From T shirts to thermals

November 24th - still in our T shirts at the marina BBQ

We’ve been working hard over the last two weeks getting the boat ready for winter, as we are leaving it for a couple of months while we return to the UK. We’ve washed the sails and ropes and packed them away, serviced the engine, cleaned down the decks, cleared out the cupboards and packed up our books and clothes. We’ve been lucky as the weather has been fine and sunny, with temperatures between 16 and 21C during the day, though much cooler at night.

We flew back to the UK on 30^th November and found it a bit of a shock going from 16C to 5C. We are now staying with Mum in Milford on sea and have a busy month ahead. I’m having my cataract op next week, then we will be catching up with family and friends before Cliff leaves for the Canaries on 28^th December to cross the Atlantic!

Our friends Richard and Rowena on Galene, a 36ft Westerly Corsair ketch, were looking for an extra crew member for their Atlantic crossing and Cliff jumped at the chance. They’ll be leaving Las Palmas at the end of December to sail to the Cape Verde islands and then on to Grenada in the Caribbean.

I’ll be heading back to Spain towards the end of January and Cliff will return mid-Feb. We hope to do a bit more travelling in Spain in March before we set sail again in April, when we will be heading to the Balearics and then on to Italy.

This will be our last update for 2012 – the next update will be in February 2013 when we’re back on board in Spain.