Falmouth to Plymouth

Falmouth over the bank holiday was not really that busy. We were able to wander around, visit the shops for supplies and generally enjoy ourselves. Even the train to Truro on Easter Monday was not rammed. Norman picked us up from the station and took us to Wadebridge where we enjoyed the regulation cuddles with Indie the labrador and some ball throwing for Stanley, the ball obsessed Jack Russell. He hasn't changed much 

Norm and Julie took us to Padstow (or Padstein if you prefer since Rick Stein gentrified the place) where we saw a more normal crowd of holiday folks. Parking was tricky as was avoiding the folks who liked wandering into the road aimlessly as though they had bought the place. Perhaps because they owned a holiday home in Rock?

Lunch was at a Paul Ainsworth bistro place, Rojanos. 

Good food, sadly variable quality service though. The manager came up to talk to Norman after the meal and handled the issue very professionally. A flashback to being at work when we both thought "I would give her a job". So happy that we no longer need to worry about such things! 

The return to Falmouth on the train was subject to the usual railway fun. This time every other train (there are two an hour) from Truro was cancelled due to the guard being taken ill. Looked like nobody wanted to come in on a bank holiday and cover for him / her. We realised how we almost expect a train journey to go wrong now and how immune to it we have become. Luckily we were not still in Cardiff trying to travel around the valleys,  where things were in chaos thanks to emergency repairs to a bridge.

The clouds built and the wind had a real "edge" to it when we walked to Gyllyngvase beach. A few hardy souls were braving the water though:

As Andrew and Linda (the N43 Zephyros owners) were coming to join us the following day in Plymouth, we raided the Co-op and staggered back up the hill to a warm boat.

Leaving the happy place of Port Pendennis the next day was OK though. A chat with Mark the manager, a bit of boat prep for sea (not too bad as we'd not got things scattered everywhere this time) and then we headed out in nice sunny and pretty calm conditions. Here is the view astern of the marina and National Maritime Museum - the odd building with the tower on the left of the picture:

Plenty of fleet auxiliary craft and little patrol things were around in the commercial docks:

We happily headed out to sea again and barely needed the stabilisers as it was so nice (initially at least). Our favourite little lighthouse on St Anthony's head said farewell:

just as poorly marked fishing pots said hello, in a quiet and often almost impossible to spot way:

That one was tiny but colourful. The black cans or old transparent milk bottles are way worse. The trip across to Plymouth was pretty quiet apart from some pot marker spotting and dodging. All went well. Approaching Plymouth that all changed:

There were 4 naval vessels (one from Canada) exercising outside the harbour and then one entered to anchor in the approved area just north of the big breakwater.  It made the captain happy to hear that even the best professionals get it wrong. HMS Richmond called the port control folks four times asking if they were OK to drop their anchor and each time they were told that they were still not in the correct spot for anchorage number 7. On each occasion they were told how far and in which direction to move. Each time it didn't work.  Then another UK naval vessel was supposed o be deploying their seaboat which would enter the harbour to do a crew transfer. Several minutes later they called to say there was a problem launching it and they would swap to another. Then the radio on that boat was very poor and the port control folks got very frustrated with them.  We think that the captain of the Canadian warship must have been wondering about the competence of our navy. We did.

Heading up to Mayflower Marina was OK, a large naval supply ship was leaving so we had to hang around for that before going to our allotted berth on the inside of the breakwater. On the outside was a Border Force boat with lots of crew on board who were standing chatting. Strangely nobody offered to help our crew with the mooring  lines as we tied up opposite them. Normally folks help each other - official guys like police, harbour patrols etc too. Their ability to totally ignore everyone and everything going on around them was amazing and so different to our usual experiences.

We wandered up to the office, chatted to the lovely folks there, then met Andrew and Linda from their taxi and got them settled on board. It was lovely catching up.

No maintenance news to report, again the mechanical and electrical bits all worked OK. We gave the wing engine a little run approaching the harbour just to make it happy and  so it didn't feel ignored. We fear that the genset was jealous and might get even with us when we need it next. 

Penarth to Falmouth

We mentioned before about a little weather window that involved rain but calmer waves. Well, according to Mr Windy and the various forecasters who provide information to the grib files we downloaded to study, it existed. If you looked at the UK Meteorological office information though, it was less optimistic:

Red around the coast is bad news, as was the force 7 they offered for part of the Bristol channel:

It is so nice when you get conflicting forecasts from the various professionals. Makes the "do we go or not" decision so simple. Sure, the boat would be fine but for the first proper sea trip of the year we really didn't want a bumpy one. Since the one outlier was the Met Office, things looked like a go. We collected our spare boat keys from the marina office and told them that we would probably be away until late August all being well. The marina manager was half encouraging, half worrying with his comment though. This ex lifeboat man told the crew that "if any boat in the marina can make it to Falmouth, it is yours". Read into that what you will.

We made a last weather check in the morning and decided that the majority opinion would be accepted. The only drawback was that it meant leaving Penarth in the rain and a nice gusty force 6 wind - although it would be "up the chuff" (ie astern of us) as we headed down the Bristol Channel. After preparing the boat, we planned to leave the berth around 9:45 to join the 10:00am outbound lock from Cardiff bay. Plenty of time normally. Only this time when we called to be let out of Penarth marina we were told that we would have to lock out as the water level in the bay had dropped a lot overnight. Perfect. Even better was that the swirling water in the Penarth lock (they'd tried to establish  a free flow before we entered and had to give up) grabbed the boat and tried hard to push the bow against the floating pontoon. Plenty of reverse power was needed. Not the ideal start. Things got way better at the barrage itself. We were the only idiots locking out to sea at 10am, so they lifted the bridge for us:

and we picked our own spot in the lock. Folks from the marina came to wave us off - or was that to make sure we had really gone?  Paula took some pictures so you can see us in the barrage lock, and the captain in waterproof gear on the flybridge:

You can also see how grubby the domes and the top of the stack are. We have some serious cleaning ahead of us. Departing the barrage into the muddy waters of the Bristol channel in nice grey overcast weather was so tempting:

We settled back into the being underway routine rather well considering how long the layoff had been. Unending grey gloom outside refused to clear though:

but at least it stopped raining. The waves were building astern of us but nothing too dramatic and they didn't disturb the captain who had a snooze in the pilothouse:

Patrick the penguin was rather concerned about the crew being left in charge for the first time in 2025 and kept a couple of button like eyes firmly fixed on what she was doing:

As we headed down the Bristol channel, the wave pattern became more serious (as per the forecast) but from our stern so not too uncomfortable at all. The stabilisers were busy keeping us upright(ish) and we just pottered on, running around 20 rpm more than normal (1670) to try and optimise the tides for the full length of the route. It was very empty out there, we didn't see another pleasure craft, probably a message in that, and only a few commercial ships heading up to Avonmouth, Newport and Barry. There was one unusual movement of a solo tug:

who seemed very out of place. The help from the tide grew nicely and it felt as though we were surfing when we hit 10.3 knots:

for a through the water speed of 6.6. 

Finally, late afternoon, there were a few breaks in the cloud. They helped to deliver a stunning sunset across the water:

We settled into the normal night routine of radar and FLIR camera, watching both carefully. Whilst the crew was sleeping, the captain had the fun of watching three dolphins on the FLIR who changed their course to come over and play in our bow wave. Lovely sight even if only through an infra-red camera! The crew was at the helm for the stretch around Land's End and managed it with aplomb. Sunrise was almost as lovely as sunset:

only as the sun rises in the east and we were heading in that general direction, it made pot spotting trickier. The image from MarineTraffic shows us at the bumpiest part of the trip. 

Approaching the Lizard peninsular (which can often get unpleasant), we had the combined effects of a headwind over the tide and the residual waves from the strong easterly winds the day before. So, we nodded our way past, managing to give the anchor a wash a couple of times. Only 2 metre waves but the wavelength was very short (ie steep waves) so the boat tends to fall off one wave right into the next. Nothing dramatic, just some noise from the crockery.

As we headed up towards Falmouth we were reminded of just how many pot markers there are in the area and how poorly marked many are. The one great thing about the upper Bristol Channel is that you just don't see any of the pesky things. There are many bad bits about the area (muddy brown water, strong tides, relatively featureless compared to the Devon / Cornwall cliffs) but the lack of pots markers is a huge bonus.

Alex, the Nordhavn 55 owner you've met before emailed us to say that the Port Pendennis marina webcam showed lots of free space. We had intended to either pick up a buoy off the town or go upriver. However, the soft option of a berth there appealed - easy access to town, chance to get the bikes out etc, Hence we called them and arranged a slot. Amazing that they had spaces over a bank holiday weekend. (When we arrived, there were a couple of the larger visitor buoys free as well - the weather seemed to have put off most visitors)

Passing the docks and the usual mix of fleet auxiliary ships:

we then happily stopped alongside the big breakwater at Port Pendennis.  Our stalkers were already checking us out using the Port Pendennis webcam. Spot the Nordhavn approaching the pontoon::

and then in our allotted place:

Luckily, as we were being watched closely by a few stalkers, the boat came alongside beautifully and the crew handled the lines in a most professional manner. The old line of "you can fool some of the people all of the time....." 

The trip was 169 nautical miles through the water (more over the land) in around 26 hours - probably the fastest we've ever managed. We didn't see another pleasure craft for the entire journey until we were just off Falmouth when the weekend sailors were out enjoying the sun. Only a little salt on the boat above hull level to wash off too, only we were too tired to do so. We just had brunch and a clean up before wandering into town to make sure our legs still worked and to get some exercise.

We celebrated the start of the cruising season with a good dinner on board, washed down with a bottle from the winery we had visited in Spain last year:

Excellent stuff, shame it was the last one standing. Might need a revisit.

Maintenance news:

Nothing really. Hardly worth reading this bit. The big Lugger engine ran happily, no dramas there. The stern gland dripped nicely.and the stuffing box stayed nice and cool thanks to that. The electronics all behaved too. A bit boring for folks who like stories of changing major engine components underway. We, on the other hand, are very happy not to need to do that.

and then it all went rather wrong

Having sorted out a few bits of pre-departure maintenance, taken the bikes for a few excursions and generally stocked up on food we had to park the car for the summer (assuming that we get one for a change of course). So, we drove back to Hythe, dropped the car into store in the New Forest and then took the "interesting" train trip back to Penarth. Well, if you want to be pedantic, Cogan station, as that is the closest.

Walking back to the boat we popped into the local Tesco store where we had a call from Mr Toddler to say that Mrs Toddler was not well. This ended up with an ambulance and trip to Southampton General. If you read our last post, you will see that there is a theme building here. Not a particularly good one though. So, the following day the crew did that train journey in reverse to help out. This meant that Mr Toddler didn't need to live on cereals and boiled egg once the stuff in the fridge that had already been prepared had run out. 

The captain stayed on board, doing a few odd jobs and getting plenty of exercise on the bike / walking / dragging stuff back from the supermarket. He was waiting to see if it would help if he also went to Hythe or if he was more (not much in reality) use staying on the boat.

There was an awesome weather window for the trip around Land's End to Falmouth over the upcoming weekend which you could only dream of - sunny and incredibly calm:

 

Yes, blue is good and that image shows the forecast wave heights. Less than a meter at the time we would be heading around - amazing. 

Mrs Toddler was collected from the hospital by the crew, she returned armed with antibiotics. The crew had a train back booked for the Saturday so things were looking good, we could use the amazing weather window. Then Mrs T reacted to the antibiotics in quite a dramatic and unpleasant way and rapidly had to go back into hospital again, fortunately just overnight, but it meant everything got delayed.

The captain had company locally - Alun and Julie our boat neighbours took pity on him, abandoned and alone, as did other folks we know in the area. He fed himself, remembered to clean up afterwards and do a bit of washing too. Wild wild time. The perfect weather window went by with a gentle "see you never again" noise.

Of course, when the crew finally returned by train she hit the magical line closure to shore up an embankment which diverted the Portsmouth to Cardiff train around Southampton. No direct service for her:

Then it got even better, as well as the extra change needed there had been a broken down train on the line near Trowbridge which meant lots of trains were cancelled or horribly late. Luckily, hers was the one that ran and was on time - before and after were a sea of cancellations. Wonderful journey after a seriously stressful week. 

We had a chilled night back afloat but as the weather had gone to rats and we were back into windy / wet days, we got up early before the rain started and took the boat for the traditional run around the bay to make sure that all was working well after the captain had been tinkering with valve clearances etc. The usual strange track ensued:

The good news was that it worked OK - bar the remote control for the thrusters which needed a new battery. Our built in navigation PC sounds like an elderly hamster wheel when it boots up now - death cannot be far away. The 24v Vasari PC devices have proven to be rather less reliable than their price tag would suggest. The following day, we washed off the grey gritty stuff that prior rain showers had deposited all over the boat but there was no sensible weather window to head off:

Compare this image to the earlier one and yes, red is very bad, purple is grim too for a 27 hour voyage. So, being feeble, we stayed put. 5 metre waves around Land's End were not tempting us out from our cosy berth.

That allowed more exercise / shopping by bike (still very impressed with them), a nice lunch with Simon and Nikki and meant we could go to the Marina's bacon roll and hot cross bun thingy on Good Friday. The catering and organisation by the new restaurant operation in the marina (now known as "Goose on the Loose") left a lot to be desired. We fear that this new incarnation of the building and restaurant will fail too. Sad, we hope to be proved wrong.

It looked like there was a little (very little) weather window over the Easter weekend for our planned trip so we kept a close eye on the forecasts, trying to ignore the fact that it would be pouring with rain if we locked out on Easter Saturday morning. So tempting.

Maintenance news:

The forecabin headlining replacement had one job left - getting a couple of trim rings made to fix around the circular portholes. Two were cut from stainless steel for us and fitted. The steering system had a bit more pressure put into it and we went big and treated the thruster remote to the new battery that it craved.

Sort of getting ready to depart

The poor captain was abandoned for a day, left alone to do some chores whilst the crew headed into Bristol on the train to meet up with some proper renegades. Actually, old friends from university. You might recognise the lovely Julia as she came and stayed with us relatively recently. You might also recognise the lovely Debbie, from when we stayed with her in Germany. You will not recognise the lovely Alison. The crew hadn't seen her in 33 years but luckily she looked just the same to make meeting up easier:

The crew returned following a nice lunch and lots of catch up chat and rather oddly, we both then took the coach to Bristol the following day. We were planning to meet up with Debbie and Hajo but their family event timing meant that didn't work out. Instead we had a very good Sunday lunch in a waterfront pub and a chilled night in a local hotel. The following day was another National Express coach, this time to Heathrow T4. Why the coach? Well it is about 1/4 the price of an advance train ticket  (and a rounding error compared to a full fare) plus, you actually get a seat. Revolutionary we know but rather handy. Why Terminal 4? Well, we were not flying off anywhere, we had booked a night in a Premier Inn there so we could travel into London for the night and meet up with the crew's goddaughter Emily and her husband who were over from Australia. We had to take the opportunity.

London was a one evening visit though, we had to get the coach back the next day as the crew had an appointment for cataract surgery. Yup, one eye was growing a nice cataract and the difference to the 20/20 vision good eye was tricky. This guy:

a locally well know professor, gave her the required treatment and she returned with a  nice eye shield and a bag full of drops. The following day, way better vision too. Excellent result if a little costly. However, as she reminds the captain regularly, she is worth it.

After a few fun days, reality had to strike. We'd arranged to go to Hythe on the Sunday, ready for the new Brompton bikes to have their free first check-over on Monday, then we were to take Mrs Toddler to her hospital appointment for eye tests and the regular injection. Yes, eye issues seemed to be rather prominent. We also had a routine dentist appointment that day, something to "look forward" to indeed..

Setting the navigation system in the car to "home" gave us the first surprise - the trip was shown as 40 miles more than normal. Er? Double checking on the phone confirmed things - the M4 was closed around Bristol. We know from prior bad experiences that there are no good diversions. Our trip proved the point in spades.

After a really good day at Brilliant Bikes and meeting the owners of the Puerto Banus apartment we'd borrowed for a catch-up, life went south fast. Mr Toddler collapsed at the dinner table and after a Paramedics visit, a wait in the ambulance and then the usual corridor care thing, was admitted to Southampton hospital for checks. Oh boy, did he get checked too! The good news was that we could collect and bring him home a couple of days later. 

We returned to the boat, rather wrung out and in need of something. Something turned into a maintenance catch up and prep for the cruising season ahead. 

Maintenance News:

Wayne, the great local trimmer guy had finished fitting the new ceiling panels with the new vinyl / foam adornment and it was looking good.:

We replaced the old halogen downlighters with new LED units just as we did in our cabin. We wanted a few spare halogen units for the areas of the boat that have dimmer switches fitted, Three of the four ware good, only one of the casings had split upon removal and was effectively trashed.

To add to the general fun, the genset and wing engine had an oil and filter change and the wing had a new raw water impeller, Then, the spanners, sockets and torque wrench came out, the main engine valve clearances were checked and adjusted. More topless Deere porn for you:

Then the genset had the same treatment whish is actually harder although you are working on a much smaller engine with 2 fewer cylinders. Why? Well, as it lacks the timing pin setup of the big Deere that tells you it is top dead centre on a cylinder. 

What else - the RIB outboard had been running on old fuel, bad news. Although we drained the carburettor after each run, it decided to conk out and not restart as the captain headed back to the stern of the boat following yet more hull polishing.  The filter was removed and cleaned, the carb too and the engine was way happier afterwards.

Finally, we obtained some more diesel fuel additive (Stanadyne Performance formula) to dose the tanks when we next top up. That is a stabiliser as we keep diesel for many many months in the main tanks and it helps avoid the tar like stuff from settling out. It also improves the lubrication the fuel offers to the injection system and helps keep the injectors cleaner.  In case you don't believe that fuel can go bad, here is information from BP themselves:

Diesel is not a volatile fuel therefore it does not suffer from starting issues or from issues of evaporation that petrol does. The main issue with diesel fuel in storage is the formation of gums and sediments that can block filters. This is associated with darkening in the colour of the fuel. When stored under cover in sealed containers it will usually last for one year but it can last longer.

The main problem with diesel fuel in opened containers is that moisture from condensation will create a favorable environment for fungus and bacteria that degrade the fuel. The simple solution is regular treatment with a biocide every six months when storing for lengthy periods.

The only real trouble with the additive is the price of the stuff.....

Medical stuff and G lines (no, not strings, behave)

When we made it back to the poor neglected boat it seemed only fair to give her a little attention. First of all, a good wash off although there were fewer black streaks than we expected. Then we made a start at polishing the hull only the return of VERY chilly weather put that on hold for a few days.

Since the main and wing engines hadn't had a run in many weeks, we did our usual trip around the bay, only it wasn't a totally usual one. There was so much floating debris and huge lumps of timber sloshing around out there that we dare not head as for north as we had before and we ended up dodging some rafts of tree branches and rubbish. A very short and quite worrying run ensued:

The main engine prop is reasonably protected with the keel / skeg and hull shape helping keep the stuff floating around the bay at bay. The wing prop is way more exposed so it didn't get a run, just in case. We quickly gave up after getting the main up to temperature, a few wide open throttle runs to test all was well and lots of swerving around to avoid the bigger logs. We pass no comment on the ability / desire within the harbour authority to clean the place up.

Heading back to the marina, our local expert photographer caught a picture of us topless - no bimini cover on. He's sent us many pictures before that have also appeared in here - usually involving the barrage lock. This time you have the captain sitting on the flybridge in the cold just to get a better view of whatever was floating ahead of us:

When the temperatures killed our desire to do more polishing, it tempted us out on the new Brompton G-line bikes. Basically they are a 20 inch wheel version of the original bike with many other improvements. The ride quality on rough surface is way better and they are trail capable too. We started testing them out on the tricky run to Pret a Manger in Cardiff:

They come in a few boring colours and this rather natty orange finish. As a half-Dutch person, guess which the crew preferred. They were treated to several outings after fighting with one front tyre that refused to hold air pressure properly (they had been converted to tubeless by the selling dealer). Some bad words and another dose of sealant helped sort that. We are deeply impressed with them and had great fun on some longer rides alongside the rivers here.

As you can see, they park rather nicely with the rear wheel folded away.

Fun continued whan Steve (the ex-Cardiff waterbus man) brought his newish pup Emily over.  She liked exploring the boat and showing off her tongue too:

She also rather liked Izzy's favourite toy ball. Good job Izzy was not around to witness this little video clip:

Emily is gorgeous. Steve tells us that he is too. No comment.

We did manage to finish polishing the transom and starboard side of the hull but then medical stuff overtook events. The crew had been diagnosed with a cataract in one eye (the other is still 20/20 and the contrast between them was huge) so we headed to the Gower area for a specialised test using some rather posh and expensive looking equipment. The challenge- to get a replacement lens that allows her to return to her previously excellent pot spotting duties out to sea. We spent a happy couple of nights at the quirky New Gower hotel in the "Room with a bath" once more. Yes, it has a bath in the middle of it. 

which had to be used of course. We then had a quick dash back to Hythe for the crew to get a pesky hip checked out (bursitis that she has been trying to resolve with exercise alone for many months) and she ended up with a steroid injection. Then it was time for the eye surgery in Cardiff to pop in the new lens. All rather medical really, we must be getting old. Or should that be older? The good news is that the op was quick and successful, long distance pot spotting is back 

Maintenance news:

Wayne the trimmer had been busy, all the ceiling panels in the forecabin had gone, leaving us to admire the battens and insulation, together with the dangling wires that normally attach to the recessed lights:

After a significant battle, he had also removed the stuff glued to the timber finishing around the Portuguese bridge area:

The panels are now in his workshop to be recovered..... 

We were not totally idle either. The many fuel filters were changed and the usual battle to bleed the fuel system on the genset ensued. Grr. Then the genset was treated to a new raw water impeller - just in the nick of time too as one blade had started to fall apart:

The little bits had gone up to the end of the cooler tubestack so removing them entails draining out the coolant, removing the boot off the end of the cooler and then rebuilding it all. That is going to wait until we change the coolant which is also on the to do list.

Finally, one of the all time fun jobs. The captain cleaned out the grey water tank, braving the smell (which was not too bad this time) and having fun watching the Bio-Blast stuff eat away the soap scum on the walls of the tank.  It fizzes so nicely.

Of course, as you clear a job from the to-do list, something else gets added. The RIB was in use for hull cleaning when the outboard decided to cough and stop. It was being run on fairly old fuel (not good) so we are pretty sure that the carburetor is gunked up. That will need to be removed, dismantled and have the jets cleaned out. A job for a warmer and dry day, when we get one. Hey ho.

Heading back

To break up the journey back to the ferry in Santander, we'd booked a couple of nights in Palencia. Just a local town with a Marriott hotel that was offering rather good rates. The Captain is still one of the Marriott gold card holders thanks to many many nights staying with the hotel chain in Munich, America etc whilst working. After a gentle drive there, we found the hotel easily and it looked fine from the outside (borrowed picture): .

Indeed, inside were very friendly staff and a lovely room too. Only to park the car we found that the hotel's description of their parking facilities was a little over-egged: We should have done an AI search earlier:

The three exterior parking spaces were tiny, after squeezing into one we realised that we were in for lots of dents from other folks doors so we opted to pay and use the underground parking area. Oh dear. The entrance had an evil up and over door that was simply timed, no sensors, so it wanted to close on top of the car if you took too long. The ramp was very narrow and had an equally evil 90 degree bend. We had to back up and take two goes at getting round it. Once inside, there was plenty of space - wonder why!?!  In fact no other car parked there!

Needing lunch, we ventured across the road to Restaurante La Balastera and partook of their wildly expensive (yes, 14 whole Euros) menu of the day:

That delivered a truck load of bread, a bottle of water, a bottle of white wine, a large plate of a vegetable / meat stew as a starter (it was good!) then grilled fish and potato, then a dessert. We went big and ordered a coffee too. 32 Euros later we waddled back to the hotel. The restaurant staff spoke no English, were very patient with our attempts at translation, friendly and happy. Such a contrast to the one grumpy man in Madrid. Yes, normal service had been resumed.

The town itself was a strange mix. Some great buildings with interesting decor:

(that was a post box built into the post office). The main drag was filled with prosperous looking upscale shops and was busy. However, we saw the first signs of the same blight that has impacted the UK high streets here - many closed shops on the other roads and as soon as you left the bustling central thoroughfare, things looked very different. A shame as the town itself was pretty, some amazing old churches (one of which was huge) but the same issue that hits many more rural locations - closed shops and not enough employment locally.

As the ferry to Portsmouth was due to leave on the following day, we did the obligatory weather check since February can be a bit fruity in the Bay of Biscay. Sure enough, it promised to be so:

You can guess that deep red is not a good colour for predicted wave heights. The ferry timing worked well though and we "only" had around 5 metre high waves which the ferry stabilisers laughed off. It would have been a  little bit different in the Nordhavn, quite a bumpy tiring ride. 

The hardest part was escaping from the horrible parking area under the hotel. Getting back up the 90 degree bend was unamusing. The concrete walls and posts had been wrapped in some foam protection stuff and we saw why at first hand. The crew climbed out to hit the button to open the evil sadistic door, only by the time we had made the first attempt at the bend (failed dismally) the door had closed again. Backup, try a different angle for the ramp, open door, same thing happened.It took 4 attempts to get round, with a 2cm gap between the front bumper and the wall and around 1cm between the rear wheel arch and the post before we made it. A nice lady from the hotel had come out and was keeping the door open for us whilst the crew watched the front of the car and got suitably stressed. 

Hint, never ever use that car park! Especially in a car that measures around 5m long and 2m wide. It is bad for your stress levels. Very bad indeed. We so needed rear wheel steer (an option not fitted to our car). After all that fun, things seemed pretty simple. A gentle drive to the ferry port, stopping off to fill up for the last ime with nice cheaper Spanish diesel before we hit the UK prices again. The usual queueing thing in the port itself, then the rather good service we've come to expect from Brittany Ferries in their club cabins and lounge. A happy trip that got nice and calm once we had crossed Biscay and started heading up the English Channel:

Our welcome back to the UK was tempered by the fact that the ship docked late evening and we were told that disembarking would be delayed thanks to ramp problems in Portsmouth port. A rather rapid reminder of the decaying infrastructure here. Still, we finally escaped, had a chat with a very friendly border control guy as he checked our passports and spent the night in a most upmarket Portsmouth Premier Inn. Rather after the Lord Mayor's show really. 

The following day was manic. Drive to Hythe, empty out the car, drive to Sunningdale and collect our new Brompton bikes plus one old one that had been there for service. Bring them back to Hythe then to a hotel in Southampton for the night (we don't like to stay in Toddlerville after travelling just in case we've picked up some nasty lurgy thingy). That evening, we had a visit from Anne and the goddog:

She clearly had a bad fur day going on. That didn't stop her getting massive amounts of fuss from everyone who passed by the hotel bar area of course. It was a lovely welcome home.

Maintenance News:

Whilst we were still away, Wayne the rather wonderful trimmer guy contacted us to say that he had the replacement foam backed vinyl and was ready to re-do the headlining in our forecabin. The original was failing - the glue was coming free in several places and it looked as though the headlining had blisters and in some area big boils. Not pretty. Left alone it would probably turn into the hanging gardens of Babylon, So, we asked the marina to release the spare key to him so that he could dismember the cabin, removing the overhead panels and taking them away to be recovered. The tricky bit would be the stuff stuck to the boat structure itself, around the inside of the Portuguese bridge area. Getting that off and replacing it tidily would be a real test of Wayne's skill. Little did we know how apt that comment would turn out to be....

Granada and Madrid enchant

Leaving the rather lovely apartment in Puerto Banus was hard to do. However, our mood perked up once we were in Granada quite a lot. We were staying at an OK hotel (bar the rather high temperature in the room - no aircon gets switched on during the winter!) with a great bus service into town from close by. All good.

Granada treated us to more stunning buildings, like the monastery of San Jeronimo which was impressive from the outside but truly amazing internally:

We, together with other visitors, walked around with our jaws sagging and eyeballs unable to handle the visual overload of the interior decorations:

As you can see, the altar area was rather overdone:

 - a small symphony of golden detail in reality.

We did the right thing and walked up the rather steep hill to the world famous Alhambra but all the tickets were sold out well in advance so we didn't get to see the inside areas. However, we felt very good about ourselves after the walk up there and consoled ourselves with views like these:

The locals had a few signs translated for the benefit of toursity types like us, sometimes quite literally as below:

No comment needed.

Some more sightseeing and some excellent food rounded off our couple of very full days there very nicely. Next trip, we will spend longer and make sure we have pre-booked the most popular tourist attractions if we want to see inside. Actually, we didn't feel as though we had missed out on anything, just walking around the place and soaking up the views and atmosphere was enough.

The next stopover was to be Madrid. Our longest daily drive of the entire trip along the wonderfully quiet Spanish motorways was so much simpler than an equivalent 300 mile trip along the UK's horribly congested and potholed main motorways. Apart from the expected madness of the ring road around Madrid it was stress free. The next day we got busy, starting off by getting a very cheap tourist metro / bus pass, using the metro to get into the city centre and then taking the crew to the Plaza de Espana - kind of a must do thing when in Madrid. The Captain had visited before on work trips, being shown around the city with the expert help of "native guides" from BMW Spain. This time, we had to manage ourselves.

The square had the regulation mounted police in attendance to allow the visitors to take lots of photos for their albums. We resisted and only took a couple: .  

The city is another overload of awesome buildings, sensory experiences and the opportunity to hop from landmark to landmark. The Cathedral was a must and we managed to time our walk around when a small service was underway. The music and singing fitted to the grand building so well and tempted us to linger inside longer than intended:

Next door is the royal palace - we opted to just gawp from the outside rather than join the masses queuing to get inside:

Purely by chance once more, we were around for the changing of the guard thing. They so looked like the apocryphal chocolate soldiers:

To keep the horses from getting bored, they did a lap of the grounds. This short video is evidence. You could tell the route they followed each time was very consistent by the trail of horse poo:

which we guess they have to clear up regularly. A job for the newest recruit perhaps?

We did break our normal "getting culture" routine by having a walk around the shopping area which was suitably busy with the weekend hordes. Madrid has what must be one of the biggest and poshest Primark stores going:

Compare it to the one in Cardiff shopping centre:

Sorry Cardiff, you lose hands down. The stuff in Madrid was cheaper too, despite the grand surroundings.

We had a great walk around the park near the palace where you get good views back to the rather imposing building:

and then down the river for a while, joining the locals who were getting their exercise too. One of the stranger things to do is to visit the main train station and see the indoor garden area:

Again, just so like the interior of Cardiff central station:

where the plant life is usually growing in the guttering. 

Being careful (mean?) souls, we had read that after a particular time in the evening, you can visit the renowned Prado museum / gallery for free. So, we arranged our walk around there to fit with freebie entrance time only it went very wrong - there was a queue of monster proportions waiting for the magical hour. We opted not to join it, next time we are in the city we will just go earlier with the normal paying public:

You can see a small part of the enormous queue in that picture.

On the way back to the hotel, we decided - with the help of Mr Google, to frequent a local restaurant that was reported as having good food, local clientele and only spanish speakers on the staff. The message was that struggling through the language issue was well worth it. Only when we walked in the owner treated us to the rudest "can't be bothered to serve you" approach we'd had during our entire stay. Such a contrast to all of the other  "purely local" places we had eaten in. So different to the rather wonderful "Mr Carrot Cake"  (have a look at weblink) which was close to the hotel and very handy for breakfast or a cheeky evening coffee and cake. Yes, their speciality cake was very good. We had to test it. Twice.