Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas in Nazare

posted by Blue Calypsoin 0 comments

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 [.....]

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Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas!

posted by Blue Calypsoin 0 comments

[.....]

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Ply, paint and pontoons.

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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 [.....]

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Update...

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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 [.....]

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Thursday, December 03, 2015

And some photos...

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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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Wednesday, December 02, 2015

....

posted by Blue Calypsoin 0 comments

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 [.....]

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Wet & windy Nazare...

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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 [.....]

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Friday, November 13, 2015

Surf's Up!

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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 [.....]

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

And another update....

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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 [.....]

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Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Mast Update

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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....
[.....]

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Thursday, October 29, 2015

Back in Portugal!

posted by Blue Calypsoin 0 comments

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 [.....]

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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Thanks Adelaide! Time to head back.

posted by Blue Calypsoin 0 comments

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 [.....]

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