Getting ready for 2023 (Cadiz)

Preparation plays a key role in a successful adventure. Still moored in Puerto America (Cadiz), we get Fabule and ourselves ready. Getting a medical/dental appointment is one of the difficulties of this nomadic life-style. While plannig for the amazing places we want to visit this year, we are impatient to get this journey started.

Anchors

In the Mediterranean, we will be at anchor more often. Not only are the prices of marinas absolutely crazy. Several charge by the hour because boats only come quickly for water or provisions. But more importantly, there are so many islands and beautiful anchorages. One of the improvements for 2023 is to install a plow anchor of 37 kg (Manson supreme 80 lbs). With our current anchor, we are just at the upper limit of the holding capacity in both length and mass. We hope that this new anchor will give us more margin in case of strong winds, currents (less a problem in the Med) or lesser holding grounds.

In parallel, we tested the deployment of our Jordan serial water anchor with multiple parachutes. This anchor is meant for future major crossings (e.g. Atlantic) to stabilise the course and control the speed of the boat in bad weather.

Schooner of the Armada

In the port of Cadiz, the school vessel of the spanish armada was also getting ready for 2023. Leaving on January 14th, the educational cruise will take the coast guard students to Brazil, rounding the south american continent, return via the canal of Panama, up the east coast of the US and back in Cadiz in July. The vessel is 94 meters long and has an automony of 13 000 nautical miles (calculated with an average of 5.5 kts).

A good start

Let’s hope that this sunny start of 2023 will continue.