Viva Espana!

Once upon a time ( roughly 4:00pm) in a land far, far away (Northern Spain to be precise) two people sat looking out to sea watching the world going by. They had traveled far ( just under 500 miles in 3 days) and it had been a hard, arduous journey (super scary, never-do-it-again kind thing) and now finally at their destination (the first of many at least) they clinked a cold beer and agreed in was Viva Espana indeed! 

That's right folks, we made it! Fare ye well UK, we shall hopefully not be seeing you for a year or so! After we left Dartmouth we spent a night on anchor before reaching Falmouth the next day and from checking the weather it looked like we would spend one day preping in Falmouth, and getting to know our new crew member Mark, before setting off in the evening of the 2nd March.

The engine was all happily fixed (hopefully for the last time) after Mr Dartmouth Engineer man saw too it (We just needed a smaller hose - Doh) and after a few runs around Flamouth we fixed up the last little bits and pieces and were ready to go! After visiting the fuel boat at 5:00pm we put up the sails and headed south and out of the UK seeing the final lighthouse light go out a few hours later - bye-de-bye home!

First day - perfect! Sunshine, oodles of good wind, we were speeding along. However it then proceded to go progressively down hill. The winds blew up very strong very quickly and we needed to pull down the main sail fast. Jarvis needed to go up the mast to pull it down as Mark lowered the rope, however the winds were now reaching a gale and the boat was near impossible to keep steady - it swung hard and pitched the boom round towards Jarvis. He ducked but a shackle hit him across the eye and cut him causing a lot of blood. He was ok thankfully... and we hoped that that would be the last of the problems.

We pulled in the sails but saw the wind speed pick up further. We were now starting day three and had been being violently shaken around in the boat for just over a day now. The seas were so high you couldn't see beyond the wave in front of you and we seemed to just surf our way frowards. Then a larger than before wave struck us on the side, it knocked us so far over - almost horrizontal - that the boat started to gush in water. We held on waited for it to right itself and spent ages pumping all the water back out again, however we missed that the wave had also knocked the anchor free of its latch until it slipped and gave an almighty crack to the side of the hull. It winds that strong, a loose heavy metal object hittiing the only thing keeping you afloat = not good! There was no option, we had to pull it back up, which meant someone had to climb  forward at night, in a gale, with waves covering you every step of the way! Skipper Jarvis to the rescue! He was clipped on but it would only take one wave, one momentary loss of balance and he would be overboard. Watching him like a hawk, waiting for the signal to electronically pull up the anchor, i have honestly never been so scared in my life. What took only 5 minutes felt like a lifetime. Other than being soaked to the bone, and slightly concussed he was fine. We were all shaken up and working on tiny amounts of sleep but by now we were only 50 miles away from Spain.

Beyond over it, we decided to stop in for the day at the nearest port - this being Ria de Camarinas. We arrived at 3:30am today, tied up and then slept like babies (best sleep ever), so awashed with relief at being still and at the sight of land.

Since then, all i can say is what a difference a day makes. Bright Sunshine woke us up, hot enough just to be in t-shirt and shorts. There was no lengthy clearing into port processe like we had been warned about and there was a hot shower waiting for us - wahoo! The town is beautiful, very idealic, full of bright colours and everyone is very friendly. Although we have spent most of the day catching up on things like fixing and  washing...

we managed some chill out time for a nice cold beer whilst we decided that this adventure is finally starting to sink in.

Now we are just hoping for the happily ever after....

Tia and Jarvis over and out