Curare's Adventures

Recent watercraft sightings

Every so often we see a boat, or other watercraft, that is worth a bit of internet research.

One of the boats we have seen quite a lot of is a four to six meter, open decked boat called a Llaut. This is the traditional trawl fishing vessel of the Balearic islands and viewed from above it has the shape of a laurel leaf. Other distinguishing characteristics are a front mast, a lateen sail and a long vertical outer rudder. The first evidence of the Llaut dates back to the Middle Ages and later large 20 meter boats were used to cross the Atlantic. Originally the Llaut was built from wood but now they are constructed of fiberglass. Most of the ones we see no longer sail, they have an internal diesel engine, and some of them even have enclosed cabins. The majority are used as a family boat to go on a short trip after work to a good swimming location, and then home again for dinner at 10 P.M.

At one of the anchorages several young men were zipping around on wing foil boards, at present the hottest water sport craze. This is not something we saw last year even though the wing foil has been around since 2018 or 2019. The rider stands on a hydrofoil board (think recent America Cup boats) and holds onto an inflatable wing to harness the wind's energy. LE thinks the sail sort of looks like a bat wing and calls the riders "batmen". It looked super fun and effortless but it must take a lot of practice to be as good as these speedy guys. People just learning looked a bit wobbly and fell down a lot - at least the water is warm.

Another interesting new trend that we have seen this year is electric foiling boards. The operator controls the speed of the vessel by remote control and once up foiling these boards seem very agile and fast. Not sure if the operators get range anxiety though. Note: The photo was taken in Ibiza - I did not take it.

While we were motoring across Palma Bay (Mallorca) we were on a collision course with a large motor yacht. They had the right of way so we diverted to cross their stern. It took a long time to get around. This was the Bravo Eugenia, owned by Jerry Jones, who also owns the Dallas Cowboys. We don't know if he was on board and we did not see any cheerleaders, but the boat was an impressive sight. She is 109 m in length and was built in 2018 by Oceanco in the Netherlands. Later that day she came in to the the anchorage where we were stationed, but she does not have an anchor, instead she has a geostabilization system to keep her in place. The 30 person crew lit all of her many lights and she was bathed in a blue glow - very pretty.

Change of Weather

For the past five days we've been hanging around the south coast of Mallorca enjoying being back on the boat and getting all of our mechanical systems back in order, with a few hiccups.

The weather has been clear and unseasonably hot, generally peaking at 36 deg C each afternoon. We had planned to depart for Sardinia a couple of days ago but then a strong norther (Tramontana) out of the Golfe du Leon was forecast. The wind wasn't the issue, it was the forecast three metre swell on the beam that we weren't keen on experiencing.

Once the norther blows through then there is no wind until the next one forms. Our choice: Wind and swell or no wind and no swell. It's a hard decision which to accept for the 250 mile passage. We've decided to mix it up and wait for the norther to blow through, seas to subside and hop on the front of the next norther before the swell can build up. Will it work?

These Tramontana winds have brought some very welcome cloud cover such that temperatures didn't climb above 30 deg C until the afternoon today and swimming actually feels quite chilly. Or maybe we have finally become conditioned to the Med?

Hot temperatures

Since arriving in Spain July 1st the temperatures have been consistently above 30 C during the day and cool off to a pleasant 28 C at night. As I sit here typing this blog our indoor/outdoor thermometer reads 36.8 C outside and 33.0 C below decks. Needless to say we do not wear many clothes and we are in the water often.

The heat has also brought two minor health issues. GG has a bad case of prickly heat on his chest and back, and both LE and GG have puffy feet (heat edema).

Prickly heat is a rash caused by plugged sweat glands in the skin and according to our Marine Medicine book the treatment is "avoid conditions that may induce sweating". That is not possible. Fortunately prickly heat is never fatal - it just looks bad.

We were a bit concerned about the puffy feet despite reading on the internet that this is quite common when people from colder climates visit a hotter climate. Heat causes the blood vessels to dilate so body fluid moves into the legs (or hands) by gravity and it usually goes away in a few days. The idea of body fluid migrating to our feet seemed rather creepy no matter what the web says so LE had the brilliant idea to wear her SOCKWELL compression socks. These are the same knee socks she wears when on long airplane trips to prevent thrombosis. It might have looked silly to anyone who saw her prancing on the deck but it worked - No more puffy feet.

Beautiful Mallorca

We finally finished (or so we thought) all of the major chores so we left mainland Spain around noon for an overnight sail to Mallorca. There was little wind so it turned into a long night of motoring. This made below decks stifling hot so neither of the crew got much sleep. But it was a beautiful night with an almost full moon and it felt good to be doing an overnight passage in shorts and a T-shirt.

We made landfall at 0830 and dropped our anchor in a small anchorage on the southwest corner of Mallorca. There seemed to be a lot of space, we wondered why? Around 0930 boats started to arrive and by noon no other big boats could fit in, there was only space for small motorboats and these kept arriving, and leaving, all afternoon. Most people on the larger boats had come to eat lunch at one of the many restaurants lining the shore, the people on the smaller boats came for around 30 minutes to go swimming; by 1800 the anchorage was empty once again except for the few boats who stayed for the sunset - and then left.

We have a full boat awning, a wind scoop, two fans and all of our hatches are open, but by 1600 it is 35 C on deck and just as hot below. The only relief from the relentless sun and heat is an hourly swim in the ocean, and we and others, were in and out all day. The water is so clear we can see our anchor 5 meters below us and it is an inviting aquamarine colour, just like the colour of tropical oceans in children's picture books. We stayed here two nights and then moved 3 miles to the east.

The next anchorage was a 'wild' anchorage, which means there are no facilities on shore; no houses, no restaurants, no garbage cans and no store. We thought it might be less popular because there were not any places for shoreside dining, but it was just as busy as the last place, maybe busier because the space for anchoring was much larger. We got there around 0930 and there were only two other boats so we got the premier anchoring spot, on sand in front of the tiny, rocky and seaweed covered, beach. This proved to be a bit of a mistake as all of the small boats wanted to anchor here too and we were closely surrounded, we could not have left if we wanted to, our anchor was always under another boat. No one went to the beach, including us, everyone just swam around their boat, floated on a pool noodle or paddled around the anchorage on a SUP. Thankfully there were no jet skis. It was the same itinerary as at the first anchorage, boats came and anchored for the day but almost all of them left in the late afternoon, or early evening.

The second day we decided to go for a walk mentioned in our on-line cruising literature. The instructions said "walk to the car park, look for the small path in the forest, walk to the cliff and find a crack which will lead you to the top where you will get a stupendous view". We set out shortly after 0900 and the path (dirt road) was in the shade. It was about 3 km uphill to the car park, and LE has difficulty imagining anyone parking their car here to walk down to the little pebbly beach, and then at the the end of the day walking back up again, but we did see people doing this. At the car park we found the small path in the forest and reached the base of the cliff, but we did not find the crack - so no view for us. However it was a great walk and we got some lovely photos of the anchorage, and Curare.

We are eventually headed to Sardinia but there is no wind forecast and we do not want to motor the almost 250 miles, so we are waiting. No complaints.

Mosquitoes

Recently we have been plagued by hordes of mosquitoes. They were especially bad after a norther blew through with it's accompanying thunderstorms; there were hundreds, if not thousands, of them and they were very hungry. Both LE and GG are used to the mosquitoes in northern Canada, rather large insects with an annoying buzz and a nipping bite so you have an opportunity to slap them dead. We dealt with those northern pests by wearing a bug jacket sprayed with repellent when working out of doors, and lighting a mosquito coil indoors at night. The toxic coils might not be good for our health but they kept the mosquitoes away and thus we have a whole lot of mosquito coils on board Curare.

The Spanish mosquitoes are tiny, you rarely hear them buzzing around, you do not feel their bite (but it is itchy) and they pay no attention to the burning coils, in fact the coils seem to attract them. We can't keep them out by closing the windows (portlights) and hatches because it is 34 C and below decks becomes stifling so LE sewed bug screens for the windows and entrance-way. What LE did not sew were screens for the deck hatches, and those give us the most air flow. We used to have these but they were poorly designed and provided no air circulation so we got rid of them several years ago.

However LE had a solution; she has had a mosquito net squirreled away on Curare since we set off for Mexico in 2007, and best of all, she knew where it was stowed. We rigged it up over the V-berth to give us a sheltered tent, opened the hatches and squadrons of mosquitoes flew in searching for a meal. For them it was a wasted invasion, no blood was available, for us it was a peaceful sleep.

A new instrument panel

GG doesn't remember the panel that came with the boat to monitor the original 4 cyclinder Mercedes diesel engine, but he does remember the fancy "E" type instrument gauges that came with the brand new Yanmar 4JHE that was installed in the winter of 1990. This panel took up some room in the cockpit because the mechanic that installed it, Norm, built a wonderful teak box with plexiglass lid to protect the panel.

By the time we headed offshore sailing in Curare in 2007 this panel was having some issues and we installed a new relay close to the panel to alleviate some of the voltage drop that would cause intermittent start problems. Then the tach stopped working, then the lights, then the alarms and the engine hour meter. GG replaced gauges over time from various sources along the way, Mexico, Panama, Chile and even built a brand new panel in Trinidad, but none of these were ideal. We really needed a new panel but they were over $US1000 for just some gauges in a box. Then while visiting a Yanmar dealer in St Maarten looking for some other parts he spied a "C" type panel buried in the back of the office. GG bought it for $50 and it worked quite well for the next seven years except the tach was a bit temperamental and we still had the intermittent start issues.

While reading one of his online forums this past winter, this one about Yanmar engines and repairs, GG came across someone in the US selling a nearly new Type C engine instrument panel. This one had 20 hours on it and came complete with tachometer, temperature and oil pressure gauges, and a key to start the ignition. This will be the fourth instrument panel to be used on Curare, mainly because the panel sits out in the cockpit exposed to sea spray, rain and any other abuse that gets thrown at it.

GG jumped at the chance to buy this nearly new panel and was willing to pay the asking price. The Admiral stepped in and said what about asking for a price reduction since we will probably have to pay duty to import it into Canada? After a bit of internet bargaining the price came down to an acceptable level and the new panel was shipped to Blaine, Washington, USA just as cross border Covid restrictions were being lifted - except they weren't. GG still needed to get an authorized Rapid antigen test to return to Canada and there was not a place in Blaine that offered that service. So he had the package re-shipped to Richmond, B.C., we brought it back to Curare in our luggage and plugged it in. Surprise, surprise it worked. It was really the first thing in GG's life that anything called "Plug and Play" worked as advertised!

So, what is the cumulative hours of all of those various instrument panels? Good question. Since the Yanmar engine was installed in 1990 we think we have accrued a total of 5,152 engine hours on the 32 year old engine. Just broken in some would say. If we were a truck driving down the highway at 60 mph that's the equivalent of 300,000 miles. Or put another way, with the engine ticking over at 1800 rpm we travel at an average of 5 knots which calculates out to 25,760 miles of motoring! It's fair to say that we're not afraid to burn some diesel to get where we want to go.

Nine days of boat work

Our first view of Curare this year was on July 1, Canada Day, and to celebrate we started the tasks of cleaning, stowing and re-organizing. LE toiled below decks and GG worked above.

While washing the hull GG found a large gouge on the starboard side that he was convinced was not there when we stored her in October 2021. After very little discussion the yard took responsibility and a worker came by that same afternoon to start the repairs. He filled the gouge, faired it, sprayed on undercoat, then two coats of Awlgrip and finally used a polisher. Three days later and the hull was unblemished again, we can't even see the place that was repaired.

We wish we could say the same about the cockpit varnishing. Curare sat for 20 months on the hard in Vigo, from October 2020 to August 2021 and the varnish was in very poor shape. We decided we would not waste any of our precious 90 Schengen days sanding and re-finishing the teak and hired a local boat group to do this during the eight months we were away this past winter. We were given a quote and were assured it would be all finished by the time we returned. We were shocked to see that the job had not been finished and, in addition, they lost the original brass locking mechanism (they are totally unconcerned about this and even were so bold as to suggest that we lost it). So after much discussion two workers came to grudgingly finish the job and the result is less than perfect. To add salt to our wounds it cost twice as much as the original quote and LE will have to do another coat at some point this season or it will fail again.

Other things went well - there were no mouldy areas down below so it was relatively easy to re-stow things, the running rigging was put back in place without error, GG went up the mast to re-install the mast head instruments (but not the windex - it fell in the water) and the very large radar reflectors, the electronic instruments and autopilot started, a new V-berth and solar fan were easily installed, the batteries were good, upon re-connection the solar panels immediately began adding voltage to the batteries, the genoa and main went back on smoothly, the refrigerator started, GG got the Honda generator back together and he installed a new Yanmar instrument panel.

Then there were three unplanned issues that needed to be fixed. In order of importance these were:

1. We had a leak somewhere and the floorboards were almost floating before we discovered this. Never a good feeling to have water inside of your boat. We looked in all of the obvious, and not so obvious, places and found nothing. The last possibility involved removing the cockpit floor board and hot water tank to look at the flange that holds the stern tube in place. Yes! we could see a dribble of water coming in. To stop this GG had to hang upside down suspended by his toes to tighten a bolt - and that fixed it. At the same time we found a small hole in the bilge pump hose which meant that as we were pumping water out we were also adding water back in. So a trip to the local, well stocked, hose store to buy one meter of replacement hose.
2. The travel lift put us back in the water on July 5 and we planned on going to the other side and stay in the marina for a few days, but the engine would not start. So instead we spent the next five days tied to the concrete wall of the boat yard getting covered in dirt while GG worked on the engine in between his other unexpected jobs. We even had a Yanmar mechanic come to take a look, but after visiting twice he had no idea what it could be and he told GG that "he could not help". What? Finally, after trying everything else GG installed our spare starter motor, turned the key, and it started without a hiccup.
3. The toilet valves were seized. A soak in white vinegar fixed the seized outlet valve but the inlet valve was beyond repair. Back to the hose store for some more hose, a stainless ball valve, an adapter and a street elbow (whatever that is). This might not look elegant but it works like a charm.

We left the boat yard wall Sunday July 10, but not before LE spied a brand new bird family - the black winged stilt. We did not travel very far, only 2 miles to a protected anchorage behind a sand bar, a place we had anchored in October 2021. While we are here we will do the final few fixes, wait for good weather and then onward to the Balearic Islands, now down to 74 Schengen days and counting!

France to Spain by Train

We departed Paris on a rainy Thursday morning. This caused a little bit of a panic as we could not find a taxi to take us to Gare de Lyon (train station). The hotel manager was a little annoyed with us for not ordering a taxi the previous evening, but LE had spoken with the young man at the desk asking about this and he assured her it was not necessary. The unknown factor was the rain. Apparently when it rains in Paris no one wants to take the metro and all of the taxi companies are super busy. So Geoff ran back to the Denfert-Rochereau metro station where there was a taxi waiting area, but no cabs were there either. Our train left at 1010 and it was now 0830. We decided we had no choice but to struggle with our two enormous bags, down the walking street, onto the metro and then transfer to a second metro. It would mean a lot of walking and LE knew she would be the slowest.

As we left our hotel, literally 10 steps, a taxi passed by with a green (free) indicator. How wonderful and lucky because no green taxis had passed by during LE's previous 30 minute wait. The driver spoke no English and our French is even worse than our Spanish but we ended up at Gare de Lyon for a sum of 20 Euros plus four left over, unused, Metro tickets. We thought this was a reasonable price as the journey took 30 minutes in heavy traffic and road construction mess. Now we were one hour early, but better to be early than racing for a soon-to-be-departing train.

Geoff had read about the high speed train from Paris to Barcelona and was keen to try it so he booked our trip in early April. LE remembered what European train travel was like, schlepping heavy bags from place to place without luggage carts, and she was in favour of flying, especially since the bus we needed to take, on the last leg of our journey, left from the Barcelona airport. But a six hour train trip would include scenery/cities we had not visited and GG thought it would be fun. Although we had comfortable seats, and we could get up to walk around, the scenery was rather boring and the chatty English girls behind us talked non-stop. At least we had a proper picnic lunch with wine. We decided train travel with large bags is not much fun after all.

We pulled into the Barcelona Sants train station in hot muggy conditions and looked in vain for the train, or the bus, which would take us to the airport. GG had promised this would be easy, but it was not. Eventually we ended up taking a taxi, this one costing 32 Euro, the exact same price we paid in October when we left. Inflation has not yet hit Barcelona despite gas costing 2.32 Euros per liter. The taxi driver did not believe we were going to the airport to take a bus, even when we showed him the ticket, but we insisted that is where we wanted to go so off he drove in rush hour traffic. Deposited at the airport GG guarded the luggage and LE went to find the bus stop. This was outside and had large benches, a good location to waste another hour, drinking beer GG bought at a fast food place. When the yellow bus arrived it was a city bus, and we were supposed to be on this for 2 1/2 hours? It did not even look like it could legally travel on a highway, which it did not. We were let out at a bus stop on the edge of the airport, waited for 25 minutes and a larger bus arrived. However this one was already full of people, so there is obviously a bus station somewhere else in Barcelona - we just did not know where it was. It all worked out in the end and we arrived in San Carles de la Rapita, now just officially called La Rapita, at 2220. One last trudge to the Hostal Agusti with the bags and then to bed with air conditioning.

A Brief sojurn through Paris

We arrived in Paris on June 25 and departed June 29. What can we say about Paris, it has all been said before. We did not do anything out of the ordinary, we went to all of the usual tourist sights and it was everything we expected; the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triumf, Sacre Coeur, the Louvre, Rodin Museum, walking along the Seine, Place de Concorde, Place de Bastille, Parc Buttes-Chaumont and the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

What was not in our plans was missing luggage. We had checked two bags, but while waiting at the luggage carousel in Charles de Gaulle only one arrived. A bit of a worry since the missing bag had the majority of our expensive boat parts. GG walked to the lost luggage desk to ask "WTF" and was assured that the missing bag would be delivered to our hotel. There was nothing else we could do. And sure enough the missing bag arrived the next day which meant we avoided carrying it on the train journey into the city, hmm - an an option to consider on the future - just "lose" a bag.

We bought two train tickets at the airport information booth and took the RER B line to station Denfert-Rocherou, a very long, and claustrophobic train ride because both of us and a few others were wearing masks, and it was hot. Although the Covid virus is still impacting France with a lot of daily infections, there is not a mask mandate, it is up to individuals to mask - or not to mask. Most everyone on the trains/metros we took were maskless.

Our hotel was supposedly very close to the station, but even with just the one heavy bag it was quite the trek, plus it was drizzling. We arrived at Hotel Solar at noon and our room was not ready but we were allowed to leave the heavy bag in the breakfast room. We took our day packs and went for a rainy wander around the neighbourhood stopping for lunch at a place that sold Donnairs. A friend of ours had written that the less expensive places to eat were ethnic restaurants and this first lunch seemed to affirm that, only 13 Euros.  The next few days we would stop for a mid morning cafe au lait and the price was 10 Euros, so the Donnair lunch was super cheap! That first afternoon it was a little disconcerting wandering around with our packs and no place to go, I felt homeless. I was also super tired, so spending time, just killing time, waiting for our room to be ready seemed endless. When I was younger this feeling of not belonging did not bother me, now it does.

Eventually, after checking into the hotel at 3 PM, and lightening our day packs, we went for a small walk through the Luxembourg gardens and then to have a look at the Sorbonne and the Pantheon. So many people on the streets, a huge contrast from July 2021 when we were in Lisbon Portugal and the streets were almost empty.

The next four days of our stay we did a lot of walking. LE had planned an itinerary which included several subway trips, so we bought a 10 pack of tickets when we arrived, but because we walked everywhere we had left over tickets when going to the train (to Spain) and gave them to our taxi driver in lieu of a tip.

We departed Paris from Gare de Lyon on June 29, taking the fast train to Barcelona and then a bus back to San Carles de la Rapita and Curare (our beloved boat). We arrived just after 10PM and walked to the Hostel Augusti, the same place we stayed last October. No one was at the desk but we were provided a key in a lock box - easy peasy and so to bed.

Back to Curare

A few months ago, perhaps in April, we booked a flight to take us back to Curare - she spent the winter on the hard in a marina south of Barcelona. Then LE heard on the news that Canadian airports were having all sorts of difficulties and our original tickets took us though Toronto - with only one hour between flights. Thinking this might be cutting it a bit fine LE asked GG to find us another route, but we were using points so options were limited. He, and the Aeroplan representative, eventually found a flight via Montreal with two hours between flights.

We departed Vancouver June 24 with two huge, very heavy, bags of mostly boat parts. Our flight left at 9:40 in the morning and we were at the airport by 7:15, but the flight was delayed by one hour so we had plenty of time. As foretold the lines through security were very long but everyone kept moving forward, the only snag was that LE's backpack was pulled out for a hand search (totally random) and that second line moved very slowly. LE was a bit nervous about the delay but when we arrived in Montreal the connecting flight was also delayed by one hour so the two hour between-flight schedule was maintained. Air Canada kept us very well informed with constant text updates on the delays and boarding times. That is new and welcomed.

The "new normal" is that airports are busy and very crowded. Many people did not appear to know what they were doing. Is this a COVID thing? Has everyone that used to travel forgotten how it's done because they have not gone anywhere for the past two years? We were happy when we finally sat down inside of the plane - onward to Paris.