Summers Sailing Kendra

16/12/2023

Meanwhile on a football pitch somewhere in Tangier Billy is sporting his new A.L.M.E.S football team kit - still don’t know what it stands for though 🙂😂

16/12/2023

Making Christmas decorations for the boat. Hard to get Christmassy though in 20 degree sunshine - sorry U.K. peeps! 😂🙂

14/12/2023

Evening scoot / skate along the Corniche in Tangier. New wheels for Jake as he has wanted a skateboard for ages and for us too in the form of commuter scooters from good old Decathlon 🙂

14/12/2023

Oh my god - we are going to get so fat!

09/12/2023

Billy was over the moon when he got to play a match with a local junior football team we saw training in the local football pitches. He was made to feel very welcome by the other boys and their football skills were quite impressive, especially the willingness to get stuck in on the tackling!
Watch this space as Billy may be making some more guest appearances in the next few weeks! 😀

06/12/2023

Today’s mini science experiment - learning about siphoning. Just water though not diesel or petrol…until the price of fuel skyrockets again!! 😂

06/12/2023

A lovely afternoon spent catching up with my (Elaine’s) daughter Georgie and her boyfriend Val in Tangier. They live in Madeira and are on holiday in Morocco and so yes, we finally managed to get somewhere when we thought we would - quite an achievement in the sailing world as we are discovering!

04/12/2023

A few of the last photos from Gibraltar before we headed for Morocco.
Gib - such a fascinating place full of history- a true melting pot of language, culture and religion. Very well worth a visit if you haven’t been before. We all had an amazing time, met some great people and will be back in Spring for a week or two before we head into the Med 😀 🇬🇮🇬🇮

03/12/2023

How lucky was Jon - he spent his birthday on two different continents!
Am - Europe; Pm - Africa
Happy 53rd Birthday! 🙂🎂🎉😘

26/11/2023

Our latest boat visitors!
Lovely to catch up with the Bridles who drove all the way from Fuengirola to see us. Fabulous Sunday roast at The Clipper Gibraltar and a couple of drinks at The Skull & The Angry Friar. They brought us a gas bottle and some contact lenses and we gave them Jake’s drone for safekeeping so it doesn’t get confiscated in Morocco! And neither of them fell off the passarelle (gangplank) getting on and off the boat. That was despite Billy willing them to and videoing them just in case they did take the plunge! 😂

26/11/2023

Monkeys! What the boys trekked up the Rock for! 🙂

26/11/2023

Fascinating visit to the WW2 and Great Siege Tunnels on the Rock. The boys and their friend Jasper from SV Ragdoll were mildly interested but were much more keen to get to the Apes’ Den!

21/11/2023

We have finally made it to Gibraltar!!!
11 days ago we were sat in Figueira da Foz contemplating running out of Schengen time (we only had 10 days left) and having to leave our boat there and fly somewhere out of the Schengen Zone for 3 whole months.
Luckily for us the port opened again the very next day to boats over 11m and we braved a pretty horrible passage out of there, having stamped out of Schengen that morning, effectively stopping the clock at 10 days. The next 10 days were to be spent sailing (well motoring really!) from one anchorage to the next without going ashore and having to stamp back into Schengen again. Only 2 nights were spent in marinas as no safe anchorage was available anywhere near.
It has been pretty exhausting, especially the passages down the Portuguese coast which had 2-3m swell a lot of the time. This last passage was only supposed to be to Barbate but we were making such good progress and conditions were near perfect so we decided to press on to Gib. Going through the Straits was interesting- we had 9.6kts boat speed at one point as the wind built near the kitesurfing mecca of Tarifa. But crossing the Bay of Gibraltar was very challenging with so many cargo ships and ferries going at full speed and the wind built to 25kts, just when we were absolutely knackered!
Think we all need a few days R & R now before we head over to Tangier for winter 🙂
Will post a few more pics shortly…

21/11/2023

Shopping list for Gibraltar! 😂😂😂

20/11/2023

Passage from Mazagón to Cadiz - first 3 hours playing dodge the millions of lobster pots and that old sailor’s favourite - ‘Pot or Bird?’ (Or Fin when in orca territory!)
The boys enjoyed their passage picnic and we even had a really tame little hitchhiking bird for a while.
Now anchored near the bridge in Cadiz - 2 stops to Gib!

19/11/2023

Hola España! Nice to see you again 🙂

18/11/2023

It’s been nearly a week since we escaped from Figueira da Foz and we have spent every day on passage, anchoring every night before moving on the next morning at crack of sparrows.
Sunday - Nazare
Monday - Peniche
Tuesday - Cascais
Wednesday - Sesimbra
Thursday - Sines
Friday - round the corner to Sagres
Saturday - Faro
We now have just four or five hops until we get to our penultimate destination, Gibraltar where, due to Gib being non-Schengen zone, we can relax for a few days before heading over to Tangier.
The boys have been amazing as it really is quite a tedious slog and we can’t go ashore anywhere. The skipper and first mate are a bit knackered to be honest but we are on the home stretch now so all good 🙂🙂🙂

12/11/2023

Finally! The ball came down to half mast and we have escaped from Figueira da Foz after being stuck there for nearly 3 weeks. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant passage with confused seas and a 2-3m swell but we got out.
Fig Foz as the town is affectionately known was starting to feel quite homely and we made a few friends there. But we need to keep moving south so were very pleased to say “Tchau” (bye!) 🙂

09/11/2023

Balls!!!!
The ball’s up (again). We got up this morning at 5.30 to get ready to leave (again) only to find the port is closed to vessels under 35m (again!)This is indicated by the port authority positioning a ball or balls on a mast on top of the Forte de Santa Catarina.
No balls = good to go
1 ball at half mast = if you’re 11m+ you’re ok to go
1 ball at full height = if you’re under 35m you’re stuck here
2 balls up = everyone’s stuck!

🎼🎼The lyrics from The Eagles’ song ‘Hotel California’ keep playing in our heads - especially “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave……”🎼🎼

07/11/2023

Yes we are still in Figueira da Foz waiting for the weather to improve to push south. The port here only just opened again today and tomorrow looks like rubbish wind of 20kts+ on the nose. So fingers crossed for a decent passage on Thursday.

We have got a little river debris island ecosystem developing around the boat in the marina. Shame the majority of fauna is of the bitey variety!! 🦟🦟🦟

01/11/2023

This is a screen shot of our passage this morning at 6.45. Our aim was to go from here to Nazaré as the port here closes frequently when the swell outside is high and we had a small window of opportunity to get out. Lines off we motored out of the marina but within 10 minutes and nearing the harbour entrance, the waves made their presence felt in quick succession and in several directions. The executive decision was made pretty swiftly that conditions weren’t great and we turned around.

We were very disappointed not to have made it out today as we know we are going to be stuck in Figueira da Foz another week. Our Schengen clock is ticking very loudly (21 days and counting) and we still have 400+ miles to cover in 7-8 day sails to get to Morocco. However, our safety is paramount and we are not prepared to take risks that may compromise this. Next week looks like much kinder weather and hopefully forward / southerly progress will resume 🙂

28/10/2023

Celebrating 6 months on board Kendra - early doors cocktails in The Fogg Pub followed by the rugby final, Halloween decoration making and crisps / egg sandwiches for tea because I can’t make anything more complicated after two and a half strong cocktails!! ,

27/10/2023

The boys were very helpful today - carrying the food shop back to the boat is far easier with three pairs of hands - and Jake’s head! Billy also helped make sushi for dinner - he now fully appreciates the many hours that all the prep takes and won’t ever ask for sushi at 7pm again! 🙂😂

25/10/2023

After the storm….

22/10/2023

Bye bye Baiona and Adiós España, for now at least.
Olá Portugal 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹
Another 65 miles ticked off as southwards we go!

21/10/2023

Standards certainly slip, in certain areas, when you live on a boat but I never thought ours would slip as low as Crocs. Not just Crocs, but Crocs with Socks!

20/10/2023

Evening stroll along the beach to see if any of our stuff has washed up and to have a nose at the beached boat - the broken mooring chain and buoy is laid right next to it! 😬

20/10/2023

After possibly the worst night we’ve had at anchor with pretty much zero sleep due to the increasing wind and swell overnight, we made the decision to move a little nearer the breakwater wall here this morning - in hindsight something we should have done yesterday.
After sticking our heads up on deck we noticed a few things which were, shall we say, concerning. Firstly there is now a small yellow sailing boat washed up on the nearest beach which probably broke its mooring last night sometime. Thankfully it missed us on its way to beach itself! Secondly, our dinghy was flipped over leaving our outboard engine upside down in the water and the presence of our fuel tank, dinghy anchor, wheels, bucket, oars and seats unknown.
Our initial priority was to get ourselves somewhere which hopefully was at least a little more protected from the swell. So we hauled up our anchor with some difficulty as the fantastic Rocna had dug itself extremely well into the mud and held our boat firmly in place during the previous 4 days of high winds. We motored carefully over towards the breakwater and just about got the anchor down before more 35kt gusts tried to blow us back where we came from. The anchor held straight away (big thumbs up for Rocna Anchors again!) and we made ourselves some coffee & toast whilst devising a plan to rescue the outboard and contents of the dinghy, if they hadn’t already made their way to Davy Jones’ locker. Plan devised, we executed it almost perfectly, winching the front of the dinghy up with the davit line and somehow between the two of us righting it lengthwise. We did lose a dinghy seat in the process and the anchor, bucket and wheels were nowhere to be seen. The oars, remaining seat and fuel tank were retrieved and the outboard was hauled on board for some emergency resuscitation by Jon. Fingers crossed it works or this could be a very costly mistake……..to be continued 😬

19/10/2023

Days 3 & 4 in the Big Brother boat….still really windy (43.7 knots yesterday), still absolutely pi***ng it down and today a ‘lovely’ swell beam on to us so to quote Billy “it’s a bit rolly!”. Still we’ve had some family games, eaten all the chocolate, managed a visit to our boat neighbours on Sula followed by a very bouncy dinghy ride back just as the wind & rain hit again. The toilet is fixed but there is now a leak into the boat via the mast. 🙄Still smiling though and we haven’t throttled each other yet! Evenings are being spent binge watching Breeders - if you haven’t seen it it’s hilarious - up there with Catastrophe and Motherland. 🙂🙂🙂

17/10/2023

…..and so the wind and torrential rain continues! Top wind speed so far - 40.9 knots. The wind generator cuts out at around 30kts and we’ve now topped the battery bank up nicely. The kids have done their schoolwork, we have had a game of Trivial Pursuit (Jenga was a bit challenging on the boat yesterday 😂),eaten the most delicious baked blackcurrant cheesecake (we bought the whole thing from the pastelería yesterday! 🐷🐷🐷🐷) and now Jon is repairing the toilet again.
Positives: the deck is getting a good clean, we can’t spend any money and I’ve nearly finished my book 🙂👍🏻

17/10/2023

40 knots of wind and building!
1 knot = 1.15 mph for those not familiar 🙂
Glad we upgraded our anchor to a hefty 33kg Rocna ⚓️⚓️

15/10/2023

Check out our friends’ latest YouTube video - we are in it again! 🙂

In this episode we explore three different anchorages with our friends 'Summers Sailing Kendra' Hugh and I fix the sail bag, we have a pizza party, Hugh and ...

15/10/2023

We’ve had a great few days in Baiona - on water the boys have been sailing the Open Bic dinghy, paddle boarding and going full speed ahead on the Jobe towable! On land we discovered a football pitch, basketball courts and a great playground. The boys played footie with the local kids for hours yesterday and are practicing their Spanish “¿Puedo jugar por favor?” (Can I play please?) 🙂
Thursday was National Day of Spain with gun salutes, music and fireworks in the town. Baiona also has the Fortress de Monterreal, a huge fort built in the 12th century which provides some amazing views of the bay out to the Ciés Islands. Some lovely photos to keep us going during the next few days of crappy weather & storm force winds!

14/10/2023

Think we are going to be in Baiona for a while as a succession of strong winds with gusts of up to 50 knots are forecast for the next week or so. Stocked up on food & beer earlier so batten down the hatches!!! 😬

14/10/2023

Family outing to the local Irish pub in Baiona to watch the rugby with a Spaniard, Australian and another Englisher! 🙂

08/10/2023

A few photos of our couple of days in the fantastic city of A Coruña. If you haven’t visited I would definitely recommend you do - it’s fantastic.
Our visit included a walk up to the Torre de Hércules (Tower of Hercules), the oldest known lighthouse still in existence built in the 1st century.

08/10/2023

Can anyone identify this fish please? We’ve caught a couple recently but without knowing what they are, we’ve put them back as we don’t want to eat anything undersized. They’re about 30 cm long

06/10/2023

Here we are in our friends’ latest YouTube video! 🙂

In this episode we leave Brest and have a short stop in Camaret-sur-Merbefore being forced to move on as another boat came and anchored too close. We headed...

06/10/2023

Had to stop for a drink here obviously! Apparently this bar is owned by Judd Trump (world champion snooker player) who hails from Whitchurch, Bristol! Not used to Spanish free-pouring spirits so feeling quite pi**ed already! 😂😂