Blood, sweat, and cheers! (Or salud, zivili, santé…etc..)

Well, this week unfortunately most of the bleeding was done by our “segundo” visitor; Alex from Sweden…. those Swedes🙄😮.. breaking your nose on the first day of a beach vaycay? Who does that??

And the perspiring? Well, that is our status quo…day in, day out, outside, AND in the saloon, which we fondly refer to as our “Spanish Sauna.” (mostly between 10am and 8pm, when the inside temp is often 34!!)

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However, this week our personal moisture output was exacerbated by our increased efforts towards improved fitness, for which Alex is directly responsible! Although injured, he set a good example while here, and even left us with some equipment for Magnus to train his shoulder with when he left. 👏👍 (all this WITH a broken nose, as it turns out!)

And…. serendipitously, we are pleased to report that our salutations repertoire in different languages is improving weekly, due to many occasions for raised glasses in warm and varied company.

Some new experiences this week have included:

• Making exercise a priority, we have run most mornings. Thanks Alex!! Alex demonstrated his personal commitment to keeping fit by breaking his nose doing chin-ups on his visit here, hence the BLEEDING!! This happened when we all ran to the outdoor gym on his first morning – where he proceeded, amongst other things, to do far too many chin ups on monkey bars with SUCH vengeance that he hit his head very hard on one bar, which caused his head to RICHOCHET forward into another bar – very efficiently BREAKING HIS NOSE!! 😟😧 Aaaargh!
• Managing to buy what we actually intended to buy, in Spanish and Catalan!? We ended up with the right fabric for making fender covers from a shop where the owners and employees didn’t speak English… This involved me learning several sentences about elasticised fabric, eg for making tracksuit pants, drawing pictures, using a photo… and happily we got there in the end. Well worth it – because pantalones de chandal sounds so much more exotic than tracky daks!😆),
• Being able to book a table at a restaurant in Spanish, I guess this will be an important phrase to remember?

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS:

BEST

• Almost walking to Sitges, although another attempt is required, now that we know where the two ends of the track connect in Garraf – this took some time, and MORE stumbling Spanish, but well worthwhile for the view from the ruin of Garraf Castlilo
• Sitting at Rat Penat Beach bar listening to our Brazilian neighbor play. (Rat Penat means bat, as ascertained while learning about the history of Bacardi Rum. (I know?!))
• Learning the new way out of the car park but we’ve been circumnavigating for six weeks, saving about 2 kilometers in circles per grocery trip. Tick!
• Finally visiting the castle after which Castelldefels is named. Currently it is closed for renovation, and to prepare the inside for a museum, however the building itself, and commanding view of the area was worth the walk anyway.
• Eating at our most local restaurant – a super Italian, while listening to a swansong vocal performance, including a rousing rendition of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz.” This is the first time we’ve actually had dinner there.
• Me discovering a moment of rhythm on a box drum one evening. (My daughters will dispute this could actually happen..)

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WORST

• The fear and trepidation (not to mention nausea) that overcame Magnus as he anticipated putting a drill into this beautiful boat. Luckily the drilling was accurate and intended purpose achieved the first time.
• Farewelling some of our boat neighbors, as they departed for various lands… The Balearic Islands, Brazil, The Canary Islands. 

FUNNIEST

• Trialling the new bosun’s chair – Magnus hauling (winching actually) me up the mast a little.
• Witnessing a happy Swede singing his version of a Brazillian song, and then some Brazillians taking these made up lyrics and making some meaning of them, all with fun and gusto!! (the original song was …. new lyrics were “Ahh ka bushka town..” etc )…. This refrain was heard around the jetty for a day or two!
• Discovering vending machines that sell fishing gear (sinkers, hooks, bait – you name it) ice, and BEER!! While have slowly become accustomed to hard liquor being sold everywhere, including milk bars, supermarkets, and petrol stations – but beer from a vending machine is a new one on me!

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FOOD AND BEVVY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sadly no new wine highlights, except maybe a surprisingly fresh white lambrusco.
• But, OMG the squid ink rice with scallops that we bought ready made at our CARREFOUR supermarket, as a side dish to some magnificent bonito fish cooked by Magnus.
• Creamy vegie curry for a change.
• Very nice creamy Swedish style pork, complimented by a local tempranillo.

BOAT WORK

• Final touches to the VHF installation
• Change of MMSI registration
• LEDs installed,
• Danbouy installed
• Hatch slider fixed, Hallelujah!
• Fender covers finished, also Hallelujah!
• Rigging assessment completed, awaiting quote
• Solar panels decided on, frame yet to be decided.
• Trial of current portable 100 W solar panel complete, we unplugged from shore power, and existed very happily on the solar power for a couple of days, although they were super sunny, as most have been.
• Transom showerhead changed.
• Anchor ordered, albeit from England, needing transportation back by hand by us when we visit Steve and Sonia at the end of August.
• Fire extinguishers installed
• Carbon dioxide monitor installed

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We are one week closer to leaving, and now have almost completed the more fiddly jobs, and now larger installations and tasks are looming. cleaning and painting the hull are filling our thoughts ATM + so no philosophical ponderings from the Captain this week!