August 14 – Planning to leave Puerto Sherry today and pressing on towards the Med. Puerto Sherry is in a sad state, promoted for vacation homes and time shares for affluent Europeans and Brits but dotted with incomplete, abandoned projects. There is no township near the marina. Cadiz is a 20 minute bus ride to a ferry of uncertain frequency and which stops operating at 6 pm. We called the Cadiz marina but they were adamant that they could not take boats over 15 metres. The marina at Puerto Sherry has large boats berthed but service is poor and charges are high – wi-fi doesn’t work, the access cards to the gates don’t work, the shore power requires us to re-wire our power line with one of their jumbo connectors for which a 75 Euro deposit has to be paid. Makes for a tedious process just to leave. So we will push on. The question is whether we should go to Marbella or Malaga. The Med pilot suggests the Marbella yacht harbour would be more fun as Malaga is mainly a commercial port. Gibraltar is only about 60 nautical miles away. We are planning to transit the Strait in daylight as the sights may be interesting, especially the Rock. The inshore routes are just as busy as the main shipping channels which have a traffic separation scheme. It will be best to see the see all that traffic in daylight.
We are getting wi-fi from the yacht club hotel but it is an inconvenient walk in the hot sun during the day. More from our next stop where with luck the internet connections will be better. Next blog will be from the Med (finally) where Robyn hopes to be re-united with boy friend Colin, that is, if he can find the Skylark. We hope so since he is bringing some electronic goodies like a wi-fi signal booster and a PC notebook which unlike the MacBook, will be compatible with the SSB radio email interface.
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Captain, please don't expect the best of equipment! Sim Lim Square is a huge place and there weren't many shops that had the faintest idea what a marine Wifi booster is all about. Two shops i went into seem to be knowledgeable about this an both claimed other mariners and would you believe it, airline stewards/stewardesses who used some of their equipment(as they were portable).
ReplyDeleteSo whilst i'm not trying to make an excuse, what you are able to find on the internet might be what's best out in the world but not necessarily available in Singapore or Malaysia. I managed to get an 8dBi one which from the little information i was able to gather from the short conversation with John, found that it fit your requirements slightly better than a plain USB interface. Furthermore i gather that you would be happy mounting it on a "berthed" position, where you would only whip it out when at a marina as opposed to a permanent fixture mounted either one of your masts or heaven forbid on top of your helm. I imagined that puncturing any holes would be likened to smashing a vintage Dom Perignon on your hull during her launch!!! (whether for the waste of the golden bubbles or a nick on your pride and joy!
Am in bated breath to hook up with you elevated beings!
Ahoy SV Skylark!
Colin
hi guys when are you planning to arrive in Alicante??
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