I have a few friends staying at half term in February and then in March in the Ionian. April I am hoping to get the yacht out of the water for a few weeks to work on then start sailing again.
On 9th Dec my crew John and Michael joined for this epic voyage. Left Mallorca,
Puerto Portal for Cagliari in the Southern tip of Sardinia a distance of 373.1
nautical miles started at 0630 hrs on Saturday 11th and sailed to a point just
south of an island called Cabrera and then was to take an easterly course to
Cagliari. However the winds were against us and increasing in ferocity.
Eventually due to time constraints motored to Cagliari experiencing various
delights and some seasickness amongst crew. Sunsets and sunrises, sailing at
night with just the stars to accompany our thoughts. Looking for other ships at
night. This part of the voyage took us through 11th, 12th and 13th arriving in
Cagliari Port at 2100 hrs (9 o’clock in the evening). After looking at the
weather we decided to leave on the 14th at 1517 hrs (3 o’clock in the afternoon)
from Cagliari to Marsala on the west coast of Sicily. Once again the wind had
changed to a SE direction which of course was our direction of travel, typical,
but fresh winds gave us a great chance to sail through the night next day and
night beating to windward - absolutely fabulous experience and good speeds.
However the winds increased to 28 - 37 knots, force 7 to 8 near gale to gale
very exhilarating, but my poor boat did take some bashing as the wind was
against us. Due to the weather the sea state was heavy with 3 to 4 meter wave
heights and very choppy. So as should be the case I decided to look after the
crew and stayed on the helm all day obviously getting wet. The all weather
clothes (that I did not expect to use) worked very well. However the skiing
gloves were not very waterproof. Still the water was quite warm. We sailed from
the 14th through the 15th fantastic sailing again with star lit nights and lots
of ships including fishing boats passing in various directions. One incident was
when I was in the heads and realised that his precious boat was changing course
in a very rapid motion and then the engine slowed considerably, I THOUGHT BLIMEY
MUTINY AMONGST THE CREW. However once on deck found out that the Italians must
still be at war as a fishing boat decided to switch its lights off and practice
ramming or maybe he was a Roman. We lived. Another incident was that the depth
on our course reached between 1900 and 2500 metres deep and suddenly we were
recording 12 to 17 meters on the depth gauge and a very positive sounding.
However your mind tends to imagine things like Jaws swimming just below -
probably fancied the look of the sleek lines of my beautiful yacht. We
eventually arrived on 16th at 1630 hrs in the Port of Marsala, Sicily with a SE
gale blowing - The Marina gave us good shelter even in the SE early. However
during the night the wind changed to a NW and at Gale force. You would say no
problem it has good sea walls. No such luck: the harbour is very long and the
roughest mooring to date. Spending most of my time changing various mooring
lines and fendering to protect my precious girl. I had a great birthday with my
crew spoiling me with a big profiterole cake and then a fabulous meal at an
upper class hotel just opposite the marina. Due to the weather and
time
constraints the crew have decided to abandon ship in mid passage so I had to
sail the rest of the way on my own. Not a problem. The crew were magnificent
looking after the captain. They have stated that they expect to see me in six
months time wearing a ponytail, parrot on my shoulder and an eye patch on one of
my eyes (not sure which one yet, might change it from eye to eye to confuse
everyone). So far the miles travelled have been 670 nautical miles. I arrived in
Malta sailing single handed for 32 hours and had some very interesting and
testing times. All problems surmounted so I am feeling rather proud of myself.
Malta is fantastic the weather over the last few days has been very hot and
sunny in my shirtsleeves. Peter Fox (66-71)