After a brief delay at the fuel pontoon we left Porto Cristo after our prolonged but very enjoyable stay. I have to say I was somewhat reluctant to leave, the swell forecast was still quite big and Patrick was keen to push on to Barcelona where as I was definitely not feeling the love and was anticipating a late evening arrival at Pollencia, our plan B. Either option was fine; at Pollenca our friends on Spacegrazer would be waiting, and in Barcelona we could meet up with our friends on Sarah. As it became closer to decision making point Esmé pointed out that as we had managed to catch up with Spacegrazer the previous week, we should try and catch up with Sarah as it might be the last time we see them. With Esme's birthday looming we decided she should be able to choose who we spend it with so pressed on, although AJ and I were definitely not "in the zone" for the overnight passage to follow. Esmé however, was on cloud nine, particularly after seeing dolphins en route! As we reached the edge of mobile coverage I messaged Thomas on Sarah to say we were on our way and he said that he would arrange a berth for us.... and would we like to come over for a BBQ to celebrate Esme's birthday tomorrow. Great Plan! Unusually after the obligatory stew, I got my head down for an early evening nap before swapping with Patrick and heading on deck for my night watch. Esmé joined me and we watched ET together in the cockpit... perhaps not the best choice of film for a nearly 8 year old on a moonless night despite there being some light pollution from Barcelona visible even 80 miles away. Luckily AJ came to the rescue at bedtime and "checked the cabin for Aliens" before Esmé headed to her bunk. It reminded me of "No Plans'" story of watching Pirates of the Caribbean on a dark night at anchor and being scared witless when they spotted a pirate themed tripper boat out of the window. After a Pepsi and mars bar fuelled late evening I eventually gently woke Patrick with his now essential cup of tea and a Mars Bar. (More on that later.... that story needs a special post all of its own!)Saturday 6th October 2018 - Meeting old friends on Sarah again
Sleep came easily until about 6am when I offered to swap with Patrick for an hour or so. After we had both got an extra hour or so sleep we were approaching Barcelona. Finally (much later than usual) we popped into mobile phone range and picked up a message from Thomas telling us our berth number. I messaged to let him know our ETA and he came to meet us at our berth. It was a little tight and I managed to catch our keel on the lazy line of the Hanse nearby however this was easily and quickly resolved and we were soon tied up. Thomas offered to take the kids for eggs whilst Patrick and I got sorted and joined them later on. Thomas has a great young lady on board to help out with kids. She made us a lovely omelette for breakfast and we talked about plans for the next couple of days. Thomas explained he had got some burgers and steaks for the BBQ.... only 3 steaks for 4 adults but he thought they'd be enough... they were 1kg each!!!!!! He offered me a lift to the supermarket later that afternoon which I gratefully accepted and then Patrick and I headed back to Laurin
To be honest the kids spent most of the day on Sarah, leaving Patrick and I to tidy up the carnage that seems to happen on Laurin every time we do an overnight passage as well as at least catch up on some rest despite not being able to actually sleep. I researched fun stuff to do for Esme's birthday and found Tibidabo Park which is a small theme park on a hill overlooking Barcelona. Not so big rides as some of the others a little further away but looked perfect for us. We then headed over to Sarah where Patrick was plonked in front of a can of beer while Thomas drove us to the supermarket. He had a massive list of cake ingredients to get as Kay is also a baker and had been talked into making birthday cakes by the kids. I stocked up on a few bits we needed on Laurin as well as taking the opportunity to get an additional last minute gift for Esmé, Thomas very kindly grabbed an enormous box of lego for her too!Back to the Laurin to stow groceries, rest some more then over to Sarah for party time!
The steaks and cakes were fantastic and we all had a great time! What a wonderful first day in Barcelona.
Sunday 7th October 2018 - Tibidabo Park
After a somewhat lazy morning building Lego we met with Thomas, Steven and Sarah and headed off to Tibidabo. I had our passports with us as there is an annual pass for Tibidabo which is worthwhile even if you only go twice. It also gets you discounted guest tickets as well as free bus travel to and from the park.
The bus went up and up and up and once we had got off we all marvelled at the amazing views of the mountains!
On our arrival at Tibidabo I headed into the park to sort out our passes while Thomas and Patrick took the kids for some lunch. The queues made Gold Car of Palma look like fantastic customer service. It must have taken well over an hour to get to the front of the queue, with only 2 people serving it was somewhat frustrating when one of them walked off to sit behind the information desk which at that point had zero customers!!!! Eventually though, we had all the required tickets and we headed into the park.First up was the "First ever flight simulator", an almost 100 year old ride that thankfully had been updated in 2017. It was modelled on the first aircraft to fly from Barcelona to Madrid and Patrick said it reminded him of the Dragon Rapide aircraft he flew in as part of his 50th Birthday Present.
Again, the views at this side of the park were spectacular however the wait for the plane ride was a little frustrating!
Finally, another queue to rival that for the Aeroplane.... they had modernised an old mine train rollercoaster by adding VR headsets to the riders! Interestingly AJ was up for this rollercoaster as he only likes ones where he can't see where he is going! This was THE BEST RIDE EVER!!! so cool! Kind of reminded us of Ratatouille at Disneyland Paris but better. The headset made it so we were first riding through a mine, following cartoon characters who were skating in front of us, eventually breaking out into open air and flying around Tibidabo park. It was so cool we all want to go back for multiple goes.
By this time it was time to return to the boats. Kay was due back and didn't have a key so we headed for the bus and made our way back. Exhausted I was thinking of an early night but this soon changed into a pot luck supper on Sarah followed by tastings of my Talisker Dark Storm, some strange 16 year old Norwegian potato whisky which had been matured by sitting in a boat crossing the equator two times, some really old Macallan, very good port and some Ben and Jerry's which apparently must be accompanied by Moet!
Needless to say it wasn't an early night, or an early morning!
Monday 8th October 2018 - Patrick not well!
So, poor Patrick! I drank all the interesting stuff, he had a beer and half a glass of Moet, he was the one throwing up all day... must have been a bug he picked up, I'm not sure I have ever seen him look so ill! Luckily the kids played on Sarah all day and were fed there too!
Tuesday 9th October 2018 - Saying goodbye never gets any easier!
Patrick was still not good so the kids and I headed over to Sarah to say goodbye without him. This never gets any easier and the kids behaviour reflected this. Even so, I think it is important to wave our friends off and this we did.
Next up was some school interspersed by a start on the organisation needed to get us and Laurin back to the UK. We spoke with the shipping company about dates and booked our flights for the 22nd October, with the intention for Patrick and I to return a few days before Laurin's shipping date to remove masts and prepare her for transport. I made an appointment at the kids school and started to think about my plan to build up a tutoring business on my return, perhaps supplemented by some location independent income too.
Dinner was made up of leftover food from Sarah that they had donated and was very much appreciated!
Wednesday 10th October 2018 - Happy Birthday Esmé
A small pile of presents greeted Esmé when she woke which she was delighted with. We had managed to get cards from some family members hand carried out with my friends when they visited Mallorca which was a nice surprise for her. I love how she is absolutely delighted with her small haul of parcels, one of the positives of this life is Esmé growing up to be completely unmaterialistic!
Patrick was still feeling quite ill so I took both kids into Barcelona to the Science Museum, Esme's idea of heaven! As they enthusiastically ran around all the exhibits it was really hard to keep up with them exploring in all directions. In the end I sat down in the middle and asked them to come back periodically to show me something cool they had found. This worked really well as they were both free to explore but then came back to share their finds with me and we could discuss their learning.
The museum also had a wonderful "flooded forest" which you could observe both from the inside and the outside.
We finished off with a movie in the Planetarium about "Dark Matter" and the beginning of the universe which may have been a little beyond us but was quite fun!
Back down into town we stopped for a birthday McDonalds before heading back to Laurin. (Esmé too interested in her chicken nugget to smile for a photo!)
As the London Boat Show is now no more we felt really lucky to be in Barcelona for the Barcelona Boat Show. Patrick was feeling a bit better so we set off as a family. Just as in London, kids were free, however despite the show being much bigger than London it soon became clear that it really was a trade show rather than the social, entertaining event we are used to in London. Even so, it was quite a pleasant day out, with AJ putting the older teenagers to shame on the paddleboard and having a gentle little sail in the marina, whilst both kids had a go on the Ninebot Mini PRO (I might have had a little try too!). The Ninebot Mini Pro was cool. I want one!
After a belated family birthday lunch at Subway we headed back through the stands and over to the other side of the show to try to find SY Sarah who was making a guest appearance. To the dismay of the kids she was gated off and they didn't get chance to go on board. (Not sure why they wanted to, they'd been playing on her for 2 full days earlier in the week!). The views were pretty good across the harbour though it was funny to see the scruffy old fishing vessel in amongst the superyachts... a bit how we feel sometimes!
We also spotted a half boat!
Soon we had exhausted our interest in the show and headed back to Laurin via Decathlon to pick up an extra large holdall to help us get all the stuff we will need in the short term back to the UK. Back on the boat we had an easy tea and Esmé enjoyed playing with her new game!
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