The people, the boats…
I’ve said it before: one of the best things about cruising is all the great people you meet. I’ll add to that; “…and the great boats you see”! Getting to know each other often starts on the pontoon, with one person fixing something broken, discussing that and then good chandlers, where you’ve been and where you are going, and then continues in the evening in the cockpit over drinks. (There really is a lot of drinking: I like Marie’s and Kim’s idea to invite people to tea and scones instead, to give our livers a break…)
Here is a quick recap of people from this trip:
My stunt double, the race car driver and the chef, the sassy sailor Sarah and around-the-world-sailor-vet Tom, Alan who spent months in various African prisons, the nudist headmaster, James’ Air Force buddy (turns out our ensign is like a secret handshake), the bathroom faucet company couple with the gorgeous wooden boat James photographed years ago in the UK which he won an award for, and the list can go on. The hardest thing for me is not staying in touch with all these people. To just let them slip through my fingers and hope our paths will cross somewhere else…
And of course we’ve seen many great boats. I invite myself on any Hallberg Rassy I see, since they are on my “around the world shortlist”. We saw a van der Stadt finally (tip from Kim) in Lagos - would have been in my list if it wasn’t for the fact that you just buy the drawings to it-then you have to find someone to build it for you! Oyster is also on it. Just need to meet a Garcia 45 which was high on the list until I talked to an owner of another aluminum boat today who had anodes hanging off the boat like a Christmas tree… now I’m not so sure..! (Side story: someone was docked next to an Aluminium boat without abode Valencia, and their prop fell off - the prop shaft had just been eaten up!)
Other fun boat sightings in this marina:
Right next to us!!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izabel_Pimentel?wprov=sfti1#Voyages
And this beaut! The crew was hanging out in the bar we had dinner in last night. They are prepping to break the record in fastest transatlantic crossing on a sailboat. All guys (as usual). Smaller than I’d expect, but (we snuck into their pontoon to check out the boat close up) it looks all electric/hydrolic so I guess they don’t need to be big…? “I wonder how many are Olympic gold winners here tonight, as James asked”. Pretty cool.
https://www.balticyachts.fi/yachts/baltic-111-custom/
We’ll stay here one more night - too tired still to head out tomorrow. Saturday is the plan, 16 hour sail to las Palmas is the plan…