Sangria by the Sea

Wow, we have been in Spain for 5 weeks now, and yet, we are still not sailing the deep blue waters of Yemaya. What we are doing is enjoying Sangria in it's many splendored ways... by the sea, just not on the sea...here, there, and everywhere. It is not the watered down version we thought it was. At least here in the southern part of Spain it is a serious drink comprised of wine, whiskey, brandy, cointreau, and various other liquors mixed in. And it is seriously great tasting and great for us as we "be with what is". And "what is"... is that Ecstasea has been having some major work done. We had commissioned to have her Raymarine (radar, charts, etc.) upgraded when we arrived, but were not anticipating the bow thruster breaking. Soooo, as i said, we are indulging on sangria in it's many various forms.

Ecstasea had loving attention and care in the small port of Aquadulce (sweet water) for the winter. We picked her up there and sailed just 3 hours down the coast to the port of Almerimar for the work to be done. We have great guys to attend to her needs and still we are reminded that "boat" is a four letter word! Why is it that we forget that repairs almost always are more challenging and take more time than ever expected??? And we know that we have been here with the Brits too long as Richard is calling everyone "mate" and saying things like "tickety boo" -- and i am cussing even more like a sailor and saying "bloody hell"  to everything!

The second day that we were in port awaiting her work to begin,  we witnessed one of the all time biggest drug busts here in Almerimar. The pictures below attest to the quantity that was taken from a sailing vessel along with the two disheartened men aboard it. It was quite the excitement for a while!!!

This is the boat behind the official Aduanas boat...

You can see the drugs being unloaded with a crane...

There's tons of drugs of some kind, neatly packaged....

Okay, enough of that...

So Ecstasea had to be hauled out of the water again for the bow thruster repair. And there is nothing quite so wrong as living on a boat out of the water. So we took ourselves on  a road trip to do a little sightseeing. What we didn't anticipate was a nasty cold-flu crud that we picked up somewhere along the way. But we made the most of it by doing just a little touristy sightseeing each day with lots of sleep and rest otherwise.
We first went to Seville as we had heard how beautiful it was. It has the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. It was first a mosque in 1184 and then consecrated as a Cathedral in 1248. It was truly impressive and houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

Altar of gold...

Tomb of Christopher Columbus...

What we enjoyed even more was the Real Alcazar of Seville. It is similar to the Alhambra in Granada  in that it was built during the times that the Moors, Christians and Jews all lived in harmony in this area. The royal palace was built by Moorish Muslim kings. It is the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe. The current royal family still uses the upper levels today when they come to Seville. It was built during the 11th-16th centuries.
It's right in the heart of the city and is stunning in it's architecture and gardens.

Seville is truly a beautiful city and worthy of much exploration. Unfortunately we did not do her justice but enjoyed what we did see. We began our love affair with sangria and tapas here and did do that great justice!!! Look at the size of those sangrias -- an no, i did not drink both of them -- one was for the Captain...

Moving on we arrived in the little mountain town of Ronda. It's claim to fame is the oldest bull ring in the world. The first bull fight took place in 1785. It was impressive and we could learn all about it's history with the tour and museum without having to witness a bull fight.

Richard and the bull...

Inside the bull ring...

And this is where the bullfighter could get away from the bull if need be. Chicken....

The bridge and gorge of the town of Ronda is stunning and is the symbol of the city. The bridge was completed in 1793 and it is 360 feet down to the bottom of the ravine.

Yeah, that's a lot of pictures of the bridge, but it was mighty impressive, it took us back in time with it's wonder.


And this is the beautiful valley down below...

Ernest Hemingway went to Ronda every year during his life and his ashes are buried here.

Growing weary of hotels and travel, we decided to come back to Almerimar and check on Ecstasea and her progress. All was going well, just going slowly as the parts took time to arrive, etc. So we rented a little apartment close to the boatyard and continued to wait. Aaaahhhh, patience!!!
And while we waited we continued to explore the world of sangria at every little restaurant in the area. Now the good news is this: tapas are free with drinks and since we were well into mucho sangria, we ate a lot for free.
And finally Ecstasea was dunked back in the water just a few days ago and we are home once again. We are home in our own bed that rocks us gently to sleep every night.

We don't expect anyone to feel sorry for us as we can't even begin to feel sorry for ourselves. Life is a grand mystery and adventure no matter where we are. Once again, life aboard a moving vessel is one of our greatest teachers and we are thankful. This "down time" has offered us the opportunity to dig a little deeper and find the peace and joy regardless of the circumstances. We have had time to explore the conversation in our minds that says "it shouldn't be this way". And of course, we know it should be this way, because "it is"...
And of course, as long as the Captain and first Mate are together, all is as it should be, all is well, all is perfect.

Now the only question is where do we sail off to--where is that perfect cove to anchor in and just "be"? And actually, there is another important question--can we make really good sangria to sustain our savage lust for it??????????? Another new exploration..........

Our Winter in the Desert

We were woken this morning at 6:00 am by something running on our roof. So we snuck upstairs and looked out the window to see our little bobcat friend scampering, running and playing with himself and his imaginary friends. He often comes meandering in the backyard and even onto the patio where he casually walks and looks in the glass doors. But this is the first time we saw him playing on the roof. And he ran wildly and playfully back and forth for a good 15 minutes till he wore himself out. What a wonderful way to wake up!!!

Sitting on our roof...

Tired of playing and walking away down our driveway...

So as we are once again getting ready to leave our desert home for the sea, we are reflecting upon our winter here. It was a busy wonderful time of a few travels and visits from family and friends. We had several trips to California to visit friends and we flew back to Charleston to surprise Richard's mom on her 95th birthday in March.
We had another fun trip to Las Vegas in January where we saw Santana perform:

We went to beautiful Sedona over New Years for a spiritual retreat. Here's my handsome husband with the red rocks behind him...

But most of all, we relished our time here in our desert home. We live in such a rich environment of wildlife and they entertain us all the time. From the bobcats, to the javelina, to the hawk and cardinals and the occasional ducks dropping into our swimming pool. Yeah, i just swing in the hammock and take it all in:

Here are the ducks walking around the pool...

And the hawk comes to visit often. Here he is on the edge of the pool looking all around...

But best of all are the many cardinals in our backyard. We have a special cardinal feeder and it certainly attracts them. We have several generations feeding now. We call the majestic red males Jamie and the females Claire. (You have to read the Outlander book series to find out why).
Jamie sits on top of the lemon tree and serenades me every morning while i drink my coffee in the hammock.

And here he is in all of his beauty ... (Claire is really shy and doesn't like her picture taken)

We also had a beautiful springtime of flowers on the cactus...

The gardenia full of flowers on the patio. The smell was intoxicating...

And a new plant we bought called an Addenium with new blooms...

Our lemon tree and orange tree gave us more fruit than we could eat, so we were happy to share. And our little orchard now has 2 grapefruit trees, a dwarf peach, a blood orange, and 3 lime trees. Between the lime trees and our mint we had wonderful mojitos all winter long.
Yes, life is sweet here in our desert home and we are so thankful for the abundance it blesses us with. So reflecting on the winter time here we say "Thank you" ....

We also had a lot of meditation time with a new teacher, Bentinho Massarro. He offers a free online course called Trinfinity Academy. Check him out if you're interested. So as always with life, many insights and learnings to expand and grow into. Aaahhh...

And now it is time to leave the desert and reunite with Ecstasea on the sea. And yes, we are ready and excited for all of the new places and experiences that our ocean home will bring to us.

And with that we say is "YES"!!!!

End of Season in Ibiza

We spent the last few weeks of the season here on the island of Ibiza, Espalmador, and Formentera.
And we actually spent our last full moon on a mooring ball down on the little island of Espalmador. It's always been one of our favorite places and always a good refuge in stormy weather. And since this was a full moon and lunar eclipse, we wanted to just relax and enjoy Mother Moon in all of her glory. We had read that the eclipse could be seen in Europe so we were all excited to spend the whole night gazing up.
Just before She was to rise...

And here She comes...

Now apparently, the eclipse wasn't visible in all of Europe, because we were up all night with Her and She did not eclipse but just radiated Her moonbeams across the water straight to us. Have you ever noticed that moon light comes straight to you, no matter where you are?

Sailing around Ibiza, the water was so silky smooth that the Captain just had to go forward meditate...

Then anchored off the spit of Formentera, we saw the huge yacht called Prince Abdulaziz. It was the largest privately owned vessel in the world for 20 years. It belongs to the King of Saudia Arabia. And when he recently died, his son inherited it. Several times we heard the call to prayer (it is a very distinct sound and it certainly gets your attention),  and saw people hustle to the top deck for the Islamic prayer time. The rest of the time, they were busy with jet skis and all kinds of water toys...

We also had seen Steve jobs yacht, Venus, in the harbor in Palma before we left. He died a few months before it was finished and so his wife owns it now...

Cala Characca on the north side of Ibizza has become our favorite cove on the island. It has also become a place of refuge when we have needed shelter. We tried twice this season to go to Bineris cove for the Sunday night hippies drumming of the sun down. But both times have been run out by big winds and storms. And so we return to the safety of Characca...

And we always seem to get into Ibiza City for a year end celebration. The Captain has a favorite bar with the best Tropical fruit Sangria...

And it's fun to sit on the high wall in the old town and reflect about the summer here on EcstaSea.
It's become somewhat of a tradition for us...

And now it's time to bring it all to a close. We are sailing to the southern coast of Spain to the sweet little town of Agua Dulce, which means "Sweet Water" in Spanish. We will leave EcstaSea there for the winter and return to our desert home in Tucson.
It's been a great summer with a lot of variety and many learnings. We have much to take with us and grow from. And so once again, we feel deep appreciation for this life on the water and all that it teaches us. And so it continues, always...

The Hazy, Lazy Days of Summer

After our trek along the Spanish coast and Morocco, we were ready to just laze the days away in the lovely coves and beaches along Mallorca, Ibizza and Formentera. And we did just that...
Enjoying leisure, lazy, easy days and nights of just "being"!!!
Lots of sleeping, swimming, reading, loving, laughing, meditating, eating, and drinking in the pure delight of nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to be.

So we offer snapshots of our life during these quiet, tranquil times that living on EcstaSea delivers to us...

Just the beauty of one of our favorite coves--Cala Egos...

And of course, another sunset in which to give thanks to Brother Sun for another day of living and loving...

An underwater cave to explore while snorkeling...

And the underwater flora and fauna in crystal clear water...

A little kayaking once in a while...

Some attempts at snorkel selfies along the beach at Rapida or Es Trenc...

After swimming to shore...

And what a beautiful shore it is...

We're getting better at these selfies...

And the Captain playing Chef with some creative cooking...

And voila!!! A fritatta...

And even our successful attempt at lasagne...

And new dining experiences in Palma. This big building used to be the stockyards and now houses a large number of individual eateries offering various specialties...

And a new, wonderful Italian restaurant in old town Palma...

And another selfie in front of the magnificent Cathedral in Palma...

And one of our favorite things to do on the island of Ibizza is to go to the Hippy Market. These are "our people"! Besides all of the selling of unique clothing and jewelry, there is always great entertainment, such as this group of musicians...

We continue to relish our anchor out days here on the island of Ibizza as the season comes to a close. It is fall equinox and the sun sets and rises at about 8:00 now. The weather is cooling and the Europeans on holiday have all gone home and it is quiet here. And we are reminded that as the song says:

To every time (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And to every purpose under heaven.