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On Tuesday 4th August, Sue & I went drove to "Knotty Ash" (made famous by Ken Dodd and his Diddymen back in the 60's) where we picked-up our LDV hire van, which I drove straight home and we loaded it to the hilt with all the gear we had accumulated these past 9 months. Half awake, we set off at 4 am the next morning for our rendezvous at Ocean Village Marina, Southampton, where John Eustace, joined by Toby, were eagerly awaiting to welcome us on board our new Ticketeeboo and hand her over to us. By mid afternoon we were left alone to make a start moving our gear from the van and onto the yacht. The task made all the more difficult by the increasingly steep access bridge due to our unfortunate timing coinciding with the high tide! By about ten in the evening Sue & I had just about reached our limit of endurance and had to call it a day, so we could eat on board to christen our new yacht properly!
Next morning John & Toby returned and we took her out for a rather sedate local sea trial and with precious little wind took the opportunity to fill her up with diesel. Next day, the Discovery owners, John & Caroline Charnley, accompanied by the Nigel (MD) Claire, John & Toby visited us, with glasses & Champagne and Sue took great pleasure in officially christening our new yacht 'Ticketeeboo'.
We made use of the van to buy provisions from the local Tesco superstores on Friday & Saturday morning. Saturday evening our nephew Christopher joined us for a superb Chinese Dinner (near the marina) and on Sunday our son Michael Douglas & his wife Rachel joined us for a rather pleasant daysail to see part of the start of the Fastnet Race (from the water). Sue's brother John & his wife Diana, accompanied by Christopher joined us that afternoon as well. The next 3 days were taken up installing the additional electronics. Chris & Robert from Sure Electronics are two of the best guys we have come across and worked with and by midday Wednesday we had all the new navigational gear installed & ready to use.
With favourable weather in the offing, we departed Southampton towards Turkey, leaving the berth at first light high tide on Thursday 13th August, 4 days earlier than originally planned. By mid morning we were leaving the West Solent, over Shingles and Needles overfalls, heading SW into the Channel, wanting to get passed the very busy Quissant TSS before crossing beaucoup de big-ships on a more southerly course. In the early hours of the next morning, with Quissant TSS behind us, Sue & I could relax a little and get into our night-watch keeping routine. We stayed inside Oushant TSS before heading into deep water across Biscay. On the 4th night, almost at midnight, we dropped the hook at Isla de Cies, 6 mile North of Bayona and enjoyed a good nights sleep together. The next morning were we surprised to be greeted by the Fortescue family, who own Tilly Mint, Discovery 67 hull No.1, which we saw being built alongside Ticketeeboo. (Small world we live in). That morning we went alongside Bayona Marina so that we could do a first service on our engine & gearbox. That night Sue & I enjoyed the paella we had been looking forward to in Bayona. (We knew there would be such a lot of paella we won't want another for some considerable time!). Next morning we departed Bayona towards Portimao, to meet up with our friends, Caryl & Peter, owners of 'Dancing Queen'. I helped them sail Dancing Queen from Plymouth to Portimao 12 months earlier, on a passage they remember very well, when we needed to hove-to twice when we were knocked-back by storms 'on the nose' one after the other, crossing Biscay. Our sail down the latter part of Portugal, Trafalgar & Cabo de St Vincent was absolutely awesome. We were able to experience virtually all points of sail in 25/30 kts of wind and now fully appreciate what a fantastic yacht we have bought ourselves. We were pleased to anchor for three nights at Portimao, any longer and our livers would have been at Defcon 3.
On our passage from Portimao towards Gibraltar we were able to take full advantage of favourable tidal & current streams seeing 12 kts over ground at times, either side of Tarifa, and were berthed in Queensway Quay Marina, Gibraltar (as recommended by Jean & Christien, owners of 'A Plus2' who berth their Amel 54 sailing yacht in Kemer). Two days later we're underway again. We originally planned a passage from Gibraltar towards Sardinia. We initially changed this planning to spend a couple of nights anchored off Formentera. In the event, on the second day, experiencing very strong winds 'on the nose' just off Almeria, we opted to spent a very pleasant night on the hook at Cala De San Pedro and Las Negras, on the Spanish mainland, moving on towards Formentera on another single overnight passage.
Formentera is something else. Tons of stinkpots, most of which setoff towards their home just before sunset! (Bit like Wacky-Races on water!). Fortunately makes for a quiet night once they have finished going about constantly unsettling the water in the anchorage. Owners like these ones can give other stinkpotters a bad name!
After Formentera we're heading towards the South of Sardinia, where we have earmarked a couple of bays, which should be suitable for dropping the hook overnight (or two). As I close this blog, we have a big ship 'Inca Maiden' passing us 2 miles to stb'd (which I'm keeping a good eye on) and it's midnight 31st August. We've done over 1,800 sea miles (2,000 miles) since departing Southampton 18 nights ago, 9 on the hook and 9 underway. Needless to say we filled-up again with tax-free diesel fuel before leaving Gibraltar!
