INDEPENDENCE DAY IN SPAIN

We nearly had a crew mutiny when Dave got Jay to clean the bilges on American Independence Day.



In Jay’s own words, as e-mailed to friends in the US:

So I thought I´d share with you my holiday. I am in Spain on a boat load of British folks. Today I woke up with my little American flag proudly hanging over my head (the ¨Made in China¨sticker recently fell off while I was re-wedging it so I was feeling pretty patriotic). Those stars and stripes began as a way for me to poke a little fun at my captain, but today it stood for all the beauty and splendor of my country. I actually pondered those guys in the white, curly wigs who declared our independence for us instead of my usual 4th activity of going to a barbecue and drinking a couple of beers. At breakfast I was slightly confused about our beginnings. Most Americans go for the dark, rich flavor found in a cup of coffee so why get so mad about a few twigs and herbs that don´t taste that good anyway?

I don´t think it will be much of a surprise to any of you that the rest of the Ros Ailither crew showed little emotion when I blurted out ¨Happy 4th of July¨ half way thorough the meal while spattering a little more catchup than usual on my bacon and eggs. Although they didn´t share my enthusiasm for the day, I have a not so faint suspicion that they had thought about how to celebrate. After breakfast, I put the washing out on the line and came below as David and Hazel talked over plans for the day. They didn´t have time to get everything done themselves so they pitched a fun little activity my way.

Now I´m not exactly saying they´re still sore about the whole ¨Keep your old woman we´ll get ourselves a president thing¨, but...actually that´s exactly what I´m about to say. Dave went off to take care of a few phone calls, John went shopping for dinner with Katie, and I don´t know what Hazel did but she was really quiet all day while I was literally up to my armpits in oil. For some reason I found myself paying reparations for my country WINNING the war by cleaning the bilges because our generator had been leaking for a few days. To make things worse, while I was digging around for old screws, bits of stainless, and fist fulls of congealed oil, my beloved Red Sox hat that I got while at Fenway with my brother John and our father, got a thorough dousing with black, um I´m not sure exactly what the stuff was but it smelled horrid and probably won´t come off. When I was about half way done, Hazel came down and timidly said, ¨I don´t suppose you can drink a cup of coffee while you´re doing that can you?¨ Yeah that´s right COFFEE! When you combine that with the filth that covered most of my exposed skin and...sniffle...the tarnishing of my hat I don´t think that there´s a more blatant way to say, ¨Take that you dirty American. Next time just drink your tea and be happy!¨

Well, being a strong, stubborn Yankee I did my job without complaint...until now which may very well negate the claim I just made so maybe I shouldn´t have written any of this email...and at lunch I showed them. Sort of. Since I was hot from being in the engine room for so long I didn´t feel like a hot drink so I did the best I could. I chugged a Coke right in front of all of ém while saying, ¨Yeah, how do you like that¨...with my eyes because it´s really hard to talk while you´re drinking. The rest of them pretended not to notice my patriotic stand against their attempt to re-colonize me, but I´m pretty sure they know that next time they ask me to clean the bilges...well I´ll probably do it, but when I´m done there better be a Coke waiting!

Anyway, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY. Have a burger for me because tonight John´s cooking fish pie and I don´t even know what that is.


Back to Hazel:
It’s not been all bad though! We have spent a fair bit of time wandering ashore in Sada. It isn´t the prettiest of towns- most of the cute little houses have been knocked down to make way for big ugly apartment blocks. But there is a nice sandy beach and a long seafront promenade where everyone dresses in their finest to ´parade´ on weekends. Katie is loving being ashore, seeing people, grass, sand, dogs and getting lots of practice at walking on her own. She is nearly there...



We have sampled lots of the local delicacies – thick hot chocolate and churros, tortilla, frango, paella, bacalao. We spent an evening drinking cerveza in a local pirate´s bar full of boating knick-knacks where Katie learnt to do ‘cheers’ with her sippy cup. The weather further north seems to be calming down and we are hoping to set off across the Biscay to Brest in the next day or so.