April

4 April 2011

N 35 53.823 E 14 29.720

Valletta, Malta

Distance Traveled: 84.6 NM

Total time at Sea: 17 hrs

Sailed: 0 hrs Motored: 17 hrs

Weather: Sunny, calm. Barely a breath of wind the whole way

We had a very uneventful crossing over to Malta. We left at 15.30 on Saturday and arrived here early on Sunday morning. We saw some dolphins swimming around off Sicily and two came and swam at our bow for a few seconds before disappearing in to the depths of the sea. One good thing about no wind is that the boat travels relatively smoothly through the water so I could make dinner without food flying all over the place. I made hamburgers that we bought at the butchers' in the market in Siracusa with sautéed onion slices and thick mushroom slices on lovely toasted Italian bread. We had stars to light our way but no moon and the dew was amazing. The deck was drenched in the morning.

There was some commercial traffic during the night but no naval ships and there are just a few here on Malta at the moment: Maltese Naval ships, no foreign ships. We asked about it when we talked to the other cruisers who have been here all winter and they said that they really didn't notice anything unusual in terms of the Libya trouble. We are at the Msida Marina which is the same place we stayed on Liberty in 1976-77 but a lot has changed since then. Boats no longer moor on the quay, there are masses of pontoons instead so that more boats can be berthed here. There are about 500 boats in here. We are on the wall which is for guests. There are 2 live-aboards here. One boat is registered in Canada but the owners are a Russian family. The other is from New Zealand. Apparently there is no longer a live-aboard community here which is a shame because Malta is such a nice place to spend a winter.

Once we were settled in we took the bus to town which took all of 5 minutes and cost half a euro per person. The bus itself was a dilapidated Leyman which is typical for Malta. I don't think it could possibly pass a mechanical or environmental inspection in Europe but, just like the double deckers in London, the soul of a city sometimes trumphs common sense. There are a lot of new buildings; apartment buildings and hotels now so it's difficult to recognise the places we went to when we wintered here. Whimpies is gone. Had to talk to my sister Katy on the phone to get my bearings. Fort St Elmo is of course still very impressive and much the same. The Great Seige of Malta took place here in 1565 when the Knights of St John and the people of Malta held off the Ottoman attack. And the bombing during WWII, that rewarded the inhabitants of the city with the St George Cross, is still all present. We walked up and down the two main streets in Valletta; Merchant Street and Republic Street . It was Sunday so everything except some restaurants was closed. We did not manage to find any cafés with Wifi so will give it a go again this afternoon. Everything closes here at 12.00 and re-opens at 16.00; a good excuse for a siesta. Everyone speaks English which is a big plus:) Prices are relatively low compared to the rest of Europe and there is much to see. The big political debate just now is whether or not to allow married couples to divorce. Apparently, Malta is the only country in Europe where this is still illegal.

8 April 2011

N 37 30.250 E 13 04.676

Msida, Malta to Sciacca, Sicily

Distance Traveled: 139 NM

Total Time at Sea: 30 hrs

Sailed: 7 hrs 45 min Motored: 22 hrs 15 min

Weather: Sunny and clear, about 24C, very little wind until this morning around 11.00. Now it's blowing Beaufort 6 NW

We have had a lovely few days on Malta. The weather was sunny and warm and good for sightseeing; Valletta, St Elmo's fortress, Mdina; the ancient fortress and former capital city of Malta , and a walk down into the ancient catacombs of St Paul's church in Rabat. While wandering around Mdina, we found a tea garden along the fortress walls with a magnificent view out over the plains looking northeastwards to Valletta so we sat with the sun at our backs, sipped our tea and rested our weary feet. We traveled by bus which is the best way to get around Malta and costs only 47 cents per ride. It takes about 30 minutes to travel the 18 miles to Mdina from Valletta. Valletta is the main bus terminal so all buses go through there. On the way back to the boat we had to switch buses to get back to Msida so in between, took another walk about Valletta. It's a really lovely city, with all the yellow sandstone buildings and fortresses. The food is good, mainly international/Italian and reasonably priced. We bought a book about the Great Siege of Malta and now that I have just finished it, could really have used a few more days to examine the fortresses; St Elmo, St Angelo and St Michael. Will have to save it for the next time we go through. We had fun grocery shopping at a big supermarket that carried all the usual English products like marmite, shandies, crunchies and about 50 different types of bacon. If you've ever spent a winter in Turkey you will understand the impact of feasting one's eyes on bacon again.

On Tuesday evening we had drinks on board "Wired for Sound" with Pete (Kiwi) and Daniella. We were planning on leaving Malta on Wednesday morning but since the wind was howling for most of the day, Kiwi advised us to wait a day before sailing out into the Sicily straits as they can be treacherous in northwesterly winds which get the seas rolling and when the water narrows down to go through the straits, great big swells result making for a very uncomfortable trip. So we got an extra day in Malta for which I was very happy, and on Wednesday evening we invited Kiwi and Daniella aboard Roam for drinks. They are a very nice couple who were helpful in getting us uGrib files for the next few days' weather as our computer wireless has gone on the blitz. They are also one of the only 2 live-aboards in the marina. Kiwi is a retired doctor - in that capacity he served on the NZ crew on "Steinlager" that won the Whitbread round the world race - and Daniella is an architect whose specialty is illumination.

As we left the dock at dawn, I looked up and saw Kiwi standing on the stern of his boat smoking a cigarette and waving farewell to us. There was a good wind blowing, though not quite in our direction; it was NW. Once we cleared Marsamxett harbor, we put up the sails and headed north. We actually wanted to go northwest but the wind was from there so we decided to go north up close to Sicily and then tack and sail westwards. Several dolphins swam up to the bow of the boat and swam along with us for about 15 minutes. They were the big light gray ones. They always look so happy and playful and I love the way they turn and look upwards as they come alongside the boat. The swells were still pretty big but much smaller than they'd been on Wednesday. Our destination was Marsala on the western point of Sicily. As so often happens around here, the wind suddenly died when we were about 20 miles off the Sicilian southeast coast. This is the absolute pits because the swells are still on the move so as you motor, you roll a lot and lose speed every time the bow of the boat hits a wave head-on. Sailing tends to lift you along and you don't roll as much. We kept the main sail up but reefed so it wouldn't flap but still give a little bit of stability to the boat. So, this is what we did for the next 22 hours. It got smoother as the night wore on and by this morning the sea was almost flat. During the night a little wind came up for a while, helping us along and best of all, minimizing the rolling from the swells. There was quite a bit of commercial boat traffic; both during the day and at night. We also saw one sailboat which was a bit of a highlight for us. Haven't seen that in a long time.

At the end of one of my night watches, I suddenly saw splashing off the front of the boat. Then a dolphin surfaced right near the cockpit and was followed by about 4 more. They were easy to see in the dark because they set off swirls of phosphorescence as they swim which looks like blue neon streaks. They stayed with us for about an hour racing from one side of the boat to the other, jumping out of the water and then swimming under the bow. They were still around when Dan came up for his watch but took off when he started shining the flashlight on them. Duh.

Finally, at 11.00 the wind came up and we were able to turn off the engine and sail. JOY! It still wasn't exactly the direction we needed but felt so good to sail We checked the charts and could see that we wouldn't make Marsala before dark so looked around for another harbor to go to instead. Just 8 NM away and right in the direction we were sailing was the harbor of Sciacca (pronounced Shacka). It's filled with more fishing boats than we have ever seen in a harbor so guess that is one of the mainstays of the economy here together with the thermal springs with healthy properties for rheumatism and other ailments. These springs derive from the volcanic activity under the town. As we came in to the harbor, I called on the radio and was answered (unusual) and a man came out and directed us to a berth where he helped us tie-up.

We went to the office to register and were given jetons for the shower. Each jeton costs 1 € and gives just 20 liters of water. I asked for 4. Dan said "Don't be ridiculous, 20 liters is plenty of water, we only need one each". We got to our respective showers and I resolved to be damn quick as had to wash my hair which I knew would take nearly all the 20 liters I had allotted to me. I jumped into the shower, turned it on, shivered at the freezing water coming out of the nozzle, but stuck my head under anyway. Shut off, lathered up, soaped down and then rinsed. For the last 5 seconds the water got nice and hot and then it shut off. But I managed to get the shampoo out. Just then I heard a "Sh*=%¤!!!" in the shower on the opposite side of the wall. Dan's water had run out and he was all lathered up:) Sometimes I love the justice of the Gods. Once I was dry and dressed I ran back to the office to get a jeton for Dan which they gave me for free as I told them I had had no hot water. Dan finished his shower and we went back to the boat to read up on Sciacca from our brochure that we got at the office. It's a very nice brochure but the English sometimes gets a little goofy. For example, "Whatever the entry, all the main roads get to the sea. The places above mentioned are equipped with tourist sea-structures such as coffee bar, restaurants, etc. The sea is fishy in all the places." After the siesta hour, we took a walk to the town which is up on a cliff (protection from pirates). We climbed 160 steps to get to the old town, which put us onto an enormous piazza overlooking the harbor. The view was stupendous. The town itself is full of narrow streets and churches. There seems to be a chiesa on almost every street. We strolled around the town, found a butcher's market and bought salciccia and prosciutto for dinner.

10-12 April

N 39 12.080 E 09 07.581

Cagliari, Sardinia

Distance traveled: 252 NM

Time at sea: 57 hrs 32 min

Sailed: 40 hours Motored: 12 hours

Weather: Day 1: Sunny and clear with flat calm until 11.30, then Beaufort 5 WNW

Day 2: Beaufort 3 NE until 02.00 of Day 3.

Day 3: Beaufort 0-6 WSW. Last 2 hours of Day 3: Beaufort 6 N

We have had a very eventful sail from Sciacca, Sicily to Cagliari, Sardinia. We left Sciacca at 09.30 on Sunday morning. There was no wind, it was warm and sunny. We motored for 2 hours when the wind came up sufficiently to sail but it was from WNW which was basically the direction we were going. As we were close to the Sicilian coast, we had to tack a couple times in order to break free of her. It took all day and most of the night. For some reason we couldn't get any boat speed. Although the wind increased to Beaufort 5, we could only do 3.9 knots. Normally we would do about 5.5 knots. We could only surmise that unless we had a huge fish net on our keel, there must be a current against us. It was very frustrating as together with the wind we couldn't take a direct course to Sardinia. At times we were closer to Tunisia than Sicily or Sardinia. For dinner I heated up a casserole that I had made the day before. I winged it using Italian salciccia sausages, potatoes, aubergines, and mozzerella cheese. (It will appear on our recipe page).

We took turns on watch and sleeping which was a bit difficult because the waves and swells were rather large and sometimes Roam would yaw or crash down on a wave and the whole boat would shudder with the impact, waking one up. By 10.00 of Day 2, the skies were completely overcast, but the wind veered round to NE allowing us to fall off and start a direct course to Sardinia. We had Greek yoghurt with some honey for breakfast. Lunch was cup-a-soup. By mid-morning we noticed that our speed was more normal. It could well have been the current in the Sicilian Straits as we did not see a fish net trailing behind us. In the afternoon the skies cleared and it was warm in the cockpit. We gradually stripped down: first our foul weather gear, then the down jackets came off, and lastly the fleece sweaters and long underwear bearing our skin to bask in the sun. I sat looking out over the sea to starboard and suddenly saw a very tall fin. Dolphins! I thought. But no, the fin was too big. Then another fin appeared and another and a body rose up to the surface and dived down again. That was one hell of a big dolphin I thought. I called to Dan to check it out and suddenly there were at least 10 of them and they were swimming right for us. As they got a little closer I realized they were whales! A whole pod. We both fumbled around looking for Dan's iPhone to take a picture; meanwhile 3 of them swam right under the boat. Eeeks I thought, what if they knock us over? Of course, they weren't that big, maybe 2-3 meters. But there was one big one amongst them that was perhaps 6 meters long and it was pure white. It was really amazing. They didn't stay with us though, they seemed to be enroute somewhere. They just veered off their course to have a look at us and then continued south. We watched their fins meander off until they were lost to our sight. But who would have thunk it? Whales in the Med?

As the sun set, the cockpit lost the sun, due mostly to the sails in the way, so I made dinner of leftover linguine and chicken scaloppini and we took it to the bow of the boat where we could sit in the sun eating our dinner and watching the sun set. The wind had died down a bit and as it was on our beam, Roam was moving relatively flat through the water so it was a very peaceful comfortable ride.

Later, as we sat in the cockpit enjoying the onset of twilight, a little swallow came flying over us, looking for a place to land. We watched it fly around, start to hover over the spreaders, then change its mind and try to land on the mainsail, couldn't get any purchase there, so flew away, came back, hovered right over the cockpit and then darted down into the cabin.....and didn't come out again..... We both looked at each other. "What do we do now?" We know how panicky birds can get when they accidently fly into the house so we were reluctant to even put our heads in the hatchway to look around for it, afraid it would come flapping out and knock us in the head. So we sat there on either side of the hatchway. Finally, I, ever so slowly leaned forward and peered into the cabin to see if I could see it perched somewhere, but no luck. I leaned back and Dan slowly leaned forward to see what he could see. Nothing. We waited a while hoping it would fly out again. We figured it must have flown into the V-berth as it was nowhere in the main cabin. When it didn't come out after an hour, we decided that I would go down and just go about my business of getting ready for bed and see if I could surreptitiously see where it was without scaring it. Of course, brave Dan was sitting up in the cockpit all safe and out of the way, and telling me, "stop tip-toeing, just walk natural". How does one walk natural when one knows that a flapping bird can flutter all over my face any second? I did my best, looking all around while getting ready for bed, but still couldn't see it so once I was ready for bed, and after thoroughly checking to make sure it was not anywhere in my berth, or under my pillow, I just turned out the light, pulled the covers up over my head for protection and went to sleep.

Dan woke me for my watch at 23.00. He reported that the swallow had not been sighted, but that lots of dolphins had been swimming by the boat with brilliant streaks of neon phosphorescence lighting them up in the darkness. Made them look like torpedoes coming for the boat. The wind had died so we took in the genoa, left the main up, reefed, and started the engine. Dan went down to sleep and I made myself some hot chicken broth and started my watch. We use auto-pilot when we motor, so I didn't have to steer, just check the compass every now and then and look out for boats. Dan had had to come about to avoid a fishing boat while I was sleeping, but on my watch there were only 2 boats and they were far away, so no worries. A couple dolphins surfaced near the boat, but they didn't stay. Sometimes they just swim up, surface to have a look at us, then satisfied, swim off again. At 02.00 Dan came up for his watch and I went to sleep. Still no sign of the swallow. Now I was thinking that maybe when it flew into the V-berth, it saw the overhead hatch and thought it was an open hole to fly through and slammed into the glass and

killed itself. Ugh, that would be so sad.

We continued our watches and when I was up in the cockpit watching the new day come to light (it was overcast so no sunrise that I could see) around 07.00 in the morning, the swallow suddenly came fluttering out of the cabin past me and took off all energized and ready to continue his travels, who knows where. What a relief! Felt very happy that we had been able to accommodate him but still wonder where he slept.

The wind came up from the SW so I pulled out the genoa and turned off the engine, set the wind pilot and then sat back and had a cup of coffee while I waited for Dan to come up at around 09.00. We had wraps with cheese and hardboiled eggs for breakfast.

As we were eating, a bunch of dolphins came racing towards us, jumping out of the water and darting every which way, playing with each other. It was really lovely. I counted 9 of them. This time we got Dan's iPhone going and took a video of them. They stayed with us, playing and swimming at our bow for about half an hour. Then some more came and they all took off somewhere else.

Our last visitor on this trip was a woodpecker. Who knows how it got out here at sea, maybe blown by the wind? It was a beautiful bird with red head, yellow breast and yellow/black striped wings. It hovered around us looking for a place to land and nearly landed on the rescue buoy on the stern of the boat but then something moved in the wind and he got scared so flew off towards Tunisia.

The wind increased to Beaufort 5-6, the sun came out and it was warm in the cockpit again. We took another reef in the main to steady our ride and were still doing 5.5-6.5 knots as we entered Cagliari Gulf. It was very hazy so even though we knew land could only be 10 NM away, we couldn't see anything until we got right up close. The wind died down to nothing so we lowered the sails and started motoring in to Cagliari. When we were about an hour outside, we saw wind whipping up the sea up ahead of us and reached us at Beaufort 6 from North, right on our nose. The strength of the wind sank our speed from 5 knots to 3.5 knots. We couldn't figure it out. Where did this come from? Then it dawned on us; we are back in Mistral waters.

Even in the harbor, the wind was positively howling and I was glad that I wasn't at the helm steering Roam into a berth. Dan does it so confidently and smoothly. There are 3 marinas placed nearly on top of each other here making it difficult to see which marina is which. We chose St Elmo's because, according to Rod Heikell, it had the best facilities, and hailed them on the radio. They answered right away and sent a RIB boat out to lead us in to a berth. We told him we wanted to lie bow-to-the-dock and with our bow to the wind. But he kept motioning us to berths that were the opposite. As we were circling around shouting to the harbormaster and telling him where we wanted to be, a couple men came out from the docks nearby waving beer cans around and said "Svenskar?" I nodded Yes and then they said, "Come and berth over here, it's half the price!" By now, it was impossible to ditch the guy in the RIB boat as he was being very helpful and had gone to a great amount of trouble to come out into the mistral to help us, so I just waved politely back to them and shook my head. We finally got to berth where we wanted, though he was reluctant to give it to us because it was on the pontoon reserved for big boats. Anyway, we got all tied up and I went up to the harbormaster's office figuring this was going to cost a bomb because this was a really nice marina with a bar on a lovely terrace with wicker armchairs and parasols, etc. The showers are really nice, there's a washing machine and dryer too. But in the end it only cost 16 Euros per night for our 29 feet of sailboat.

We took showers, had a whisky before dinner, called the girls and then went to bed. So far have not found any bird droppings, anywhere:)

Next day was a provisioning day. The mistral continued to blow but the sun was shining and out of the wind, it was a nice day. I also took the opportunity to do a long-overdue laundry. We met up with some very nice people that we had drinks with up on the terrace of the marina. One couple was from Norway and the other couple was from the US. The Americans were friends of our friends from Marmaris; Giovanni and Roberta Dilallo. They had wintered on Sardinia and were on their way back to the US. The Norwegians were retired and sailed seasonally in the Med.

On the 14th, we went in to buy an Italian SIM for our computer, and found an espresso coffee cooker for just 10 Euros at a grocery store. I had been looking for one since Turkey, but found them too expensive. So very happy to find this one. In the afternoon we took a run along the coast, and then in the evening strolled around the old town looking for a restaurant that Mom told us about, but when we found the piazza, the restaurant was no longer there, and ended up at a nice fish restaurant for dinner instead. I really wanted to have clam pasta, but due to the weather the fishermen had not been out so no fresh fish. We ended up having vegetarian pasta.

When we got back to Roam, we stowed things away and prepared for sailing early next day.

18 April 2011

N 39 53.256 E 04 16.563

Marina Mahon, Mahon, Menorca

Distance Travelled: 230 NM

Total Time at Sea: 50 hrs 6 min.

Sailed: 46 hrs Motored: 4 hrs 6 min

Weather: High pressure system moved in pushing thunder showers east over Sardinia. We sailed right on the edge so avoided all but a few drops of rain. Barometer rose steadily and we had good winds; about Beaufort 4-5 all the way ranging from NNW-E

Day 1: The day started out beautifully sunny, but we soon saw the threatening clouds approaching from the north. We got all sails up and went as fast westwards as we could in order to avoid a big thunderstorm system moving from NW to SE over Sardinia. We were on the edge of it for about 4 hours but finally broke free with only a few drops of rain on our deck. For most of the day and night we were beating to weather with 2 meter swells, but during the night the wind went over to NE and the seas calmed down somewhat. I had made spaghetti bolognese for dinner and just had to warm it up. We had a full moon to navigate by which always makes the night sailing more friendly somehow.

Day 2: Sunny skies, chilly wind. We continued with NE winds and Beaufort 4. Saw masses of strange little critters in the water. They looked almost like butterflies, but were totally transparent with a wing that looked like a bubble-shaped sail with little silver center. They are about 3-5 cm in length. We looked them up in our pilot book and found that they are a kind of jelly fish called Vilella, or By-the-wind-sailor. Very nasty sting if you touch one. We didn't see anything else all day, not a boat, not a plane, not a dolphin, Nada. For dinner we had leftover spaghetti. The night was very nice with a steady Beaufort 3-4 wind from NE and the swells were much lower now so we sailed smoothly through the night.

Day 3: Sunny skies again, a bit warmer, and the wind went over to East in the early hours of the morning so we re-set our sails with the genoa on port and the main on starboard. We arrived in Mahon on the island of Menorca at about 10.00 and found a nice marina, Marina Mahon and settled in. On the way in I was able to locate the bay that we anchored in on Liberty by recognizing the dinghy dock and apartment buildings.

Marina Mahon has floating pontoons, good shelter, deep in a Cala so there is protection from wind and seas all around.

Once we had everything cleaned up, we took a walk in to town. Mahon is a very lovely town, set high above the port with plenty of greenery, shops and markets. Our first stop was Vodafone to get a Spanish SIM so we can connect to Internet. Vodafone Spain is not as streamlined as Italy, Greece and Turkey. It was cheaper to buy a SIM in a new USB stick than to just buy the SIM. Go figure. Anyway, they gave us a pink one and you can believe Dan had issues with that. Anyway, it turned out that we could put the SIM in our white stick so he was happy again. Now we have 2 weeks of internet in Spain. On the way back to the boat we stopped at a market and bought 2 big steaks and salad for dinner.

20 April 2011

N 39 33.952 E 02 38.050

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Distance Travelled: 105 NM

Total Time at Sea: 23 hrs 21 min

Sailed: 17 hrs Motored: 6 hours

Weather: Cloudy, 17C. Wind: Beaufort 2-3 NE/E

We left Mahon a bit regretfully yesterday at 11.30. It's such a pretty place that we would have liked to stay and explore some more, but we have a deadline so moved on. Our Grib files show bad weather coming on Wednesday night so we set a course for the SE corner of Mallorca. We had a very unpleasant sail for most of the way as the wind was too light for the size of the swells running. So we tossed and rolled, the sails banged back and forth and we could only do 3 knots. The wind totally gave up at about 23.00 so we started the motor for a few hours, till the wind came up again at 04.30. Neither one of us felt like dinner as we were a bit queasy from the rolling Roam was doing. We survived on chicken broth and Chinese noodles.

We rounded Mallorca’s SE corner at about 05.00. The swells disappeared and we were sailing along at 5.5 knots on smooth seas. Bliss! It was still dark out so we adjusted our plan and pushed on for Palma which was only another 20 NM. It was a beautiful sail along the south coast and we were able to see more and more as the sun rose and revealed the high cliffs of Mallorca. Palma is at the end of a very large bay and it took about an hour to get there once we came into the bay. We watched planes landing and taking off at the local airport and had to maneuver around coming and going ferries. We only lowered our sails and put the motor on after we had sailed through the break walls at 10.30. The marina at Palma is ginormous, and the boats/ships! We've never seen so many huge sailing boats and motor cruisers. Even St Tropez can't compare to this! We stared in awed silence as we slowly motored through looking for a berth. Felt kind of silly mooring next to one of these monsters which made Roam look like the other boat's tender. As we neared the end of the basin we got on the VHF radio and called Club Nautica and they came out in a RIB boat and showed us to a berth for normal sized boats. It's a lovely marina, bustling with activity; there are a lot of charter boats here and a regatta started today and is running all through the weekend. There are 14 sailboats participating in the Palma Vela regatta. The boats are different sizes, but most are about 90 feet and sleek as can be. You can forget carrying those sail bags up and down by hand, they need at least 3 guys to haul them.

We went up to the office with our papers, and were happily surprised to learn that it only costs us 19 Euros per day including water, electricity, showers and laundry room. Not bad compared to Mahon, Menorca at 34 EUR/d. Once we had registered, we took a walk in to town. Palma is a really lovely city; very cosmopolitan and with plenty of old buildings and Plane trees, Palm trees, and flowers lining the streets and boulevards. We found a Tapas restaurant in a square, as we noticed we were quite hungry, and sat down for a well earned beer, some tapas and watched all the activity in the square.

Most stores will be closed tomorrow, Friday, and Sunday for the Easter Holiday so we managed to do some shopping before we headed back to Roam, including our Easter Candy.

On Friday we took it easy, strolled around the town, went to the Cathedral, had sangria with our lunch and watched the racing boats coming and going.

25 April 2011

N 37 35.834 W 00 58.783 (Notice: We are now on the west side of the meridian line!)

Cartagena, Spain

Distance Travelled: 229 NM

Time at Sea: 47 hrs 44 min

Sailed: 31 hrs 29 min Motored: 16 hrs 15 min

Weather: Overcast, rain, stormy, winds: Beaufort 1-6 E and NE

Day 1: We left Palma de Mallorca on Saturday, 23/6. It was sunny and warm as we motored out of the marina and across the bay. Once we rounded the lighthouse on the west side of the bay, we raised our sails and set off towards Ibiza. We had a few hours of lovely sailing, laying out on deck in the sun and reading our books and eating our Easter candy that we bought in Palma. By tea time we felt sick from the candy and the wind had died so we put the motor to work. Motored until dinner time and then got some wind to sail again, but it was slow going. After 2 hours we gave up and motored again. Dinner was risotto and Spanish sausage which we ate in the cockpit. We ran our usual watches and passed by the north side of Ibiza at about midnight. The sky was clear and all stars were out and shining up the night.

I saw lots of shooting stars. A half moon came up around 03.00 in the morning. Dan had dolphins on his watch, but I was all alone for mine, except for 5 sailboats going the opposite direction; towards Palma. Sailboat lights look so strange at night. First one thinks it's just a star, but then it starts bobbing around and suddenly you realise, "it's a sailboat!" as it passes silently by and disappears into the night. Anyway, it was nice to have company for once. This is the first time we have seen other sailboats out and about since we left Marmaris.

Day 2: The day dawned on overcast skies, thunder heads all around and chillier temperatures. The wind came up around 08.00 and we set our sails. It was from the NE so we were going directly down wind. We put the main on port and the genoa on starboard using the spinnaker boom. I went down to take a nap around 11.00 and when I came up again at 13.00, the seas had turned a nasty blue/gray and swells had increased drastically. The wind was up to about 20 knots and we were flying, doing 7-8 knots. We reduced sail by taking in the genoa totally and double-reefing the main. Even so, once this was done, we were still doing about 5-6 knots. Nelson had a bit of trouble due to the big swells which threw him off balance so we took turns steering for a while. We then changed course by about 15 degrees which made for a smoother ride and Nelson could take over steering again. The waves were really freaky. The big rolling swells came from the north but there was another cross-swell from the east that made sharp steep waves that broke with masses of foam, rising up behind us with a roaring noise and cresting right behind our stern before Roam lifted herself up and let them break underneath her keel. She managed to keep her bow up when necessary so we did not get wet, except for once when a cresting wave dumped its contents into our cockpit and over us. We were very happy to have our thick plastic door covering the hatch down into the boat. Everything inside stayed nice and dry.

The rain started at about 16.00 and it rained off and on all the rest of the afternoon and all night. We got soaked and it was really cold. Every once in a while Roam would yaw uncontrollably and we would have to steer manually for a bit and then reset Nelson. We find that without any light for guidance it is very difficult to steer a good course. Nelson does a far better job. At 20.53 we passed the Prime Meridian and our longitude is now West instead of East. We honored the occasion by taking a photo of the GPS when it hit E 000 00.000. This was no easy feat as one of us had to make sure the GPS backlight stayed on while the other had to hold the camera. Both of us were using the other arm to hold ourselves steady in the rollicking seas. But we got it.

There was a lot of commercial boat traffic during the night. Dan, being the gentleman that he is, insisted on staying topside while I sat below and monitored the ships with our AIS, calling them on the radio to make sure they saw us. AIS (Automatic Identification System) is wonderful because it shows where the boat is on our electronic chart on our computer in relation to our position and also gives information about the ship; whether it's cargo, passenger or sailboat, what course, position, and speed it has and also its name so we can hail them on the radio. There was a cruise ship going to Tangiers, a passenger vessel (ferry) going to Barcelona, and about 10-12 freighters. They are all generally good with sailboats, changing course to stay clear of us, or going around. All answer our calls on the radio which is nice. The AIS sets off an alarm when any boat gets to within 1 NM of us (just in case we didn't already see it). The only boats that don't seem to use their AIS are the commercial fishing boats and they move about very erratically so it's always a bit nerve-wracking when we identify them by their lights. They don't move for anyone and sometimes have long nets out behind trawling. We had tea, Swedish hardbread and tube cheese for dinner as neither one of us felt like eating much.

Day 3: Dawn came very late this morning; 07.00 due to all the cloud cover and it was still raining. Dan had been up in the cockpit most of the night and was absolutely drenched, right down to his long underwear. I took over at 03.00 so he could go down and get into dry clothes and rest. He had just removed his lifejacket and was examining the chart when a loud hiss, such as a car tire would make if punctured, was heard in the cabin. Dan looked around frantically trying to locate the cause. Check fire extinguisher, check gas line to stove......and there it was; his inflatable life jacket had fallen off the table and gone off by itself. Phew!! But also bummer because now he can't use it until he gets a new gas-inflater so that it can be re-packed and worn again. Not so sure these lifejackets are worth the trouble. Later on while Dan was sleeping we rounded Cabo de Palos and headed west towards Cartagena. The wind was still about 20 knots but more off our beam now, so I pulled out the genoa half-way and sheeted in the main. I got a bit more than I bargained for as we were screaming along at 7.5 knots even with all the reefing. I debated pulling in the genoa again, but figured I would not have the strength to get it in and would wake Dan up with all my struggling so just latched my safety harness to the cockpit and held on. Once it got light, I thought things would look better, but they didn't. It was totally overcast, raining and though the swells had abated somewhat, the wind was still up there at 20 knots. We had to motor the last hour in to Cartagena as we had to turn directly into the wind to make the harbor. We were very relieved to tie up and get all our wet clothes off. As soon as we were secure, we made baked beans, fried eggs and sausages for breakfast with 2 big mugs of caffe latte, made with our new Italian espresso cooker:) This was not an enjoyable sail by any means, but we are very happy to know that Roam handles rough seas so well. In fact, even though things seemed a bit violent up in the cockpit, down below, things were very calm and quiet so sleeping was no problem. Nelson also did a super job steering given the challenges he faced with the 3 meter waves and rogue waves that I swear were close to 4 meters high. Sometimes a wave would lift us up and I would stare down into the deep abyss that we were momentarily perched on, but Roam let us down gently. I try not to look behind us as following waves always look much worse from behind. But you can always hear the big ones coming as the crown growls loudly as it collapses on its way towards us. Dan would watch them and look at me saying "here comes a big one!"

Brrrrrr, glad it's over!

27 April 2011

Cartagena, Spain

Weather: Sunny, light wind from East, 15C at 08.00

We have had a lovely 2 days in Cartagena. The marina was very nice, not expensive

and had all the facilities including a laundry room. The cost to do one load of wash and dry is 8 Euros. Remember that in Turkey I just handed my laundry over to be washed dried and folded nicely for 5 Euros....

It rained almost all day the first day we got here. After our delicious breakfast of fried eggs, baked beans and sausage, we collapsed on each sofa and read or slept for the entire morning. In the afternoon around 15.00 we went out to check out the town. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the main shopping street which is very nice with stone tiles; no cars allowed. There were really nice shops and a few restaurants and cafés. We were looking for a supermarket and finally found it at the end of the shopping street but it was closed for siesta until 17.30. It had started to rain again so we went back to the marina and talked to the harbormaster who gave us a map and told us where we could find several supermarkets within walking distance. One was Carrefour, aka grocery shopper's mecca. Off we went as soon as the rain stopped. It was about 2 km but worth every step as it was huge and had everything. I went into my usual supermarket trance as soon as we walked through the doors. Suddenly I had all the time in the world and wanted to browse and look at every item in the place. Dan, on the other hand, is apparently not susceptible to the trance and he was constantly pushing me along and asking, "right, what's next on the list?" Or a very irritated "That's not on the list!". We got through and thanks to our little trolley bag we were able to get everything packed down and started the trek back to the boat. We saw beautiful parks, tree lined boulevards and avenues and cleanliness everywhere.

The marina itself is clean and nice but there is not really a waterfront life. The fishing port is separate from the marina so you don't see the traffic from their comings and goings. Along the waterfront they have built a modern museum and a gigantic conference center is in the works. Apparently, cruise ships are on the increase and the city is determined to accommodate the ships and the tourist influx. We are just now leaving the marina and heading towards Gibralter. Not sure how far we will get; weather looks good for today and tomorrow but on Friday a storm is coming through so we need to be somewhere safe. As we motor out a tall ship is on its way in.

28 April 2011

30 April 2011

N 36 21.341 W 05 13.842

Marina Duquesa, Spain

Distance Travelled: 87.3 NM

Total Time at Sea: 21 hrs 29 min

Sailed: 6 hrs 29 min Motored: 14 hours

Weather: Rain, thunder/lightning, winds Beaufort 0-6 WSW, about 18C

We thoroughly checked our Grib files and some additional weather sites which showed light winds, less than 10 knots from NW. Although it was going to rain quite a bit, we decided that a night run of 90 NM to Gibraltar would be fine. We generally don't like the idea of motoring all the way but since the weather was going to worsen over the next few days, we decided to make a run for it. We left the dock at Marina del Este at 18.00, with our cockpit tent up to keep us dry. It has windows front, sides and back, so actually worked out even better than we had expected. We could see objects like boats, lighthouses, and land perfectly well. The first few hours were fine, no waves so smooth motoring. We'd had a big brunch so dinner was just a ham sandwich and some soup. We were actually quite pleased with our set-up, sitting in our slippers up on the cockpit bone dry as it rained outside. Around midnight, the rain increased to a downpour, and I saw lightning up ahead of us. It was infrequent; every 18 to 20 minutes a flash would light up the sky.

At about 02.00 the wind came up from WSW. We noticed it because the boat started rocking and rolling from the increasing waves. Our speed slowed from 4.5 knots to 1.2-2.5 knots. What started out as a quick motor run turned into a slog. The bow ducked under every now and again and water rushed over Roam's decks. This always put the brakes on and put us down to around 1 knot in speed. By 07.30 in the morning we were making such poor headway that we put out the genoa, turned off the motor and started tacking our way towards Gibraltar. We had to decide to run only with the genoa with the cockpit cover on, or with main sail up and no cockpit cover. (The main sheet will not allow the cockpit tent to be up when sailing ). We chose to be dry. The wind steadily increased to Beaufort 6 and at 14.00 so we gave up trying to get to Gibraltar and headed for Marina Duquesa instead which was easier to reach on a NW tack. It's about 20 NM north of Gibraltar. It's a cute place, purely tourist-geared and English tourists at that. There's an English restaurant, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and a Grill restaurant. Everything but Spanish... The buildings are all white stucco with pretty balconies and red tiled patios. The marina has all the necessary facilities which is nice for us. I stocked up on British magazines and newspapers to check out the Royal Wedding photos of Kate And William. Had cocktails in the cockpit and immersed myself in the wedding and to Dan's dismay have loads of new ideas for Caroline’s weddingJ

The weather forecast is pretty much the same weather though the wind tomorrow will be from the East so will make the run down to Gibraltar easy. (Famous last words....)

1 May 2011

N 36 08.946 W 05 21.304

Bay Marina, Gibraltar

Distance Travelled: 20.9 NM

Total Time at Sea: 4 hrs 35 minutes

Sailed: 3 hrs 35 min Motored: 1 hr

Weather: Overcast, rain. Wind Beaufort 3 NE

The rain started coming down as we left the marina at Duquesa. We had our cockpit tent up and used just the genoa to sail on. Had a good sail to the Rock of Gibraltar which we rounded and then started the motor to make our way up to the marina.

The Rock was partially covered in a thick cigar-like cloud the whole time. As we got closer, we had to weave in and out of anchored tankers and could see more detail in the rock. In holes or caves, buildings were nestled. Can't think how they get to them as the cliff-face is quite sheer. But assume there is a tunnel system in there. All in all it was a pretty impressive sight. Inside the bay there were more tankers at anchor to avoid and the strangest gusts and fall winds caused by the Rock so we felt it safest to take in the genoa and motor the rest of the way.

We arrived in Bay Marina at about 15.00 and had to clear customs. I reminded the harbour master that we were members of EU, but he said, doesn't matter, everyone has to clear customs. It was a simple formality; passports, boat papers and fill out a form and then all was done. The marina is just 5 minutes from the main square in Gibraltar and has all the facilities we need. 45 minutes after our arrival, the harbour master called out from the dock “Would you please lower the Spanish courtesy flag and raise your UK courtesy flag?”. Normally, the rule is “within 24 hours”, but they seemed to be very proprietary over their courtesy flag so we complied with haste.

We celebrated the achievement of the first of our goals for 2011; reaching Gibraltar by May 1st. We are very happy that even with all the bad weather we have had, we have been able to get here on schedule. Now we can relax a bit and enjoy the Spanish Atlantic coast and Portugal.