Hola! We are now in Nazare in Portugal. It is famous for the largest surf waves in Europe. My is trying to catch the dreaded 30m surfbreak. Along the way from Belgium to here we have stopped in innumerable harbours, some nice and some very nice. Belgium was like the Netherlands, flat, cold and rainy with headwinds as usual but once we crossed into France and the English channel the weather finally cleared up and we had good winds and sunshine along the beautiful French coast, a huge improvement compared to the terrible Norths Sea. We found a decent weather window to cross Biscay. The choice was no wind or slightly too much wind so being very tired of motoring all the time we chose the latter. To make matters more interesting we were in a hurry to cross because a late arrival to Spain would mean way too much wind. We set most of our sails and just bombed down to La Coruna in Spain, the best distance was 165nm in 24h. We had to spend almost all the time indoors due to some waves break
Hooray we are finally out of Sweden! It has been a somewhat frustrating time so far. 19 July we hauled Alice out of the water and onto a gravel plain in Strömstad Marina. Here the friendly but totally overworked mechanics replaced the propeller shaft that was bent in the engine disaster in June (you can read about that earlier in the blog). The work itself took 3 days or so but we stayed on the hard for 2 weeks waiting for spare parts and available mechanics. During this frustrating wait we also visited Marks relatives on the nearby islands of Trossö and Kalvö. Anyway on August 5 we finally got back in the water and set sail for Hirshals in Denmark. Since then we have sailed and motored on average every other day and are now in Belgium. The North sea lives up to its reputation by mainly offering a strong wind right in our face with rain liberally sprinkled in. I wouldn't say its been awful but it hasn't been very nice either. A bit like going to the dentist to find out your tee
Deep in the Caribbean Since Christmas we have been cruising the Caribbean and stopped everywhere. This is actually our third seasons in the Caribbean, we did 2 seasons there on our last circ umnavigation, but we are still finding a lot of new places and things. Instead of the normal chronological stuff I'll just post some random things here. One thing that gives me a lot of pleasure is lobstering. On our last circumnavigation I just caught a few lobsters but now I'm the terror of the crustacean population. :D Lobster BBQ Look at that BEAST! (the lobster is nice too) Champagne bottle for scale In the Grenadines the girls found the tortoise island (Baliceaux) and started a farm. Collecting the livestock Managing the farm We visited some nice beaches. This is the girls looking at some wild horses that lived on the beach in Barbuda. How is that for Paradise!?! Only wild animals in this picture In Cuba the girls finally realised a life long dream of riding in a pink car. PIIINK!
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