Rejuvenation and Recuperation.

Adventuress has been 95% rejuvenated after her forced 26 month hibernation; we have been quite busy, and there is not much left to be done before we set sail Transatlantic. So we have been enjoying biking, dining, and relaxing in Estepona.

After biking about three miles from the Marina, Nancy is resting on the promenade seats - at the far end of Estepona.

We had a good berth at Estepona, near the office and the restaurants, and that worked well until Friday and Saturday nights, when the parties stopped at dawn.

Estepona Marina is a well-designed and managed marina, with kempt gardens and clean paths.

After a good lunch in the Old Town.

                             

                                                Jan and Jessie are young sailors from Germany...........

........enjoying a dream year or two on a Contest 48,  built in Medemblik, Netherlands. They found her for sale in England.

And here goes Adventuress onto the hard: this travel lift is huge - built to haul out fishing trawlers.

This was the primary reason we hauled her out for three hours: her keel was covered with barnacles and gunk......

.....which the boatyard's power washer soon removed.

All cleaned up, Maxprop greased, zincs changed, and ready to splash:

Here she goes: the tall chap is working the travel lift with a remote control gismo: hope it has a failsafe feature!

Two days later we sailed 30nm along to Gibraltar: and boy what a difference! All that gunk was costing us about one and a half knots of speed.

Back at Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea, Spain, just over the border from Gib.

In Gib we put in 500 litres of clean diesel at Gib Oil: UK pounds 0.75 a litre. (There are about 3.8 litres to a US gallon.) Also we picked up an important item that we had better never use..........

.......a new Life Raft.

These young sailors are from Geneva, Switzerland: Laurent is French, and Nathalie is Scottish. But all three - the Chichuahua "Mistrale" included - speak French and English.

Laurent had the most beautiful coffee machine I have ever seen: this work of art and science makes wonderful Expresso: it works by pressing down the two levers and forcing hot water through the grinds.

Of course our Corgi The Empress Cleo-patra must never see this photo! (Cleo is on vacation right now in Brentwood, Tennessee with her brother Cosmo, and Ralph and Laura.)

And here's another fun couple: the other new sailing friends we made in Estepona are Klaus and Yvonne from Stuttgart, also sailing a Contest 48.

And so we end this post with a strongly flying Stars and Stripes: and Nancy will be back soon in Punta Gorda Florida, via Malaga, Frankfurt, Washington DC and Nashville TN.