they had dropped in nearly a week before.

The divers airline was attached to a compressor on the breakwater and his mate simply threw it out from the top and it fell into the water just in his reach, impressive. Once attached to an air supply the search began, I didn't hold out much hope as the weekend weather had battered us about a bit and I imagined there had been quite a bit of movement down below.

Within five minutes the diver surfaced with my glasses in his hand. Many thanks and a few euro beer vouchers and I gave the specs to Lynne to get into fresh water quickly. I am very grateful to the diver and his mate and to my regret I failed to get either of their names.

I now have two spare pairs on order, just in case.........

settling in again

Another crossing of Biscay, luckily by plane Lynne has no real desire to cross Biscay again by boat!

we had grabbed the chance to catch up with people back home and in particular met up with Peter Manning and Ed and Val down at the Marina at Preston, my sister had kindly lent me her car so we were fairly mobile. Ed Val and their daughter Sarah are Caribbean veterans having spent 17 years or so living out there aboard various yachts the last of which Avatar now sits in the Marina while Ed undergoes treatment for Parkinsons, we wish him well. It was nice to just eat drink and talk boats.
Also Lynne had the rare treat of watching the largest mobile crane (on tyres) in the world as it unloaded a huge transformer for a local power station.

 The photo shows the two massive cranes that are necessary to dismantle it into 70 ton parts to be transported by road, it is also accompanied by a fleet of 12 heavy road transports. Very impressive.

However I guessed that Lynne much preferred sitting in the sun in DTs cockpit to watching heavy plant in Preston.

The temperature was very acceptable when the sun was out.

of course for the sake of journalistic integrity it needs to be said that some days it rains too!

I had mentioned to my Dad that Portugalete (on the other side of the Ria) was so steep it had escalators installed in the footpaths, so just for you Dad here they are 30 seconds or so of video.

So now we are awaiting the return of Oscar the INOX man who is making our bimini (sun protection for cockpit) we have to replace the spare genoa halliard and we will probably be pulled out for a scrub off and antifoul soon but we are in no rush. We are back in Spain and Manana will do for now.

Bad news

We were enjoying being back and Lynne in particular was enjoying the temperature difference from Britain when I got the sad news that my good friend from my youth service days Phil Jackson had lost his fight with cancer and had died on the very day we flew back. Phil had been my first regular sea-kayaking partner and we had shared many adventures together.  Lynne too had been a good friend and Phil had taken her down many potholes in the Yorkshire dales. To say we were both devastated would have been an understatement. Phil had been a year and a bit younger than I. He leaves a wife Sandra and two children Robert and Evie. We had gone off at tangents Phil pursuing a teaching career in London and later York, however we had kept in touch and Phil became a bit of a fan of this blog , we had hoped to visit Phil when we returned from the Caribbean but it proved impossible due to the intense chemo regime that Phil was undergoing. We will both miss him . A gentle and kind man with enormous courage.
We immediately booked flights back to the UK to attend the funeral and to pay our last respects.

Phil Jackson

I cant do it, there are so many things to say that they must remain unsaid, I think it may be useful to finish with a link to Phil himself, this is a link to an interview that Phil did very shortly before he died.I had thought to try and write something that would sum up all I felt about my memories and feelings about Phil. I had thought to try and describe maybe the wonderful hours on the sea we shared, the lightening storm, the cold and wind, fires on a lonely beach, night paddles,tide races and surf landings. I cant, there are so many. Its a particularly rich weave in the tapestry of our memories. What memory's there are, not all are of heroic deeds carried off against impossible odds, though there are a few like that. No most of all I remember the small things, the individual threads I suppose. Small but vital to the whole.There was the memory of the day we dragged two loaded Nordcapps over the mud of the Dee estuary and Phils wonderful mum picking us up covered in glutinous smelly ooze and took us to a chippy sat in the back of his dad's car. I remember walking back over the Yorkshire moors in the dark after spending long hours underground in Lancaster hole. My wife to be fell in a peat sink up to her armpits and as we got changed her underwear froze to the road, unbelievably we are still married. I think we both chose well in that regard.  Then our discovery of the moon pool at the bottom of Ramsey, that fantastic cave, Phil always loved holes in the ground. I think that is where I would like to scatter a few of his ashes, it is so beautiful there. The green light reflected up from below, yes, that`s where I could see him again. He would be in good company there with the seals and the birds and other free spirits of the world. One day I will join him there, but not just yet...............
meanwhile here is a link to an interview that Phil had with a journalist friend. The interview took place a few weeks before Phil died.

It says far more about him than I ever could.

https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/phil-i-thought-i-had-bad-back

Back to Bilbao

We had booked flights with Easyjet, an airline we had not flown with before and were quite concerned as we had three large suitcases full of equipment for Dark Tarn. This amounted to nearly 60 kilos of hold luggage. Not something we had ever bothered with before, we normally travel very light indeed! However it all went swimmingly and we got taxis to and from both airports luckily Bilbao airport is only about 5 miles from Getxo.

Dark Tarn was in excellent shape, apart from one halliard that had frayed through on the upper crosstrees. My fault entirely, I had pulled it away from the mast but left it up against the spreaders and the high winds that had been experienced had done the rest. luckily it is just the spare genoa halliard and should be an easy fix.

After an initial overcast day the weather cheered up and we decided to have a walk to the old fishing village.

We discovered it had been so cold that they had had to knit wooly pullys for the railings!

Of course it quickly became evident we were back in the land of pinxos. I was quite taken by the almost a full English breakfast one on the left, in actual fact its a quails egg.

On the way home we discovered a new bar to us, Silvers which had a rather nice piratical theme.

We determined to return later as a band was due to perform. Turned out to be quite good.

It was lovely being back aboard our home again and both of us were looking forward to further travels. however there would be some unexpected news which would put a temporary halt to that.
But in the meantime we were enjoying our return to Bilbao and it seemed a good idea to get a bit of culture so there is only one place for us the Musee de belle arts.

Lynnes favourite piece in the modern arts section is this, it makes her smile every time!
I have no idea why the centaur has a wooden leg.

Of course being in a Royal yacht club and temporary members of same we got an invitation from Alvero to attend a function at the weekend. An evening of chamber music in the yacht club.

Very enjoyable, although amateur the musicians ( 12 or 13 I think) split into quartets and quintets to perform some very challenging pieces, and the situation was superb.

The yacht club is a building of three floors and is quite posh with lovely views out over the harbour and marina.

Later we went out to the Commercial bar which is rather nice itself in a different kind of way, I like the fact it has this notice above the door.

It felt good to be back.

Never friendless

"Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, sunlight turn to fog.

But your never friendless ever, if you have a dog"

Douglas Mallock

 It was lovely to be welcomed by our friends but the most enthusiastic welcome was probably from my sisters dog Bonnie, we went around to collect her for a walk on the moors accompanied by our friend Brian and his new dog "Reggie"

Two collies, a sunny ( if chilly ) day, what`s not to like?

The Pike in the distance, Brian making snowballs.

.

The moors above Rivington on Winter Hill look splendid with a light covering of snow hiding in the tussocks. Bonnie is particularly fond of rolling over in snow and we introduced Reggie to catching snowballs in mid air, he seemed to enjoy it!

There is now a seat on the summit of the Pike, all we need now is a working toilet and it will be perfect! Reggie finds a bike tyre to sniff.......

We walked down through Lord Leverhulmes Bungalow grounds towards the Barns and tea and cake.

One of the many views of Rivington Brian has pictured, he is a very talented artist.

Brian's new dog Reggie.

The lower Barn.

Lynne with Bonnie

We continued our walk down by the resevoir, where collies being collies they dived in the water after bits of wood, Reggie was particularly enthusiastic!

We also took advantage of the brief spell of nice weather to go walking about with Bonnie, we visited the pike again just to see if it got any easier to climb, ( sea legs not used to many hills! )

There were a few days when it almost seemed that summer was on its way.

We had a great English breakfast in the wee cafe at Rivington village, this is in an old chapel. I can thoroughly recommend it.

Of which Rivington has two and a church, of course we had to have a look around the chapel, my home is, or was a hotbed of religious non-conformity. I think this is a Unitarian chapel.

The local church which is just across the green from the chapel had a vicar in the 19th century whose name was rev. Jackson, he was a keen climber and did some early routes in the Lake District. Having objected one day to the price quoted to replace the lead on the steeple he decided to do it himself and climbed up said steeple to finish the work.Henceforth he was known as "steeple Jackson" and thus the word steeplejack came into popular use.