Jungle Freedom Fighters

We set off from La Palma with pretty light conditions since we were still covered from the winds by the island.

Things got pretty lumpy as soon as we were out of the lee of the island with 20 kts of wind and a large Atlantic swell.

Twenty knots of wind is usually quite good fun and one can make good progress in these winds – except the wind was coming from NE which was almost exactly the way we wanted to go. So it was pretty slow progress with the wind in your face and Atlantic spray covering you every few minutes. On my first shift I didn’t think I’d need my thermals. Big mistake. By the end I was cold wet and miserable.

For the first night shift I wore all my wet weather gear, thermals, hat and hood. So midnight until 4am was more bearable but I was cold and hungry as I climbed into bed.

It was supposed to be a 36hr passage but as I started my day shift the next day with 120nm to go it became obvious we would have another night shift before reaching Madeira.

The second day was pretty calm as we headed north but again making slow progress.

The second night shift is when things became fun. At some point a little after midnight in 25 kts winds Michal and I heard a strange noise. In the dark we couldn’t determine what it was and just assumed it was ok as the boat continued sailing well. I went to bed at about 1am and Michal continued his shift. At 3am the winds increased so the decision was made to put a reef in the mainsail. So the mainsail was lowered a little and the boom came crashing onto the cabin roof. This was definitely not supposed to happen. The strange noise we heard earlier was the boom lift line snapping and the boom was being held up by the sail. So now we either go full mainsail in heavy winds or drop the mainsail and secure the boom. We decided to drop the main. To do this we decided to start the engines and head into the wind. This was when we found that one of the engines had decided to stop working! So at about 80nm offshore we were down to the gib and a single engine. But we coped. We limped into Madeira planning to make repairs in the marina, but the marina was full so we had to anchor in the harbour. Things were not going well and with a 600nm passage to Gibraltar ahead of us the crew were not exactly over the moon.

Once in Madeira the starboard engine started working again and we rigged the spinnaker halyard as the boom lift and we were back in business.

We went ashore and resupplied at the supermarket with enough provisions to keep 5 happy sailors fed for the next leg. We’re heading to Gibraltar right now with about 597nm to go and light winds predicted. With good winds we’d expect the journey to take 3 days but I think it will be more like 6 or 7 nights….at sea…with no alcohol allowed whilst at sea…with 4 hour night shifts. On one hand the light winds mean it should be a more comfortable journey, but on the other hand not a drop of red or white wine will pass my lips for the best part of a week. This is not what I signed up for!

We’ve arranged to pick up Josh, Josh2 and Pawel in Gibraltar so the parties will get better but the sleeping arrangements will change. I have to leave my double cabin and shack up with Michal – which will be cosy.

We had a whole day on land in La Palma so rented a car and did a little exploring.

As I write this we are motoring away from La Palma heading for Madeira. The winds will be getting up soon and we should be in Madeira in about 36 hours. This will be our first night passage of this voyage but the winds are predicted to drop to about 12 knots around midnight so hopefully it shouldn’t be too bad.

From the moment we left La Gomera it got pretty bumpy. 20-25knt winds and quite a large Atlantic swell. It didn’t get any better. The winds increased past 26 knots so we put a reef in the mainsail. Then they passed 31 knots and we reduced the gib to 70%. Then they started heading for about 36 knots and the spray was covering us all in sea water and salt. As we approached the East of La Palma we entered the “acceleration zone” and the winds were passing 40 knots.

On the bright side

a) We made it

and

b) A pod of Dolphins kept us company again.

On the not so bright side my sunglasses are now at the bottom of the Atlantic after being blown from my head.

As we rounded the Southern tip of La Palma it was like somebody switched off the wind machine. In a matter of 100m it went from crazy strong winds to absolutely nothing. We had to put the engines on!

After motoring up the West of La Palma we eventually made harbour and had a much needed drink

I arrived in Tenerife on Saturday and met Michal, Tomek and Matka at the airport.

We took a taxi over to the marina and loaded the supplies onto our 40ft Catamaran “Eskimo”. After a full day of travelling an early night was definitely needed.

Next morning, we set sail for La Gomera. Pretty blustery when we first set off but things settled down. Unbelievably we had an escort from a pod of Dolphins on the first leg of our journey.

We finally arrived at La Gomera at about 8pm which was about 8hrs of sailing.

An excellent first day on the adventure and one of the great moments [ apart from the Dolphins of course ] was seating eating a rack of ribs in the middle of the Atlantic.

Fucking finally.

It finally happened.

The big yin got married. How he ever managed that one is a mystery up there with Atlantis, Lord Lucan’s disappearance…and why people drink Carlsberg. But there we are.

I seem to start far too many blog posts with something along the lines of “Due to the ongoing extension” but…due to the ongoing extension I had Neil around doing some groundwork and since he kinda ran out of stuff to do, and I kinda had a load of stone tucked around the back of my office we asked Neil to extend our sail shade area. Partly because we lost our barbecue area due to the extension and partly because the grassy area near the sailshade was an absolute bugger to cut with my ride-on mower.

So now we have a much bigger sail shade space replete with barbecue area and no need to mow it.

Again…as part of the extension work we had to move the power supply for my poo-pump from the house to the garage. Aaron and I ran a bit of armoured cable from the garage and drilled through into the pumping chamber and hooked it up. This chamber is supposed to be relatively clean as the “solids” remain in the first chamber and the liquid transfers into the pumping chamber. However, in reality it’s well minging. It also didn’t help that as we were doing a final test of the system that I caught the pipe that transfers the waste to the soakaway and it fell off. The jubilee clip that had been holding it in place had corroded. So off we went to buy some new jubilee clips and then both of us had our heads down the hole fixing a new one on…whilst Emma sat inside with her friends eating sandwiches and cake. Life just isn’t fair.

As part of the extension work my pristinely beautiful gravel drive was covered in tonnes of earth. I was pretty pissed off with this needless to say. Eventually the soil was moved and was put into the planters with the remainder going into a skip. But it still left crap all over my gravel.

So I took some more of the wood from Oliver’s bed and created a frame into which I inserted some left over chicken wire out of my shed. Now I shovel the dirty gravel onto the frame supported by a wheelbarrow. Leave it for a few days for the soil to dry. Give it a bit of a shake and the soil drops into my wheelbarrow and the clean(er) soil goes into my borders. It’s not perfect, but it’s better.

Now, I’m not saying I have retired and I not saying that I haven’t retired, but one year on from finishing work this is what one has as a celebratory breakfast.

As part of the house extension we made Oli’s room bigger so he had no need of the bunk bed come desk/storage underneath. We took the bed apart and I’ve been making various things with the wood. The latest masterpiece is a couple of coat hooks for the downstairs cloak room. I used a spirit level and everything, although the second one I put up still looks a little wonky.

This particular bad boy, of which I’m quite impressed even though it’s probably a girls belt, was purchased at the Vintage Shop in Ormskirk. Again, I apologise for the flesh.

We finally got around to sanding and varnishing the ex worksurface that is now Oli’s desk. Oli did most of the work with me supervising.

Unusually for any Darren/Oli DIY projects nothing really went wrong. We hade some minor issues with rawl plugs but I think this is because I was using 50yr old rawl plugs from my Grandad which were none standard size. I’ve now ( sadly ) had to throw them away and buy some more modern ones.

One of the many very generous gifts for my 50th birthday from my London Crew was a day of driving classic cars.

I opted to drive a Jaguar e-type

an Aston Martin DB-5

and a Ford Escort Mk1 rally car

It was an excellent day of cars, sunshine and fun

If anyone needs a very talented builder that mostly turns up, drinks tea and eats biscuits….and then leaves again without actually doing any building work then I’ve got just the fella…

Emma was wandering down the Aldi middle aisle and saw a magnetic thing for sticking tools on. Being the wonderful wife that she is – she bought it for me. It sat around in the living room for a couple of months but I finally got around to installing it in my garage and sticking some tools to it. Absolute genius!

Shhh, don’t tell Oli but the Z4 is going up for sale. Oli absolutely insists that I mustn’t sell it, but I want a Tesla…and some space on my drive. It’s got a bit of a dink on the side where I dropped a table frame on it about a week after buying the car – because I’m a dick like that – but other than that it’s in fine working order. It’ll be a shame to see it go but ho hum

When we took down the old rat infested stinky utility room we pulled out a bit of work-surface which was in pretty good condition. I thought we could re-purpose it for something in the future. Turns out it’s going to make a pretty good desk for Oli’s ‘new’ room.

So we sanded it down and we had to borrow Mark’s drill to put the holes in for the desk grommet for the cables.

Next came the time to give it a light varnish so I let Oli take the lead on this bit.

It has a few dinks in it as you can see from the picture above but I think that gives it character and helps us remember where it came from. Plus, he’ll probably just stick a mouse mat over them or something.

Next step – attaching it to his bedroom wall. Eeeek

My old college friend Andy died recently. Terrible news. Far too young and leaving behind a wife and kids. Terribly upsetting.

A few of us travelled down for his funeral.

Then we went out for a curry and beer, it’s what he would have wanted

Phil was also at the funeral but he didn’t come for a curry.

Gordon had covid in this picture – fortunately he didn’t pass it on to everyone which shows that immunisations are good m’kay

A swanky new restaurant opened nearby called Solo. In a similar vein to L’Enclume and Moor Hall. So Emma and I just had to have a visit to celebrate her birthday.

It was a little pricey, probably about £250 for a 5 course taster lunch for two, but then we did also drink two bottles of English Wine which accounted for about £100.

Expensive as it may be – definitely… definitely worth it.

We’ll be returning.

I had to drop my car off in Wigan to get the roof fixed and Daisy needed some hoooman company. So I googled whether or not dogs are welcome on trains [ they are ] and then off we went.

We had a bit of time to kill in Wigan waiting for the train to Parbold so I got a sausage roll for the walk home and a sausage butty to eat then. Daisy, with her constant stare that just bores into your soul had the lions share of the butty.

Then onto the train to Parbold

and then a nice long walk across the fields and back home. We were both properly tired when we got home. Daisy was mostly tired from carrying sticks