Back from Beyond

Well - had things gone according to our original plan, we would be in the Caribbean by now. Had they gone according to our second plan, we would be in The Canaries. BUT we are now on plan 3 and we are in Cherbourg!1

Unfortunately my mother 's health deteriorated this year to the point where she was no longer able to look after herself so Mark and I spent the summer helping my brother, David, to care for her. Sadly, Mum died in August. By this time I'm afraid I needed some time to sort my head out and did not feel up to embarking on long sailing passages.

So, we returned to the boat in September and moved her to Cherbourg where she will remain for the winter. We have decided to have a bit of work done to her to make life easier for ourselves. We will be replacing the hanked on headsails with furling gear and we are replacing the instruments. The instruments have been telling us lies for some time. For example, the echo sounder told us we were aground as we sailed down the river from Carentan and it is only to be trusted in deep water (just when you don't need it),

We return to England in November to stay with friends/daughters for a couple of weeks. Then, having enjoyed Portugal so much last year, and having googled the warmest places in Europe in winter, we have decided on Crete for winter. We have rented a place for 3 months then we will come back here and collect the boat and proceed with plan 3 - ie plan 1 but 2 years later. Third time lucky.

We are making the most of our time here - doing lots of walking and visiting galleries and museums etc. and have had a sail to Alderney, where we completed the walk round the island challeng.

I will try to keep up with the blog - certainly from Crete.

On dry land

Quick post - back in Carentan and lifted out on to dry land for routine maintenance and repairs. Seems very cold after Portugal and we cannot use the boat toilet on dry land so we have a 10 minute walk to the facilities (albeit very good ones). However, we are getting there. New rudder bearings on order from South Africa and boat toilet completely overhauled with new pipes. Toe rail oiled and decks will be the same on the next sunny day, We should be here until the end of April then it's Cherbourg, Guernsey then off towards Biscay stopping at a few pretty harbours along the way.

It's not all work and no play here. We are allowing ourselves time off and have been walking around the marshes. We cycled 30km to Utah Beach, one of the D Day landing sites - a lovely cycle ride and quite sobering to imagine those landings .and all the lives lost during WW2. Hopefully a look even further back next week when we visit Bayeux and see the tapestry.

Some information about Erica

Several people have asked me for some information about Erica so, for anyone who is interested, here goes:

Name: Erica (was originally called Sensation II - but who wants a boat with a name that sounds like a sixties porn film?)

Designer: Namarco Inc

Class: Selestra 35

Builder: Hull - Metalu (France)

Fitted out: Whisstocks, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Year: 1981

LOA: 35’ (10.65m)

LWL: 26' 11" (8.2m)

Beam: 11’2” (3.4m)

Draft: 5'3'' (1.6m) 

Sail area: 735ft² (70m²)

Displacement: 5.3 tons (5,400kg) Empty

Ballast: 2.26 tons (2,300kg)

Water tanks 100 Gal

Engine: Thornycroft 90. (British Layland Sherper Van engine) 36 hp

Diesel tank: 30Gal (135 Ltr) + 24Gal (110Ltr) in can

Average consumption:

1500rpm = 0.45 Gal/Hr =120 hours x 4M = 480NM

1800rpm = 0.50 Gal/Hr =108 hours x 4.2M = 450NM

2000rpm = 0.60 Gal/Hr =90 hours x 4.5M =405 NM

Registration No.: 389016

Port of Registration: Ipswich

Sail No.: 6559Y

Call sign: MAAK5

Erica is a bermudan cutter (flies a main sail and 2 headsails at the same time). She is made out of aluminium with teak over aluminium side decks. She has only had two owners in her 35 years and Scruffbag and I have owned her jointly for the last 11. She has one Atlantic crossing to her credit east to west and has crossed west to east on a container ship. Our  (Scruffbag's) longest passage so far was about 1350 NM which took 16 days - due to very light winds in the middle. 

Facts 1 to 10

1 mast

2 spinnaker poles

3 anchors

4 dorado vents (air vents)

5 berths

6 halyards (Ropes for pulling sails up mast)

7 ariels

8 windows each side

9 winches

10 sails

Leaving Luz

Well - our 3 months in Luz are almost at an end - two and a half weeks to go and I have to say it has been very enjoyable. The weather has been great and the western Algarve has proved to be both interesting and scenic as we have walked, cycled (once) and traveled around by train , bus and friends' car. We have seen castles, monasteries, churches, museums and have even managed to listen to some  live Fado music.

The low  cost of living has been a pleasant surprise too. Scruffbag has developed a taste for large expressos - called cafe duplo - and has now bought an expresso coffee pot in order to  satisfy his craving. There is a marina in  nearby Lagos which we can wander round when we feel homesick for Erica. All in all a great time had by all - back onboard by the end of March and will resume the sailing blog.