August 09 – August 23, 2020; 3081 nm and 521 days after departure from La Rochelle
Our sail back to San Sebastián was pleasant and easy going. It seemed that the local fishermen did a good job that day. There was no bite left for us or the fishes just were too clever and avoided our bait. Result- no fish dinner that evening.
The following days just passed by like this. We caught up with some sailor friends. El Capitano was helping at a neighbours boat to secure Dan who was doing again a climbing-up-the-mast job, pulling/pushing a cable through the mast and I was racking my brain with the lazy bag project. The end of the week was great! Quarter finals of the champions league with two German teams still in the competition and the possibility to watch it in a local bar. And my final delivery arrived eventually. The game was awesome! Our team Bayern Munich played like it was their last game ever. They just blew away poor Barcelona (8:2). I felt a bit sorry for the Barcelona supporters. Especially for one guy. I asked to take a picture of him before the game because I liked his mask creation.
Yes, it was great that the material arrived but that also meant work! No excuse to not working on the new lazy bag anymore. Maybe only just a little postponing? The parcel arrived Friday and of course we needed to get mentally prepared to start, so we decided to get in the right mood while going first for another nice trail. Saturday morning we took again the bus to the first stop “Degollada” and walked back the 10km through the beautiful valley to San Sebastián. In the early evening we were invited for a drink with Emily and Dan at the dutch boat of the nice couple Heleen and Rene.
It turned out to be Rene’s birthday. A good thing that El Capitano and me can perform a spontaneous vocal birthday song. Embarrassing but fun- we hope. A great day with a lovely and fun ending.
Sunday was the day! We started to carry on with our project. The next 6 days were like this. 8-10 hours measuring, cutting, sticking or stapling and sewing. Just to give an idea, our Lazy bag is 4,5 meters long and at the mast end 1,5 m hight. to push the fabric somehow through the machine it takes quite some arms. I promoted El Capitano as my first sewing assistant. He did a great job! If somebody needs an assistant I can highly recommend him. In the evening we just went out for dinner and thanks to our German super teams we had another two days of German soccer in the half finals to watch and relax.
again in the old marina office to lay out the fabric and place the piping tape for the boom slide
Friday early afternoon we only had to do some hand stitching parts. Did I write ONLY?! That was very hard work. Unfortunately our hand stitching awl thought the same and gave up after a few stitches. Damn what to do? We were already very fed up and just wanted to finish! But as always the sailor community was just awesome. Rene and Heleen had a shoe making sewing machine. Yes, a real fun sewing machine with a looooot of power even without power. This machine can sew really thick parts, like 9 layers or so. It just goes through the fabric like a hot knife through butter.
the wonder machine 
me, turning the wheel , Rene holding the fabric and Norbert lifting the foot press
AWESOME! Long story short within 2 hours or even less all our last tiny but difficult parts were done and that as well with a lot of fun. We only had to do a few more sewings and at around 7pm we ready and the lazy bag installed. AND it fitted. We were so proud! I think it looks as good as a professional made one😁.
What a great feeling. Nothing to do for the next couple of days. We enjoyed two lazy though very hot days with a lot of sweating. Today is the final and yes! Our team made it. So we invited the dutch guys to say thank you for a sundowner and then we’ll head off to our local bar to watch our team hopefully lifting the trophy.
SY Altimate 