Barcelona

Christmas morning drinks Highlights of the winter for me (Captain Jack) were going to the UK to meet my wonderful grandson Arran for the first time and spending time with Emma and Sherwin and my son Timothy and being there for Debbie’s Birthday. Then going with Tan to Mijas, southern Spain to see Rachel’s daughter and family, more of that later! Also a trip to Gerona with friends Barbara and Robbie.

Lowlight of the winter was the terrible fire in the marina at the beginning of February which sank four of the very large expensive boats and left one badly damaged and at the time of writing in mid April they are still down there, fortunately there was no loss of life nor injuries.

On the whole it’s been a quiet winter, the Barcelona boat show was even bigger than last year and even more disappointing because it’s really a power boat show and a trade show, almost impossible to buy anything you need. The marina put on the usual Castañada party on the floating bar/restaurant at the end of pontoon A which was well attended. Tan went back to Wales in mid-November for a few days, then she went to see Rachel and family at the villa in Mijas at the end of the month.

Our guides - Barbara & Tan in Gerona There was the usual Christmas lighting competition for the boats. The lights this year were equally good but in spring the new marina manager decided they would renege on the competition and not award any prizes. I organised the usual Christmas morning drinks and nibbles get-together which was very well attended with over fifty people in glorious warm sunshine. In the evening we were joined by the excellent company and wit of Noel (not Coward) and dined on our boat with some fine wines and Tan’s excellent cooking. On boxing day we had an excellent meal with Robbie and Barbara in the same Indian restaurant we went to last Christmas day.

Fire at Marina Port Vell Colin and Debbie arrived late on New Year’s Eve so we celebrated the arrival of the new year on the boat with them and joined in with the sounding of ships horns, in our case the fog-horn. It was great to see them again.

In January we went to Gerona with friends Barbara and Robbie in their car. It’s a very beautiful city and we had an excellent day. On 22nd we had a great day sail, cruised at around 4 to 5 knots in a gentle F3 under a pleasant January sun. Tan took the boat out of the berth skilfully and put her alongside the fuel key equally well, then took her out to sea.

My Birthday with Tan, Elena & Noel Saturday 2nd February there was the appalling fire here in the marina, the newspapers put the estimate at over 20 million euros and were very scathing of the marina’s disaster plan, there wasn’t one! On the 10th it was the spectacular Barceloneta Carnival and two days later my 60th Birthday which I celebrated in a very modest way at El Gran Café with Tan, Elena, and Noel. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

We scheduled the lift-out for 10th March at Port Forum but as it happens it was the 11th at Port Olympic and instead of four days we were out for six, so what’s new? We were lucky with the weather, but the copper base I had put on in 2005 at great expense wasn’t doing the job and when we power-washed the boat sheets of it peeled off so we applied a new coat of primer and two coats of conventional anti-fouling. We also polished the top-sides before going back in the water, it was all very hard work but fortunately we had booked into the Hotel Folch again and had a nice room with a full bath, what a luxury.

My Grandson, Arran March and April were busy months for travel. Towards the end of March Tan went back to Wales for a week and returned on the 30th with her friend and former teacher Derek whom she stays with whilst in Wales.

On the 2nd April I went to England and had six great days visiting my daughter and Sherwin and meeting my grandson for the first time. He is absolutely fantastic. On Thursday Timothy came for dinner and on Friday Emma, Arran and I had a great day out at Longdown farm and that night I helped Debbie celebrate her Birthday with husband Colin and her daughter Charlotte. On Sunday we all (Sherwin’s family, Timothy, Emma, Arran, and I) went out for lunch at a great pub.

Marbella Three days after I got back we went to Mijas to visit Tan’s daughter Rachel, husband Andy, and granddaughter Isabella. We phoned a couple of days before leaving to discover that Isabella had a tummy bug and was ejecting from both ends! Even worse Rachel and Andy had caught it so we were quite dubious about going. As it happens our fears were justified, we both got it and were both sick. However we managed to spend a nice day in Marbella and were both pleasantly surprised how nice the town is. We also had a quick look round Malaga on our day of departure.

And finally, it’s been a very dry winter here so there is now a serious water shortage and the city have banned the washing of vehicles which the marina interpret to include boats but they haven’t done anything about my helpful suggestions to conserve water, namely save water – drink wine and save water – shower with a friend!