So although Covid did occupy a vast amount of the last 2 years we did do some other stuff too. Briefly, we had loads of friends visit, went to the Santa Cruz carnival, gained residencia, we bought a car, I worked in a sail loft and we sailed all around the other islands. All 3 of us returned to the UK in February this year as I wanted to spend my 50th at home and also needed to do some nursing hours to maintain my registration. We sold our beloved Hunter Diablito and watched her sail off to new adventures in Israel. Lee messaged some bloke asking if he ever fancied selling his boat we’d be interested so he promptly sold his Moody 47 to us. We renamed her Diablito ( we dislike change) and the boat preps began again to head back down South.

Some generalised work and maintenance needed doing before leaving. Lee replaced and added solar panels, added a foghorn and recommissioned the watermaker. I changed the carpets from a bright royal blue to a more user-friendly dog fur-coloured brown, washed the sofas, and after going all Sam on Raymarine we replaced the radar. And with that done we sadly said our goodbyes and left.

This time we decided to head straight across Biscay but as this was effectively our shakedown cruise Lee ended up having some concerns with the fuel gauge not working properly. We headed inland from that sodding lighthouse on Ushant and although the wind and tide was in our favour this time, it still seemed to take all day to get past the bloody thing. This gave us sufficient time to realise that we couldn’t be arsed going to France and the wind was going to be just fine to cross Biscay with what we had. So we kept going.

We had another brilliant crossing, the highlights being we didn’t kill each other, good weather and Franco finally figuring out where his loo was. Personally I think he’s just got terrible aim. However, according to Lee, he wanted to claim the entire aft deck as the “en-suite” to his basket, rather than the piece of AstroTurf we had anticipated being sufficient for his needs. Either way everyone was happy. With the boat being bigger and more heavy Franco seemed much more confident and slept with whoever was down below and played with his toys. If you don’t have a dog this will seem just a silly thing but when you do have one, it’s a really big deal that they are happy on board. We picked up a little visitor on the way who was clearly lost and exhausted. They stayed a day, had something to eat and drank, caught up with their sleep and then left when we moored up.

We were considering heading straight to Vigo but decided to duck into A Coruña first. I did (ahem) gently remind Lee that last time we ended up being there a week, as the weather gets stuck on the corner and doesn’t shift,  but in we headed. It’s really pretty so why not.  The boat wasn’t untidy but it’s always nice for it to be ready when you arrive, so I busied myself tidying up down bits and bobs down below, made a pot of fresh coffee and started to prep breakfast. We moored up, and Lee went down below. I assumed to take off his life jacket.

Stupid me. He had done a quick engine check. I get that. We’ve just been motorong for a few hours. Of course you would. Unfortunately he found a bucket load of water in the engine bay. A quick ( literal!) lick of it clarified that it was salt water which is never ideal. Next thing I knew the carpets were up, the floor boards were up, the boats was in pieces and there were tools everywhere. I proceeded to get undressed, put my jammies and an eye mask on and got in bed with all the chaos around me. I had asked if I could help. He said no and was busy fussing and destroying the boat so I slept through the whole unpleasant business. I did however, remove the eye mask to give him eyes of hate and tell him to tidy up after.

Lee established we had a rudder seal leak so spoke to the boatyard and booked us in. We went to anchor for a few days until the work could be done, as it’s always nicer than being in a marina. The long and the short of it is we ended up getting a lift out to replace the leaking rudder seals. We had initially thought they would be fine until we got to Mogan, but once removed we were relieved to have got the work done. The hull got hosed down, we did some antifouling and a few other little bits . The next thing we know we are given the same 2 minutes warning that we were going back in that we were given for coming out. We popped back around the corner to the main marina as we wanted to get some shopping before heading off. We refuelled and Lee did some maths to give ourselves an accurate record of what we use. And now we are up to date. A bit of bad weather means we are staying an extra night but all going well, tomorrow we’ll be off. And I’m deeply sorry A Coruña but you can do one. We seem cursed to stay here forever when we “duck in”. Lee. Take note. Told you so #nob.