To Malta

Tuesday
My flight from Tenerife to Barcelona was rather amusing, somehow I was the only person in row 1 – the crew treated me as if I had my own private class – serving wine before trolley service commenced (I didn’t even ask) and at one point I had all four crew up with me chatting about sailing – sailing in general, their friends who sail, possibilies of pirates, etc….  Once left to my own devices I happened upon a margarita bar for the evening; we are potentially sailing from the point of my embarkment in Malta, who knows if yacht victualing included tequila.  Perhaps should have packed tequila.

Wednesday
Thunder and lightning saluted my arrival in Malta, grey skies reminiscent of the UK in September, and torrential rain such as Bristol friends will know well.  We are not sailing anywhere today, and the winds don’t seem to be favourable for the next 24hrs at least, so I may get to see a bit of Malta after all – perhaps should have packed wellies!

Thursday
Our first mission is locate the yacht we’re supposed to be sailing to Tenerife – oh yes, I’m on the wrong boat.  The yacht I’m on (albeit stationary at present) is also en route to Tenerife, but the one I should be on is 170 nautical miles away in Sicily; at an optimistic 5-6 knots that’s 30-36 hrs, and we still haven’t left Malta.  Today has been a bit more boat prep – I got to see a full and extensive engine service; two very experienced skippers in no particular rush meant there was time to explain the basics.  Definitely not in a hurry to do one on my own yet though.

To Sicily

Friday
We departed at first light and – victualing aside – all positive to report so far.  Skipper arranged a two hour on, six hour off, watch system which isn’t too taxing and the weather has been on our side; 10-18 knots of wind behind us, motor sailing in a general NNW direction.  My next watch is the 2-4am stint, and there’s a strict “no reading” policy; I may need to download some riddles.  On victuals, a miscommunication somewhere meant we left Malta with only partial provisions – this included water and lots of eggs, but no meat, fruit or veg, aside from three courgettes and three sad tomatoes, plus the fruit I’d brought myself….  The lack of a sea kettle (no tea!) did cause some very British mumblegrumbling, so is top of the list before the boat departs the next port.

Saturday
I awoke prepared to mutiny if my last apple had been purloined overnight; fortunately no mutiny required.  And since then we’ve arrived at our first port!  And I’ve had my first experience of walking a plank to embark/disembark, a little concerned of the precariousness at night and after a vino or two….  We are all now correctly affiliated with our yachts, and apparently my sailing knowledge, energy and organisational skills (bossiness?) are a win for my new crew, let’s see if these opinions remain the same over the next three weeks.

Sunday
Explored Trapani extensively and discovered it’s probably the only place in today’s world without an Irish pub, and it’s exceptionally difficult to locate somewhere serving eggs for breakfast; I realise most of my entries seem to be food related, but without the traditional working day and meetings to punctuate time, meals become important bastions.  We had intended to set off for Sardinia tomorrow at sunrise, however, in true European form (a birthday in the family of the man in charge) the fuel pontoon was closed today….  They’ve also swapped the yachts around on the pontoon, I almost just tried to board the wrong one, glad I popped back before dark!

To be continued……

Total sailed: 176 NM