We resume our story again in the Spanish Basque country Euskadi. Actually it is a part of Spain, but the Basque people fight for independance as it is in their opinion a country of it's own. They even speak their own language, which is not in any way related to the Spanish or other European languages - may be apart from Finnish and Hungarian. 
Extraordinary kind people, by the way this also applies to the Spanish more westward. The fishermen don't treat you as a troublemaking element but more as a collegue, so we feel sort of at home. 
Communicating in Spanish goes quite well. Especially in small ports one has to make inquiries about where to moor, but harbour masters (and fees) do not exist, so we have to do business with the fishermen.  

Sailing is not easy over here.  Sometimes very strong winds (from the wrong direction), sometimes no wind at all... and we are continuously tortured by the large swell, which stops the boat just as we gained some speed. 
As a result of this we had to stay in port rather often and visited interesting places, such as Gernika, Bilbao and Santander. We even visited the Guggenheim museum! PHOTOS 1+ 2  

PHOTO 3 But we want to go to the Caribean so we are heading for Cape Finisterre. We are a bit nervous because the bastard has a real bad reputation. The coast here is nicknamed "Costa del Morte" because it is an extremely dangerous coast. The name is even more ominous if you consider the environmental disaster that happened a few years ago with the oil tanker, and of which the traces are still visible as oil stains on the rocks. The fishing vessels are completely covered to keep the big waves (and the oil?) out. 
What we really have to get used to, is the magnetic variation of almost 10 degrees! And that's going to be even more as we go further west. 

Our sailing boat has become our home, the sea is our world. Political and economical developments happen out of our sight, we missed the Olympic games almost completely, apart from one afternoon when we were in Santander and saw some horsebackriding on a tv in a shop window.  

Will you recognize is next year?  
Marijke phantasized about our meeting in Suriname 2005: “JW with a long grey beard, picking tobacco leaves from the trees and smoking them... P, extremely slender, looking like a mermaid with long hair and with her head in the radio speaking Spanish and cursing all the time while moulding electricity wires...” Well, it won't be this bad.