The perfect tablecloth

PART 1

BANG! Whap-whap-whap BANG! The bow of salty ginger slammed into the very, very high standing waves and Mom screamed at the top of her lungs in a very old mannish voice "COME ON SALTY COME ON GOOD OLD GIRL YOU CAN DO IT THERE YA NICE BOAT YOU! " Of course that wasn't all I heard though, I also heard the "oh my gods" from Alex's mouth and the not so reassuring scared laugh from Dads mouth followed by a "this is crazy man.” It was the worst pass we had done yet. It was the pass on the way out of Porto and I really might have rather not left and just stayed in the amazing city forever. That pass...oh that pass scared me. I pretty much got into a ball and pressed my face into a pillow the whole time. Lifting my face into the cold wind every minute just to be horrified and then huddle back in a ball again. Finally we made it through the pass and started our journey to Lisbon.

PART 2

We have now made it to beautiful Lisbon or outskirts of Lisbon in a city called Cascais and are awaiting a weather window to do a 5 day sail to the Canary Islands. The sail here was great except for the treacherous pass. Who knew a 44 foot boat could surf standing waves? Certainly not me! We are nestled into this marina where on a windy day you can see massive waves smashing over the break wall. Our boat now has a thin layer of salt all over it.

Can I just start by saying that I love my Mom…BUT after day after day of high school mathematics with her…there are moments when I question that. It’s not just the extreme algebra, it’s the fact that were doing it crammed up on her bed using a “stick on the wall” white board.

Mom and I went out shopping for table clothes today in this cute little town. You may not know this but mom has OCD when it comes to table clothes. If you move it just a slight bit she freaks out and has to put it into the perfect spot again. Obviously this is hard to do on a constantly moving boat so off we went to find “the perfect” table cloth (I don’t even know what that means). 

After 2 hours of wandering and one interesting experience at a bank machine, we finally made our way back to the marina. An unsuccessful hunt. Mom wanted to poke her head into one of those little nautical stores and what’s the first thing we see? The PERFECT table cloth. We figured it all out and measured the table and bought it. Mom got so excited that she started to sing, “You make me feel so brand new” at the top of her lungs. I obviously pretended to not know her. 

We got back to the boat, put it on the table and with a look of disgust mom realized it was not the PERFECT table cloth. The colors on it had bled and of course mom freaked out. She looked so sad putting the old table cloth back on the table.

Mom's list of qualities she wants in a tablecloth.

1. Plastic top

2. Heavy

3. Sewn edges

4. Sticky or felt bottom

5. Nautical pattern with dark color

6. 1 ½ m by 1 m

The Forest of Hell

Let me tell you a little story. It’s a story called, “The Forest of Hell.” Here is how it goes…..

A young girl sets out with her family on a day long adventure through the wilderness of a Spanish rainforest. They hop in their car and try and I mean TRY to make their way to this little town which has the massive forest on the other side of it. You may be wondering why the family would have wanted to go to this said forest, that was the only thing on their minds the entire time.

After 3 hours of being lost they finally found the start of their hike. Laughing and joking around, they set off on a 3 hour tour! A 3 hour tour! A 3 hour tour!!!  1/8 of the way into the hike Amelia and her mother were getting very sweaty and tired. They each talked to each other about how out of shape they each were, Julie more than Amelia of course.

The dehydrated, grimy family finally made it to the runes of a monastery but all they could think about was the little cafe with ice cold coca colas in it... ICE COLD. They all sprinted to the table and chugged a few drinks down and gobbled up some food. Soon they set off again for the next half of their hike. The father had asked for directions back at the cafe so the family trusted that he knew where he was going.

Up the massive, gianormous mountain they went but little did they know that that had run out of water long long ago. 30 minutes in the family was feeling very thirsty so they all stopped and watched as Graham searched the backpack left and right and exclaimed, "Sorry guys but were out of water..." 

HOW COULD THIS BE?!? They had brought quite a few litres! Had they really drank that much water the family wondered? The need to find the parking lot was much greater now so they forged ahead! 45 minutes later Graham (being ahead of everyone) yelled out that he heard cars! Alex yelped with joy and sprinted ahead. The best the girls could do was to go from a crawl to walking speed. They finally reached the road and danced around until they realized that it was just a road and not a parking lot. They had to walk all the way down this steep road to get to the heavenly air conditioning.

On they went....and on...and on...! Suddenly the family rounds a corner and sees the car! They muster all their strength to lift their arms in triumph. When they get to the car what do they see? A whole lot of bottled water....
Well that was my story about our hike :) Hope ya liked it!

Later dudes

Unfortunately Eventful

Once again we headed out to sea. Leaving docks and going onto docks have a lot of things in common like they both use an engine and have to use dock lines and oh your always sure to hear a mouthful of swear words. Although mom and dad aren't 16 anymore that side of them sure as hell comes out in a stressful situation.They put a whole new meaning to the saying, "swearing like a sailor".

Anyways we made it off the dock without TOO much of a problem and headed out to sea for a nice long 3 day sail. It's so weird to be back out on the ocean again just this time with a new boat. Back out here exploring new waters with the same old "mother ocean" as mom calls it.

We left the dock at about  4 o'clock and said good bye to France. Goodbye to fresh cheap baguettes and cheese. Goodbye to great people and a lovely landscape. All I can is that I will be back...at some point in my life.

The sail went AMAZING in our books but in others it might be called unfortunately eventful. Filled with fishnets in propellers, high seas, seasick crew, throwing up crew and frozen meals. But anything is better than the ominous Galapagos trip.....try #1. Where...well...let's just say everything that could possibly go wrong did.

On the bright side though we saw DOLPHINS!!! Once again these beautiful creatures jumped along side us and lifted our spirits. It always seems that they come at the perfect time. We also had beautiful weather and somewhat perfect seas. We made it to Spain at about 8:00pm and docked the boat without too much of a hassle.

Spain is gorgeous and today Dads gonna dive the propeller and see whats happening with that fishing line.

Bye...for a while crocodiles