Tag: Cadiz

I’m Ready Now

Ready to Go. Just need to replace my tatered flags, both the Kadey Krogen and the Satrs & Stripes show wear from the last 5,000 miles.
Ready to Go. Just need to replace my tattered flags, both the Kadey Krogen and the Stars & Stripes show wear from the last 5,000 miles.

Dauntless is finally back in the water.  In spite of holidays, vacations and other national disasters.

In the Sling
In the Sling

The Spanish, at least in southern Spain, have a penchant for bureaucracy, that would make ___ proud.  Even if you stop in a marina and just stay overnight, one night, they make a file for you.  Even though everything is on the computer, everything is also in that file.

It’s a bureaucracy that is at best redundant and at worst really f…ing annoying.

However, I do recall that in Lisbon, you could not leave until you checked out and you could not check out if the office was closed.  Yes, that meant no early morning departures to take advantage of tides or weather.

All the Scrapes and bruises repaired for $160.
All the Scrapes and bruises repaired for $160.

Next week in Morocco, I’ll probably have to east all of these words.  Umm, I hope they are tasty.

While picking up my laundry, we decided to go to the grocery, I figured maybe I’d get fresh milk and a few other things.  $150 later we had a grocery cart full of stuff.  I figured where am I going to get anything cheaper between here and even in the Caribbean?  So now once again I have a half year’s supply of: sardines, anchovies, dried sausages, mustards, toilet paper, UHT milk (I use for my morning coffee) some fresh goods and even mayonnaise. (The Hellman’s mayonnaise in Europe requires no refrigeration [what I have been saying for 30 years], what changed, the marketing folks finally figured out Italians were not going to buy mayonnaise they had to put in their small, dorm room sized, fridges.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll wash the boat, refill water tanks and leave for Gibraltar.

Sunset over Rota
Sunset over Rota

One night at anchor underway, then Gib for two nights, leaving for Africa, Morocco, Sunday morning, winds allowing. We’ll stop in Rabat for two weeks, allowing us to do some exploring.

I want to be in the Canaries be the end of November and Barbados before Christmas.

As a reminder, you can get a position of Dauntless within the last 10 minutes at: Share.Deloreme.com/Dauntless

What's Dinner without the whole family
What’s Dinner without the whole family

Richard on Dauntless heading south

In the Meantime, even the Birds are Talking

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Lesson Learned #137

Now, if your first thought is, “I wonder how I missed the first 136 lessons learned?” you wouldn’t be wrong.  While almost all of the posts related to cruising on Dauntless have some lessons learned, I don’t label them as such.

So, as mentioned I have fleshed out a general cruise plan for the coming year and into 2017.  In a nutshell, we’ll be cruising the west coast of Europe from north of Scotland to southwest Spain by year’s end.

Now, every day, without much else to do, I look at the map, longingly; like porn, maps grab your attention and won’t let go.

I imagine sitting in Dauntless on the Algarve or Cadiz next winter.  I know the Med is no fun in the winter.  But the spring? The following summer 2017??  How can I not go check it out?  A few miles here, a few miles there.

Then, the cold hard facts strike home:

  • $1.10 per nautical mile fuel cost crossing the Atlantic
  • $1.34 per nautical mile in fuel cost in Europe this past summer;
  • $4 per nautical mile for all costs.

So this means that while a good rule of thumb is $1 per nm when crossing oceans; this past summer, cruising along the coast, stopping for the night, eating, drinking and general shenanigans cost money on the order of $4 for every nm traveled.

Sure, this coming summer, I will average less than half the miles every month then we did this past summer.  But 30 days on the road is still 30 days on the road.  My travelling less, I save fuel money, but that’s it, at only 33% of total costs.

So that $4 figure, may get as low as $3, but won’t go to $2, let alone $1.

Another issue, we still want to be in the Pacific by January 2018!  That means, being in the Canaries in October 2017.  So, if we are in the south of Spain Jan-Feb 2017 and then maybe go as far as the Balearics in the Spring of 2017, as weather permits, what next?

So I longingly gaze at the charts.  I would love to see the Adriatic and Greece by Kadey Krogen.  I have friends there. How neat would that be!

So Close, Yet So Far. The red track shows the un-doable trip
So Close, Yet So Far.
The red track shows the un-doable trip The Black track is our proposed trip so far.

But the distances!  1,000 miles just to Sicily.  One way. 1300 nm to Greece, 1800 nm to Venice. Now double all those numbers, as we have to return.

And now multiply by $4.  $12,000 to see the Greek Isles; not happening.

Too many miles, too many dollars, too little time.

But the year not spent in Europe, will be a year spent in the Pacific.

New places, new faces and new friends to make.  It’ll be a fun time.