On to Spain!

 

Nice door in Barcelona, Spain

Mirrors Hotel in Barcelona.  Loved the elevator!

Street graffiti along my morning run in Barcelona

Maria at the Columbus statue in Barcelona, Spain with a photo bomber

Maria all alone at the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona.  This is the famous Gaudi designed church, still under construction!

Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família with typical tourist crowds in Barcelona, Spain

What a great thought, on a window in Barcelona

Cruise ships call into port at Barcelona too

Uncrowded street scene in the Gothic Quarter, Barcelona, Spain

The beach at Salou, Spain

What a great place to visit the beach, just an hour south of Barcelona

S/Y Savannah Sky – June 22, 2023 – Log #4

Savannah Sky Position: 51 degrees 45’ N, 003 degrees 51’ E

Port Zélande, Ouddorp, Netherlands (Holland)

 

On to Spain!

 

The Portuguese don’t really care for Spain, since they still carry a grudge from past wars with their powerful neighbor.  We were ready to see the changes from our last visit to Spain 10 years ago when we sailed there.

 

 Salou, Spain is a beach town that was fantastic.  There was a very long beach right on the Mediterranean Sea and oh so many reasonably priced restaurants, cafes and ice cream places.  Yes, we seem to still be eating our way through Euroland.

 

 Arriving in Barcelona was a shock with thousands of people crowding the wide avenues and side streets during day and night.

 

 But all is not well in Spain, as we experienced in Barcelona, our next stop on the Steve Is Still Alive Tour.

 Air conditioning in Spain essentially cannot be used.  The lower limit is 80 degrees, nothing colder!  And Heat cannot be set warmer than 66 degrees so shivering is common.

 

eat

This is due to a new Spanish Law because the energy grid cannot support people AND electric car charging.  Hmmm.

 

Oh my.  All across Europe, new laws are going into effect with similar changes.

 

 This will be interesting to watch once the heat of summer arrives, along with throngs of unhappy tourists.

 

 Then there was my morning run, at 5 am, when I thought people might still be sleeping.  Wrong!

 

 I stepped out the door of our hotel to the stench of human and dog urine, cigarette smoke, sewer stench, rotting trash and late night party people gathered everywhere as the sun came up.

 

 This was not my favorite way to enjoy a morning run. So much traffic and people sleeping everywhere were other obstacles to avoid along the way as well. Geeze.

 

 At least the restaurants are good and tasty, along with the best people watching ever!

 

Steve and Maria

Knights Templar and Lisbon, Portugal

 

Knights Castle at Almourol, Portugal

Knights Castle at Almourol, Portugal on the Tagus River

So many restaurants to choose from in Lisbon, Portugal

Fatima, Portugal

Maria standing where Fatima's three children were photographed in 1917

Kirsten Neuschäfer's sailboat.  She became the first outright and overall winner of a major solo sailing around the world race in 2023.  WOW!!!  Les Sables d’Olonne, France

Les Sables d’Olonne, France, home of the Vendee Globe

Les Sables d’Olonne, France and the finish line for the Vendee Globe around the world solo sailboat race

 

S/Y Savannah Sky – June 13, 2023 – Log #3

Savannah Sky Position: 51 degrees 45’ N, 003 degrees 51’ E

Port Zélande, Ouddorp, Netherlands (Holland)

 

Knights Templar and Lisbon, Portugal

 

Driving south and into normal traffic at Paris.  Wow, that is not for the faint hearted!

 

After nearly 2 hours, we fought our way out of the City of Light, thanks to our trusty GPS.  Paris is at the top of our cities to avoid driving through.  No wonder Steve’s hair has changed a much lighter shade of blond, ha ha.

 

Navigator Maria gets to point out what turns Steve has missed along the way.  “Take the fifth exit in the round about, and immediately leave the roundabout and turn left then right.”  Now what kind of directions does that voice/graphic display give us? 

 

There isn’t even a chance to look at our navigation screen with busses, trucks, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, pedestrians, baby strollers and dogs mere inches away and as we creep by.

 

Once out of Paris, thankfully, we saw the Golden Globe solo around the world winning sailboat at the dock in Les Sables d’Olonne, France. 

 

Of course the boat belongs to Kirsten Neuschäfer who became the first outright and overall winner of a major solo sailing around the world race in 2023.  WOW!!!

 

Then it was on through Spain and into Portugal where we visited Fatima and the Knights Templar castles.

 

Maria was thrilled to see one of the most important religious pilgrimage sites in the world: Fatima.

 

Steve was a tag-along on the Fatima experience but absolutely enthralled to see the legendary home of the Templar Knights.  The Templars have been popularized lately and taken on a different meaning than their actual history as the wealthiest and most popular religious military orders in Western Christianity.

 

Tales of the Holy Grail and Arc of the Covenant, popularized by Indiana Jones movies, are just that – Tales, and very far from the truth, as we found by visiting the home of the Templars outside Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Whatever the truth may be, it was really fun laying hands on history at both places.

 

Steve and Maria

Friends and Land Touring

Maria and Deb walking and shopping around Amsterdam

WWII German Bunkers in the Netherlands with Tim and Deb

Tim found his favorite place to rest - WWII Bunker latrine

Nice $200,000 race car just sitting in the marina parking lot

Lovely Amsterdam canals, with wind and cheese of course

Maria and Deb enjoying the cool but stunning beaches in the Netherlands.  No bikinis here yet!

Tim and Deb visiting Savannah Sky at Port Zelande Marina

Vincent van Gough museum in Amsterdam

My all-time favorite painter, Paul Gauguin, who painted with his imagination...

More Amsterdam canals with liveaboard boats lining the banks

Ah, this painting is very special to my heritage.  The sailboat in the middle of the picture is carrying Prince Charles II, who was exiled to Holland by my relative, Sir Oliver Cromwell.  Sir Oliver also lopped off the head of Charles I in England and abolished the monarchy, way back when.  The painting shows Charles II returning to England to bring royalty (a king and queen) back to England.  This historical voyage happened in 1660 and as we all know, there is still a king in England now.  Maria looks very impressed, ha ha.

Now this is a magnificent library in the Netherlands National Museum (Rijksmuseum)

I like the two people in mid-air, flying down the chute on a typical cold and blustery day in Holland

S/Y Savannah Sky – June 7, 2023 – Log #2

Savannah Sky Position: 51 degrees 45’ N, 003 degrees 51’ E

Port Zélande, Ouddorp, Netherlands (Holland)

 

Friends and Land Touring

 

Working day and well into the night on Savannah Sky has pretty much taken all of our time and effort lately.  Who would have thought a bigger boat needed so much TLC?  Ha ha.

 

Our friends from Colorado, Tim and Deb, came to visit us on Savannah Sky.

 

We entertained them by walking on long beaches, hiking to WWII German bunkers and watching windsurfing antics in the 58-degree weather kept us busy.

 

Driving around, Steve got a hidden camera speeding ticket for going 1.86 mph over the speed limit.  I guess they need the money in the Netherlands?

 

Yet in the parking lot at the marina, we see so many Porches, Mercedes and even a $200,000 race car just sitting around.  Kind of interesting in a socialist country with so much obvious wealth?

 

We also visited the windmills at Kinderdijk before heading up to multi-cultural Amsterdam.

 

In Amsterdam, bicycles outnumber cars yet we only saw one pedestrian vs. bike crash and resulting fist-fight because the bicyclist claimed the right of way over a walker. Wow!

 

Steve and Maria

1.     You can follow Savannah Sky’s route here, once we leave the dock: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SY_SavannahSky/

 

 

Time Is All About Changes

250 pounds of gear for our trip to Savannah Sky, in the Netherlands

Savannah Sky looks happy to finally see us at Port Zelande, Netherlands.  At least ice is off the water!

Walking along the beach with so many kite surfers out on the North Sea.  Brrrr!

Maria inside where it is a bit warmer

Maria liking our full enclosure with the heater on

Golfing with Jim and Tim in Colorado, before we flew away.  It was so much warmer than the North Sea!

 

S/Y Savannah Sky – May 21, 2023 – Log #1

Savannah Sky Position: 51 degrees 45’ N, 003 degrees 51’ E

Port Zélande, Ouddorp, Netherlands (Holland)

 

Time Is All About Changes

 

In April of this year, when we sailed into Grenada on Aspen, we put Aspen’s logbook by itself on the shelf with our hearts in it.

 

Our humor was most definitely in need of repair after all the work we did on Aspen, getting her ready for new owners in Grenada.

 

Today we find ourselves in cold and windy Marina Port Zélande, Netherlands, of all places, and getting settled onboard our nicely floating S/Y Savannah Sky.

 

It is an adjustment getting to know our new boat, having sailed 22 years on Aspen.  Everything is in a different place and all the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sailing systems are not quite the same, ha ha.

 

Having more room on our 50-foot sailboat is nice but Maria claims there is just that much more to keep clean, ha ha.

 

Savanna Sky was in storage during the winter, so all the dirt and grime had to be washed off, even in 50-degree weather with howling frigid North Sea winds pummeling us at the dock. 

 

The Dutch think it is warm out, for some odd reason, and are walking around in shorts and summer tops in the blustery cold conditions.  Bicycle riders, kite surfers, walkers, hikers, dog walkers and runners of all ages are everywhere.  Geeze, how refreshing!

 

I guess our blood has thinned so much from sailing in the hot Caribbean sunshine that we will have to adjust, quickly.

 

The Dutch seem pretty tolerant of us speaking English, with no Dutch words.  We find Dutch is pretty difficult but Google Translate really helps.

 

Paying for things is a challenge since credit cards are not used by many stores, we quickly found out.  The red X on the ‘credit card machine’ must mean something, I mentioned to Maria at the non-functioning self-checkout kiosk.

 

Oh well, at least IKEA takes our American credit card so we can buy lots of stuff for Savannah Sky.

 

We’ve had friends still ask us, why are we doing this?  Shouldn’t we be thinking of moving to a nice retirement community with lots of restaurants and programmed activities to keep busy during the day as well as people to watch over us should something go medically wrong?

 

Whether it is sailing toward a distant horizon or doing something crazy like buying a boat in Euroland, we understand it all will come crumbling down sometime in the future.  That is true for everyone, if we are lucky enough to live long lives.

 

Our credo is to live life as we want it, for as long as we can, and not let society nor others determine our adventuresome future.

 

We’re all temporaries in this life, as no one gets out alive.

 

Steve and Maria

1.     You can follow Savannah Sky’s route here, once we leave the dock: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SY_SavannahSky/

Fare thee well “SV Aspen”

 

A single picture tells a thousand stories...

 

S/Y Aspen – May 3, 2023 – Log #190 (Finale)

Aspen Position: 12 degrees 00’ N, 61 degrees 00’ W

Spice Island Boatyard, Grenada, Caribbean

 

Fare thee well “SV Aspen”

 

Ahhh the places we have sailed and the stories “Aspen” could tell.

 

Aspen brought us across so many miles of endless oceans and safely around the world.

 

Nothing was ever too difficult for Aspen as her captain and crew came along for the ride.

 

It was 22 years ago as we watched Aspen take form at the factory in Florida.

 

Today we bid farewell to Aspen, as her new owners, Rachel and Susan, have journeys waiting for them as they sail toward that distant blue horizon.

 

Here is a video we made for Aspen: https://youtu.be/crxIQBSeKC0

 

Sail on, sail on Aspen…

 

Maria and Steve

PS - Also, we’ll keep the blog, if someone wants some fond memories:  http://syaspen.blogspot.com/