Eeyore again

The spares have arrived at Lisbon airport but - isn't there alway a but? - Customs are on strike till Monday and then they start on the backlog.

That's just what WOULD happen, said Eeyore.

Progress

I have found a kind man in an engineering shop on the waterfront who will lend us his (huge!) chainhoist so now we wait for the parts to arrive, then unpack Berri's interior to make room for the engine, disconnect the engine from fuel, water, shaft, battery and controls (job for jockey sized contortionist...), attach chainhoist to the boom and lift - not easy as the hoist must negotiate the back of the coachroof so not a direct lift - then turn the engine around in the cabin, remove the gearbox and bellhousing and follow John's instructions. A relatively simple job in ideal conditions but a touch on the tricky side here.

And I think I need a dentist - one of those times when local knowledge is useful. We have been offered local help by a generous relative of one of our long time followers and I think this might be the time to invoke it.

Our friend the jellyblobber has even greater ambitions - he's now trying to reach the moon but, I fear, his stage 1 lacks the thrust of a Saturn rocket and he's just able to get his blunt end to break the surface. A different version, perhaps, of the more athletic Cowi in the nursery rhyme.

Meantime, I'm going on a seagull hunt - the place is full of statues of the great and the gormless...

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The Archangel Raphael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ouIQkH_Jn8

This statue sailed with Vasco da Gama to India and on all his later voyages. It is beautifully carved, serene and lovely and I wish it could talk to me. See the photo for a description. It is in the Maritime Museum in Lisbon and will be for me a special visit if ever I come here again - like Harrison's clocks in the Greenwich Museum.

The boat is a replica caravel that is on the jetty close to us here in the Doca de A and similar to da Gama's ships that the statue sailed on. Da Gama's ship on the voyage to India was the San Raphael. She was a 'nau' or ship of the line and a bit bigger and square rigged.

Another socially conscious seagull

This is Robert Falcon Scott with thanks to someone whose email address I don't recognise - but thanks anyway! All explorers so far - perhaps it's the seagulls?

And some eyes for Isabella http://www.isabellawhitworth.co.uk/.