Almerimar - December 2018

Almerimar - December 2018 

Tuesday 4th December...

DEAN So this week has been a little slow on the jobs front. I had to order some more of the special teak oil from France so I can finish treating the toe rails and once it arrives I'll have a go at cleaning up the cockpit teak also. While waiting for the delivery I thought I would have a practice at some photography, yes that's right. Photography. So while we were out on the bikes the other day....

Here are a couple of shots from my phone and the selfie stick.

Action shots with the selfie stick!

You can just make out poor Saffy trying to keep up in the second shot. I also had the drone out for a quick test flight. After frightening a few of the local yachties and nearly ditching in the drink I managed a couple of shots.

Might come in handy for checking the top of the mast.

Linda has been unwell this week and has come down with a severe case of scurvy. Her own fault for not eating the limes. Anyway all photo's have had to hide the offending scab. Handy to have a glass of something in your hand at the time I guess!

Bloody "L" Linda. Limes not Liquor!

LINDA - Well the STAR of the week has been the great weather. It’s been really calm, sunny, and warm for a whole week. We can’t get to grips with the fact that it’s actually December. 

Dean must have had some time on his hands. On one of Saffy’s afternoon walkies this week we stopped at a bench along the esplanade and Dean took the chance to have a go at flying his drone around the beach. He’s getting good at it although still quite nervous about flying it above water. What we are really aiming for is to be able to fly it whilst sailing so we can get some video of the boat in action. The trouble is we think will be trying to land it on a moving boat! 

Wednesday night was quiz time again. Two of our team members Ant & Cid were missing having gone to visit friends for a few days. However, there was a Swedish couple on the next table in the restaurant and they joined up with us, although a little bewildered with the whole thing it appeared. It was a music quiz and the questions were quite difficult we thought. Phil was brilliant and basically got us into the second half final with his knowledge, where we won the tiebreak with a quick answer from yours truly. Prize = Bottle Vino Tinto. I think we were all left bemused how we managed that. It was Phil and Cris’s last quiz before going home for the winter, so it was great to go out on a high. 

Their boat was lifted out of the water on Thursday morning to go ashore in the yard for the next 5 months or so whilst they go back to Brazil and the US. Dean took them to the airport on Saturday to catch their flight to Sao Paolo. Meanwhile home alone, I got stuck into a jigsaw. 

This one nearly beat me but i won in the end

We have hired a car for 10 days from Almeria Airport. It’s much cheaper to hire a car from the airport than to get one locally. So we had to take the bus to the airport on Friday morning to pick up the car at the airport. This is why we were checking out the buses last week as there are only two buses a day on this route and we didn’t want to miss it. We got to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare and I noticed that there was a woman waiting with a suitcase. Well you wouldn’t believe it, but it was MY SUITCASE that I donated to the local charity shop about 2 weeks ago!  It was definitely the one because it still had the locked lock (with a missing key) hanging on the zip. I wanted to talk to her and tell her the story but she looked Spanish and she may have thought I was a bit of a weirdo or something. She probably thought that anyway because I kept looking at it. Well it’s good to know that it’s still travelling around Europe anyway. The bus took 90 minutes to get to Almeria and on the whole it was OK, with some of the route being along the coast roads. The car we have is a Seat Leon and we are very pleased with it. 

Our Seat Leon....freedom for the next 10 days

Saturday night at Leo's quiz we were four members short! Having to team up again we ended up with three Linda's. Not so good this time only reaching 3rd place. We are all fine and Saffy has taken to having daily siestas. Every evening after she has dinner she goes outside and sleeps in the cockpit. I reckon she would stay there all night if we let her. 

So taking advantage of having four wheels, on Sunday we drove north to visit Aunty Von and Uncle Jim. They live in Alicante Province near the Mar Menor, just north of Cartagena. It was great to see them again, they are both so entertaining and welcoming. We were also looking forward to seeing their villa….with a pool of course. Yesterday Jim drove us all to Cartagena for the day. Dean has been itching to go there for ages. In fact we almost decided to go there for our winter berthing this year instead of Almerimar. Of course we wanted to have a look at the marina, and whilst we were there we had an errand to carry out…..delivering a hat to a boat for a friend….long story. We were just about to leave the marina and head into the city when we saw a submarine leaving port… WOW.  Everyone was looking at it, even a woman who was walking past us and clumsily trod on Saffy Perro! After our city walkabout we climbed up to the Castle and Ampitheatre. Back home at Von and Jim’s, Von made us a lovely turkey dinner and xmas pud. We stayed over two nights and left this morning. We can’t thank you enough for making us so welcome. 

The AP-7 Toll Road to Cartagena ..... not a car for miles

Still no traffic here

At the marina now in Cartagena

Dean with his delivery

Weirdest ship i've ever seen

There goes the sub

Into the city

 Looking down from the Castle...

...into the ampitheatre

and now into the modern theatre

Roses at the villa

Saying our goodbyes

So on the way back this afternoon we took a different route and drove through the eastern Sierra Nevada. It was spectacular scenery, although we were hoping to see some snow-capped mountains, we only caught a glimpse of a couple of white caps. Maybe most of the snow melted this week with the warm temperatures. Oh well, you can’t have everything. 

This was at Sorbas

Little Hollywood.... Spaghetti Westerns

 

Just like the US Nevada

Where's the snow please? Do you know it's December?

Plenty of orange trees though

Now we've stopped off at Laujar de Andarax

Scurvy scab getting better now

He must be famous...must look him up

Tuesday 11th December… 

LINDA - Back to reality for a couple of days anyway as we spent Wednesday doing chores. We still had the car so we took the chance to go into nearby El Ejido for shopping at Lidl and Carrefour. Whilst we were at it we had a drive through the town, our first since arriving at Almerimar a number of weeks ago now. El Ejido is the main town here and it’s about 5 km away along some very pleasant boulevards with palm trees and great views. Back on the boat we did some washing to get ready for Dean’s lightning visit back to the UK on Thursday.

Dean left on Thursday lunchtime for his flight from Malaga. It’s great getting cheap flights but it’s the car hire at each end that soon bumps the price of the trip up. He flew into Bristol and by the time he reached Dudley it was almost midnight. So much for our idea of being able to get back from the Med easily!

Dean's flight from Malaga to Bristol courtesy of Flight Tracker

This was the first time Saffy and I have been left in charge of Thesee. Thankfully there were no issues and the weather was good so no issues with the wind. I kept myself busy with yet another jigsaw, and finally managed to edit our ‘Big Adventure’ video clips that we’ve been gathering all year. It’s the kind of job you need to do when you’re on your own because you have to keep playing them over and over. After all the editing the files are still too large to copy to disc so more work is needed. It’s been great looking back at what we got up to on our journey, and I had forgotten how bad the weather had been in France and North Spain. 

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria

Hey, where's the missing edge piece? 

At the ‘Ladies in Boats’ meeting on Friday the topic was Boat Insurance. It quite amuses me that I should be going to meetings to discuss such things. Who would have ever imagined such a thing a few years back? On the way back Cindy and I called into the Stumble Inn and booked us and our hubbys in for the Christmas Day Meal. Saffy and I had a lovely walk on the afternoon and spotted a traditional nativity scene in the Ferreteria shop window, and also this beautiful colourful roundabout along the main road in Almerimar.

  The traditional Nativity scene in the Ferreteria shop window

Beautifully kept roundabout on the local main boulevard 

So Saturday morning arrived and Dean was on his way back. He’s such a jet setter. There was a Christmas Fayre going on at the local Charity shop so i went along to have a look and play the Tombola etc whilst i waited for Dean's return. The charity shop supports a local dogs home, hence some of the doggies here looking for new homes i suspect. 

Can you see the two dinky puppies in the red basket?

Cakes for sale at the Christmas Fayre

Dean you missed it 

Bric-a-Brac for sale on this stall

Anyway, many thanks to Claire, Matt, and Charlie for looking after Dean. I thought he would be tired when he got back but he was still up for the Saturday night quiz. Only 5th place this week but we had a good night anyway. 

Saffy gave us a bit of a fright on Sunday. We don’t know what was wrong but she was not herself and had a husky cough and was extremely lethargic. At her age we get rather touchy when she isn't herself, hence she got loads of fuss and was allowed to sleep on the sofa. 

Our car hire came to an end on Monday and we drove to Almeria airport to return the car. All was well and we got the buses back just fine. It’s a bit of a drag but we calculated it’s worth the money it saves. Well it’s time to put the fairy lights up and this year we have made a Christmas Tree shape. Surely we’re in for the best dressed boat competition. We'll get a photo for next week when we can get a good view from afar. 

DEAN  Well this week has been very busy. As most of you know by now I flew back to blighty on Thursday night so I could do a few things in Dudley on Friday. It was a busy day with a tight schedule. I got back to Brook Street at about 11pm on Thursday. I spent Friday zipping all over the place sorting things out. I had a great time going back to work for a couple of hours, it was great to catch up with everybody. After a curry Friday night it was an early(ish) night for a 3.30am start back to Bristol for the 8am flight back to Spain.

One of the first jobs to be done once back on board was the loo! The plastic pipe that runs from the toilet to the holding tank was getting blocked with limescale, a common problem on a boat. Anyway the only real way to combat this is to remove the pipe and beat the hell out of it on the pontoon. This breaks the lime scale up which can then be shaken out of the pipe, it has to be seen to be believed! Both toilets are now flushing perfectly again.

Extra tinsel and lights on the Thesee tree

We also had another look at the Christmas decorations. We put new lights and tinsel on the tree and moved it to a better position. That left just enough time to hoist the long lights up the mast to form a Christmas tree effect. Come on Santa!

On the way to drop the hire car off in Almeria we stopped off at Bric O Mart (B&Q) and I bought a new cordless drill that was on offer, good old Santa.

We’re back to cleaning teak again over the next few days, along with trying to sort out a new schedule for the daily Almerimar VHF net.



Tuesday 18th December… 
LINDA - Still trying to get into the Christmas Spirit, and we purchased a few more strips of tinsel. Dean has been very busy teak cleaning. On Wednesday I wanted to make Cheese Bread… a recipe from my Boat Galley cookbook, and so we purchased the special Swiss Emmental Cheese it specified. Unfortunately it turned out just like a big fat Yorkshire Pudding, it even tasted like one. 

Looks like we’ll be eating the leftover Emmental right into the New Year

This week at El Espigon quiz night our friend Ant was the quizmaster. The questions were very good and covered Geography, Science, History, and General Knowledge. It was a little embarrassing as we won the first half (Ant’s wife Cindy was in our team) ….another bottle of Vino Tinto supplied by the restaurant. We won it fair and square and there was no cheating going on. The bonus round was EU flags and we did quite well on that too. 

Quizmaster Ant in action

Thursday the weather was just awful, rain and wind gusting up to 47 knots we were told, and it went on for 24 hours. Typical that we had arranged a coffee meet up with the VHF Co-ordinators that morning, but still 7 people turned up at Café Milenio to discuss the Cruisers Net. It’s only about a 5 minute walk away, if that, and still we got soaked walking back. On the afternoon we ventured out again to the local electrical store. Dean has been downloading films from Netflix to watch on our TV. I will let Dean tell you about his purchases. I was really chilly and although we had the heater on and the temperature was 27 degrees inside the boat I wasn’t happy when Dean switched the heater off. 

The day after the wind

The damaged palm trees with the broken branches lying on the ground

It was a last minute decision to go out Friday night. They had a singer on at Leos and they also had curry on the Specials menu too. The place was full and it was a brilliant night. Everyone joined in the fun and it wasn’t too long before the dance floor was swinging. Rather a late night I might say. Hence not getting out of bed until 10.30am Saturday morning!!

Hey Cindy, you're not the waitress!

The start of Friday's great night at Leo's Bar

We rarely get up before 8.30am and usually one of us tends to have a bit of a lie in whilst the other gets the kettle on. The stern of our boat faces East so as soon as the sun comes up it shines perfectly into the boat and down the companionway. As long as the wind is from the West we can sit outside in the cockpit quite comfortably. 

The quiz nights are still continuing but the number of players/teams has dropped considerably over the last few weeks with a lot of people going home for Christmas. We don’t mind though because we’ve been doing quite well and infact won Saturday night’s quiz. Yet another bottle of Vino Tinto gratefully received. 

One thing that gets on my nerves sometimes is our camera. You may have noticed on some photos the date and time are shown. It's really annoying and for some reason it keeps appearing. It's easy enough to change the setting and remove it, but the annoying thing is that you don't realise it's there until you get back and upload the photos to the computer. Then of course it's too late to make amends. I must make a note to take more notice of it whilst we're taking photos.

Today was lovely and calm with full blown sunshine. There's not much going on on a Tuesday so a bit of a free day really, hence we packed a picnic and took the bikes out down the esplanade stopping off at the beach where Dean had another play (sorry, practise) with his drone. Took some great photos from it. Saffy kept herself amused by chewing a stick she found on the beach. Later on Dean went to the Chandlery to try and get his new anchor chain ordered.... a bit of a saga but we'll get there i'm sure. 

Found a stick mum!

Lunch stop along the esplanade

It's great for cycling too

Back in the marina at the Capitania Office

The Christmas Boat Lights competition has been hotting up this week, even the local Chandlery joining in with a tree shape on its roof. Think we might need some more fairy lights Dean. 

Here's Thésée lighting up the marina

Well before we know it Christmas will be over and so we thought it was time to do some research on our sailing plans for next year. I started to look at marinas and anchorages between here and Denia which is about 200 miles away along the Costa Blanca. Hopefully we can be in the Balearics by May. 

DEAN – Well this week has flown by, there was of course more teak cleaning involved. You would think that not having teak decks it would only take a short while to clean all the teak on board. Anyway, I managed to find a spare day to clean all the teak on the cockpit sole and the transom step or sugar scoop as it’s sometimes called. All the teak has now been cleaned within an inch of its life and has all had at least two coats of teak oil, which I hope will last 12 months. 

First the cleaning session

It's a mucky job

Now the teak oil has been applied

Looking good

After the toilet cleaning episode from last week I thought I would have a quick look inside the holding tanks to see if there were any issues however after trying all sorts of things, including the hairdryer (not mine) the inspection caps refuse to budge so I’ll leave that for now. If it’s not broke don’t fix it!

I managed to buy a HMDI cable from the charity shop for 2 euro and after a bit of searching about I also found a Lightning to HMDI converter for my IPhone. I logged onto Netflix with an account name I have borrowed and hey presto, Netflix on the TV. Of course I have to go over to the bar with the best WiFi and download the films but so far so good.

The HDMI cable and the Lightning Converter ready to go

TV Professor at work

Our Spanish neighbour from the boat next door dropped by the other day to check his lines and things. While he was here I managed to talk to him 'in Fluent Spanish' and persuade him that he needed to buy our spare wheel covers. Treinta Euro Senor? SOLD, don't mention the Armada.

Nice wheel covers Senor!

I also managed to borrow some DVD’s from one of the “lads” at the Old Gits coffee morning on Monday so we have those to watch also. I think I mentioned previously that I am the “DJ” on the Almerimar VHF net for Monday’s edition. Well I tried to sort out a proper schedule as people are going home for Christmas and volunteers are getting tight, I managed to get hold of one more name who is going to do Wednesday but it looks like I could be doing another day to keep things going until the new year brings people back to their boats. 

Excellent day for drone practise....what a view!

Now looking the other way toward the mountains

While out on the bikes near the beach with plenty of space I had another drone session. Took some nice photos of the West beach and promenade with the Sierra Nevada in the back ground. Also picked up a delivery from the office on the way back.

Happy Christmas to me!

Only a few more sleeps to go until the fat bloke brings the presents, Yippee! Not sure what I will get for Linda yet, may be some raisins, beer or perhaps some fresh sardines. If she’s a good girl perhaps all three. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from 20 ish degrees and sunny blue skies.

Tuesday 25^th December…. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FELIZ NAVIDAD TO ALL THÉSÉE FOLLOWERS

LINDA - Let's start with a couple of festive photos from Almerimar

The Christmas Tree on the main boulevard

Poinsettia's planted along the dual carriageways

Not much in the way of Christmas food in the local Mercadona supermarket this week. No fancy cocktail sausages wrapped in pretty wrapping, no brandy butter, and no tins of Quality Street piled high as the sky. So just a plain old weekly shop, but we did treat ourselves to a bottle of Bailey’s though.

Dean had the locally recommended rigging man come round to see about putting a new slot at the top of the mast for a spare spinnaker halyard.  Wednesday’s quiz at El Espigon was down to just three teams. Ant was a master quizmaster again. The first half we tied first place, and after two tie breakers we were still evens. Dean piped up that we should let the other team win the wine as we beat them in the tie break last week. They were truly shocked at his generous gesture, and within 10 minutes our whole team had been invited to their New Year’s Eve party!! BONUS

At the quiz, the place was almost empty

 Nice decorations though

Another Nativity scene, this time at the quiz night

Thursday we took a bus ride into El Ejido because I wanted to visit the El Corte Ingles department store. It’s rather like a Debenhams or House of Fraser but much bigger. We spent a couple of hours browsing, mainly for some ankle boots for me because I don’t have any smart winter shoes, and I don’t want to wear trainers when I go to the pub. However, I ended up getting some back in Almerimar at the local shoe shoppy place.

 Finally got a bus photo

No this isn't aboard Thésée, it's at the department store in town.

Linda reaching for the bubbly.

Saffy’s main dog bed is kind of falling to pieces, so whilst in town we were also looking for a new one for her. No luck so far, we haven’t found anything similar or suitable so she will have to wait until after Santa has been now.

We went to Mario’s Bar on Friday for the Yachties night, the first time we’ve been in the last four weeks. It’s a good place to log onto the wifi and download films to the Ipad. Saturday was the Christmas Quiz and we only got there just in time to get a table. The place was really busy, a shock after last week when it was virtually deserted. We’re not very good at Christmas quizzes and didn’t really do any homework for it, but we did OK. Not good enough for the Vino Tinto this week.

The week’s weather has been great again with plenty of sunshine so it’s fairly settled at the moment, and most evenings the water in the marina is perfectly still, just like an ice rink. Sunday we took the bikes out for a little trip along the East beach esplanade, back along the main road (which is just a quiet dual carriageway), and up to check the location for where we have been invited for the New Year’s Eve party. Along the way we caught up with two large dogs that were obviously strays on the lookout for food. We kept our distance behind them not knowing how they would react to Saffy (even though she was in the bike basket). It was quite sad to see them foraging and not knowing where they would end up sleeping the night.

One lucky dog.... Saffy basking in the sunshine

Anyway, we found the location we were looking for. Wow! It’s fabulous. Can’t wait for New Year’s Eve. Apparantly we get to celebrate it twice, once at Spanish midnight, and then again at 1am when Big Ben signals the UK New Year.  Note to self: Drink slowly or risk missing the whole thing.

I took the plunge and booked flights to the UK and back for February 2019. Just for me, Dean will be Saffy sitting again. It will be school half term week so a good chance to do some Nannying.

On the 23^rd our internet got cut off, would you believe it, just when you want to start sending messages to family and friends. This meant no Skyping either which had been pre-planned for Christmas Day but had to be cancelled.

Dean did his usual Monday VHF Radio Net session and what a festive one it was too. Well it was Christmas Eve after all. Dean also treated us to a surprise Christmas present…..two deck chairs….whoopie! And so we went back to the boat and took our Christmas Photo sitting on our lovely new chairs.

 Christmas Eve, Mediterranean style

Christmas morning was overcast, a shock after the lovely weather of late. Nevertheless we went off down to the beach with our new deck chairs to watch and support the Christmas morning swimmers. Well there was only one brave swimmer turned up, our new friend Sam, and his wife Rose who was taking video. The sea water was a mere 16 degrees but that didn’t stop him diving in and swimming to the end of the breakwater and back. Well done Sam.  To his surprise we had some warm Winter Pimms in a flask and greeted him with a tot when he emerged from the water.

Ready and willing (i think)

Sam the brave

 Proof.....he really did it

On the way back to the boat, Dean found some flags that someone had thrown out...we'll have them thankyou very much.

These'll come in handy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Italy, Malta

Back on Thesee it was time to call family and hear all the excitement of Santa’s visit, plus find out who had been good enough to receive gifts. Later on at 4.30pm it was Christmas Dinner at the Stumble Inn along with Cindy & Ant plus late bookers Stella and Ward. Three courses cost a very reasonable 20 Euros per person, and the food was lovely and hot. Everyone was in festive mood and we had a really good time, getting back to the boat around 8pm (as far as I can remember).

Christmas Day 2018

DEAN – This week I thought it would be wise to run the engine up and make sure all was still OK in that department. It was, so no surprises to upset the apple cart. I used the bow thruster also to make sure there was nothing growing in there. The engine starts really well every time and I never have to use the glow plugs when starting even in winter which is good news.

I took all the chain out of the anchor locker in anticipation of the new chain arriving in January. I wanted to make sure the locker was draining correctly. I found some plastic mesh in the local Chinese shop so cut this to fit in the bottom, hopefully this will keep the chain out of any sea water left in the bottom and aid draining. While I was in there I found part of a circlip laying in the bottom! Bugger, where has that come from? After a bit of searching and a consult with the windlass manual I found where it had come from. It looks like it doesn’t do a lot so I replaced it with a bit of monel seizing wire and a cable tie. A difficult job working upside down with a mirror!

Anchor chain removed, now fitting the plastic mesh

Our current 30m of 12ml chain, marked at 5m intervals

The rogue circlip

View looking up from inside the anchor locker

The windlass with the new cable tie

I had the Go-Pro camera out again and fixed to the long boat hook so I could check the anode and make sure the prop was safe. It was so I’m sure that will last another couple of months until we’re lifted and I can replace all the anodes. I want to fit another spinnaker halyard, the top mast sheath is there ready but I need an exit slot cut in the mast. The local rigger came round to take a look and will do the job after Christmas. I used the inspection camera I bought at Aldi before we left to look inside the mast to check the best position. I found that I have to do this at night when it’s dark otherwise you can’t see the small display screen very well.

I spent two days scrubbing the decks. I haven’t cleaned then thoroughly since we arrived here so they were in need of a good scrub. I made quite a mess also when I had the anchor chain out of the locker. I cleaned and polished some of the stainless steel also and found a clip missing from the bow life line fitting so replaced that. Don’t know how long that had been gone for! I did a Christmas themed VHF radio net this morning (Christmas eve), all went well I think, no complaints so far anyway. 

Here i am in scrubbing mode

 In full swing broadcasting the radio net on Christmas Eve

Monday 31st December…

LINDA - This week’s blog started on Boxing Day. We were back to the sunny weather and on the afternoon there was a quiz on at Ankara café/bar. Even though it’s a popular place and right on our doorstep, we haven’t actually been in there before so the quiz was a good opportunity. We turned up early to get a table (all outside but it was warm and sunny). Faithful quizzers Cindy and Ant made up our team of four and we were raring to go and in good spirits. Well, yet again we came up trumps winning the quiz by about 5 clear points. It was funny as during the quiz the staff had given us a round of liquors (this is quite normal so we didn’t think much of it). Turns out they had given the drinks to the wrong table and the liquors were meant for someone else! Oops. Too late we had empty glasses by then. Also, the prize for winning the quiz was a round of free drinks! Doing well today then. 

On Thursday our new friends Sam & Rose invited us for a drink onboard Zora. Everyone is so friendly here and everyone has a good word to say about Almerimar. Anyway, we spent a good few hours chatting and swapping yachting info as always.  Sam & Rose are travelling the opposite direction to us, having bought their boat in Italy and spent a couple of years exploring the Med.

Friday was a big day for Saffy Perro because it was a trip to the local pet groomers for her. Just a wash & trim this time. The place is only about two minutes walk away so right on our doorstep. Not like the last time in Portimao when we had to drive 5 miles in the hire car. Whilst Saffy was being ‘done’ Dean & I treated ourselves to English Breakfast in Ankara which is only next door to the groomers. Then on the evening we ventured out to Marios Bar, only 8 people at this week’s Yachties night. The MMF (Mediterranean Man Flu) as Dean calls it, seems to have taken its toll on the men here in the marina since Christmas. Poor Dean was coming down with it Friday and so we stayed in all weekend. Saturday was his worst day and I think we watched 3 films on TV, one after the other. The weather was quite iffy too so we didn’t mind staying in and wrapping up warm. Hence not many photos this week, sorry. There had been some wind forecast but it didn’t hardly materialise which we were happy about.

Saffy's new look, nice and clean and soft

Can i go now Dad?

About to tuck into the home-made apple tart

By the time New Year’s Eve arrived on Monday Dean was starting to improve and managed to attend the coffee morning just about.  One of the Spanish ladies at my coffee morning was giving out lemons from her garden, they were huge, about twice the size of a normal lemon.  Ant was coming down with the man flu and so they didn’t go to the New Year’s Eve party. Dean and I went along and had a good time. Again, everyone was friendly and made us welcome. The party was actually in the garage of the property….it was huge. We had two celebrations, one at Spanish midnight, and one an hour later at UK midnight. It was 3am when we finally arrived back at the boat. 

Here's the massive lemon, alongside a normal sized orange...Yikes!

So a very fitting end to our big year aboard Thesee. 2018 has been very kind to the Three Sailors and we are really looking forward to more big adventures to come. 

There’s no news from Dean this week apart from the fact he’s feeling much better now.

Happy New Year to you all. 

Hope all your dreams come true.

This is the last blog post entitled Almerimar - December 2018

The next post will be entitled Almerimar - January 2019