When you retire, you hope to do something enjoyable with the "golden years". Below you will find logs of journeys from California to Spain in Saeta, a 41' sailboat - and reports of adventures living in Spain and playing flamenco. Go back to the early months for the sailing reports.
Also, check out our website http://www.sailingflamenco.com
The Christmas season is starting. Much of Northern Spain is covered with snow and the shops are all in Christmas mode. The streets are decorated and everywhere there are these parties called Zambombas which are a mixture of flamenco and Xmas carols. In addition to all of this, my old friend Steve Kahn showed up to do a flamenco photo exhibit in Jerez and so we got to hang out together for a while.
Here is a link to Steve's show for those of you interested in great flamenco pix. http://www.flamencophotoproject.com
And here is Steve. We have been doing flamenco together for 40 some years - whew! The local peña invited us to a big Christmas luncheon and seated us in a place of honor with Miguel and the gypsy family related to the guy the peña is named after. It was a great feed. Here we all are singing Xmas carols.
After lunch, we were called up on stage where Steve played while I sang and then I played while Negro and Miguel sang. Here is Miguel.
And then after that, all the singers gathered at a table in the bar and I accompanied them for the next 5 hours. They sang just about everything including things that I'd never played before. But I just faked it and it came out fine. Just about as much fun as a person can have with their clothes on!
Next week we drive up to Madrid where we will get to visit with the family and will be joined by Elinore and Robin (Andi's daughter and boyfriend) and my daughter Nancy, her husband Isaac and sons Diego and Quique. They are all flying in for the holidays.
December 1, 2008 Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving at a huge feast hosted by Sir Brook Zern (knighted for his contribution to Spanish culture for his work on behalf of flamenco) and his wife Kirsten. Most of the crowd were english-speakers, so it was a most pleasant event.
The next day we drove up to Puertollano, a mining town North of Cordoba and not a place I would have thought about as a center of flamenco enthusiasm. But I was wrong about that. The folks from the Peña Fosforito put on an absolutely first-class flamenco festival and we were treated like royalty. We drove up there through a light rain that by Saturday had turned to snow although it didn't stick to the ground. It was seriously cold and long-johns were necessary the whole time. The coast is much warmer.
We checked into our hotel and went to the theater to see the finalists in the singing contests make their last offering to the judges. The judges did a good job and selected terrific talent. After that, we had a show by celebrity singer Carmen Linares. It's funny, she was at the same hotel as us and was in the lobby with us at check-in, but I didn't recognise her. As she went up the elevator, it suddenly dawned on me who she was. Andrea said, "You didn't know?" Duhhhh!
The next day, the peña organized a lunch with gastronomic delights from the La Mancha region. And Spanish television was all over us. We were videoed and interviewed until we were thoroughly tired of television people. It came out the next day on the biggest TV channel here TVE that is nationwide. They got most of the facts wrong and cut out most of the good stuff we recorded, but we got about three minutes of our obligatory 15 minutes of fame. The real high point of the lunch was that all the professional artists were there as well as the winners of the concurso. While we were waiting for food (but not waiting for drink), we started to do some flamenco. I ended up accompanying the winner of the concurso, el Rubio de Pruna and then played for Antonio Carrion. Antonio is arguably the best guitarist for accompaniment around, having played as the regular guitarist for Chocolate when he was alive as well as all the other famous singers. But I didn't know that Antonio is also a good singer. So when I was playing for him I was realizing that the best accompanist in Spain was counting on me to provide the right chord changes in the right places. I think that I did and Antonio gave us a copy of his new album of cante. Also there were Antonio Moya the guitarist from Utrera and Jose de la Tomasa, who was one of the judges (just to drop a few more names). I sat next to a famous flamencologo, Felix Grande, never realizing who he was until afterwards. That probably kept me from being inhibited.
I was very nervous and uncomfortable at the sound check. The guitar wouldn't stay in tune and I just felt off. But the show went much better. After surviving that, we got to relax and enjoy the rest of the show. For me, the highlight was fellow American dancer Lakshmi "La Chimi" who in my opinion is one of the best dancers working today, no matter what her nationality. I predict that within three years, she will be one of the top dancers here. You can't take your eyes off her and she is really moving. At one point my mind was saying "that is a crass commercial attempt to play on our emotions" while the rest of me was sobbing! That doesn't happen everyday. After the show, the peña put on yet another banquet with catered tapas, champagne, etc. A delightful event, beautifully done. Here is the video of my little contribution (cut off at 10 minutes):
November 27, 2008 Thursday It has gotten cold here. Winter has arrived with a bang. Sweaters and coats have been unpacked for the first time in a long time. It has been snowing in Northern Spain, but here on the South Coast, it is still just like California.
Last weekend, we were invited to a fiesta outside Jerez with 12, count'em, 12 singers! Unlike our gypsy fiestas, this one was all payos (non-gypsies). There is a difference between the way gypsies and payos do flamenco, but what is the very same is the level of enthusiasm that both groups have. They made a rabbit stew and we started in the afternoon. While we were singing and playing, a cook kept creating new items, so food breaks happened every little while.
In this fiesta, there were some well-known professional singers like Pepe Alconchel, who has a peña in Jerez named after him. Others were just good aficionados, but still great. There is an English guitarist here named Simon who plays really well and can accompany well. That meant that we shared the guitar duties and neither of us got burnt out. At one point, they had me playing Verdiales for half an hour and 4 or 5 singers were taking turns - as fast as one finished a verse, another jumped in.
Here we are in the afternoon with Pepe Alconchel singing and el Ruiseñor sitting next to me.
Here is a video of a singer called el Ruiseñor de Lebrija (mockingbird of Lebrija - a town near Jerez) singing a fandango of Gordito de Triana, a very simple, unadorned style - one of the first ones that I ever learned. He sings a lot of different styles, in fact his last verse is done in a different style. Fandango is his strong suite and he was a total delight.
We had a fabulous time with all of them and continued well on into the evening. Here we are around the campfire.
Tomorrow we drive up to Puertollano where I will be singing along with Carmen Linares (a very famous professional singer).
November 21, 2008 I don't think that this program wants me to upload more than one video per entry, so I'm starting another new one to upload Miguel's siguiriya from the fiesta on the boat. It is interesting that, even his friends and relatives don't have any interest in listening to his siguiriya and they all went outside to smoke cigarettes and talk. Even his wife talked! In the good old days, a singer was measured by the quality of his siguiriya and now.....
But as you can see, Miguel is a fabulous singer. He was not at his best here - I think bothered by everybody talking outside. But he rallied and finished up with a beautiful siguiriya of Manuel Molino. You non-flamencos won't know what that is, but the way he sings is classic gypsy flamenco, rough, primitive, but with a certain something that us non-gypsies never master. He was recovering from a cold, so his voice was not as clear as it would be otherwise.
November 20, 2008 Last night, we went to a class we've been attending at the Peña Tio Jose de la Paula in the old gypsy barrio Santiago in Jerez. This is a relatively high-level class about the history of flamenco song. They provide a famous artist and guitarist to demonstrate the songs and then at the end, the members of the class are invited to get up and take a try at it. Well, last night they were talking about the Buleria. Jerez considers itself the home of the buleria, so they take it VERY seriously there and so, when I was called up to sing - well, I didn't wet my pants, but close.
Not only were the participants there, a bunch of gypsies had come over from the bar next door including Diego Carrasco (who was the lead singer/guitarist in that show that we showed your previously in Sanlucar a few months ago). So there was a wonderful opportunity to make a complete fool of myself.
But I had been thinking about it all day and had written a verse especially for the occasion: Mas presumido no se ve que un guiri cantando flamenco por la gente de Jerez
More presumtuous there couldn't be than a foreigner singing flamenco for the people of Jerez
They loved it. I did that verse first to get it out of the way since I was afraid I'd forget part of it.
In short, it went very well and the audience was very good with me.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 I've been mentioning Miguel for a number of blog entries, but until now never had anything that I could show you of his art. For the moment, if you go back about three entries to the one called "Fiesta en Chipiona", you will find a sample of his singing por bulerias. He and others from his family have been several times to fiestas on our boat and finally we have some video footage from our own camera. In the meanwhile, you can see the other video.
But who is this Miguel? (This will be of interest to only the hard-core flamencos). Well, he is from one of the most famous gypsy families. There are a group of famous singers all decended from Agujetas el Viego (for whom the local peña is named) - they are Manuel, Gordo (father of Negro Agujetas who is featured in a previous blog), Diego, Luis, Juana and Anglica - the last two girls married US sailors from the base at Rota and now live in the States. All the family of Agujetas el Viejo have are named like Manuel de los Santos Pastor. Well, Miguel's mother was the sister of Agujetas el Viejo and she married into the Pastor family, so Miguel is Miguel Pastor de los Santos. The same two families, but married the other way. So Miguel is from famous bloodlines and has the same family background - gypsy singers learn most of what they know in the beginning from their families.
But not only is Miguel a fabulous singer, but a really fine person. He has lots of afición and is always learning new things. At this minute, he is in Japan where he will sing for 4 days and then come back. He is mostly retired from singing, but given the current economic conditions, is thinking of going back out onto the peña circuit. He has asked me to be his guitarist. Talk about died and gone to heaven!!! So check out the previous video and here are some new ones.
November 7, 2008 Friday Two nights ago, I had one of the best nights of my life and am still floating 2 inches above the ground. I went to sing in a flamenco contest in the town of Alcala de Guadaira. Now in that town, they sing a song called Solea that is famous in all the world of flamenco. When I first started singing some 40-something years ago, that was one of the first things I started to learn and over the years has become my best thing. I could sing that for more than 2 hours without repeating a verse. So when I read that the contest was awarding the biggest prize for the best singer of Solea de Alcala I knew that I had to go and give it a try. I will digress for a second to note that, for almost 50 years I have been chasing this exotic art form pretty much on my own. Naturally, there was nobody around who could tell me whether or not I was doing it well or badly (other than to say they liked it or didn't). Because Americans naturally don't know the many intricate distinctions that comprise flamenco singing. So when I performed in public, there was applause, but when I executed a particularly difficult part of the song, nobody ever said "ole" because nobody ever knew what I had accomplished. With the exception of a few flamenco hard-core crazies, I never had anyone to even discuss flamenco with. But I had the disease and went on studying and learning for my own satisfaction. I mention all this to provide a context for the way I am feeling now. So we arrived in Alcala. There were 10 other contestants and each could choose to sing songs in 3 categories. The first was the Solea de Alcala, which had the biggest prize. The second was a group of songs considered "cante jondo" - the serious and deep emotional songs; and the third was a group of everything else in flamenco. I elected to do one song from each group (to maximize my chances of winning something). I was scheduled to compete in the second half of the contest, so we got drinks and a good table and started to watch the show. Well, some of the other singers were pretty impressive. None of them were gypsies (which means it was sort of like white people singing the blues), but they sang with lots of style, lots of little details and flourishes. It was obvious that they were very advanced singers. In fact, someone said that a lot of these folks follow the singing contest circuit as a way of making money. Well some were very good, but in spite of all the apparent emotion on the stage, the audience was dead. One guy sang with an intensity that was amazing. He had complete control and amazing technique, but you would have thought that he was in the electric chair, they were turning up the voltage, he was about to die any minute and this was his last message to everyone. And the audience just sat there. Shakespeare's phrase went through my mind "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". When I saw all that I thought, "well if this is what wins concursos (contests), I don't have a chance because my singing is really primitive in comparison". My singing is primitive because I sing like the primitive singers I learned from. So I wasn't at all sure how the audience would respond to me. I was more nervous than usual. On top of it all, I was playing my own guitar. Some singers brought their favorite guitarist with them and others used the guitarist that was provided (who was excellent), but I am so used to playing for myself that I figured I might as well go with something predictable. Finally, it was my turn. I climbed onto the stage and started the Solea. I was pleased because the guitar was working well and the first few verses came off perfectly. The second verse I had learned only that morning, so I was afraid that I could forget the words under pressure. So once I had finished that verse, I could coast to the finish line. So I started paying attention to the room. People were shouting jaleo (words of encouragement)! A lot! That hadn't happened all night. I finished the Solea to a big applause. I then sang a siguiriya and then a buleria (you flamenco folks will know what those are, but it doesn't matter). When I did the buleria, Andi, Estela Zatania, and Juan from Jerez got up to do palmas (handclapping). We got it cranked up and the audience started shouting. Andi said, "You rocked the room!" We finished to a huge applause with some people on their feet. Afterwards, all kinds of folks came over to offer congratulations and praise. The most important praise that I got was from two gypsies who were from the family of Manolito el de la Maria, one of my heroes and someone who I most want to sing like. (My poor children had to grow up listening to Manolito when all the rest of their friends were listening to the Beatles). The gypsies were very happy and enthusiastic. One said that it had been years since he had heard the "eco" (sound) of Manolito sung like that. Both said that the amazing thing about my cante was that I was actually able to transmit the emotion and the audience really felt it. It went on until I was glowing pink to the bottoms of my feet. I don't know if I won anything - there are 4 more days of contest (71 competitors) before we know who the finalists are. But, as an expert on cante, I know that on that night, nobody sang a more pure Solea of Alcala than I did. And if quantity and warmth of applause - and the number of "oles" - is a measure of success, then I won. This was to die and go to heaven for an artist - to have finally been heard by an audience that is qualified to judge good cante and to have been approved, even celebrated by that audience. If nothing else ever happens for me, this was enough! I've rambled on and fear that telling all this is to be guilty of hubris, but to whom would I want to share this joy but my family and friends. Forgive me if I went on too long, but I am so happy! I've waited 50 years for this, never really daring to think that it could happen. For the younger folks, the moral of the story is - follow your dream and dare to dream big.
When artists reach some kind of summit, it is customary to give thanks to those who helped along the way. In my case, I owe absolutely everything to my lovely wife who give up a home in the redwoods, a garden, her cats, and her own career in dance, so that we could follow this dream of coming to Spain and sailing. Then she insisted that it was time for me to put my art in front of a real audience and has been a support every inch of the way. To her, the biggest of thanks. And the most moving thing about the contest was how happy and proud of me she was after it was over.
Here is the video of the soleá on YouTube:
And here is the Siguiriya - the singing is something that I have sung for years, but I was very proud of the guitar work since I made it all up in the moment except for the introduction":
November 4, 2008 Tuesday And we are watching election results like the rest of you and all of Spain. The US elections are HUGE here and every channel is giving it major coverage. The final results won't be in until daybreak tomorrow here - 10PM in California. It being morning, we may not open a bottle of champagne on getting the results even though it seems like some kind of celebration would be appropriate. It has rained in Spain and not just on the plain. This has been the wettest October ever and it has extended all the way through Europe. Even Yemen has had serious flooding. In the mountains there has already been snow. So October was a month of transition where I learned to put on clothing upon arising in the morning. And the sweaters got found and we even used the heater a few times. It hasn't really been cold. We are on the same latitude as Santa Maria, CA or North Carolina, and it has been in the 70's most days. The nights fell into the 60's. The shorts have been replaced by Levis. We've been sharing a cold with our local flamenco community. It laid me low for about a week and now Andi has it. These are some germs that are new to our systems, so we have to build up some resistance. In the meanwhile, buy stock in Kleenex. Flamenco gets busier and busier. That's good because we don't know any Americans here. We are in total Spanish immersion. A day ago, we had a recording session here on the boat with Negro (pronounced nay-gro, not nee-gro) Agujetas. He is the son of Gordo Agujetas and the grandson of Agujetas el Viejo, for whom the local peña is named. This is a very famous gypsy family and we have been hanging out with several of them. The other one is Miguel, el Gitanillo de Bronce. You will hear more about him later. But Negro has been getting serious about singing for the last year. Before that, he was like a lot of kids who want to grow up and be different from their parents. He liked pop music, but then something changed and now he is crazy for flamenco - maybe worse than me. We had a long video session and recorded quite a few things. I'll give you a sample at the end of a video that I edited. Not only that, but last Friday we went to a peña in Jerez to see Mercedes Ruiz dance. She is one of Andrea's favorites. This Thursday, I have to accompany Miguel for a program on local TV. Friday, we drive up to Alcalá for a singing contest. I don't expect to win anything, but it's nice that I get to be there. Next week, Rota TV is going to do an hour-long program on us - part of which will be dancing and singing - the other part will be an interview about our adventures. The second part is way more intimidating because talking well is harder than singing well. Whew! So we are staying out of trouble - but still love it when we get emails from you. Here is the video: use the controls to make it play - it may take a minute...
Sunday, October 19, 2008 We just got back to Rota from our adventure in Sevilla. We came back because we had been invited to play at a fiesta in Chipiona, a seaside town just up the coast. We went with Miguel, el gitanillo de bronce, and Angél, his nephew. Here are Miguel and his wife, Pilar. After seeing him, I wished that I'd have dressed a little nicer. But what a great fiesta. There were just a few of us, which kept the distractions down to a minimum. With the exception for a little food break, they sang and kept me playing for about 5 hours. And what cante!! Angél would be great if he weren't in the company of Miguel. Miguel is just so great that everything else pales in comparison with him. They got pretty excited and for a while were singing mano a mano - as fast as one finished a verse, the other would jump in. I never even got to play a falseta (riff) - just one cante after another. But with that kind of cante, who cares if there is a falseta? There can't be 20 singers left on Planet Earth who can sing like Miguel. And last night, he didn't hold anything back. What fun! For me, this is the culmination of a dream - actually I never thought that I would actually ever get to participate at this level of fiesta - playing 5 hours straight.
Here we all are in Manolo's kitchen. My cante will never be a level with these guys, but getting to accompany them all night is plenty for me. They like the fact that I know cante so well that I always know the chord that is needed. And, they are more and more asking Andi to dance now that they know that she can fit into fiesta dancing so well. In the fiesta, you don't get to dance very long, but if you raise the energy level, then you have contributed to the fiesta and will be welcome. At one point, even Miguel danced - and, having spent plenty of time in tablaos, he dances very well. A few years ago, he decided to hang up professional singing and came home to Rota from Madrid. Now, he hardly works at all. But apparently he is content with the choice. But, he has a lot of pent-up flamenco that comes out in the fiesta. He is very knowledgeable about cante and it is evident that he continues to learn new things. He has tons of great stories about his adventures on tour.
On the way home from the fiesta, we were stopped by the Guardia Civíl at a roadblock where, as the driver, they made me blow into a drunk tester. That was very scary!!!! Because I had been drinking all night, although fortunately had been eating too. And, because I was playing the guitar, I didn't get to drink as much as the others. It saved my butt because I blew a test that didn't get me arrested. They let us go. Whew!!! Knowing that this can happen, I'm going to be more careful in the future. You should have seen 3 gypsies, the two of us, and a guitar in the little car! Packed is an understatement - but it worked.
I recently saw an announcement on the bulletin board at the peña, telling about a concurso de cante (singing contest)in Alcalá. They had a special interest in the soleá of Alcalá, which just happens to be my best cante and one which I could probably sing for 2 hours without repeating a verse. So I wrote them and they have invited me to participate. I'll be up there on November 7. And under the heading of "Cheap Thrills", here is a poster that went out to every Peña in Spain with the name of your author on it. Well, I was thrilled anyway.
Thanks to those of you who have written. We enjoy hearing from you. Keep using Sailmail if you know the address because we still don't have internet on the boat.
Here is a video from the fiesta. It's funny; in the old days the Americans did all the recording of the gypsies. Now the gypsies are doing the recording. They gave me this video. The sound goes out of sync at the end and starts looping - don't ask me why, but the video gives the feeling of the fiesta better than any words....no matter what its technical limitations.
October 17, 2008 We went up to Sevilla to visit friends and see some flamenco. We were fortunate enough to be able so stay at the house of our consuegros. English doesn't have a word for consuegros, but it is the parents in law of our daughter. Enrique and Maria, our consuegros normally live in Madrid, but have restored this beautiful 11th century home from a virtual ruin. The walls in places are almost 2 feet thick. It is an incredible luxury to be able to stay here. The guitar echoes up through the 3 story central patio with a sound that is delightful.
Here is the central patio on the ground floor.
And here it is looking the other way. You are looking at at a Roman column made by hand by some Roman 2000 years ago! These columns were left over when the dark ages fell and the Romans were evicted, but became a basic building material for the moors and later were used for all kinds of trivial purposes - like they would build them into the corner of a wall so that carriages wouldn't gouge up the plaster.
Up on the roof is the azotea, another patio with a view. In this case, you can see the Giralda peeking over the roof of the 11th century convent across the steet. We'll talk more about that in the next post.
Here is the first person I met when I first came to Spain a long time ago. His name is Antonio and he is with his wife, Mercedes. When I first met him, he was 16 years old and working in his father's bar. Now he is 41 and has his own bar. We've watched his children grow up.
And here are some more friends. On either side are Marianna and Federico, old friends from Santa Cruz. I have known Freddie for more than 40 years. In the middle is Lakshmi, a fabulous young dancer who will be appearing with me in the performance in Puertollano next month.
We went to Sevilla to see friends that we hadn't seen in a very long time, but couldn't resist walking around to see the sights.
Here is the cathedral as seen from the back side. We were fascinated by the ornate stonework. The cathedral itself is way to big to fit into a single picture - it is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. It is spectacular. Columbus is buried there.
This tower is one of Sevilla's landmarks. It is called the Giralda and was built in the 11th century by the moors, who at that time occupied most of Spain and had the most literate society in Europe. The tower originally had a flat top on it. After the Christians retook the land in the 14th century, they built the cupola on top of the tower and added Christian details. The tower has ramps leading up inside it so that the lords and ladies could ride their horses to the top. As you climb it, you can't help thinking of all the people who have walked where you are placing your feet - from Columbus all the way up to John Kennedy.
Here is Andi at an archway leading into the Patio de las Banderas with the Giralda in the background. We can also see the Giralda from the roof of the Sevilla house.
Here is another view of the top of the cathedral with the Giralda right next to it.
And here is a building at the Plaza de España, showing a lot of "recycled" Roman columns and replicas thereof. They are white, so they are easy to see. This building was built in the early 1900's. We went out for a walk to see some touristic things and took this picture.
October 9, 2008 Thursday You can't imagine how much grief I've had to go through to upload these following pix. The internet access at the library is very touchy about uploads. I can only do one picture at a time and never a video. But I know that all text is boring so here they are!!!
A few weeks ago we went to Jerez for some flamenco and while we were waiting went and did some touristic stuff - we visited the cathedral and the Alcazar (old Moorish fortress). Here are the pix:
Here is the front of the cathedral. The stonework and carving is exceptional.
Here is the cathedral as seen from the Alcazar. Jerez is a smaller town, so this is a big cathedral for a small town, but nothing like the one in Sevilla.
We went to Jerez for some flamenco and while there decided to do some tourist stuff - so we visited the Alcazar (old moorish citadel) and the cathedral.
Here is a gargoyle outside the cathedral - have you ever woke up feeling like this?
Here is the interior of the cathedral. This is a relatively recent cathedral - I think it was finished in the 1700's.
You could put 3 of these cathedrals in the big one in Sevilla.
October 5, 2008 Sunday Life has settled into a quiet domestic routine punctuated by wild moments of flamenco - which seem to occur in the strangest places. The other night, we were barbecuing some pinchitos de pollo when we heard palmas (handclapping) coming from a power boat two docks over. But these were not ordinary palmas - they were GOOD palmas (which we don't often hear, even in places where there is flamenco). We turned off dinner and rushed over to the other boat, guitar in hard. Now that was what was called "presumido" - overly bold, presumptuous - but we didn't care. When the people saw the guitar they asked if I knew how to play it and I assured them that I did. They invited us aboard and we soon had drinks in hand. In short order the guitar was out and we began to rock. They were mostly younger folk, in their mid to late 20s, but they had uncle Juan with them. He liked to sing the older stuff, but the kids could sing Jerez buleria like crazy... they were all from Jerez, but rich enough to have a fancy powerboat. It was a fun night and we'd put pictures and videos up but for some reason the internet at the library balks at uploads, so nothing for the moment.
Happy domestic life revolves a lot around good food. It is so amazing to open the refrig to find that our cheese is Manchego (a kind that we bought on rare and special occasions in the US - when it could be found); our olives are hand-cured and bought at the open air market from the olive-lady who is always there; lots of great seafood and sausages.
We just love our little town. Clean, no crime, everything close at hand. This weekend, Rota is celebrating a fiesta that is going on for 5 days. It will have a little flamenco in it, but of the pop variety that can be consumed by the average Spaniard - flamenco is a cult artform and not well understood, even here. Most don't care for it all that much, although like Americans with Blues, they all pretend to be experts.
It turns out that we got to be famous without even expecting it. When we were anchored off Sanlucar last month, the Guardia Civil came by our boat to check our papers. We showed the papers and the man left after about 5 minutes, a pleasant enough visit. The next morning, at sun-up, two Guardia Civil boats appeared and the smaller began banging on our hull. We were asleep, but I threw on some pants. By that time, one of the officers was already in our cockpit. Now that is the first time that anyone has ever come on board without permission. Normally they request to board (and everyone knows that the answer must be "yes"), but it is a formality and a courtesy to request permission. I opened the hatch and the officer began by complaining that we were not showing our flag as is required. True, I took it down the previous evening because the wind was so strong that it was tearing the flag. I quickly put the flag up and produced our papers again wondering why these guys don't share information from one shift to another. He gave a cursory look at the papers and then said he wanted to inspect the boat. THAT hadn't happened since Mexico, but sure, go ahead and look. He took a quick walk through the cabin to see if we had any bales of marijuana, I guess. In less than two minutes he was back on deck. The people on the larger boat then called him to leave and he prepared to get back into his boat. At that point, I noticed a girl running a small video camera on the deck or the larger boat. I waved and asked the officer, "What is that about?". He didn't answer - just left. Just the other day, we heard from our family that Channel 3 had done a report on drug busts and had a video of our boat and the boarding. Now I don't know if they were trying to claim that it was a bust or whether they just said it was a search for drugs. But whatever they said, our Spanish family was bothered by it and are investigating further. I would certainly be upset if we were on national TV and our boat name was associated with running drugs. But it was probably just a training exercise and hopefully said so plainly. We shall see. If they neglected that last, there will be consequences.
Just because we don't blog as often doesn't mean that we don't like to get emails - use Sailmail!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1PM Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that this is actually happening. I look around the boat and everything looks the same and then the phone rings and it is a gypsy wanting to party. Our disappointment with the local peña has been replaced with the delight of finding an enthusiastic clan of gypsies who are crazy for flamenco as we are. The major singer is Miguel - Gitano de Bronce, who has some CDs and sang for a year in New York. Second most enthusiastic is Angél, also known as Negro. All these folks are from the Agujetas family, coming from both sides of it. This is a very famous gypsy family that has produced some of the finest and purest flamenco singers. Miguel and Angél are solidly in that tradition - just what I like!
Here they are, Miguel on my left and Angél on my right.
Here is Angél singing - he is the son of the late Gordo Agujetas and sounds very much like a recording we have of Gordo.
Miguel invited us to his house and when we got there, we found that he had arranged a big party with lots of wonderful guests, great tapas, everything. I was the only guitarist and apparently they don't often have access to a guitarist because they kept me playing all night. When it got too late for the neighbors, we went off to a nearby bar. Could it get any better? Yes, the next night when we were at the Fiesta de la Buleria in Jerez, Miguel called to see if we could come to a BBQ that night. Well, unless Newton was wrong, we couldn't be in two places at the same time, but were certainly gratified to be asked back so quickly.
A constant source of pleasure is the food. Andrea makes a wonderful tortilla and we've got some of my gazpacho in the refrigerator. We have two kinds of olives to try and 4 different kinds of chorizo. In the store, we walk right by spices that we would have hoarded before because we know that we can always get them. Andrea just made an ensaladia rusa (sort of a potato salad) that was sooooo good that she could go into business selling it to every bar in town. (they all have it). Hers is so good that they would just throw theirs away if they tried hers.
We still don't have internet, so I have to go to the library to send these posts in. You can reach us via sailmail instantly, however. Hope this isn't boring. If you read this for the sailing, I'm afraid the slant will be heavily flamenco for a while.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 We've been settling in to regular life in the marina and in Rota. Except for the feeble flamenco scene, we are loving it here. One of the high points has been the cuisine. We've been shopping in the local markets, especially the open-air market and with all the right ingredients, the food really tastes right. Andrea just keeps coming up with one delight after another. It's wonderful. And of course, going out to eat is fabulous.
One of the things that has been pleasing is that shopping here is probably less expensive than in the US. I didn't expect that, but even the Euro has been dropping against the dollar, ($1.41 to the Euro this morning) so we may not be quite as worried about money as it seemed before. With a little care, restaurants won't kill the budget either. When I filled the gas tank the other day, it took 26 Euros. that's about $38 which is a lot less than I spent filling the tank of the van in North Carolina.
We took a road trip the other day to the Feria de Utrera. A feria is an annual fair. Almost every city has one. They go back to the old days when traders and caravans would come and set up outside the city. Animals and goods got traded; there was food and entertainment. In the last few centuries, the Feria has become a unique part of the Andalucian (the southernmost "state" in Spain)tradition and gives opportunities for socializing and for the "horse people" to show off their horses and riding outfits - both of which are gorgeous.
Here is a carriage and driver. Notice how beautifully turned out the carriage is.
Here is a typical feria street. It is early in the evening still - by 11PM there will hardly be room to pass through the streets. On either side of the street are "casetas" which are basically tents with bars and kitchens. Some of the food they generate in simple kitchens is amazing. The casetas all have loud sound systems and play sevillanas at a deafening level. If you want to talk, you have to find a quiet one.
In this particular feria, we visited the caseta of Inez and Luis, gypsies from the same family as Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, two legendary singers who we had the good fortune to know. Most casetas are all about Sevillanas, but this one is all about flamenco. They had a regular performance set up as well as the unofficial "fooling around" that we participated in. We're including a little video here that shows a few seconds of the performance. Unfortunately the singer wasn't singing at the moment. The artists were singer/dancers Javier Heredia and his wife Fabiola, and guitarist Antonio Moya. Unfortunately, Blogger seems to be constipated today and I can't upload the video. I'll try again. (After 4 days of trying, here is a still)
We came to Rota from Sanlucar on Friday, with the intent of sizing up the marina and town for our winter stay here. So we showed up and took a slip for a few days. Then the lady at the marina told me that, if we wanted, we could start our winter stay on September 1 instead of October 1 - for the same reduced price of the winter stay. Well, yes, we'd like that very much, thank you. So here we are in our permanent home. We have a mailing address: Richard and Andrea Black, S/V Saeta, Puerto de Rota, Rota, Cadiz 11520, España.
Having become temporary Roteños, we went out the check out the town. It is very nice - cute and charming and pleasantly small. We found the public market and the flamenco peña right away. We went to the Peña in the afternoon and found it quiet, few people there and nothing going on. We came back later in the evening to see if anything more was going on. The place was jumping. We started to walk in and then realized that the crowds inside were not watching flamenco - they were playing BINGO! After several days, we are concluding that they play BINGO every night. El Viejo Agujetas, the gypsy for whom the peña was named must be rolling over in his grave! Last night we went there again with some friends who know the group well. They introduced us around a bit and we met one of the local singers. He and I had to sing in the smallest possible voices to avoid being shushed so as to not bother the bingueros. But we connected and will do some flamenco together soon. On occasion, the Peña actually does flamenco.
The rest of Rota is terrific. The climate is very mild - this is where people in Sevilla come in the summer to escape the heat. There are some great restaurants - really a lot of them - and also some charming hotels where visiting friends may want to stay. I'll find out the prices. My only complaint is that there is no internet available on the boat. We'll have to go to the library or internet cafes to upload pictures - so we will in due course. We also got some phones so that we have local phone numbers. I am going to get internet access on the phone which will then allow us to plug the phone into the computer and connect that way.
We have been assisted in getting to know Rota by connecting with Richard Parker and his wife Alicia. They have given us the guided tour and we've had a ball. They are getting ready to fly back to the US, but it looks like they will rent us their car while they are gone which means that we will be mobile! What a wonderful turn of events.
We still have email, especial via Sailmail, so don't be afraid to write. We'll answer.
Here is one of the pedestrian streets in Rota - nice of them to put up awnings for shade.
Here I am "putting on" Richard Parker's car. I wish we had little cars like this in the US.
They built a new lighthouse, so they took the light from the old lighthouse and put it over the arch that leads into town.
The city is well-lit and everyone stays out late.
Here we are with Richard and Alicia Parker. Going out for dinner is much cheaper than in the states. Filling up on tapas and drinks costs us in the $30 range (4 people).
Thursday, August 28, 2008 The fiesta the other night was very fun. The MC and lead singer was Diego Carrasco. He was later joined in a guest set by Fernando el de la Morena, an older serious gypsy singer. All of these folks are from Barrio Santiago in Jerez. There was a trio of girls who sang backup vocals to support the flamenco-rock of Diego Carrasco. These young girls were the daughters of famous women singers. It's the unfortunate fact that flamenco-rock appeals to a paying audience. The beach bar was packed! Pure flamenco appeals to a very limited audience. But quibbles about purity aside, Diego Carrasco puts on a great show and has a lot of fun doing it. He can do wonderful pure flamenco when he wants, but he is having a big success with rock.
The highlight was when they invited Israel Galvan up to dance. And he was jointed by his sister (beautifully slim again) Pastora Galvan. Andrea studied with Pastora and her father, Jose. This was all great fun and very flamenco.
So now we are just hanging out in the free anchorage, going into town to start arranging to get cell phones and grocery shopping. Tonight we'll go back and visit the fine folks at the Pen~a.
Here is Fernando el de la Morena singing for Israel and Pastora Galvan with jaleo by Diego Carrasco!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 We have been anchored in Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain for two days now. This is at the mouth of the Rio Guadalquivir, the river that runs through Sevilla. In fact, if we wanted, we could go all the way to Sevilla. But Sevilla is very hot just now and we're thinking that we can go by car later in the fall. We've moved our anchorage several times and now have a place that seems satisfactory. It's a bit like our anchorage in the Hudson River where the current goes one way for 6 hours and then turns around and goes the other way. That means that the pull on the anchor keeps changing direction and could cause the anchor to drag (not dig into the bottom correctly). But we are in a good spot now. Today we went into town and visited a Flamenco Peña. (I hope special Spanish characters like the tilde come through intact). We met the president of the peña and his wife. They were most gracious and presented us with baseball caps that said "Peña Cultural Flamenco Puerto Lucero". I'm very pleased that my spanish has gotten good enough to relate easily. I need to get a spanish phone number, but by the time we got back to the phone store, they were closed for siesta. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight, there is a fiesta in a beach bar nearby. I'll report back on that one. It is so good to be here - a dream come true.
August 24, 2008 Sunday I know that I never really appreciated the fact that Spain has a lot of coastline on the Atlantic between Portugal and Gibraltar. Well, we've been sailing along it. We stayed two days in Ayamonte because it was a really charming little town with friendly people who acted Spanish. You'd think that acting Spanish would be natural, but there are places on the tourist coastline (Costa Brava, Costa del Sol) where the Spaniards that you meet are used to waiting on Brits, Arabs, Swedes, and other miscellaneous tourists. To do this, they have lost the qualities that we love in Spain. Of course, even on these horrible coastlines with their high-rise hotels - go a few miles inland and you are back in Spain again. Anyway, Ayamonte was very nice, but we needed to move along because we found about some flamenco happenings on Tuesday in Sanlucar de Barrameda. We are going to try to connect with some friends there for what will be the beginning of real flamenco activity.
We went to a flamenco show in Ayamonte, but it turned out to be two young men who sang very nice rumbas, but all night - nothing but rumba. To this old dog, that is not quite flamenco!
So today, we travelled from Ayamonte to Mazagón. Light winds made us use the motor again. Instead of going into the marina, we anchored outside it in the Rio Tinto that leads up to Huelva. If we had gone into the marina, we would have spent 31 Euros there and then, because we were close to the town, we'd have gone out for tapas and drinks and spent another 15 or so. But, we just defrosted the freezer and are eating up some food that we bought in North Carolina. We really need to get through all these foods so that we can buy some new freezer food. We have having a baked chicken tonight and saving a bunch of money anchored out in the river. Tomorrow early we will start for Sanlucar - only 34 miles. We'll anchor there if possible. Sanlucar has some of the best seafood in Spain and that is where we'll spend the bucks.
For those of you who wrote, thanks. It was good to hear from you!
Friday, August 22, 2008 We arrived in Ayamonte in the Rio Guadiana today and took a slip in the marina. We just love it here. It is a charming little town and best of all, Spanish. We can talk to them and they have Cruzcampo beer and jamón and all the things we love. This is so good I can barely stand it.
Yes, I am glad to be here!
Here is Saeta in her first Spanish marina, flying the Spanish courtesy flag upside down (oops).
Thursday, August 21, 2008 We left Portimao this morning after a day in the marina in which we took on water, charged the batteries all the way up, washed all the salt crust off the boat, and hopefully fixed the genset (we'll know more tonight when I have to use it). For the first time, we washed the boat and found that last night's southerly winds had brought some of the red dust of Africa. We have heard that boats in this part of the world are accustomed to getting red dust in their lines (ropes).
And we managed to do a little sightseeing as well. But I came away with the same reaction that I get on most tourist coastlines - there are too many tourists and too few locals not involved in the tourist business. All the sleepy little villages have become condos and high-rise hotels. If we had a car, Portugal is just a few miles inland. But we didn't.
Spain is the same. I have no love for coastal Spain (for the most part). But at least there I can talk to people and that makes a very big difference.
We are headed for a salt marsh that has rivers through it leading to the two towns Faro and Olhao. Each of them has a different channel leading to it. We are going to anchor since it is getting late in the day. Perhaps we'll take the dinghy up and explore one or the other - stay tuned. At the very least, this anchorage is only 24 miles from Spain!!!
Late flash: We are anchored at Olhao among a very large group of European sailboats - no Americans and only one Canadian. It is mellow here. Since it is high tide, it looks like we are in the midst of a very large body of water, but I understand that much of it will be exposed when the tide goes out. We won't know until tomorrow because the sun is going down. We could stay and explore the local cities, but we are so close to Spain that I don't think that I can restrain myself.
August 19, 2008 Tuesday - Portimao, Portugal We still don't have regular internet so you still don't get any pictures. And you are missing the ones from Lagos where we took our dinghy and explored the sea grottos. There were about 20 caves that we could take the boat into. Apparently many of the local fisherman have given up fishing and are now using their boats to take loads of tourists into the caves - so it was a bit like a freeway out there. On the other hand, we could tell where all the good caves were just by following the other boats. One of them got grumpy that we weren't paying to see the caves, but the rest were fine. This trip was better than Disneyland and at some point we'll have pix and video.
We hung around Lagos for 3 days and although it is a historic city, it seemed a bit ordinary and dirty after the Azores. The wind hooted every afternoon which kept us on the boat for a while. Finally we decided to move along toward Spain - only about 80 miles more to the border. For 3 days, we tried to check in with the officials. Nada! We couldn't find any bureaucrats. I guess that on the mainland, the government employee to civilian population is much lower than the Azores. If we had stayed at the marina, the marina staff would have filled out the papers, but since we didn't it didn't get done. They told us not to worry about it - we were officially in Portugal once we hit the Azores. I hope they are right, but we'll stay at the marina in Portimao for a day to get the papers filled out (assuming that it is less expensive than Lagos). The Lagos marina is priced like the West coast of Italy - the megayachts have spoiled it for us working folks (or former working folks).
This entire coast has lots of sailboats because it is a sailors dream - flat seas and good winds on the beam. This morning when we decided to come to Portimao, we just unrolled the jib since the trip was only 7 miles. We are getting SOOOO lazy! In short order, we were here. We'll go into the marina tomorrow to go shopping, take on water, and use their electricity. Hopefully they will have free wifi so that we can put up the pictures. For now, we are anchored. Since this is a river, there is a tidal flow up and down the river and when the tide is against the wind, the tide often wins which results in the boat pointing in some strange angles - not into the wind like usual. Life is good.
Sunday, August 17, 2008 We are anchored in Lagos Bay, just outside the marina. We wanted to go into the marina to wash the crusted salt off the boat (in places it was sort of like a pretzel). But the marina charges 53 euros in high season plus tax, all of which would have brought a night there up to around $90. I'm sorry, but for those kind of prices, I expect a change of bed linens and a chocolate on the pillow. So Andi threw buckets of salt water over the boat to get the salt crust off and finished up with a fresh water wipedown, so who needs them. I meanwhile am engaged with trying to find an air leak on the supply side of the fuel for the genset. It hasn't worked for 3 days and so we are having to use the big engine to charge batteries. Not good for the engine and it uses a lot of fuel. It is much cooler here than it was in the Azores (which were as close to perfect weather is I've ever seen). As we approached the Portuguese Coast, we noticed a change in the water color from the indigo blue of the gulf stream to a kind of brownish-green. We had sailed into the Portuguese Current that comes down from Northern Europe just like the California Current comes down from Alaska and keeps the California coast cool. So the water here is cold and I'm not looking forward to swimming in it. Andi is though because she has become a dedicated snorkeller. So today we are going to take the dinghy and explore some caves and beautiful rock formations along the cliffs nearby. Then we'll go into town and report to the authorities and do some shopping. Sorry to have no pictures, but we have no internet still. This is coming to you by radio through Belgium.
Here is the point of land that shelters Lagos. You can see where the sea caves are.
We took our dinghy and went out to the grottos. There were a lot of tourist boats doing the same thing so we just followed them.
And here is a video of the caves. We really loved this.
Yesterday evening at 5:30 we anchored in the lee of Sagres point. The wind was blowing a lusty 25 knots when we came in, but the anchor dug right in and we celebrated the completion of our voyage of discovery. I suppose now we should claim these lands in the name of George Bush and introduce the inhabitants to the joys of flamenco. Well, maybe not.
It is nice to be level again and tidying up after our crossing. We celebrated breakfast with crepes filled with Azorean cream cheese and topped with Jeff's North Carolina blueberry moonshine jam.
We came from the Azores in 5 1/2 days, not at all shabby for a 41 foot boat, especially considering the light winds the first day. We don't yet have internet, but when we do, we'll put up some pictures and write more. For the time being, we are safe and content. Hope you are too.
Here is the computer screen when we were crossing the traffic zone where all the shipping in the Med comes around the corner of Portugal. It gets crowded out there. This is our AIS system showing about 14 ships. It tells us their exact speed and heading so we know if there is a danger. Cool, huh? The little red boat headed for the point is us.
And here is Cabo Sao Vicente - our first part of continental Europe.
Here is the fort at Henry the Navigator's lookout at Sagres. The square building is the chapel that is about the only part that may go back to Henry's time.
Here are the happy couple sitting on the steps of the chapel.
And here is the interior - very simple.
Here is Henry's compass rose laid out on the ground. Or then again, it might be the compass rose of anyone with some rocks and a day's hard labor...
This is a replica of a caravel - the kind of ship that Columbus used for his smaller vessels. They haul tourists around.
Richard Black - I spent 20 years working with juvenile delinquents in Los Angeles. Then formed my own business designing sailboats and finally ended up in design for Civil Engineering. I have 2 children and 4 grandchildren.
All my life I have performed flamenco as a guitarist and singer. I am now living in Spain where I can do a bit of writing and dedicate myself to flamenco....
And here is Steve. We have been doing flamenco together for 40 some years - whew!
Here we all are singing Xmas carols.
After lunch, we were called up on stage where Steve played while I sang and then I played while Negro and Miguel sang. Here is Miguel.
And then after that, all the singers gathered at a table in the bar and I accompanied them for the next 5 hours. They sang just about everything including things that I'd never played before. But I just faked it and it came out fine. Just about as much fun as a person can have with their clothes on!
