{"id":2859,"date":"2022-02-25T19:04:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2022-02-26T17:45:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T17:45:01","slug":"spain-1-222222222","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2859","title":{"rendered":"SPAIN 1. 222222222"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I’ve forgotten how to do this! In the two years since my last post, EVERYTHING has changed. Everything has been upgraded, speeded up, streamlined, organised and generally made more difficult to remember how to use it!<\/span><\/p>\n

So, 222222222. What’s that all about? We’ll get to that later. As of now the caravan is serviced and ready to roll. The car has had an incredibly slow puncture located and fixed. At a price! BMW’s sensitive electronics won’t allow the 4mm difference in tread depth that would occur with one new tyre and three partly used ones! So FOUR new ones it was. And they came with a bit of discovery!\"\"<\/p>\n

The little yellow spot on the side wall of each one. I never knew about them. All tyres are slightly uneven in weight – I knew that – it’s why they need balancing. It transpires that they mark the lightest point on the circumference. This is apparently the spot which should be aligned with the valve.\u00a0 Allegedly this will minimise the amount of weight that needs to be added.\u00a0 Allegedly!\u00a0 However, it’s more complex than that.\u00a0 The “high point” on a tyre is marked with a red spot.\u00a0 This should be aligned with the “low spot” (if any) which is marked on the wheel.\u00a0 And red spots trump yellow spots.\u00a0 I’ve just checked my four new boots – and I confirm one yellow is opposite the valve on one, but there are yellow, white AND green spots on two of them.\u00a0 Make what you want of that!<\/p>\n

Never mind tyres! What about ferries? First we had storm Dudley followed closely by Eunice. A record 122 mph gust was recorded at The Needles on Friday this week. That’s breezy. And our ferry will sail past the Isle of Wight on Tuesday morning. Hopefully!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the picture of the wind pattern this evening – two days after the worst of the storm and a day and a half before we sail down the channel!<\/p>\n

Moving swiftly on…<\/p>\n

Spain requires evidence of vaccination, check; evidence of ownership of car and caravan plus relevant insurances, check; and a completed FCS (health and locator) form…\u00a0 Well, I’ve registered for one and got all necessary codes and passwords, but the form cannot be completed until 48 hours before arrival in Spain.\u00a0 With nearly 30 hours on the boat and 9 hours at the docks from midnight it leaves less than 10 hours to complete the form, get it printed, and get to Portsmouth.\u00a0 \u00a0No worries there, then!<\/p>\n

Storm Eunice, which hit on Friday, meant we decided to delay our departure from home a day.\u00a0 Just as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Storm damage was very significant.\u00a0 Land-based wind gust measured at a record 122 mph at the Needles on the Isle of Wight (which we are passing as I write this!).\u00a0 Our trip to Dorset on Saturday afternoon, after Eunice settled down, was easy.\u00a0 One of our easiest trips on that route.\u00a0 Large parts of Dorset had suffered major power outages.\u00a0 Some of these lasted several days.\u00a0 Luckily, electricity had been restored before we arrived at Shapwick.\u00a0 However, the road outside Jeremy’s House was blocked by a fallen tree that had taken down a power cable.\u00a0 Not good.<\/p>\n

The next saga was the completion of the Spanish health and travel form (TCS).\u00a0 This is a “simple”, five page electronic form.\u00a0 It can be started at any time, but the health statement on the final page can only be completed 48 before arrival in Spain.\u00a0 In the end, after six hours of failed attempts, we finally got the email with the QR code needed to board the ship.\u00a0 The trick turned out to be, NOT to use our electronic Covid passes, to FIB a little about which jab we had been given and EXAGGERATE the time we plan to spend at the first campsite.\u00a0 (We said 49 days rather than the likely two day stay planned!)\u00a0 That, and mount a sustained cyber attack on the Spth website using an Android phone, an i-phone, a Mac PC and an IOS laptop – all at the same time.<\/p>\n

Arriving at Portsmouth docks at 11.15pm (45 minutes before Brittany Ferries said we could take up residence in the loading queue), we discovered we were about 70th in line!\u00a0 Still, we were in residence with all the correct paperwork!<\/p>\n

We were rudely awoken at 5 am to start the checking in process.\u00a0 Then, over the next four hours, we gradually worked our way towards the back of the queue and ended up boarding in the last 20 vehicles.\u00a0 The bonus was that we were going to be about five from the front of the queue when we come to disembark!<\/p>\n

The various storms, and indeed the current breeze up the channel, had given us 2-3 metre swells to face.\u00a0 Fine when heading straight into the wind.\u00a0 Less so, as we veered South to pass Finnistere.\u00a0 This change of direction coincided with our call to dinner!\u00a0 Sadly, only one of us ate that evening.<\/p>\n

In our favour, the previous crossing on this route (which we had tried to book, but found it was full) had to contend with 8 metre swells.\u00a0 NASTY!\u00a0 All the produce in the on-board shop was swathed in plastic and cardboard to keep it on the shelves<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, the snacks in the club lounge were very substantial and more or less continuously available – and free wine was available at rather unpredictable intervals.\u00a0 Maybe the intervals WERE predictable,\u00a0 but I just lost track of the time!<\/p>\n

Arriving in Spain is for another episode.\u00a0 Let’s just say it got VERY “interesting”!<\/p>\n

Anyway, while on the ferry, we passed 22 seconds past 22.22 in the\u00a0 2nd month of ’22.\u00a0 Hence 222222222!
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I’ve forgotten how to do this! In the two years since my last post, EVERYTHING has changed. Everything has been upgraded, speeded up, streamlined, organised and generally made more difficult to remember how to use it! So, 222222222. What’s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-22","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2879,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}