Gibraltar – 23 February 2009

AC on the hard in Sotogrande

Edmond & Graham

Julia & Richard birthday Hosts

Margaret, Julia & Fiona at my Birthday Dinner

Peter and Mary


Roy and Margaret

Lois with Sir Ted Dexter

Not sure quite where to start with writing about the last 3 weeks since we arrived in Sotogrande to have AC lifted out but here goes…..

AC was eventually lifted out of the water on Friday 6^th of February after waiting 3 days for the travel lift to be fixed. We were to stay with John and Sandra Fitzpatrick but had guests

arriving early so Roy and Margaret very kindly offered to have us stay with them. You will recall we had only met them earlier in the week so what an amazing gesture to invite us to stay in their home. Even so we had know them only a short time it felt like we had know them for years – I believe they felt the same!! Not only did they have us to stay Roy dropped us off every morning at the yard and picked us up every night.

We worked quite hard on AC over the next 6 days – me on anti fouling and Terry sorting out the fixing of the propeller which turned out to be a worn bearing as well as a loose propeller which explained the knocking noise. Fortunately no damage had been done. We did have the Sunday off when Roy and Margaret decided to invite a few other friends around to their home for a Sunday roast which lingered into the evening – excellent!

During the course of that week it was also my birthday on the 10^th. Friends of Margaret’s and Roy’s, Richard and Julia, organised a wonderful dinner at their home with a few others – in fact 14 people in all! What a wonderful evening and once again we couldn’t have been made more welcome.

Earlier in the week we met a gentleman staying with John and Sandra by the name of Ted Dexter the famous English cricketer. He lives in Nice with his wife. We enjoyed hearing the story of him piloting his own aircraft (Piper Aztec) and flying out to Australia with his family many years ago!! He was such a character - we enjoyed his company at various times, including my birthday dinner, during the course of the week!

Of course we are grateful to both John and Sandra for introducing us to all these lovely people

since arriving in Sotogrande. Our social programme was equally hectic as our working days – no wonder we were tired when we arrived in Gibraltar. We can’t thank them enough for their hospitality, particularly Roy and Margaret who made us feel very welcome in their home – we so enjoyed their wonderful company and looking forward to seeing them in NZ next February!!

AC went back into water on the 12^th and we made our way to Gibraltar with a few of our new ‘best’ friends on board who came along for the ride – it was a really nice warm sunny day as well.

We caught up with Mike and Nicky in Gibraltar who we met in Samos whilst they were cruising on their boat. We spent quite a few fabulous nights with them in Samos so it was great to be able to met up with them again. Nicky has a business here in Gibraltar but they have a house in Spain. We went to their apartment here in Gibraltar for dinner last Wednesday and Nicky cooked us a delicious meal. We are encouraging them both to come and cruise in NZ!!!

Graham Waring our friend from Essex arrived on Tuesday for two days with his friend, Edmond,

whom we met with Graham when he visited us in Malta last March. It was a whirlwind two days but great to see them both.

Then on Saturday Mary and Peter Reeve our Foulness Island friends arrived and left us today! Again it was wonderful to spend our final two days with them to say goodbye. We are sorry we couldn’t say goodbye to Barbara fondly known as Bubs (Mary’s mother) who kindly agreed to adopt us during our many visits to their home on Foulness Island in Essex. We had had a very enjoyable lunch yesterday on the waterfront here in the Marina with Roy and Margaret also! Wonderful to think our friends would fly all this way to catch up with us before we leave the northern hemisphere – or it is just to make sure we do in fact leave – just kidding!!!!

So we are finally leaving Europe tomorrow on our way to Canaries and then across the Atlantic! It has been a full on 3 weeks in every which way – we have a newly anti fouled boat, a much improved effective propeller (now able to motor much faster) an excellent birthday celebration for me and most importantly a few more wonderful friends that we are encouraging to come to NZ after we get home – a pretty good outcome we thought!

We are cancelling our UK mobile number as at the 15^th of March, therefore we will not have phone from hereon in, however we will endeavour to pick up our email when we can.

Murray Aldridge will be updating the blog as we progress to the Canaries and across the Atlantic.

Until next time,

Love The Jolly Rogers