This will be the last post of 2024. During 2024, we moved a little further west, about 1140nm from Monastir Tunisia to Cartagena Spain.
A few weeks ago, Manuel completed the SS bar that is bolted in place to prevent the Bruce anchor chain from skipping out when anchoring. My previous bars were damaged when we had the anchoring “incident” in Palma in August 2024. There is only one element of the bow roller modifications to be finished, and that will come in a month or so.
Christmas season is upon us, and as usual, we decorated JOANA with some solar powered LED lights.
Our last replacement hatch frames (mosquito and night shade) arrived, and we were able to finish replacing the ones in the aft cabin. Now, all are back to “like new” or “new” condition.
Following up on the long outstanding requirement for a boom frame, I had the local yard ASCAR make up some aluminum frames for us to mount to the boom. The function of this frame is to help capture the flaked sail, when it drops. People that have “lazy bags” on their booms already have a good system to capture the sail and reefing lines, but — they have to contend with zipping up, and repairing the very long zipper. I made up some simple wood supports and painted the frames with spray can primer and enamel white paint.
These frames sat on the ground until Jonathan arrived. We have been so fortunate that he was able to come to Cartagena to stay with us for a few weeks. The first order of business was to borrow a small bike, so that he could join us on bike rides.
After loading up on groceries at the local Carrefour, Lidl and Mercadona, we then worked on some boat projects – starting with mounting the boom frames.
We want the frame to “capture” the dropped reefing lines, so came up with an idea of installing some netting. The three of us worked on this for many hours to get it right.
This is what the completed project looks like.
Of course, it’s not all work and no play. One night, we went to the Nutcracker ballet, performed by a Cuban Classical Ballet troupe only 200m from our boat.
We also went to two cruiser’s BBQ pot luck dinners.
We walked extensively around the city of Cartagena, including the ancient amphitheatre.
We bought a turkey at a local grocery store, and as usual, cooked up a traditional Christmas dinner with guests Rob and Susan.
We put Jonathan back to work and sent him up the mast for a rigging inspection. As expected, all looks good.
Walking around the city at night gave us a good view of the decorations and lights.
We went on many bike trips, exploring the local sites of Cartagena.
This is “the beach”, about 20 minutes biking (uphill one way, down hill return) from the marina. It was too cold for us, but there were a few people in the water.
