Baggies Full of Cell Phones

2011 10 02
Bonanza, Spain
 36 48.7N
006 20.8W

Only eight days ago saw us running upstream like spawning salmon.  Today sees us back at the mouth of the Quadalquivir anchored just west of Bonanza (dum diddy dum diddy dum ditty dum ditty dum dum).  Like our last visit here the wind is blowing one way and Meredith the other.

Leaving Gelves an hour before high tide in Seville allowed us to ride the tide for near the entire length of the Guadalquivir but it put us in Bonanza just an hour before the end of low tide.  This meant we had strong wind on the nose out of the south and gentle current out of the north.  Meredith is dancing.

On Meredith we find 1 knot of current  is equal to about 30 knots of wind, ie it takes wind of 30 knots to equal the push power of 1 knot of water current.   In our circumstances  the two forces, wind at 20 and current at just under a knot were near in balance.  This is not a problem long term as the tide will soon be rampaging up the Guadalquivir and the wind will soon be overcome.  Until then we are just sitting about waiting for the boat to settle down so we can set the anchor properly.

While we sit I will get in a quick blog.

The quick post on cell phones drew a lot of replies.  Most people feel similarly aggrieved by cell phone companies although the jury is hung on the issue of which side of the Atlantic the ripping off began.

Regardless it seems most of us have adopted the same solution: a host of baggies, each filled with a cell phone and labelled with the country where that cell phone works: Canada, USA, Bahamas, Portugal, Spain, Ireland (yes even in the midst of a potatoe famine the cell phone companies must eat).

For the benefit of the wonderful young lady who seemed just a bit offended that I did not find European cell phone companies to be vastly more wonderful than those in North American I will confirm that tonight we will call our family and save a bundle.

We will call and say to each child: "Call us back".

You see incoming calls on cell phones are free over here.  So now our kids have to pay for the call and it is free on our end.   Now that is an innovation I am growing used to.