|
|
|
|
Monday, 17 May - ?? -- Heading south... We left Portosin bright and early Monday morning and headed for Bayona, just south of Vigo, Spain. My guts have been exposed to some odd things over the last few days - squid, octopus and eel (in Bayona). Squid is good, octopus is edible and the eel meal was a non-event. Won't be having eel again..... I can honestly say that my innards are not very appreciative of the change in menu! This is a shot of the harbour at Bayona - interesting place!
Tuesday, 18 May -- (Martes) Bayona, Galicia, Spain... Today was just one of those wander around and do silly shit days. We dropped off laundry, I checked emails, and then just walked my damn feet off. Bayona is this wonderful medieval city that is a joy to explore. You can just amble among 13th century buildings or sit by the sea and enjoy a beer. I did a bit of each. The shot on the left is the Bayona Castillo. On the right, meet Jon and Richard....
I have been a tad unhappy with wearing t-shirts in and out of nice places. I have 2 polo shirts I bought in SA, but felt I needed more. So I bought a nice one, with a zipper instead of buttons! I also picked up a leather belt so I would not have to mess around with that blue webbing belt with nice outfits. And, a nice Slam IT (Italian sailing gear maker) windbreaker with the logo of the Club Monte-Real de Yates´ (our hosts) because it's chilly in the evenings. (While I was fine wearing my bright yellow coat in SA it just doesn't work here, plus it has this weird chemically smell from my recent attempts to refresh its waterproofing.) One of the tapas dishes we tried was "pimientos de padron", little fired green peppers. Some of them are hot, some aren't. They're all doused with sea salt and every last one of them is delicious! Friend Mike from NYC read my Banter Board comment and replied that he calls the Spanish Roulette because of the hot ones. Regardless, I love 'em. Wednesday, 19 May -- (Miercoles) Atlantic Ocean... We set sail early in the AM. We're bound for Cadiz. This will be a highlight for me, it's the sherry region....! Thursday 20May - Friday 21 May -- (Viernes - Jueves)... My journal says exactly: "En route - not much to say. Too damn much motoring." But as true as it is, I can't deprive you of the gruesomely boring details. All throughout the last 5.5 months I have shamed my mother's fine name. I have repeatedly denied any ability whatsoever to cook. Sorry Mom. That has all come to a horrible end. I was bullied (wayyyyy too strong of a word but that's my claim and I'll stick by it...) into making an effort in the galley after having previously being the DD (Designated Dishwasher). It seems that Richard and Jon are NL follower not Al followers and really dislike the DD rule. So, I gave in. I pulled some pork chops out of the freezer in the morning and went to work later in the eve. Pan fried pork chops with a sauce made by deglazing with Calvados and adding creme fraiche (and a wee bit o' butter to really make it fattening), a salad and the worst ever mashed potatoes. Now, I'm sure that many of my gastronome friends (no, I am not implying that any of you are fat!) are wondering: "Jim, exactly how the hell do you mess up something so wonderful and simple as mashed potatoes?". Well, it's simple. I followed the suggestion of a boat owner, who shall remain nameless to protect his culinary reputation, and boiled the potatoes in sea water. Maybe they would have been ok with a cup of sea water added to tap water or a clean rinse after boiling. As it was they sucked. At least I thought so. They were beyond over-salty! But R and J seemed not to feel that way and even had seconds. Unfortunately they figured if I could make pan sauces like I had that maybe I could actually cook. DAMN. I'm screwed now. How could I let 5 plus months of diligent lying fall apart like that? Saturday, 22 May - (Sabado) Puerto de Santa Maria, Andulucia, Spain... We arrived in the Cadiz area at approximately 1000. We're actually in Puerto de Santa Maria (here after PdSM - try saying it let alone typing it a zillion times!) The berth is in Puerto Sherry, a soulless half built marina about 3km from town. It's a nice but long walk into town. We all walked in together to see the yacht club. Along the way we saw a small sherry bodega. A few samples later we walked out with a bottle of Fino and one of sherry vinegar. Then on to the club which was a disappointment. We wandered a bit further into town. The bull ring was cool from the outside. Hungry, we retired to a local bar for beer and tapas. In the bar was a sign that there was to be a bullfight the next day. We all agreed to go. The boys were tired and disappointed by the antiseptic and industrial nature of what we had seen and begged off to go to the boat. I decided to stay in town -- there were signs about a feria (festival) and the local women were wearing their flamenco dresses. So I wandered further into town. What a great decision. After getting about two blocks from the Plaza de Toros the neighborhoods change from big sherry warehouses and horrible apartments to a nice 12th century village loaded with amazing charm and sights.
I wandered into bars and had quite a bit of serrano ham and other goodies. It's too early in the year to have gazpacho, this leaves me constantly sighing as I love the stuff. In town I noticed flyers promoting a soccer match. A few SMSs with the guys shows they're not interested. So I head off alone. A bus ride later I end up in a disheveled, tattered, rubble-like 3rd division stadium. That's pretty appropriate as it's a third division game: Racing Club Puertuense v RCD Nueva Sevilla. The game lacked skill, flair, imagination,
ability or athletic merit. It was poorly officiated. The teams
clearly hated each other (Sevilla is but 100km up the road). The crowd was
ill tempered. The coaches even more so. Every thing about it
screamed "third division derby". I absolutely loved every second of it.
This is the type of In all I think I walked at least 10 miles today. Seriously. My feet are sore, raw, blistered, and swollen. Sunday 23 May - (Domingo) PdSM... I was up and into town on my own this morning. Being the only one aboard with any ability to utter a few words in Spanish (and I do that ever so badly!) I was delegated the Designated Purchaser of Bull fight Tickets (so why do these guys support the DPBT rule but not the DD?). So I hoofed it into town. At the ticket window I was stunned. I knew about Sol and Umbra (Sun and Shadow, the two sides of the ring). But I had no idea that with each there are a dozen plus seat types. I asked (badly) for the best tickets in the sun. I was given 3 seats in the "tendidos". I had no idea if they were assigned or general admission seats...
After wandering more I discovered that the
feria was still going on. But it was on the outskirts of town (in the
fairgrounds, natch.) The things that used to be my feet The fair opened at noon, I arrived at
about 1400. Everything was very slowly coming to life. The setup is a
large number of semi-permanent tents or structures and a The locals were all in their finest. Women in long, tight, frilly, usually polka dotted, dresses. Riders in Andulusian gear. And there was just a general air of festivity (gee, how appropriate).
After a bit I was on the bus back to town. I met the boys and we waited for the bull ring to open. It turned out we had specific seats, but not knowing that we entered early. We spent an hour watching the grounds keepers watering the ring to keep the dust down. Dull. Then the fighting started. VERY VERY neat stuff. [PETA members save your breath, I don't care.] The bull never has a chance but it's still fascinating to watch. 2 of the 3 matadors were clearly very unskilled. but the other, Cesar Jimenez, was wonderful to watch. He possessed a weird and intriguing combination of nerve, grace, skill, and charisma. In his 1st fight he was awarded the ears. His second would have won another set but he had problems with his final sword strokes. The bull seemed to be very thick and the blade kept sticking (perhaps he was missing and hitting bone?). Amazing stuff. It is not for the feint of heart though. It is bloody and violent. (Especially through binoculars - the image of blood gushing from a dying bull's snout is pretty gruesome at 10X magnification.)
We all had a fine time. It was followed by another evening of tapas and beer. And, of course, another very long walk home. Oh, in my walks at some point I found a bust of Juan de La Cosa. The sign said he was one of Columbus' navigators and responsible for creating the 1st map of North America (in 1500). There was a copy of the map nearby. An A+ for effort but an F for accuracy. But given the times and the tools it was pretty damn neat.
Monday, 24 May - (Lunes) PdSM... Richard is a part owner (with 2 friends) of a small house in a town about 35km away. Today we rented a car and went off to see it. We stopped along the way for a tour of the Gonzalez y Byass bodega in Jerez de la Frontera -- the center of the sherry world. G y B is best known for making Tio Pepe. As much as I like their product I have to say their tour sucked. We could only take so much of walking in to dusty room loaded with aging sherry or brandy after dusty room loaded with aging sherry or brandy. After 90 minutes, before the tasting or gift shop, we left. Arrrggghh.
Richard's place is just outside of Arcos. We stopped when entering the area and picked up ham, almonds, cashews, bread, chorizo, and of course sherry. We got to his place and it was amazing. Arcos is a beautiful whitewashed town built high on the top of a hill/cliff (one side is sloped, the other side a shear drop off). From the hacienda you look up at the cliff side. Stunning. Richard's co-owner, Remy, and several others (Luis, Frau, and Cecy (Remy's wife)) showed up and we enjoyed a very delightful afternoon. Sunshine, munchies, and fine company. The gang had never seen Beaucastel so they begged to. We all loaded into cars and roared back into PdSM. The boat amazed them - as it should have. Then they led us into Cadiz' old town. It's surrounded by a old (Roman era?) wall and pretty cool. The locals insisted we had to go to a particular bar. Café Manteca was well worth getting lost for. They had wonderful, bracingly cold sherry, and a fantastic sliced pork loin with lemon juice and salt tapas. Great stuff. A rather poor quality meal (very very dry pork chop) followed. Then bit of a drive back to PdSM. A wonderful day with some wonderful new friends. Tuesday, 25 May - (Martes) Atlantic Ocean & Gibraltar... A dreadfully boring motor to Gibraltar killed most of the day. The only thing at all interesting about it was the endless stream of HUGE commercial traffic racing past us. Thankfully RADAR makes it easy to know they're coming... at 20+kts! Wednesday, 26 May - (Wednesday, back in the English world...) Gibraltar... The day started with boat stuff. I went up the mast to change a light bulb, helped tighten an alternator belt, cleaned the head, made a big provisioning trip to the supermarket.
Wandered about Gib for most of the afternoon. A charm less, dirty, ill-maintained place. No real reason to ever go back except that it has the cheapest diesel in the Med area. Oh, I mailed over 30 postcards. Thanks! all you Plaxo updaters! Thursday, 27 May - (Jueves) Mediteranian Sea... We were off about 0900. On the way out of Gib we stopped to pick up some equipment that Richard had loaned to a friend a while back. The friend was not around but his boat was in town. I had to helm the boat into a very very narrow berth. It was maybe 5 feet wider than the boat. The problem was that there were multi-million pound (Sterling...) boats on both sides. Throw in the fact that Beaucastel ain't cheap and I was a very very nervous driver. No ill fell to any boat. But I was sweating for a while. We flew the spinnaker for much of the afternoon. That's they way to travel! I tried, unsuccessfully, to do a fix with the sextant. I think I was 17nm off. Not easy stuff. It was my turn to cook again. This time I did steaks on the grill. Well, I tried to. The damn, cheap, French charcoal burned cool but fast. There was no heat 1/2 way through my desired cooking time. We finished the potatoes and onions in the microwave and the meat on a the stove (with a cast iron grill pan). Damn, the guys still think I can cook. Still lots of very very big ships going
very very fast. There was also one very very very very very big oil rig
being towed very very very very slowly (less than 1kt) that Friday, 28 May - (Viernes) Med Sea... A sunny fine day. We flew the cruising spinny for a bit. This is much much easier than the regular spinny. But the wind died and the day was mostly motoring. My journal entry basically say "Just another fine day at sea". Saturday, 29 May - (Sabado) Med Sea...
Today the cruising spinny went up at 0900 and did not come down until 2100 when
I wrote my journal entry (which says There were 1000s and 1000s of
jellyfish/Portuguese man o' war type things around. They're all all less
than 2 inches long and clear. A chat with Janice
reveals that they might be a colonial hydroid known as "By-the-Wind Sailor" (Velella
velella). We ended up in this amazing cove in/on/at (?) Menorca. Cala Coves has gin clear water, towering cliffs, caves above and below the water, and just a sublime sense to it. There were only two other boats there. Magical.
I cooked steaks. This time I made sure that fire absolutely roared and all was well. (But the steaks were medium rare as they should be!) Monday, 31 May - (Lunes) Mahon, Menorca, Las Islas Baleras, Spain... It took about 3 hours of motoring to make it to Mahon (Maó in the local tongue, Catalan) . This lovely colonial city has been fought over more times than can be counted. It has a fantastic location and a very very good harbor. The English, French, Dutch, and Spanish have waged war over it in the past. When Napolean captured it the court chef created a new sauce it its honor.... Mahonaise (Maónaise). You know it as mayonnaise now. The harborfront is loaded with nice boats,
good bars, fine restaurants and tourists. But since they speak with a
British accent or utter in German, it's not as bad as in I wandered the waterfront a great deal. My feet seem to have finally recovered from Bayona/PdSM/Gib. |
|
This web site's pages have been viewed
Send mail to Jim@VagabondJim.com with questions or comments about this web site. Last modification: 04 September 2004 13:26:44 -0700 |
