More Lanzagrotty time

What else did we get up to whilst enjoying the warmth and sun? Well, you have to visit El Golfo to watch the waves crashing against the coastline:

We also walked the other way from the hotel to the huge lighthouse with the rather ugly radar platform that was added to it after completion:

It was so nice to be wandering around at night in short sleeved tops, enjoying views like this whilst the UK was suffering from a procession of gales and rain:

Puerto Calero is always worth a look too. This rather purposeful craft took our fancy:

A serious passagemaker as you can see from her blog Astra blog.  At the time of writing she was on the market for a cool 2 million Euros. Her navigation setup is almost identical to ours, just a later and larger version of the Simrad autopilot. We resisted calling the selling broker, knowing how much cleaning etc our little 47 footer involves. 

Both ends of power boating were in display. The  "hard as nails" passage maker Astra was next to a Fairline posing machine with a naff name:

We had some amusement when the tourist submarine was towed back into the marina as usual but the crew got the tow rope caught in the sub's systems. Two guys were busy prodding and poking away with a boathook whilst the passengers were being disembarked:

and eventually they released the big loop, which you can see floating happily:

Even so called professionals get it very wrong at times, that made us feel so much better about our boating mistakes. 

Our last excursion was to LaGomar, the amazing place built into a volcanic wall, inspired by the famous artist Cesar Manrique. The "metalwork" is so inventive and amusing:

and the residents have quite a cool poolside area, sculpted into the rock:

We love the tunnel linking the underground areas to the main pool. Full of water with little steps to keep you focussed (and hopefully dry) as you pass through:

The setting is just mind blowing:

with the main accommodation high up in the rockface:

We were sad to return to the UK as the weather back home was truly dire. Rain and wind. We landed just as a gale was blowing through and stood freezing in the baggage reclaim at Bournemouth airport. Why it takes them so long to unload the only plane that was arriving is beyond us as there seemed to be plenty of folks out on the tarmac. Still, a way better place to travel from than Gatwick!

Before driving back to the boat, we had an overnight stop and then met Anne and Izzy the doglet for a quick coffee. Cafe Nero were selling a "mince pie flavour dog chew". It seemed to work for Izzy - after one piece her focus on the rest was intense and optimistic:

Amazingly for the last working day prior to Xmas, the trip back along the motorway was not too busy. For once, our timing was good. We were back afloat and ready to do battle with Xmas.

Lanzagrotty revisited and a chance encounter of the Nordhavn Europe kind

Since every attempt to have a break this autumn / winter had been an unmitigated mess, we were not optimistic that a trip we had booked to Lanzarote many weeks ago would really happen.We stayed in Toddlerville then at a stupid time in the morning, headed off in torrential rain to Bournemouth airport. It was the kind of weather that just makes you want to escape from the little island we live on to one way nicer. Sure enough, Lanzarote was, despite being a bit cloudy when we arrived 24C made up for it.. The view from the room balcony across to Fuerteventura looked good:

We stayed at our favourite hotel in Playa Blanca - well, it is actually a reasonable walk out of the town centre which is good as we then get some exercise, especially when walking further to Rubicon marina. Yes, we need our regular boat fix. We hadn't been to the hotel since covid times and the fish seemed to have grown a lot:

as did the turtles:

We had a thoroughly horrid little Kia Rio hire car with a most asthmatic 83 Bhp engine. It might have been advertised with 83 BHp but the torque was non-existent. Not at all competitive in the small car class. It also had a misfire when load was applied and that didn't help. Typical Canary Islands hire car really..... However, it was cheap (two weeks for the cost of three days in the UK!) and got us around the island OK. One must do thing is a visit to Arrecife, the capital, and a walk around the marina and seafront there. No nice trawler yachts, just this rather ugly (to our eyes) thing:

As Xmas was fast approaching, there was a huge tent on the seafront promenade containing a wonderfully detailed tableau of the island but in times long gone by:

The piglets and mum were pretty content:

and the camels were way less smelly than the real ones on the island:

There was even a working boatyard to enjoy:

All for free, all very enjoyable. We forced ourselves to go up to the 17th floor bistro area in the one tower block hotel on the island for cake, coffee and the views. Then we wandered around the town and admired how the critical services had been maintained after a neighbouring building had been demolished:

The cables were casually draped across the void to the next building standing. Impressive. 

Friends John and Irene had arrived at the hotel before us and were settled in. You can see how seriously the ladies took completion of the restaurant questionnaire: 

The rather empty red wine glasses in shot were for purely medicinal purposes of course.

On the second occasion we did the walk to Marina Rubicon, we witnessed the return of the international sailing teams who were based there for a training session. The windsurfers with foils that allowed them to pop up and ride above the water were scarily fast, although more "normal" as they got into the shelter of the harbour wall.

Fate took a hand. We stopped for the compulsory coffee and cake (we had walked for an hour and three quarters), then went to admire a Nordhavn 52 berthed there. We'd seen it all shut up on an earlier visit but this time there were signs of habitation. Doing the gawping thing, a dodgy looking Northern Irish guy walked up and said hello. Yes, Neil and Phil from Nordhavn Europe were there, handling a sea trial for a couple of prospective owners. We were all invited on board and got to meet the lovely Henk and Els, a Dutch couple who were there with their surveyor. 

Preparing for the sea trial took some time as the boat was "well secured" with a real cats cradle of lines:

Phil Roach was the deckhand, issuing instructions to the surveyor who  had drawn the short straw of being pontoon man to release all the lines:

Meanwhile Neil was suitably relaxed on the flybridge with the prospective new owners:

You can judge the relative stress levels involved.

The departure went well and the boat looked really good:

For the non Nordhavn geeks, the 52 is a stretched version of our N47 with a larger aft cockpit and a new flybridge and stack moulding. This one was a very tidy example. A few days later we had the pleasure of meeting Henk and Els for dinner and a chat, sharing the information we know about the boats and chatting about their cruising plans. Strange things that fate does, good things sometimes too. This was one of the good things.

Getting the audio visual kit working properly and more doglet sitting

For those of you with good memories (and for those who bothered to read earlier blog posts), you might remember that the audio / visual system update got a bit messed up by the old B&O speakers. They refused to behave, giving a permanent background buzz when powered up. So, they were disconnected and left as useless adornments for the summer cruising season and we listened to the nice new TVs through the less than nice TV speakers.

To rectify this, we arranged with the Maricom guys to replace all the original speakers with some neat new KEF kit. How to get it done? Well, Paul and Dave from Maricom smoked their van down the M4 to Penarth and once more, dismembered the boat,  to run new speaker cables this time:

This picture gives you an idea but doesn't show where the overhead panels were stashed whilst the work was underway. You can work out that as they needed to remove all the panels from the saloon, then the pilothouse, then the main cabin there was not too much free space on board. So, the crew stayed in Toddlerville and the captain was ultra-fortunate to get a berth on Malaspina - the other N47 moored in Penarth. The only downside was that the owners, Martin and Inge, were away so the captain was "billy no-mates". However, he was kept busy sorting things out for the Maricom team and generally pottering around.

Our boat is pretty warm in the winter by the way - you can see the insulation placed above the headlining panels which helps a lot. The windows are double glazed (the only N47 built that way) and we have a big 12Kw diesel boiler to keep things toasty:

Whilst the crew was camping out and shuttling between the two boats during the day, the crew was being fed and watered in Toddlerville. Izzy the dog was in residence too and decided that Mr Toddler's lap looked good:

Naturally when she saw the camera, she wanted to hog (or should that be dog?) the limelight so she moved strategically:

The Maricom team fitted the new speakers (4 in the main cabin, two in the pilothouse, 6 in the saloon, 4 for surround sound, a centre speaker and a sub-woofer). The sound quality via the amplifier was impressive as was the available volume. It was quite fortunate that the crew was not around when we were trying out the amplifier's capabilities. It is also a good job that Nordhavn cabinetry is ultra-solid as the sub-woofer really gave us some good vibrations. The smaller speakers fitted in well:

Once the work was completed  (speakers, new signal splitter, and rewiring the flybridge follow-up lever), the Maricomers escaped back to the Hamble and the captain headed off to collect the crew. Izzy looked unimpressed at having been abandoned by him:

but she soon thawed out. We then headed back to Penarth, ready to introduce the crew to the new technology, a different remote control for getting some sound out of the system that is huge:

with a load of buttons that need a degree in Yamaha amplifiers to operate. We are still at GCSE level and will probably remain there. 

Maintenance News:

Not a lot really. The captain's sore shoulder prevented any heavy duty stuff from happening. So, we just acquired some filters for stock and some coolant ready for the main engine swap that is due when we lift out in the spring.

Only 2 years late - off roading and Stratfording

For Anne's 50th birthday, we had planned an off road driving day, followed by a long weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon. Naturally things could not go to plan. The first booking was cancelled thanks to covid, the second thanks to the crew having a bad back, the third thanks to the Eastnor Land Rover centre deciding to close for the day we were booked in. Amazingly, considering what a **** year this had been all in all, the arrangements worked out this time.

After arriving at Eastnor and raiding their coffee and biscuits, we thought that things would be a bit tricky as Anne falled  the first challenge rather spectacularly. She struggled to get the seat adjustment sorted out in the Defender and needed some support from the instructor:

The day improved dramatically afterwards though, with some great forest sections of mud, rock, water and tree roots to avoid. Just what the car can achieve on road tyres is truly amazing. Some of the man made obstacles were fun too - like this 40 degree "ladder" climb where the traction control has to manage the wheels on the stepped areas to keep us moving:

You can see the concentration in the driver (Anne's) eyes before taking on the challenge which the car just ambled up quite happily, under novice driver guidance.

In the forest areas, we were shooed off by a very aggressive Reeve's pheasant who has been known to attack the instructors when they stop to open the gates to "his area":

The Defender can manage water up to 90 cm deep. There were plenty of  muddy watery areas on the forest trails but  you see things better in this man-made area.  It was kind of worrying to see how far up the car the water was - in the carefully placed mirror. (It was 1/3 of the way up the doors but our feet stayed dry):

We thoroughly enjoyed the day, the lunch, the conversation with our excellent instructor Rob and seeing just how capable these cars are. The setting is pretty special too, in the Eastnor Castle estate

After overnighting in Great Malvern, we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon with a little lunch and walk stop at Evesham. Lovely town, good riverside path and a couple of nice coffee stops. The Old School cafe is as quirky as it is good. The "ecclesiastical area" looked great in the sun too: 

Stratford was a retail therapy session for Anne (lots of Xmas present shopping), a double Rohan jacket purchase for us (poor credit card). some chilling and three special meals out. We went to the rather special Loxley's restaurant twice (yup, it was that good) and had a lazy Sunday roast lunch in the One Elm. By pure coincidence, Tina was also in Stratford that weekend with relatives and so we had the chance of a brief catch up since they ate at the same pub for lunch. All most sociable.

Things were rounded off nicely by visiting the Royal Shakespeare theatre on the riverside, sitting upstairs and enjoying a glass of fizzy stuff looking over the town and river. It just had to be done:

Back in the hotel, thinking that a rather good few days were coming to a close, we had message from Bernie, who you've come across in these ramblings many times before. He was driving home and saw the road signs to Stratford. Knowing we were there, he diverted to see us so a walk, together with Beau his little dog, down to the famous actor's pub the Dirty Duck was needed.

A very sociable and enjoyable few days after the various cancelled or messed up trips we had attempted earlier on. Much needed too.

A thankfully quieter, canine focussed time (except for the weather)

Departing Hythe and toddlerville, we were amazed to see that the repairs to the culvert and bridge leading into Hythe marina must be nearly complete. We saw the digger removing the shuttering and earth barrier that had been protecting the working area from flooding. This repair work had only begun in May of course..... 

On the way back to Penarth, we stopped off for a most convivial coffee and cake with Anne, Izzy the dog's owner. Anne brought along one of her greatest admirers:

who is a bit large to be the lapdog he believes he is.

We headed back to Wales with a small brown furry thing on the back seat of the Defender. The small furry thing just had to be taken to Barrybados for her regular beach fun:

on what was a beautiful day too, with Barrybados itself looking most appealing:

A little dog cannot go to the beach every day of course and the walk around the barrage with a chance to chase a ball and other dogs is also pretty high on the happiness stakes. On the way we saw a huge (for Cardiff docks that is) fast ferry in there. Not at all normal. Then John, the local photographer who has kindly provided images for us before, sent through this sequence of her arrival into the commercial lock. A couple of tugs were helping move her stern as needed:

bearing in mind that her beam is 26.65 metres and the lock is only 27 metres wide. Oh yes, quite a squeeze. You can see the poor little fender hanging down the side in this picture. We feel quite sorry for it:

They managed to thread the needle rather well:

and get her fully into the lock:

Apparently she will be laid up in Cardiff for the winter season when the Irish sea traffic and conditions don't warrant a fast cat service. The economics of that service would be interesting to work out!

Typically, the nice weather and happy dog walks in the sun could not continue. Storm Ciaran was rapidly heading in with some truly horrible conditions forecast in the English channel. The 10.3 metres in this image refers to the expected wave height just off the channel islands and the red colours give you an idea of how unfriendly things were going to be:

For non-boating folks, waves 10.3 metres high (with quite a short wavelength too) is something we've never seen in any channel weather forecasts. When we crossed over and back this summer, the waves were more like half a metre in height and very nice it was too. The Penarth area was pretty calm by comparison, in the nice blue bit well tucked up the Bristol Channel. 

So, whilst the channel coast and especially the channel islands had a pasting, we sat on board, put up with a bit of "rock and roll" from the wind gusts, some heavy rain showers and not much more.We were lucky. Around our home, there was quite a widespread flood warning:

and a river flooded the reservoir / water treatment works for the area so 18,000 houses in total were without water for a couple of days. Funnily enough it didn't make the main news on the TV or in the press but when fewer homes were impacted for way less time in the "Guildford / Godalming stockbroker belt" it was hot news. Clearly our area is expendable.

Once the weather calmed down, it was back to life as usual, amusing the doglet. She especially loved another Barrybados trip but this time with Moxie the Fox Red Labrador. Despite a significant age and size difference, Izzy did not give up chasing her or the ball. She was happy to pick up anything that Moxie dropped too:

After all that exercise, she deserved a chicken treat:

The couple of weeks of dog sitting seemed to go by very quickly indeed and the crew's step count seemed to upset her competitors in the "Fitbit weekly challenge".

Maintenance news:

Well, not a lot got done really. We had the Sub-Zero man come to check over our fridge/freezer unit and it got a clean bill of health. We did a few bits and bobs on Malaspina, the other Nordhavn 47 here to help Martin and Inge and got someone in to look at the work involved in recovering our headlinings. Some of the glue holding the foam to the boards / vinyl is beginning to give up the unequal struggle with age.

The captain had plenty of maintenance though. A sore shoulder was taken to the osteopath three times and then, on her advice, to a consultant who specialises in shoulders and elbows. Looks like a tendon is torn so there is an MRI and X-ray looming to see how good / bad the damage is. All related to a fall when walking the little dog in Penarth back in February, focussed on her and not paying attention to a raised paving stone, Grrrrr. 

A final thought. You are a ghoulish lot. The last post with images and videos of the Benson fire had twice as many reads as a more "normal" (if ever any of this stuff could pretend to be normal) posts. The nicest interpretation is that you were worried about us. The reality is probably something else. Perhaps we simply know a bunch of pyromaniacs.

and then it got even worse, somehow

Remember how we told you in the last post about covid, sickly Toddlers and re-arranged holiday things? Well, we duly headed off (on Friday 13th, it was an omen) towards the river Thames for our rebooked couple of weeks where we planned to revisit our old haunts. The Camargue hire cruiser had been transferred to a Thames booking from Benson, a lovely riverside village in the heart of Oxfordshire, an area we liked and knew from old. We had our own boats moored at Bray on the river for 6 years and loved our time there.

On the Saturday, we headed to collect Tina from the train at Didcot after her rather early departure from the Isle of Wight. Then the mobile rang - "Hello this is Jack from Le Boat in Benson". Nice guy, very friendly, he rang to say that the biblical rain from the night before had impacted the flow in the river and that it would not be advisable for us to leave the boatyard that afternoon. No problem, we said, knowing how the Thames flows can be impacted by sudden rain, especially after a dry spell.

We boarded our superannuated cruiser "Caprice 13" in a good mood which was improved by discovering that a light lunch at the Waterfront Cafe next to the boat base was excellent. It was even sunny:

As the river was still running hard and around us the locks had the yellow "caution stream increasing" boards displayed,  we opted to stay put and walked the rather muddy riverside path to Shillingford and back. You can tell that the area has money, even locksmiths in the area are "upmarket":

We do wonder what special services an "Executive Locksmith" offers.

We ended the day in a local pub for a very good late Sunday roast. All was well. As you might guess, on Monday the river was still pretty busy disposing of the earlier rain and the flow past the moorings was impressive. Carlos, the Portuguese guy who worked at the yard advised us to stay put and he was kind of hard to convince that we were going to do that anyway, probably as he had been battling to explain to newcomers to boating why it was a good idea. After he figured that we knew a bit, and we were happy to stay put, enjoy the sun and a walk, he very kindly arranged with the powers that be for us to keep the boat a couple of days longer to make up for not moving yet. Impressive service.

A little Benson ferry trip across to the other side of the river (the walkway across the weir was closed ages ago and the Environment Agency seem rather slow to rebuild it) meant that we had our boat trip though. One of the riverside houses had a nice tribute to the service personnel of the world wars:

A wander around Wallingford and then back, again in the sun, was a good way to spend the day. Since river conditions showed no signs of improvement once near Reading or closer to Oxford, we opted to get the bus from just outside the boatyard into Oxford. A good wander around took us to Jericho and the famous street from the first episode of the Morse TV series:

For the foreign readers or those from the UK who somehow managed to avoid seeing it (very hard as it is repeated so often), look at Wikipedia. As the sun was still out, we walked further upstream, around the canal and back downriver to the famous Heads of the River pub where we had to sit outside with a glass of something refreshing.

Back in Benson, with a load of rain forecast for the day, we opted to do a bit of sorting out before getting the bus in the other direction to Reading. Dumping the rubbish we spotted this rather apt sticker on the bin:

After some retail therapy for the female crew, a truly excellent lunch was enjoyed here:

Great food, great service. A must revisit kind of place. We were happily full, toddled to the bus stop with our purchases and then it all went wrong. There had been a crash on the main road that leads to Oxford via Benson. All the cars turned around as the road was blocked but a double decker bus could not. We ended up at the front of the queue admiring the many emergency vehicles attending from our top deck, front seat spot:

The one plus point was that it was in an area with a good mobile phone signal so we amused ourselves as we rapidly developed numb bum trouble. Around 70 minutes later, most of the emergency vehicles left and the police prepared to reopen the road. One of them came and chatted to the bus driver, another waved him on but just as we got moving, he told him to stop again. Why? They wanted to take more pictures and more measurements of the crash site. All the bus passengers found this highly amusing as you can imagine:

After around 95 minutes we were allowed past the crash site, it was clear that they had to peel open the roof of one car to extricate the occupants - no ambulances had rushed off though so hopefully none of the injuries were serious. We were foolishly happy to be on the way back to the boat. Foolishly, as when the bus got to Wallingford, the driver told us that he had to take a break because of the driving hours rules and that his controller had told him we needed to get off the bus (in pouring rain) and wait at the stop (no shelter) for the next one that would arrive at an unspecified time. Awesome customer service.....

We sat in a local pub instead, then caught a later much delayed bus for the short trip to Benson. The river flows were not abating but we had plans for the following couple of days to amuse ourselves anyway. Only they were not to be.

Just after 4am, the crew woke up and could smell smoke in our forecabin. The captain was prodded awake and we checked the rest of the boat - no smell, no evidence of any issues. The shorepower had tripped but that was not a surprise as the rain had been torrential at times that night. The captain opened the patio doors to check on that and the smell of smoke was pretty strong outside- it was coming from the boatyard workshop, from underneath the roof. Going ashore to investigate the captain met another boat hirer who said that he had already called the fire brigade. When we touched the metal doors to the workshop, it was clear that things had progressed as they were already very warm. We contemplated moving the car from the car park but the gates were electrically operated and as all the power on the site had tripped...... There was one barrier around the front of the workshop that could be lifted out to allow us to pass but as that involved driving close to the source of the smoke, passing a workshop that probably contained paint, GRP resin, solvents etc didn't seem smart. At least the wind was taking the smoke away from the car park area.

Luckily the fire brigade arrived quickly and moved their appliance close thanks to the captain telling them how to remove the one barrier. You can see how smoky it was:

The captain called the "emergency service" number of Le Boat and woke up and then rather shocked poor technician George when he told him that their workshop was on fire. Fixing sinking boats would  have been way easier for him. We wondered if he could help the fire service with information on the location of any flammable material stores inside there and information on what they could expect. We also thought they ought to know! The firemen broke open the front doors to the workshop and this happened:

Bear in mind that the pictures were taken through the patio door of our boat, from the saloon area. Yes, we were no more than 30 metres away from it all and the glass in our doors was getting warm too. Things then really got going as this video shows:

The fire crews didn't ask us to evacuate - it must have looked safer to them for us to be inside the boat. The captain decided that our escape plan, if we needed one, was to start the boat engine, cut the two mooring lines and get out into the river then down to Benson lock where we could moor on the quay well clear of things. It all got more interesting as the burning roof collapsed and red hot lumps of whatever fell onto the boat and those around us. They only succeeded in leaving scorch marks on the gelcoat and amazingly, despite a couple landing on the windscreen, it didn't crack or fail. You can get an idea of the debris from this picture, those things in the sky are not stars:

When the roof collapsed we called poor George again and told him not to rush in the dreadful road conditions as the workshop was toast and he needed to be careful driving to the yard. As the fire crews poured more and more water onto the workshop, the smoke became replaced by an ethereal mix of steam and smoke:

The fire brigade had brought in a telescopic job to check for hot spots and help fight the fire from above - impressive bit of kit:

Around 2 hours after the fire guys arrived, they were pretty much done, just damping down one area that stayed rather hot. The workshop looked pretty sad:

We were tired, slightly stressed and in need of "something". So, we fired up the boat engine to get some hot water and planned to clean ourselves up and then walk up into the village to have breakfast out. We couldn't go the the lovely Waterfront cafe as it was still surrounded by fire tenders and had no power anyway.  Poor George and his manager came on board and we were really impressed with how they handled things. Making sure we were all OK, reminding us of delayed reaction to shock etc and checking that we had water, food etc. The manager said that they would work out what to do, we told her that we realised she had rather a lot to sort out and that we could look after ourselves. 

Suitably clean we checked on the car - luckily no burning lumps had landed on it. Then we walked up into the village to discover that the cafe there didn't really do breakfast. Two of us opted for toast, one (the crew) picked a pastry that looked like a chocolate swirl type thing. When the lad delivered it to the table and asked "who wanted the marmite and cheese pastry?" the crew visibly recoiled and swapped it for a croissant.  One bullet avoided. 

The irony of the met office weather warning for the day was not lost on us:

"Disruption in some places" indeed. Our assumption was that the fire was an electrical thing thanks to the torrential rain and because it seemed to have started in the corner of the workshop where all the incoming power supply was located.

We were unsure what to do. The deluge we had experienced overnight and the forecast suggested that the river flow would only get worse. The chance of moving the boat in the next few days looked very low indeed. So, we walked back to the  boatyard only to be stopped by a fireman who said that we could not return to the boat as the roof had contained asbestos and there were chunks of it laying on the quay and the boats.....  You really could not make this stuff up.

So, the Le Boat manager lady sorted things with the fire service "incident controller", the captain and crew were given face masks and we packed our stuff, handed it to a fireman on shore who then carried it to the car which Tina duly packed full. We gave some information on the fire and the images / video we had taken to a very grateful fire investigation officer, had to wash off our shoes and then headed off.

This holiday was not meant to be. The Camargue booking had been postponed three times, then re-arranged to the Thames, We hadn't left the dock at Benson thanks to the weather and then the fire capped it all off. Mind you, the river status for the following day showed how unlikely it would have been to get going even without the fire:

Red warnings mean the locks are effectively closed.

We drove to Portsmouth, dropped Tina off for her ferry back to the Isle of Wight, then headed to Hythe to check on Toddlerville. You really could not make this stuff up and we certainly would not want to.  Not exactly the relaxing post covid break we hoped for but at least we were all safe.