Hello Folks, here I go again from the  Granddad desk… hope all is well back home,

Monday 13^th..After our seal problem in the middle of no where… like 900 nautical miles from land….just to note its  1200 nautical miles from Forte Lauderdale to Bermuda. 1850 nautical miles from Bermuda to Azores, …1100 nm Azores to Gibraltar,… and Gibraltar to Palma 500nm…. So you can see our seal problem was right in the middle of nowhere, unbelievable….wollowing around in the middle of the Atlantic, the Americans call this a motor yacht, kiwis would call it a launch,,.. so no big keel hanging to keep you popping up the right way…I am certainly enjoying  the experience. it alerts all your senses.  Rocka never looses it especially under  pressure. He has good systems and discipline. And of course he has had a life time at sea… Some of you might know, he used to be the skipper on the biggest sloop in the world…family life changed that.

Tuesday14th. The seas have eased a little..and a life ring is spotted…we change course to investigate it…no name on it… It makes you wonder where it is from,…was it an aircraft… or a boat/yacht…????. Is it that mystery from the Bermuda triangle…an energy from the lost Ayantis, a  pre historic civilization….that they are now finding  very real evidence of its existence… 200 ton carved/ shaped  stones lying under the sea… 60 feet long and 15 feet wide… who knows??? We cruise on, the mystery seems far from our daily lives of cruising….of course given time, there will be an  answer …as they say,, time will tell.

Wednesday 15^th…Late last night on Liam and Logans watch, they sight red white and green lights…. After ten minutes or so… they wake Rocka,   Rocka decides to turn back towards the lights and investigate…. We trudge back for 6 or 7 miles… the lights mysterisely disappear… real strange I think Rock’s thoughts are, it could have been a life raft     who knows??? Rocka decision is a mariners responsibility to help those that might have had a mishap…  Strange… A real chatter  amongst  the crew… even UFOs is mentioned….  What happened to the lights…where did they go/disappear to…???? Leaves you wondering…

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Thursday16th.

Friday 17^th      we  motor on, hoping everything will hold together….it appears ok.

Lots of bits and pieces are spotted… like fishing floats… coils of rope….the weather is slowly easing up…time has stopped…. To be free from time… almost bliss ….

SATURDAY18^th, Today  we  stop the boat for a quick swim….the Sea is calm.. we are a few hours from Azores….Ahoy there we spot and glimpse land in the distance…Mount Pico, its mighty peak stands proudly above the clouds….its higher than any mountain in Australia….

….Rocka takes the boat into a volcano. the crater has the side blown out and is a gateway to allow the sea in….and us, ha-ha..  This volcano erupted out of the sea in the 1950s… so we are about an age…but I haven’t got my side blown out, and I haven’t let the sea in.!!!!

Azores is made up of 9 larger Islands, owned and governed by Portugal.. The Islands are scattered over a big area. We tie up at Horta, on the Island Faial. There are about 15,000 people on Faial, and about 300,000 people scattered over all the Islands….dairy farming is a very much thriving industry here…so I felt right at home…. NOT….

Tourism is a growing industry… they grow wheat, corn, tea, oranges, tobacco, and grapes for wine… and fishing, especially tuna…

The first Islands of Azores were first discovered in 1427 and others more west were discovered in 1452...they are located in the heart of northern Atlantic.

SUNDAY19th…We can’t fuel up till Monday, and the weather is extremely rough to Gibraltar…Rocka, Liam and I go for a walk up to the top of one of the many volcanoes…great to be able to go for a walk….some of the pictures  on the blog site ,,,are  from the top… its very green….very nice in many ways….all volcanic…people seem very friendly…and of course its very isolated, 1100 miles to Gibraltar…Some of the crew go swimming, and check out another volcano.

Monday 20^th, we fuel up… and are all prepared for sea…but the weather is still very rough...… forcaster has advised the Captain not to sail to Gibraltar.

.Rocka and I visit the museum…a very small museum, but very interesting…

Tuesday 21^st..The weather has eased slightly and at 4.00pm we depart, by midnight it has become rough.

Wednesday 22^nd.. The weather is rough, day and night… rough, and rough. Becoming very rough….

THURSDAY 23^rd

FRIDAY      24^th

The roughest days yet…. Impossible to sleep we all do our watches and then sleep or try to rest… thump thump… falling off waves….everyone is tired out… some are feeling off color…. I’m Ok,, but I am very very tired… there is no escaping the motion… pitching and rolling…thump…its amazing how draining it is….physically and mentally….it seems like eternity, especially night watches, you don’t know which way you are going to be hit from….you are continually braced so that you don’t get thrown into a wall or any other fixture. Interesting you only see crew when you change watches or meals.. I go for a walk around the boat. No one is around only the crew on watch or Sara in the galley preparing a meal… meals is pre done and need to be only heated…. No way could you cook in these conditions. Everyone is lying real low… so I don’t feel bad when I go and lie down. Even in bed you lie on your back with your arms out each side braced as you try and doze… everyone is in good spirits even though they are weary.

Me Hearty’s’

SATURDAY25th..This afternoon a few hours of calm… a welcome break, after being constantly hammered…. It was short lived….. Became rough again in the  evening…..not as bad as the previous days….I was lucky, I had a quick shower.

SUNDAY26th.. We arrive in Gibraltar about0 9.00 / 10.00am what a sight on one side Africa, the other Europe… Incredible… We fuel up and the crew does some cleaning up after the boat being tossed about in the stormy seas…. The Rock of Gibraltar stands out in all its glory, it was a gloomy pommy sort of a day…. Low clouds, misty….

Gibraltar is six miles long and three and half wide….a population of 35,000 people,,, the rock is riddled with caves and tunnels… I had a quick look with Jenny, Rocka’s  wife who had flown in the day before…there is a mass of history in that rock…Stories of battles and sieges; its location had made it a strategic military / naval  base by whoever had occupation. In prehistoric times ,approximately 120,000 years ago Neanderthal man occupied the rock and hunted the coastal plains which now  lie beneath the Mediterranean. Archaeological traces of their presence is evident, as is  evidence of  the Greeks, Romans and Phoenicians. One could write a book on it.       Gibraltar for 300 years has been  ruled and owned  by the UK,…it now  has a small local governing body…. . ten thousand Spanish come over the border each day to work,….up to two hours wait morning and night to cross the border… lots of construction going on here….The language they speak is Gib… a cross between English and Spanish…I certainly couldn’t understand a word of what was being said...

MONDAY27th All ready to go… just waiting for our weather clearance…we are keen to get going…. Yip16.00 we depart Gibraltar for Palma Mallorca. We motor close by a ship that had sunk in the last two weeks. Five miles away from where it had sunk, it was in a collision with another ship. It had drifted all that way.  A good lesson for us to be vigilant in our watches. You certainly wouldn’t want to be hit by one of these large ships.. [   Or any boat] If you were hit by these large ships, you wouldn’t know what had hit you…

TUESDAY 28th..   The sea is flat, the calmest we have had on the whole trip….FANTASTIC…Its amazing how much red dust from the Sahara Desert is in the air… The boat is dripping in red goo… The crew is constantly washing it off…

It makes you wonder how much red dust,  people breath in when they are living here all the time….Most of today is in thick fog.. visibility is 50 /80 meters at the most… lots of ships on the radar… and close by… you can hear the fog horns  blowing….one boat kept coming straight at us, after making a 15degree to  starboard it still kept coming straight for us….just under the half mile Rocka went hard to starboard… it never altered its course…it could have been a small boat with no radar….and with zilch visibility… you are always keeping a vigilant look out…. Rocka and I spent the whole day on the bridge as all the  crew was very busy, preparing the boat for the Owners arrival the day after we get there. Its astounding how much work there is to do. Everyone worked extra hard today.

WEDNESDAY 29^TH. We arrive in Palma… about 10.00am… we anchor out  in Nova Palma Bay… very beautiful.   Tomorrow I get off for a few days…. I’m going to try out my land legs….The boat is going to have some repairs done, the shaft seals for one thing….Will wait till Monday, and if they are going to fixed within a few days  I will do the journey to France…and from there head for home…

Till next time,

Love to all,

Rob…   [ Now known as Grandad]

P.S check out The Boats web..  www.mailasai.coml

      Click on web diary,

     Click on the boat Daydream or just http://blog.mailasail.com/daydream

    There is a chart of where we have motored, and some pictures of the journey.