Well, with the festive season rolling around again all the cruisers in Nazare got together for a Christmas Eve dinner in one of the surfer's storage lock-ups. Dirk's done a great job of turning the area into a place where surfers can hang out, and it made for an excellent setting for great food and plenty of mulled wine.

Christmas morning started with bacon and eggs aboard (plus an awesome Christmas cake slow cooked by Lauren) followed by a pretty leisurely day. Australia is 10.5hrs ahead of Portuguese time and with me calling home at 0700 and 0030, we pretty much hung about in our pj's and watched Christmas films.

After all that relaxing (and food), it was time to burn some calories on Boxing Day. First up, a visit to the local stray cats to a.) take care of the leftovers and b.) get Lauren her cat fix.

Next up was a cycle around the marina and then into town to stretch our legs a bit. All in all, a pretty easy kinda day.

New Year's Eve is fast approaching now and there's talk of a dinner then heading into town to watch the fireworks and find a drinking establishment. I managed to finish and fit the new instrument consoles but unfortunately the winds are conspiring against us getting out for a test sail (40kts or 2kts), so we're making plans to watch more big wave surfing this week and keeping an eye on the forecast.

PS - does anyone know why carp do this in a marina? Not only are they schooling, they also hang about on the surface with their mouths open, seemingly gulping air. It's got all of us beat.....

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Another week passes by with more progress. We've had some fairly strong winds recently which have prevented any chance of test sailing, so instead we've been cracking on with a few other jobs around the boat. One of them was to move our sailing instruments outside - they used to be in the wheelhouse back in the day but now we've fitted the aft cockpit it makes sense to have our chartplotter, autopilot, wind and depth readings all displayed out there. That meant I got cracking again with some ply and the jigsaw - just waiting for paint now.

We refitted the mizzen boom as well, plus spent some time tightening our rig and getting it setup for test sailing. This week there is zero wind... like literally, four knots at most, but then between Christmas and New Years we're hoping to get out and get the new rig sorted.

What else.... today our pontoon broke. Not just our hammerhead we're on, but the chain holding the main pontoon for 12 boats. Not a big deal, but with the office shut we had to get something done so out came some heavy duty lines and we had everything lashed together to see us through the rest of the weekend. Kinda reminds me of the fun and games we with the Hayling Yacht Co when originally rebuilding the boat, but that's another story.

So that's about it for now. We'll be taking it easy for the next two weeks while Christmas and New Years happens, then as long as we get our test sailing done, the plan is still to get going early in the New Year.

Watch this space...

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So I know it's been a week since our last update, but there's been good reason for that - finally, finally, finally, both our masts are back up and ready to go (other than a quick tune).

After spending three days rewiring the mizzen (aft) mast, we motored around to the concrete dock to start the mast raising process.

First we had to setup the boat nice & tight so it didn't move while we were placing the mast....

Then the mast was craned over....

Before being raised to the vertical using another crane....

Then swung over the boat and attached in the socket.

I then went up the mast....

To disconnect the crane strop...

Before we motored away from the dock....

And headed back to our pontoon in the marina.

 

What else. I finally finished the new aft deck seating and refitted the winches, which leaves only a rigging tune to do and a gas locker to build. Nothing to it. Looks like we're still on for leaving early in the New Year; weather permitting of course...

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Here's some photos of what's been going on around here this past week.

Alec welded up our new winch bases.

Joao then spent some time at the top of the mast, fitting a new backstay toggle.

With the weather hovering around 22C, washing day inevitably came about.

And then there was the obligatory BBQ and photogenic sunset.

Just another week in Nazare really....

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Just a brief update today as there's been nothing for the past week and a half, Nathan continues to work on the extended cockpit seating, the new winch bases have been welded on (and the roof lining subsequently re-fitted in the aft cabin), and the new mast should have it's last piece of rigging fitted today. We've been waiting on the parts for it to come from the UK for the past two weeks (hence not a lot has been going on) but now with a calm day and plenty of sun, we've perfect conditions to get everything finished off.

Nazare continues to be low 20's (C), the northerlies have blown themselves out, and a few new boats have arrived, including Eric on Fiona (www.yachtfiona.com). If you like your sailing, you'll want to have a look at Eric's site - 320,000nm sailed on Fiona over the past few decades, and every continent visited, including a trip to the Antarctic.

Anyway, update to follow this weekend when (hopefully) all the last few jobs will be finished and we'll start testing the new rig.

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So we're currently here early in the morning....

.... because it looks like this outside and Calypso is being hammered against the pontoon. After a great night playing pool at the local, the wind started in the early hours and doesn't look like letting up for the day.

We have every fender out and anything flappable on deck tucked away - it's still more comfortable sitting in Luis' cafe than being on the boat.

Still, this is the first day we've had poor weather - the past week has been mild and sunny with virtually zero wind. It's almost December after all, so I'm not surprised things are getting a bit ugly out there.

A lot of progress this week on extending the aft deck boxes as we're still waiting for our backstay components to arrive from the UK. There's still a few other jobs to do as well (winch bases being re-made, shortening a steering column, etc) but we should be good to get out of Nazare at the end of the month (IF the parts arrive this week)....

Sunnier update to follow.

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So today we took a day off boat work and headed up to northern Nazare to watch the swell roll in. Nazare's known for it's BIG winter swell courtesy of the undersea canyon and today didn't disappoint.

The view was excellent from up on the cliffs and we settled in for a couple of hours in the sun.

 

 
And the swell just kept on coming....

After all that fun, we wandered around Sitio (a neighbourhood on top of the cliff) before heading back down the funicular railway into town.

Tomorrow heralds another day of boat work - we visited a scrap yard today to get some steel for moving the winches to the aft deck, running up a total bill of 3,60 EUR. Given the same steel would have cost us 60GBP, we've pretty much paid for tonight's beers.... We also have to tweak the new rigging slightly, finish off reefing lines and joy oh joy, move the wind gen 2m further up the mizzen mast so it doesn't foul the mainsail - basically, we'll be here another couple of weeks. With the temps hovering in the mid-20's and our weekly grocery bill struggling to break the 40EUR mark, we're not exactly in a rush...

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So another update after last week's sneak peak of the new mast. It's been quite busy around here in Nazare.

Prepping the mast to be raised was no small undertaking - we had to strip the old mast, add all those fittings (plus wiring and halyards) to the new mast, then join them together....

Once that was all done, we raised the mast on the boat, measured and cut the remaining rigging, dropped the mast, fit the new rigging, then raised it again. It was on the second occasion we almost lost our new mast - I'm not kidding, we were about 2 minutes away from it coming crashing down.

I owe a HUGE thanks to Olly from Mars (who sadly departed this morning for Madeira with his lovely wife Issy) who helped us salvage the situation - basically, a line that was meant to stop any tangles in the rigging, caused one almighty tangle that meant we could only connect the bare minimum of wires. The tide was dropping which meant we were running out of time to get the job done, and I was at a loss as to how to get more lines connected to secure the mast (at least in the interim until we could free the tangled line). In the end, the only solution was for me to quickly climb the mast without a harness. I was 11m up the mast freeing that line when the crane operator advised us the lifting hook had come loose - had Olly not had the foresight to connect a fore and aft line *just in case*, quite simply we would have lost the mast, and I would've been thrown either into the harbour or onto the pier. It really was that close, and we were very thankful to have someone so experienced helping us set the mast.

After that fun, Lauren and I had a very quiet day, absorbing what had almost happened and getting the remaining rigging connected so as to get the mast as secure as possible.

The rest of the week was slightly less eventful, getting the mast ready for test sailing and also taking care of chores.... we've had some great weather recently, so time to catch up on washing.

There was also a beach BBQ as the weather is still hovering around the mid 20's (C).

Last up, a friend of ours was sailing from Falmouth to La Coruna, a distance of about 550 miles. This trip would normally only take 5 days and we were getting concerned by day 7 that something had happened, so notified the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC). To their credit, they kept us regularly updated and our friend was located just north of La Coruna, 10 days after setting off. It sounds like he's got some damage and the weather held him up a bit, but we're very fortunate as sailors to have as great a service as the MRCC. I'm sure there'll be beers and tales to tell when he makes it down to Nazare.

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It's been a pretty busy week back here in Nazare... after fitting the new props, we cracked on with setting up the rigging for the new mast. We've gone with sta-lok lower fittings so we can fit them ourselves rather than waiting a week or so for a rigger to make up all the fittings.

We then went back in the water this past Tuesday (Monday was a washout) and temporarily erected the rig so we could measure up the remaining rigging. Here's a sneak peek....

If the wind drops down today, we'll drop the rig again, fit the head sail furling gear then we can spend the next few days fitting the new boom, rigging up all the lines, fitting the sails, etc etc. In between all that, it's been great to catch up with friends at the marina and await the return of big swell...

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And... we're back in Portugal after a 34hr trip back from Australia, and a morning travelling back from the UK. Our last week in Adelaide was fantastic, with plenty more catch ups, a couple of BBQ's and generally seeing Nathan's family. Our weekend in the UK was spent watching the rugby and a dinner or two.

Anyway, we arrived back in Portugal and were greeted by our freshly arrived parts - mast pieces, a boom, sails, folding props - the list goes on. The mast transporter hadn't done a very good job of keeping all our bits together, but everything arrived and we cracked on with fitting them.

First up, the folding props. All was going well until we found out the main securing bolt wasn't quite big enough, so after a mild panic, Nathan headed to an old school engineering shop and an hour later, had the bolts drilled out on the lathe. Total cost - 5 Euros. Bargain!

Next up, fitting the rigging to the new mast, and our new rudder stock. We were getting a bit behind with jobs as we were due to relaunch today but as lady luck would have it, the crane driver decided to take an impromtu holiday, so we now have until Monday to get everything done before going back in the water.

On the bus trip back from the airport, we spotted some big swells off the point and found the boat yard awash with Red Bull surfers - big wave season is finally here so the plan is to go check out the surf tomorrow.... update to follow!

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Well, we're wrapping up our visit back to Adelaide and planning the next steps for our return to Portugal and Blue Calypso.

We spent last week visiting the Hills, picking strawberries, sampling the local chocolate factory, and then a weekend of birthday celebrations for Nathan's dad. That was the whole reason for us parking up the boat for 6 weeks and heading back to Australia, and it was great to get everyone in the same place at the same time.
 

We also spent a lot of time down at Pt Adelaide taking in the City of Adelaide Clipper ship and the rebuilding work that's underway, as well as this ocean tug, which has been in situ from as far back as anyone can remember.  

Cliche photo of Australian beach scene below.

So what's going to happen when we get back to Portugal, I hear you asking? Well, we've got a few jobs to do before the boat can go back in the water.

- Folding propellors need to be fitted
- Another coat of anti-foul needs to be applied
- Our new rudder stock and bearing needs to be fitted, to cure the ongoing drip that we've had since launch

We've got 48 hours to get that done, then it's time for the fun stuff. Re-masting. As a lot of you will know, we've struggled with light wind performance since leaving England back in July, and a lot of that has been down to a lack of sail area. Whoever designed Blue Calypso back in the '60's did an amazing job with the hull, but not such a good job with the sail plan. Anyway, we spent the four weeks before coming to Australia sourcing a taller mast, sails, and all the fittings needed to put it together. Nathan spent a few days driving around collecting it all, as well as giving our ebay account a good workout, and all those parts are set to arrive the same day we get back to Portugal.




Once we arrive back in Portugal, unpack our bags and settle back in, we need to remove our foremast strip all the part of it, then attach everything to the new mast ("Everything" includes mast steps, wiring, halyards, lights, and all the stainless rigging). We'll then step the new mast, tune up the rigging, fit the new boom and sails, then head out for a bit of testing to make sure everything's all secure (excuse the blatant photo shopping below)... 

Next stop after that will be Peniche, followed by a visit to downtown Lisbon, before turning south for a five day blast to the Canaries. With maybe a stop in Africa to spice things up a bit.

Updates to follow.....

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