To Cartagena

Monday
We have commenced our longest passage to date; approx 280 NM, at between 5 and 6.5 knots this is going to take at least two days.  A later than planned foray into Barcelona last night – the boat show meant it took two hours to negotiate somewhere to park – led to a slow start this morning.  But we’re off in a fashion, and we hope to be in Gibraltar at the weekend.  It’s grey and gloomy, not much tanning going on here, tis still the season for sallopettes!

Tuesday
Watch pattern has changed so my night watch is now the midnight to 2am, the occasional cargo ship on the AIS and an astute look out for solo sail yachts, those little guys seem to like to point at us while their skipper is sleeping – and we only see their nav lights when they’re about ten mins off our bow.  Cue a hasty call on VHF CH 16…..  Daylight hours colregs are fun too, today we had a sequence of collision course situations with cargo vessels ten times our size; and just as we decided to “stand on” with one we caught a tuna, whilst being informed by the AIS that our closest point of approach with said cargo ship was 200 ft…. that’s not very far.

Wednesday
We have crossed the East / West meridian, and made it to Cartagena!  Add these together and we’re over halfway to Tenerife; you’ll notice that it looks like we’re going to do more than 1,600 miles on this trip, I needed 1,400 on top of what I had already and I knew I’d get a bit more than that.  Looks like I’ll get a lot more!

To Gibraltar

Thursday
Our stay in sleepy Cartagena was unexpectedly evenful; our fellow yacht experienced engine failure upon entering the marina and had to drift to a point at which she could be dragged into a berth.  And you recall that white flag from Sardinia?  It returned.  We have lost someone from our boat, so we’re also a man down and a watch each up for the next leg and potentially the rest of the passage.  Once the situation was confirmed – white flag was waved secretly, via a stealth encampment in a hotel, whilst the rest of us were having dinner – we approached it as sensible adults with a 40 hour sail ahead; we drank all the wine.

Friday
A slow day at sea.  We have five hours to waste to ensure we arrive in Gib when the port is open – cue discussion as to whether to detour via the Costa Del Sol for lunch – but good news: the sun has come out to play!  We also have migrating birds stopping on the boat for a rest, the fishing line out the back (although a tuna stole our winning lure), dolphins coming to say hello (spooky at night!), snoozing pilot whales, and boats operating in stealth mode to keep things interesting.

Saturday
Whether you do Comp Crew, Day Skipper, Coastal or Yachtmaster you do many, many manoverboard practices, and you hope that you’ll never, ever need to put them into play.   What they don’t tell you is that in real life it’s probably not going to be due to the boom clonking you on the head during an uncontrolled jibe, or topling over whilst flaking the main at the mast in hectic weather; it’s far more likely to be when you’re hanging off the pushpit pulling in a tuna, or leaning over to get the hosepipe on solo watch because the dog has peed in the cockpit….  On that note, we’re safely in Gibraltar, no MOB procedures required.

To be continued……

Total sailed: 1,366 NM