Barcelona

Glyn and Emma The three most significant events of this winter were, my daughter Emma made me a grandfather by giving birth to a baby boy Arran, Tan’s 60th birthday, and Tan’s daughter Rachel becoming pregnant, but more details later.

Back to the mundane, the weather has been exceptionally warm and dry until April when it changed to very wet, windy and cold. In October Tan went back to Wales to help her friend Derek after his eye operation. While she was gone I fitted a new Radio/CD player to replace the one that packed-up in summer. It’s great we can now play MP3’s etc.

Pete & Debbie's leaving party Tan came back from Wales with her son Glyn and lovely new girlfriend Emma. They stayed five days, two on the boat and three in a hotel. It was good to see Glyn again and very nice to meet and spend some time with Emma. Just after Glyn left the Marina provided free tickets to the boat show but unlike previous years they weren't VIP passes, just single day passes.

In early November the Marina hosted the annual Castañada party on the floating restaurant Gaz de Luz. Soon after, Pete and Debbie had a party as they are leaing to work on the super-yacht Opium in Gibraltar. Great party, sorry to see them go. Mid-month we managed to get out for our first day sail. It was a glorious day but the wind was light, nevertheless we went to Port Olympic for fuel and had a slow leisurely sail back.

On 14th December Arran had his birthday, literally! At 27 weeks pregnant Emma’s waters broke but fortunately she didn’t go into labour but was in and out of hospital for checks. At 32 weeks they induced her and Arran was born at just under 5lb. He made good progress and was released from hospital on New Years Eve, two weeks ahead of his scheduled debut.

Emma & Arran We held our usual drinks and nibbles party on a bright and sunny Christmas morning before going out for Christmas lunch. This year we chose an Indian restaurant which was excellent and when we left we were greeted by the Barcelona city cleaners, working on Christmas day. We didn’t have any visitors over Christmas and New Year so it was quiet but enjoyable.

January was busy and exciting, on the 7th Tan noticed a Sunseeker powerboat moored close-by was slowly disappearing under water bows first. Pretty soon we had the Marinero’s, a couple of fire-engines, numerous police and the rescue and safety boat here. Eventually, with two pumps working flat out they stabilized her. Two of the young mariner’s did an excellent job, they were stripped off down to underpants going underwater in the bows to find the leak. Finally it turned out to be a faulty through-the-hull fitting which had been blown into the boat.

Christmas morning drinks The second exciting event in January was Tan’s 60th Birthday. She had invited family and friends from the UK, Spain, and the Balearics to Barcelona for the weekend. The culmination was a fantastic lunch for eighteen people at the restaurant El Grand Café on Sunday. It started with Cava and then traditional Catalan style first course in which several different dishes are placed on the table for people to help themselves. That was followed by a main course of your choice, then desert and the wine flowed freely throughout. It was a weekend to remember. Congratulations Tan.

To round off January, Debbie and Colin paid us a flying visit, it was nice to see them again and on the 28th Tan & I went to a concert at the Palau de Music then had a very pleasant lunch at a new tapas bar, a very enjoyable day.

Tan's 60th Birthday party In February, the Marina finally got around to having the Christmas Lights award ceremony. We moved up one place this year and came second. The ceremony drew to a hasty close due to a very brief squall that passed through. We cycled round to Port Forum to check it out for lift-out this year. It’s a nice clean yard but continually in shade so we decided to wait until we get to Pollenca and lift out there. I’m glad we did given the weather in April.

We managed another day-sail on the 1st March. The weather was great and we cruised at between 5 and 7 knots under sail for a couple of hours. Mid-March, Tan went back to Wales for ten days and I caught up with some of the winter maintenance tasks, notably replacing our batteries. The new AGM batteries are still very expensive here so I contemplating replacing our existing 3 lead-acid batteries with more of the same. Fortuitously, Bob and Cindy were replacing their old AGM’s so I replaced our old 3 lead-acid with 2 of their old AGM’s. Hopefully we will get through the summer with them and the price will have dropped by next year. Good news, Pete and Debbie arrived back unexpectedly.

Three days after Tan got back the glorious weather changed to wet, windy and cold and apart from a couple of nice days over Easter it has continued.