Villanova i la Geltru

Fira de Novembre We arrived at Vilanova a la Geltru on the 19th October at 09:40 after an uneventful night passage of 108nm taking 20 hours 38 minutes, an average of 5.2 knots. The office and most of the town was closed due to Catalunia day, but we checked in and settled into our berth (pontoon 1 berth 2) the next day.

The pontoon is solid concrete as opposed to a floating pontoon and our berth is the first one which means we can step onto the stern of the boat from the pontoon or step onto the starboard side from the car park. One perk is the view from the cabin porthole looks down onto the underwater concrete wall which is alive with marine life. In addition to the barnacles, mussels, and forna there are crabs, small fish, large fish, shrimp, and even starfish. Quite therapeutic.

The Fira de Novembre (the November Fair), a week long event, is a commercial event which encompasses small specialists (artezana's) as well as large corporations such as BMW etc. There are many wine and food stalls (this is Spain) where you can satiate your gastronomic desires. It is held along the main street (Rambla Principal) so is in easy reach for us. We sampled some of the gastronomic wares and somehow managed a buy a very expensive piece of dried venison.

Pedal powered "medieval" roundabout We went to Sitges on the 21st November for the day. It's only a five minute train ride so very convenient. Sitges is a very beautiful and vibrant town, it also has a reputation as the gay capital of the world. We wandered the narrow streets and marveled at the buildings and of course Tan did some shopping. It proved impossible to pass Turrons Vicens, an exclusive and expensive shop dedicated to Turron and chocolate. Tan bought some Turrons to take back for Christmas in Wales. On a previous trip Tan had discovered, but not tried, a fantastic Tapa Bar which we went to, but under my misguidedness we had the menu-del-dia which surprised them. It was bad, so we resolved that the next time we came we would stick to the delicious looking tapa.

Spanish Christmas lunch

Sitges We were invited to a sailing club "Christmas" lunch Sunday on 7th December. A small group of club members (led by three of four women) hire a purpose built room for functions from the marina. It is not too big with a small kitchen, a huge range and counter for serving food.

The ladies plan the menu, buy the food, prepare, cook, and set up etc.

• To start, there was a Pica pica of prawns, mussels al vapour, olives, cheeses, smoked salmon etc. which was served outside on a large table.
• The main meal, served inside at a long table, was a pumpkin & shrimp soup, delicious as it had thin slivers of orange rind in it.
• Thin slices of beef with mushrooms layered with slices of aubergines, fabulous flavour. Plus salvers of chips
• Slices of orange sprinkled with liqueur and sugar and a selection of Turrons and other sweet delights.
• Tea, coffee, cava, brandy, whisky and other liquors

All of this was washed down with copious amounts of cava, wine, brandy, whisky etc. There were 26 people in total, two ladies were in charge of the cooking, one our neighbour & the other lady had her 72nd birthday that day. Their energy left me feeling tired watching them.

If that was not enough when we were leaving at 6pm we were told that at 9 o'clock there would be (wait for it) Bacon, Egg,Chips, Serrano, Tomatoes plus a wonderful traditional Potato Tortilla and a thinner Aubergine one.

Tan and Glyn We got home at midnight after having had two fantastic meals and a great day meeting some of the club members who went out of their way to include us. We were the only "foreigners".

The shared cost was a meagre 27€ for TWO!! The banker lady would not take any more, it was incredible. The club provide all the glass ware, crockery, cutlery & catering size pans etc, plus the staff to wash up all the aforementioned & clean the room. So we only had to clear away the rubbish & go home. Incredible.

The ladies explained that their family Christmas meal is traditional with the family but the food we had was easy for them for the number of people.

Wales

We spent Christmas and New Year in Wales with Glyn and Emma. We departed on a sunny 19th December and arrived in a cold wet windy Liverpool. We basked in Glyn and Emma's hospitality for two weeks. Glyn is an excellent cook and he and Emma produce great things from the kitchen. We had unlimited use to one of their cars so Tan got to visit her friends and we did several runs to Tesco for cava and wine. Frightening! Not the driving, the price of cava and wine!

Christmas Lunch The weather lived up to expectations, cold, wet, windy with occasional snow on the hills. But I managed to walk the two Pugs, sometimes with Glyn and Emma and sometimes alone. We went to the cinema in Wrexham to see Padddington then had something to eat at a Pizza place in the same complex. The film was great, first time I'd been to the cinema in years, no decades!

There were eight people for Christmas Lunch. Glyn had it planned like a military operation, with a few suggestions from Tan. The dining room table was doubled in length with the aid of a portable table and a few cosmetic adjustments. When covered with the Christmas table cloth it was seamless.

The eight people seated around the table were, Glyn and Emma, Emma's mum, dad and grandmother, Emma's uncle Peter (a very interesting and well travelled character), and Tan and myself. The company and conversation was relaxed and congenial, the food excellent, second to none, so a great day was had by all, thanks to Glyn and Emma.

Barry, Jacqui and Captain Jack We were invited to lunch with Jacqui and Barry on the 28th. Glyn and Emma tock us there on their way to Chester for a day out. The meal was excellent as always as was the company. Glyn and Emma collected us mid-afternoon and stayed for coffee and a chat.

We celebrated New Years Eve with a couple of bottles of good cava, what's new? But I was tucked up in bed long before the New Year arrived. On the 3rd Jan we took Glyn and Emma out to dinner at the Star Bistro in Ruthin. Emma was the designated driver because she has given up alcohol for January for a charity. Very magnanimous. The meal was very good but a stark reminder of how expensive restaurants are in the UK.

The following day we had an uneventful trip back to Vilanova i la Geltru. Glyn and Emma took us to Manchester airport where we boarded a JET2 flight. We had good train connections from Barcelona to Vilanova and were back on board by early evening.

Vilanova i la Geltru

January was predominantly dry and sunny although the wind often had a biting edge, but as January aged into February we had some very strong cold winds and a few grey rainy days. We recorded over 40 knot winds (strong gale force) on the 28th and 29th January. The strong winds brought a swell which causes Tan distress.

Tan discovered a very nice small restaurant called Can Cuenca which I have frequented often. It's just around the corner from Vinalium, a very good vintner which sells wine from the barrel as well as a large variety of other wines at good prices. My kind of place!

Carnival band competition Tan had an early appointment in Barcelona on the 22nd January so we got a good deal on a hotel room and stayed in the city for two nights. Port Vell and Barcelonetta have changed significantly because of the new super-yacht marina. I didn't feel any nostalgia, on the contrary, I was glad I was out of there.

We went to Sitges for the day on the1st February, primarily to have Tapa at Cafe Donostiarra, the place we went to last November and mistakenly had the menu-del-dia. Having learned our lesson we stuck to the delicious tapa. The biggest problem was choosing which to have because four tapa are enough to fill you. We solved that by having different ones and sharing them.

Tan took her leave of Vilanova on the 7th Feb. bound for Mallaga to visit her daughter and granddaughters. She went on the high speed train (AVE) from Barcelona Sants station at 08:30 which meant a very early start. We weren't sure about taxis very early on a Saturday morning so I wheeled her luggage to the station and she arrived on the bike. I had six days of cooking meals that only I wanted, great.

On the 8th February there was a musical parade and competition between two bands on the 8th, the day after Tan left. It was really good. They were large bands with brass, woodwind, and percussion sections and they played classical and popular music superbly. The bands were arranged at either end of a rectangular placa and in the area between people danced. The bands played alternately each piece lasting about 15 minutes and often band members who were not playing would dance. It was all very good humoured and relaxed. The Spanish are very good at these kind of events. I stayed for over 2 hours and it was still going on when I left.

Cleaned and polished The Vilanova Carnival has been declared a Festival of Heritage Interest to the whole of Catalonia. It was from the 8th to 12th Febuary this year and always follows the same format with probably the most bizarre events being the "merengada" (meringue batter wars) and the "comparses". In the Merengada people wander round the town squirting each other with meringue batter from cone shaped bags available free from many bakers.

The Comparses is the carnival societies parading around town throwing candies at everyone. There are lots of carnival societies each with their own marching band and followers. Litterealy hundreds of thousands of small sugar candies are thrown in the streets which soon get trampled under foot or crushed by vehicle tyres so when you walk you stick to the ground and make sticky squelching sounds when you walk! In the weeks leading up to the carnival pallet loads of 15kg bags of these candies appear in the supermarkets!

On the 3rd April Tan went to Wales for nine days. I had previously scheduled to have the boat lifted out, the bottom cleaned, painted with primer and anti-fouling and to have the hull polished while Tan was away. The night before the lift-out I decided to check out local hotels and got a good deal at the Solvihotel nearby. It's a 2 star hotel, very clean and tidy and very welcoming. My room had a bath which was fantastic. The hotel also has free WiFi! I also had the engine serviced on the 17th April by the Volvo dealer. The mechanic was very good and professional and the bill was also reasonable.

Unfortunately Tan had a very bad cold while in Wales which restricted her activity. By the time she got back it was in the bad cough stage. As I write this on the 21st April as we prepare to leave in the next few days, she is still suffering with the cough which has moved onto her chest and is causing a lot of mucous.