I’m hoping the canine companion of this fisherman is called Ted (or maybe Eduardo if that’s it’s Spanish equivalent) in memory of the real star of the BBC show ‘Gone Fishing’ with lifelong friends Paul Whitehouse & Bob Mortimer. If you haven’t seen it before, the latest series started on Sunday 25th October and Ted, a scruffy Patterdale Terrier who died in April, made his final appearance in the first episode of this, the ninth series. It’s a heartwarming 30 minute unscripted show where Paul and Bob just chat about men’s ‘issues’ while fishing, having fun and, in Bob’s case, usually falling over. I love the programme although I’ve absolutely no patience for going fishing myself, but Dave has ‘had a go’ every now and then on the trip. The only thing he’s managed to land so far has been a nasty weaver fish and that went straight back to where it came from. We reckon something big got caught on the line on Monday but it had worked its way free by the time Dave had carefully reeled it ...

We’ve read in the news about storms Austen and Boelo battering parts of the UK. Knowing a storm was coming as we left A  Coruña last month,  and the ferocity of it, was thanks to information gleaned from various wind and weather Apps. Dave’s primarily using WindGuru (not strictly an App but it works like one) and I look at PredictWind. They show the forecast strength and direction of the wind over the upcoming two weeks. So we knew we needed to be safely tied up in a protected harbour.  Red = Wild Winds! (we were the little white dot)   “There's an app for that" is the famous, now trademarked, slogan that launched Apples’ marketing campaign for their 3G App Store in 2009. There are currently over 2 million Apps in the App Store and a few of them are proving very useful for us. Digital Cruising & Information Guides I’m familiar with using Seachforsites and Park4night Apps to find places to stay in our campervan and there’s a few Apps doing a similar job for yachti...

We made it safely to Gibraltar. The sand deterrent wasn’t needed and that should be the last we see, or hear, of the orcas until our return trip in 2028! My steady, dependable ‘rock’ Dave got me through my anxieties about crossing the Bay of  Biscay and going through ‘Orca Alley’. Motoring through the Straits of Gibraltar was really busy with lots of cargo vessels, ferries, fishing boats and pleasure craft on the water. We checked AIS for information on one massive cargo ship we passed, laden with hundreds of containers, and found out it was German flagged, 400m long and 58m wide. We always have a laugh when in news broadcasts they make size comparisons with football pitches or Olympic size swimming pools. So to visualise the size of that ship we calculated it was roughly the same width as a standard football pitches but four times the length! Or 40 Seascapes long and 17 Seascapes wide.  The coastline of Morocco on our starboard side seemed surprisingly close - at its narrowes...

We rounded Cape Trafalgar today, on October 21st 2026, exactly 221 years to the day the famous naval battle was fought, and won, by Admiral Lord Nelson and the British Navy. Despite having fewer ships, 27 British ships compared to the 33 ships in the French/Spanish fleet, their speed, flexibility and an unorthodox and risky attack strategy resulted in a convincing victory. The human cost of the Battle of Trafalgar was high though, with 458 British killed and 1,208 wounded and from the enemy ships 4,395 were killed, 2,541 wounded and almost 8,000 captured. Nelson, a national hero, was fatally wounded on HMS Victory, passing away shortly after knowing his tactical plan had succeeded. Two hundred years ago seems like quite recent history but modern warfare has changed so rapidly, especially in the last decade or so.  This week Spain has been having military exercises all around the Gulf of Cadiz, where we’ve been sailing, involving troops from the Spanish Army, Navy, and Air and Space...