Eos Log
After two full weeks of glorious mild weather one starts to think summer is nearly there. But to show us what winter is really like we got treated to fog and clouds, a temperature of only 1° one morning and right now it´s raining. Ah well, perfect weather for a blog update.
So what were all these winter jobs?
We pulled out the anchor chain, put it on the dock, scrubbed it (yes, it did feel silly doing that), turned it around i.e. put it back to front, put new markers on every 10 meters, dug out all the dried seaweed and mud from the anchor locker, painted the rusty bits on the anchor, and put the whole lot back on board again, winching in the whole 70 meters to get the kinks out.
I bought a car cover and cut it up to make a new cover for the dinghy. These inflatable dinghies always come in covers/bags that are only just big enough to put them in only once, in the factory. And this one was not even UV-resistant. The car cover is big enough to make some bike covers as well, to protect the tires from the sun and so we don´t have to remember to put plastic bags on the seats when it rains (and which I did forget this morning).
The shithouse engineer spent some days crouched in the bathroom and changed all the hoses for the toilet, wash basin, bilgepump, showerpump and holding tank. What a smell! And of course these jobs take much longer than planned. He deserved not having to do the clean-up afterwards, which I did, real quick.
Wednesday was a very social day with a ladies' visit to the market with coffee afterwards and drinks & tapas night with the liverborders (well, it does affect your liver to the border of what is healthy).
After all these jobs it was time for a nice long walk. We took the little narrow-gauge train to Llano del Beal, a 20 minutes ride, and walked across the mountains to Portmán. First on asphalt, then on an unpaved road and ending on an old Roman road that must have seen better times (yeah, sure) because it was ever so lumpy.
Lots of cyclists, all with a helmet, special clothes, shoes and of course a special bike. Only one girl we spotted, maybe because it is Saturday (this is assuming, MCP-like, that women spend their Saturdays shopping, cleaning and cooking).
Portmán is a small ex-mining village which only has the scenery to make it attractive, as the small houses still look poor and desolate. The once large harbour/bay, Puerto Magnus, is still mentioned as an anchorage in the 1995 pilot, but has by now silted so much that one would have to anchor right out at sea. We heard it is not really silted, but rather built up with mine slags just dumped there. Well, maybe just a way to grow a beach.
We had a coffee, tried to find another small road back, dind´t find it and so instead of perhaps getting lost, chose the safe option of going the same road back. Which doesn´t really matter, as you then see the landscape from the other side. Quite interesting landscape too, in parts very green with fantastic views, in other parts very barren due to the mining. We threw a stone down a ventilation shaft and couldn't hear it fall.
After nearly 4 hours of walking we were happy to sit down again in the very punctual train back.