Gearing up

Regal has been docked in Cartagena now for six months. All of us are ready to leave but we are not ready to leave… There is outstanding work yet to be finished on the boat and there is bad weather about.
A storm comes in for two days on the 4th and 5th of April bringing torrential rain, howling wind and cold weather. The noise of the wind doesn’t stop for two days and I finally understand how the wind gets to people during the wild winters of West Cork. The four of us are down below most of the time and the boat never felt so small. It is challenge for everyone’s patience. Colm gets some respite on board his friend’s James boat. It is a gorgeous 70 motor vessel and they don’t feel the bad weather and even do some baking.
James and his family had been away for a number of months over winter but since their return we see James everyday and have enjoyed a few get-together’s with his parents.
We have made connections with several live-a-boards here on the marina and some boats are beginning to leave. We hope our paths will cross again when we are out on the water.
We are waiting for Juan Pedro to fix the generator and finish wiring up the solar panels so in the meantime we keep going with our own jobs.
We do ‘The big shop’ several times and load up the bilges with stores - We reckon Ruby could live for at least a month on the cereal and UHT milk stored in her bedroom floor. The hope is that when we are at anchor we will only need to buy fresh food which is easy to transport by dingy.
We all have go in the bosun’s chair being hoisted up the mast to clean it after the winter and the mucky rain and to double check everything up there is still intact.
Saturday’s weather is beautiful so we decide to go on a trial sail to check everything is working. It takes ages to make the boat ready for sailing because things that have been thrown down everywhere while we are docked - now they have to be stowed or tied down in advance of the boat heeling over.
In glorious sunshine we take a two hour trip down the coast and pick up a mooring in a little cove. We swim and snorkel in wetsuits and dry off in the sun. We are getting very excited now about leaving Cartagena and heading out into the wide blue yonder.Read more