Tag Archives: rasta

38º 10.7N – 32º 31.9W

Or for those of you with less sense of direction, about a day west of the Açores.  Once there, a quick refuel and shopping trip and we can leave on the last leg to Palma – a further 7 days away.

Its been a long old slog.  Starting from just above Venezuela, a slower boat than promised, lacking in fuel range and we have had to take our time. Two weeks from Grenada to the Açores, which , if you look at the picture below, could still easily be classed as mid atlantic.  A cockroach infestation to keep you on your toes, a Captain that doesn’t want to fill the fresh water tanks as it will slow us down – no concern that one of our water makers has failed, a broken heat exchanger that I repaired with epoxy 5 days ago, running the generator for just 5 hours a day so no air conditioning, random hot water for showers, bilge pumps that don’t work …….the list goes on – and this boat is commercially registered, so you could charter it if you can stomach the smell of diesel fuel from one of the leaking tanks  !!!

 

 

 

All that said, I will be very happy to see land in about 24 hours time.

We did encounter a pod of migrating hump back whales a couple of days ago.  Close enough to hear the thundering as they slammed back into the water – that was a first for me.  Only had the trusty Samsung to hand and didn’t get a chance to zoom in.  Thankfully they were quite close.

 

 

Plodding on, I noticed this add in a paper the other week.  I kind of admired its bluntness. I might just bear them in mind for when my time comes.  Not much straight talking in the world any more, was a tad refreshing, like the yellow snow in my last post.

 

Hoping to get into Palma on the 11th and shall instantly whisk the missus in for a couple of days R & R before hitting the study books hard again on the 21st .  Looking forward to catching up with some old chums that I haven’t seen in a while too.

 

That’ll do for now – 3 exams down, 3 more to convert !  I am amazed that since my switch from Sainsbury to Asda, Sainsbury have noticed my lack of custom to the point that they now want to merge with Asda – they must miss me, who can blame them?

 

 

 

 


Spazpecker, Florence Welch and Paloma Faith

Frankly, I am bored.

The boss has been on for 10 days now and the furthest single trip we have done is less than 10 miles in a day.  Sitting in a bay just off the local resort where her daughter and ever so wimpy son in law are staying is not much fun – and they hijack the boat at every opportunity for their socialite gatherings.

I am looking forward to getting back on the dock which could happen tomorrow afternoon – at least then I can get off twice a day for some exercise.  I think I might hide away in my ER tomorrow and get the bike cleaned up a bit, ready for my next sortie into Rasta ganja land.

I was impressed to see young Florence taking to the stage recently with the Stones. Sometimes in life, some people make some great choices, and for Flo to sing on ‘Gimme Shelter’ was one of those gems.  Not sure what I mean? Think back to ‘Little Britain’, after having watched it, can you think of anyone better than Tom Baker to have narrated it – or Seann William Scott along side Johnny Knoxville in the Dukes of Hazard or that wonderous collaboration with Bryan Adams and Mel Chisholm (the better looking one from the Spice Girls) singing ‘when you’re gone’ – I rest my case.

Goats have been amusing me still.  On my morning walk last week I must have just missed a goat giving birth to two kidds. I was so close to the action that the little critters were still trying to get to their feet and the soil was wet with birth matter after just having popped out – five minutes earlier and I would have seen it all.

But there’s more

A little further on, close to the spot where I helped free the goat the week before, I heard the cry of a young goat.  I listened for a few seconds but couldn’t hear the mothers return cry – so had to investigate.  Another recent born that had lost his mother was standing atop a rock crying his heart out.  I went closer to check him out and then to my surprise he came walking towards me.  I stopped and let him come close until he was close enough that I could kick his little fucking head in – nah, that was a joke – he came up and sniffed me and then retreated back to his rock.  As I walked away, he started to follow me.  This is how I knew it was a new born, not yet got the fear of humans and willing to follow me thinking I was his mother.  I mean, come on – do I really look like a goat ?

Thankfully he realised his mistake and went back to his rock.

So that’s about all of my adventures for now although more will follow soon as the bird lands on the 10th for a week of Antigua sunshine and some good old fashioned English lovin’.

I haven’t started this years photo album yet, but it will come – keep checking in.

For Connor


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