LinoCat

Well here is LinoCat already on his way to the hard concrete floor in the boatyard. ..afte we approached the crane... hanging around in a beach lounge.... LinoCat on dry land..... The story will continue later.... time to fly back now...

Well we also reached our final destination Portimao. This is the place where we set sail in 2009 to cross the Atlantic. Here you see Thomas and Andy having a sundowner while cruising along the Algarve coast. Here is Linocat at the visitos pontoon in Portimao. A lighthouse on a cliff at the Algarve coast. beautiful landscape with many caves and grottos. And of course sandy beaches. Some of them can only be reached via boat. time for another swim A happy skipper

After the wind has died down we tried to make the best out of it and so we went for a swim. Well actually on some days we stopped as much as three times to jump into the beautiful blue atlantic. It was the perfect thing to do after the thermometer had reached 30 Celcius.

There were many warships around Gibraltar. Over the radio we could listen to even more... We saw a submarine in the med and we heard multiple "coalition warships" and even aircraft carriers over the VHF radio. A few warships we could see. A helicopter carrier and a new stealth type warship.

We left Gibraltar with a nice breeze from East around F5-6. After passing Tarifa we pulled out the Parasailor and had a nice ride with speeds between 7 and 15knots (surfing). We sailed into a beautiful sunset and had a nice Campari Orange as sundowner. At sunset the wind slowed down and then at around midnight died and so we had to get the Parasailor back in.

Again the largest motoryacht in the world, the Eclipse seen from top of the rock. Thomas and Andy, two of the monkeys on the rock :-) And here is a smaller one with her mother. seagulls enjoyed flying in the air floating over the edge of the rock Battery which defended the rock in the past.

This is our berth in Gibraltar. We reached there the 25th in the evening and it was still enough time to have a nice "anchoring beer". The "Eclipse" did not even fit on my wide angle lens. It is currently the biggest private Yacht in the world measuring 127m and belonging to Mr Abramowitsch. "The rock seen with its typical clouds" Well this was the anchoring ceremony.

This is not seaworld but the Dolphin show was live in front of us. A school of around 20 Dolphins were jumping and playing and chasing each other. It was pure fun watching them.

The passage was VERY stressful as you can see in the pictures. The wind was very good in the beginning and so we set the Parasailor and had good speeds between 8kn and 10kn and up to 15 in the surf down the waves. And this despite the fact that the antifouling marine coating had given up and we have heavy growth underneath the boat. Extreme chilling... Now testing the foredeck and the trampolin. HEY; this IS hard work. Thomas is testing if the structure of the trampolin is not weakened by the UV light!

Back on the boat. After a healthly meal we prepare the boat to leave for Portugal. The plan is to reach Gibraltar Saturday afternoon and then stay there for a night since they predict Force 10. The good part is that the wind is in our direction. Nevertheless there is no point to shoot through the narrow passage and Thomas has not seen Gibraltar yet. Cartagena at night is beautiful. We also inflated the Dinghy and tried out the outboard engine, all is fine. The UV light from the sun has destroyed many smaller parts and the bimini and lazybag need to be repaired in Portugal. We enjoyed tapas and a cool beer also. Andy and Thomas adding some weight :-)

Hi, today Lenny had his first real "lunch" consisting of pumpkin. It is about time that he learns to walk, talk, goes to school and leaves the house now :-)