Nics Diary - Part 1

Nic’s Diary

I was asked by many people who are close to me to start a sub section on the blog for my diary as mobile phone contact is poor and expensive, and so that they can read about my stories and adventures.

I arrived back to the yacht on 20^th June after 5 weeks holiday in Australia for my sisters’ wedding. After a couple of days of unpacking and cleaning (again) we left La Linea and headed to Estapona for a 2 night stop over to refill all 5 of our gas tanks. We anchored both nights. The first night was fine, but on the evening of the second night the boat swung round 180 degrees and Stevie became concerned that the anchor had slipped. We reset the anchor and had a poor night sleep as we were worried about landing on the rocks!

We left for a 2 day sail, early the next morning and headed to Mar Menor. I became a little scared on my first night watch (in 5 wks) because of dolphins! Yes, as silly as it sounds, I was scared and had to waken grizzly bear, Stevie, a little earlier than expected. When I see dolphins swimming alongside the boat during the day, they are by far the most beautiful thing to watch. However, during a 4 hour night watch, in the pitch darkness, when you can hear swish – plop all around you, without being able to see a damn thing, it becomes a little freaky! Well Stevie did say I was to waken him with any problems – no matter what! Anyway, tonight I have decided to believe that they are here to protect me, and not to be scared! (Wimp – I know!)

Other scary moments in the last few days are thick fog. I decided to take watch at the bow of the boat, as it would give us approximately an extra 30ft view in front. Not much fun as we could only see about 50ft all around us. I kept having visions of a monstrous titanic style boat bow emerging out of the fog, and coming straight for us. (Yes I do get a little worried still being a very novice sailor). Of course, it cleared in around 30 min, and there were no other boats for miles!

Not all moments are scary. The sun has been out, and my tan is doing well! Today we caught 2 tunas – the first escaped, and the second is gutted and in the fridge for tomorrow nights’ dinner. Quite funny really – the minute I opened a can of tuna to make tuna pasta bake for dinner tonight, Stevie yelled to me that we had caught one! Tomorrow nights will be better – fresh caught, and will be served with a bottle of wine (been on a bit of a detox for the last week, as we have been at sea most of the time).

Sailing in the med is pretty much what they say – crap - wind wise. So far we have motored most of the way. When the wind comes, it very rarely stays. So I found out when I decided to hoist the main for the first time on my own. It took me about 20 mins as it kept catching on the lazy bag ropes. I ended up about 1 mile off course, just for the wind to die. I won’t be trying that again by myself for a long while – far too much hassle!

I have been practicing my chanter (18 yrs since I last played the bagpipes). It has kept me occupied on night watch. Who knows – I may eventually get the old bagpipes out and have a go!

The most WOW moment was one night when I flushed the loo with no light on and phosphorescence glowed in the pan! They were like fluorescent green mini shooting stars all firing through the pan - what an amazing sight! Last night (when I was having dolphin phobia) I shone the torch out of the back of the boat, to see millions more phosphorescent particles darting about in the sea behind. Well cool and definitely a WOW moment !

All in all I am having a ball! I am getting a lot more confident at playing with the sails, and Stevie has been great at teaching me! I am sure that my irrational fears of dolphins will pass – probably when I meet my first humongous whale! Will do my best to keep the stories coming so you can all hear the latest! Love to all of you - wish I could have a beer and catch up with you. Miss you all millions. Nic xxx