Well, my second week in now drawing to a close and I'm having a relaxing Sunday off. Everyone else is in the classroom doing a first aid course, which fortunately I've already done.
We spent the week in Spain sailing up to Estapona and working our way back to Gib via Duquesa and Sotogrande. Estapona and Duquesa are both very similar and not much to speak of really. Certainly not at the moment, with very little life frequenting the bars. Apparently. Obviously I wouldn't know as I was on the boat studying, honest. Both are nice places, with good shower facilities in the marinas. Generally Tony likes to base our itinerary on the quality of the bars and showers at any given marina, so we're not doing too badly on that score.
After 3 days of sailing and man over board practice, on Wednesday evening we found ourselves in Sotogrande. Very nice indeed! When I have a spare £500k I may buy a flat there. We had a choice of berth, either close to the showers or close to Flaherty's Irish Bar. I chose the showers but was outvoted 5 to 1. Funny that. We moored up and then spent the evening in Flaherty's. Guiness to start with, followed by burgers all round made for a very pleasant start to the evening, after a tiring day of sitting on a yacht in the sun for 7 hours. Poor me. An announcement then advised us that it was karaoke night. Not my idea of fun. It's funny how your attitude can change given the right volume of rum and coke isn't it? Maybe it's just me. Nevertheless, I somehow managed to get a round of applause and some 'whoops' for my renditions of Brown Eyed Girl and American Pie. It all went downhill from there! A girl who had been singing asked me to sing a duet with her, as given the choice between me and tone deaf Raul, I was the better option. Seemed like a good idea at the time. More rum please. I told her that I didn't know the song she had chosen (Beauty and the beast??)and it would all go horribly wrong. She simply replied, 'it's ok, the words are on the screen'. No kidding. The major problem was that the tune, however, was not. It soon fell apart. Well, my part of the duet did. More rum please.
I managed to find my way back to the boat - I only know this because I woke up on it on Thursday morning. 5 people feeling very sorry for themselves grunted at one another through breakfast before setting off at about lunchtime. A long day ahead, as we had yet to do any night hours, so we sailed about 40 miles eventually getting into Gibraltar at about 1130pm. We were escorted through the bay by 8 or 9 dolphins, racing alongside and under the yacht, arcing through the water in the moonlight. Absolutely fantastic. The night sailing was magical, with a clear sky full of stars, a full moon and Tony pointing out the different constellations. Really peaceful.
Friday we spent in the Bay, with more exercises to try and sort out our wind awareness. Getting there slowly! It was Rich's last day as he was only here for 2 weeks doing a day skipper course. Sad to see him go - a really nice guy, who took on a fatherly approach to me, being very reassuring and insistent that I make him proud and qualify as a yachtmaster. That's the plan. Sadly, Steve decided on Friday that the fastrack was not for him and pulled out and left on a flight on Saturday night. And then there were 3 - just me, Tom and Louise left on our boat now. We spent Saturday in the classroom learning ropework - knots, splicing and whipping. Really good fun and very useful. We've moved boats and are now on 'Meander-K' and 40' yacht this time. I think it's only for the week as we're not actually sailing this week, just doing Day Skipper theory and navigation in the classroom. It's been pouring with rain, almost constantly since Friday night, which made moving all our gear from one boat to another very interesting. I slipped getting off Time Out 2, ending up on my backside on the edge of the boat, inches away from a dunking in the marina. Non slip deck shoes I'm sure... Still, with bruised buttocks and dented pride I managed to get to Meander-K in one piece!
The rain seems to have stopped briefly so it's time to go and stock up at Morrisons. There are now a few pictures on here for you to look at. I'll try and get some of me in the rain to make you all feel better.
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