Skip to main content

Thursday in Sines

27/4/17

Thursday afternoon's main task was to relax and enjoy the sunshine in Sines.
The forecast had it down as the hottest day of our trip and the Rona crew
wasted no time hitting the beach to soak up the sun and swim in the bay or
heading into the town to experience the Portuguese culture.

following an afternoon of R&R, the crew of Rona II were treated to dinner in
Sines at the restaurant La Palmeira. Our host Jose ensured that we were well
looked after from start to finish and a considerable feast ensued. An amuse
bouche of fried octopus was well received by all and seemed to complement
the Sangria perfectly. A main course of various local dishes including
seafood, stuffed pork and Portuguese omelet to name a few gave us a good
flavour of the local cuisine.

Following the main meal we toasted the race, the skipper, the ripped
spinnaker and everything in between led by toastmaster Paul. After dessert
we were treated to homemade brandy courtesy of our host Jose which gave
Charlie an opportunity to educate the crew on the history of brandy. Brandy
means 'burnt wine' and comes from the Anglo-Saxon days when wine was
imported by boat from France. The Saxons realized that they could import a
far greater quantity of alcohol if they boiled the wine down to a spirit,
shipped it and then rehydrated it in England. This plan seemed to work until
they realized that the distilled wine could be drunk without rehydration and
the rest is history...

The meal was an excellent way to celebrate the end of a fantastic sail with
a fantastic crew and it was nice to be able to eat without the mountain of
washing up that usually follows.

Friday morning saw white watch produce a breakfast of sausage egg and beans
to set the crew up for a big day of jobs. While the usual boat chores had to
be completed, there was also a party to be arranged. Party operations
officer Becky supervised the baking of various cakes and goodies, the
popping of popcorn and the frying of pappadums. At the same time invitations
were being delivered to all boats in the regatta.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You can't escape the dentist, even mid-Atlantic...

An interesting start to New Year's day aboard Rona II. The dawn light
enabled a field dental practice to open for a short time on the aft deck.
Watch Officer George Hopkins, after walking head first into a spinnaker pole
last night came off with a chipped tooth. After a night of discomfort his
Watch Leader and newly qualified dentist Sam Wareing took to the tooth with
an emery file to curb the sharp edge. At the other end of the hierarchy the
Mongol deputy Director of Renewable Resources has been suddenly fired from
his post on allowing a tin can to fall into the bilge, the height of
incompetence in his line of work and the last straw adding to a string of
minor offences.

The effects of a post Christmas comedown hasn't affected the standing of
Rona II in the race, holding first in class and sixth in the fleet overall.
With the Mayans back on mother watch; breakfast was churned out and squared
away within the hour leaving time for Mate, Andy Wright, to present a short
lecture o…
Post a Comment
Read more

Rona II blog 23rd Aug 2017

> Disaster strikes! After arriving in the visitor marina of Le Havre at
> 0430,
> Rona II drove over a stray rope which had been left in the water.
> This tangled around the propeller, causing the Skipper to call for the
> anchor to be dropped a mere 10 metres from our intended mooring position.
> The crew then had to inflate the rubber dinghy and set world class rower
> Theo Darlow to take a line to shore where himself and Dr Sam Wareing
> pulled
> the boat in.
>
> In the morning, the afterguard set off to find a commercial diver to cut
> the
> rope free from the propeller. They located a man named Patrick, who
> arrived
> to the scene of the incident at about 1500 donning full scuba gear; he
> quickly got into the water and began working away at the stern of Rona II.
> After roughly 45 minutes of fishing bits of rope from the marina water,
> the
> crew saw Patrick emerge victorious. Angus Elliman used his bilingual
> …
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post - 2017-04-10

The day started in Dieppe with the first #runtheatlantic run of the trip - nobody was persuaded  to join him, so the mate did 6k on his own. While he did his run, a shore party picked up some croissants and pains-au-chocolate.

A chap approached Rona II, and then someone called Charlie to come up on deck, assuming it was a dockmaster. Charlie said 'bonjour monsieur, Ca Va' etc. etc. [essentially being envious of Harry's french skills which he used last night to call the harbour over the VHF]. The guy turned out to be the english skipper of the next door yacht and said 'you are really getting into the speaking french thing!' and then asked about Rona, so we explained to him about the project and the tall ships race.

The crew got in the 3 S's - to be clear - Showers, Shopping and Sightseeing, while the afterguard went for a quick coffee ashore, along with Toby the ship's mascot. For readers less versed in the terms we use - 'Afterguard' means basi…
Post a Comment
Read more