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Redwings
in the "G Spot" in Marina Port
Vell
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We arrived in
Barcelona on 10 September, 1999, tied up
the boat, and did not budge. The 10 month
trip from Hong Kong here was great, but
it was a lot of work and we needed a rest
so we decided to "winter" here
and take a break from moving all the
time.
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The
first night here our cat Basil went missing never to return (just
one month after we lost his sister Sybil in
Italy). Colleen remembers as she drifted off
seeing him "purp" up from his curly
tail on nose position and run up the stairs to
look and sniff out the companionway.The last
thing she saw was his furry bum disappearing
confidently as he went to scout out his new
environment.
We
spent the next week looking and calling
everywhere for him. We got to know the 20-30 port
cats that live in the area near the fishing boats
and in the old neighborhood intimately. He's just
gone and its very sad for us. We don't really
know how it is possible to have loved a cat so
much. It's hard to imagine how it must be like
with a kid!
Within
two days of arriving, we were studying Spanish at
a language school 5 hours a day 5 days a week. No
boat work. Life had changed to a land life that
happened to be being lived off a boat tied up in
a marina.
 Skiing
in Andorra with Anike, Ulf, and Dirk
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It was great.
We studied, went to movies, made friends,
took yoga classes, shopped at the wet
market, cooked yummy food, and went
skiing in Andorra a few times. |
Aaron
also took two weeks to live with a Spanish family
in Salamanca and study Spanish more intensively.
In
April, 1999, we received a phone call from an old
business partner in Asia asking if we wanted to
make some fast money and set ourselves up with a
lifestyle that would ultimately allow us to work
from anywhere in the world (even off the boat).
The call came on a Friday. We left for Hong Kong
to work on a one-month project the following
Monday.
Things
went well and we ended up staying and building an
investment banking business called New Thai
Equity Partners which (as of mid 2000) we are
still building. Aaron flew back to the boat in
August 1999, did all the dirties, and put the
boat on the hard snugged down under a big plastic
cover (see entry for 30 August 1999 below).
30 August, Marina Port
Vell, Barcelona, Spain
Aaron - Touching
down in Barcelona after the seven hour flight
from Boston, I felt a shiver of excitement run
through my body. I probably should not admit it,
but I was more looking forward to returning to
Barcelona to visit Redwings
than I was to attending my sister in
law's (see Mary in
crew profiles) wedding in Martha's Vineyard. We
left Thailand in mid-August for a one month
"holiday" from our new lives as
post-early-retirement-financial-analysts-for-hire.
After leaving Redwings
in April, we spent two months working on a
project in Hong Kong and two months in Thailand.
We have decided to give New Thai Equity Partners,
the private equity start up company we are
working for, a go and will be returning to
Thailand for a three month contract commencing 15
September 1999.
 View
of Barcelona from the bow of Redwings
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I have been dispatched
from the US to Barcelona to "sort
out the boat" - a phrase which has a
different meaning for Colleen than for
me. A month or so ago, on a beach in
Thailand, Colleen got me to do the math
and admit that if we are going to go
forward with our new-found working |
life, and possibly buy a house
in Maine from which to work when we are not in
Asia, it makes sense to sell the boat. I
semi-promised that when I returned to Barcelona,
I'd put the boat on the market. At least to see
if we could sell it at a good price.
Obviously at a certain price,
it makes sense to sell it if we are not really
going to be in a position to use it for some
time. But I find it highly unlikely we will be
able to get that price. As the time came closer
and closer for me to return, I started thinking
more and more that I wanted to keep her anyway.
Perhaps the work thing will not work out and
we'll want to move back here this winter and go
back to the original plan of a year ago which was
to sail the Balearics the following summer with a
fall Atlantic crossing. Or perhaps the work thing
will work out and we will be rich and the cost of
keeping a boat we don't use much won't matter.
You can see how my mind is working. Against the
boat selling gods who take a 10% commission!
Anyway, it was a beautiful day
in Barcelona and when I finally arrived at Redwings
at 0900, I was amazed to see how good she looked.
I had expected to see peeling varnish thanks to
the relentless Mediterranean summer sun and
possible bashes from encounters with the quay or
neighboring boats. I expected to find at least
one new leak or a piece of electronic equipment
that had finally given into corrosion, but no.
Everything was perfect and I was amazed to see
how well the slobs who used to live aboard
cleaned her before their rapid re-departure for
the Far East four months ago.
A stroll down and quay
revealed that "everyone" was around.
Keith and Louise on Akuna had returned from a
summer trip to Portugal and gave me the general
marina gossip. A few break-ins, a new and
somewhat better security system recently
installed, but nothing major. They did mention
however that Nito, who was looking after the boat
while we were gone, had only yesterday hosed her
off for the first time ahead of our arrival. That
must be why she looked so (relatively) clean, and
is probably also why the varnish looked so good.
Nito later admitted that the whole boat was
coated in several millimeters of grime which
probably served as a great UV protector. Thanks
Nito and the polluted air of Barca!
Nito's wife, who was not yet
as big as a house but approaching RV proportions
when we left, was back to her petite self and
cooing over Nana in the aft cabin. Nana was born
six weeks after we left and, like my new niece
Ciara, and incredibly good natured baby. Never
cries, always smiling and looking at you in the
eyes and making noises even though she is only 2
1/2 months old! The baby gods seem to be
conspiring against Colleen and I showing us only
perfect offspring in a bid to get us to
procreate.
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©2000 All Rights Reserved by Aaron Henderson and
Colleen Duggan
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