To Sardinia

Monday
Wow, it’s just beautiful out here.  There’s no wind and no land as far as the eye can see, the water looks like someone has loosely rippled a sheet of silk, and boy is it hot!  It’s 200 NM from Trapani to our next intended port, so we should arrive there at midnight tomorrow if the wind doesn’t pick up, in which case we’ll either strive on or effect a different plan – approaching a new marina in the middle of the night is no-one’s preference.  We’ve seen so many turtles today, fabulous to find somewhere they’re clearly thriving; possibly because of the lack of human interference, it’s easy to imagine that we’re somewhere entirely untraversed.

Tuesday
This morning I found a cable tie in my hair, I have no idea when or how that got there.  We made it to Sardinia just after sunset; wind was up today, so I got to experience sleeping in the forepeak whilst beating into the wind – banana rides on the beachfront in Marbella have nothing on this.

To Corsica

Wednesday
We’ve lost a participant on the passage, and not overboard.  Coincidentally he also left his office job in June with the hope of becoming a cruising instructor.  It appears that the way we sail in the non competitive world (ie no wind = chuck the engine on and get to where we want to be!) just wasn’t for him.  Realising you need to go back isn’t a weakness, I’ve certainly never said I’ll never go back, and I can’t pretend this has been easy, but I’m not ready to concede just yet.  There’s still over 1,000 miles to go – perhaps we’ll meet my breaking point, and if we do perhaps I’ll be grateful that I’m not the first to raise the white flag.

Thursday
We left Sardinia with the intention of Corsica, and made it, just, before the thunder and lightning hit.  We didn’t make it any distance up the coast, we quite literally crossed between the islands and dove into the first port, parked up beside the big orange rescue boat (the lady in the marina office told me we could park “anywhere [we] like” which translated to “no-one is coming out to tell you where to park in THIS”) and then we spent the next couple of hours hiding from the storm in a bar.  To quantify the level of weather: the bar had brooms on chairs holding up the roof due to the weight of the rain coming down!

Friday
Bonjour from Bonifacio!  What a lovely place to hide from the mistral, it’s the calm after the storm – and how surprisingly comforting to be in French territory.  Communication over the last few days has been a bit complicated; my default now is limited Spanish, so whereas the Sardinians understand English perfectly, I’ve just ended up confusing everyone, then resorted to pointing and apologetic English anyway.  Plus Italian food has been a little limited in terms of Maddie friendly… even the rest of the crew are tired of pizza.  But today it’s all French language, food, wine and sunshine; quite content.

Saturday
Up the coast of Corsica, we’d hoped to make it across to mainland France – but the weather said no – it looks like we’ll be stuck in Corsica for another 24hrs yet, and then it’s 100 NM to the other side….  In terms of victualing, I have introduced my crew mates to three types of sheep’s cheese so far, a revelation, apparently!  A very good way to be remembered.  It’s getting colder now, thank goodness for salopettes; I dream of footless tights and kneehigh socks.

To be continued……

Total sailed: 531 NM