Week 6

Europe » Spain » Catalonia
May 14th 2011

Published: June 13th 2017

Geo: 42.0534, 3.19767

07/05/11 Dull and overcast with occasional showers 18 oC

Spent the day catching up with emails, travel blog, etc.

08/05/11 Hot and Sunny with a warm breeze 26oC

The Dutchman in the camper has obviously had enough of not having any TV so he's now taken the dish off the roof of the camper and attached it to a makeshift pole in the ground, and after only 20 minutes of waggling the pole he finally seemed to have got a picture. I was surprised he left it like that as I didn't think waggling the pole and therefore enlarging the hole wouldn't sustain the weight of a large dish regardless of the fact that there's little wind today although most days there's a strong breeze in the afternoon between 15-18:00.

09/05/11 Hot and Sunny with a warm breeze 26oC

I hate to say I told you so but this morning as I went out for my early morning bike ride the Dutchman's satellite dish was laying in the centre of the roadway still attached to the pole!

Later in the morning a local caravan storage company dropped off a beautiful new Tabbert caravan In the next avenue to us. I should explain that a lot of people store their vans here all year and then have them cleaned and delivered to a site of their choice in preparation for their arrival.

Spent the afternoon on the beach enjoying the good weather

10/05/11 Hot and Sunny with a warm breeze 23oC

The Belgian owners of the Tabbert caravan arrived with more suitcases than you need for a month's holiday down here; I wonder how long they're staying?

The Dutchman's at it again he's now repositioned the pole in the ground and fixed the dish to the base of the pole so the weights spread on the ground, good thinking, clever people these Dutch. I suppose losing the signal every time someone or something passes isn't a problem then!

Too hot to do much so spent the afternoon on the beach with a good book, when we got back the we were surprised to see the Belgian with the Tabbert had only just stated to put his awning up and all the suitcases and other paraphernalia were spread out in the centre of the avenue. There's merit to not doing too much work in the mid day sun but by 20:00 he had just managed to get the first part of the awning up

11/05/11 Very Hot and Sunny 25oC

Out for my early bike ride to see that not only did they not finish putting the awning up last night it's still spread all over the place with towels and chairs just left out, now soaking wet from the morning dew, oh well.

Too hot on site so it's off to the beach where there's a refreshing breeze, unfortunately the sea's still just a tad too cool to go swimming. Finished my 7th book and am slowly running out of techno mags, still Michelle will be here on Saturday with another couple of month's worth.

When we returned the second part of the Belgian's awning frame had been erected and all their chairs and tables were inside the area of the frame, and there they were all sitting in the blazing sun in the area which would be inside the awning had they got around to putting the actual awning up as well as the frame, it looked surreal it was like they thought they were sitting in the shade in the awning.

12/05/11 Very Hot and Sunny 25oC Thunder & showers pm

I'm not sure whether it's my lucky day or not, potentially I could end up with a cash reward or if Spanish law is the same as English a new 24' motor launch!

To explain yesterday on our evening stroll around the harbour I noticed a set of keys on the quayside adjacent to a cruiser which was being exited by the occupants but took no further notice assuming they would be picked up when they secured they boat. However on this morning's bike ride I noticed that the keys were still on the quayside I knew the harbourmaster wasn't in his office as I'd just passed it and it was closed. Knowing the harbour was fully covered by CCTV I was reluctant to pick up the keys and ride off to take them to the local police so wasn't really sure what to do although a day's fishing seemed like a good distraction.

on the return leg the keys were still there so I pondered as I cycled back to the promenade, and on passing the harbourmaster office I noticed he was now in or at least awake depending on your point of view, after a brief if not entertaining discussion using a combination of Spanglish and sign language I eventually got him to walk back up the harbour with me( not any easy feat I can tell you) to the motor launch in question where all was clear to see, he was amazed and very grateful. So I'm hoping to get either a finders reward or if they're not claimed in 30 days perhaps I can claim the boat and Linda will drive the caravan back home. I've already checked out the local chandlers for a captain's uniform and placed and advert in the local nautical newspaper for an all female crew to help me on the long and harduous trip back to the UK. Life's never easy is it?

Once again it was a blistering hot morning so took to the beach for the cooling breeze after dinner. Around 15:00 there was an almighty clap of thunder which woke me up, where there were clear blue skies there was now a very black and angry sky so we beat a hasty retreat back to the van for refreshments. The storm despite threatening to deliver a downpour only delivered a few drops so we must have been on the periphery

On arriving back at the site we noticed that the Belgian's still hadn't put their awning up but had festooned the bare frame with rope lights and the centre piece table was now adorned with a very large cactus, strange, but there again they're Belgians perhaps, that's the norm.

I must say looking across to the Belgians pitch in next avenue tonight I'm reminded of Christmas, all it wants is a neon Santa on the roof of the van and the reindeers and sledge dashing along the ridge of the awning and it's complete, wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same?

13/05/11 Very Hot and Sunny 27oC

A very hot day with little in the way of a breeze. Michelle joins us tomorrow so it's a busy day getting things ready, plus in the afternoon I've got to talk Michelle through the procedure for exporting the meter readings for the solar array as well as the production figures since we left home and transferring them to a USB stick so I can do the necessary work on the files. She's alright with email and the like but when it comes to cut & paste and file & directory structures she's not happy.

All's well Michelle managed to transfer all the files to the USB stick, print off her online boarding cards for both legs of her holiday, so now's ready.

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