Fun in Arbatax

We're having a great time in Arbatax, but we're without Internet; thus, no blog entries. But not to worry.

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Northbound on the east coast of Sardinia

We left Cagliari yesterday at noon, a day later than originally planned, but we now have two mostly full propane tanks and two Camping Gaz tanks, one mostly empty and the other mostly full, so we're set for awhile in that area.

On our way to our first anchorage, we had unexpectedly strong winds and were able to shut the engine off for a few hours and sail. We were making almost 8 knots for awhile on the jib alone. (We thought about raising the main sail, but it's a lot of work, and the winds are very changeable, so we didn't bother.) All that wind raised some swell, and we continued past our intended anchorage because it would have been too rolly. Instead we found a very pretty and isolated nook on the north side of Capo Ferrata. We still had some swell, but it wasn't too bad. It bothered John and Marzen more than it did me.

The last thing I did before we left the marina was stop at the office to ask them to e-mail me if our missing package of mail showed up. Once we were settled in the marina, John picked up our e-mail messages, and there was one from the marina. Our package had arrived. We were probably still in the harbor when it was delivered because we stopped for fuel on our way out, but now we're going back for it--just not by boat. We're going to go into the marina at Arbatax tomorrow and rent a car to drive back to Cagliari. At least we'll also get a chance to see a little more of Sardinia.

After that we have two more anchorages picked out before we do the passage across to Ostia (the port for Rome). We hope that we'll be able to see our friends on Islay Mist who are southbound from Corsica to Sicily. They're going to try to find us in one of our anchorages, so I'm keeping them informed of our change in plans too.

The weather is good, and the scenery is beautiful. John's trying to catch some mackerel along the way.

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Cagliari, Italy

Most of the boat chores are done, but we’re going to spend an extra night because our propane tanks won’t be ready to pick up until this afternoon. It’s supposed to rain today, anyway, although from the skies this morning, that’s hard to imagine. Still, one thing we’ve learned about the Mediterranean is that the weather changes very rapidly.

The Marina di Sant’ Elmo has been a disappointment, but maybe our expectations were too high based on a letter in one of the Commodores’ Bulletins from the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA). Different cruisers experience places differently; we know that. We do get a 10% discount as members of SSCA, but the very nice staff of the marina hasn’t been all that helpful on some specific questions such as Internet or WiFi access and the propane tank question. And some things have changed since the other cruisers were here making it a little confusing since we don’t know Italian. I’ll send an update to the SSCA.

Meanwhile, we have found an Internet café in the city center (Lamari, Via Napoli 43, www.lamarinternetcafe.com), but it’s a little expensive, so there will be delay before I get this posted because I’m writing it on the boat. And we have nice neighbors here at the dock. On one side is a French boat from Brittany, Tamanu, that is finishing a circumnavigation. On the other side is a Dutch boat with Jan and Josee, who say they’ve been following us since Sollyer, Mallorca. As it turns out, they were also in Lagos when we passed through and stopped in Cartagena this spring before we left.

Today we’re going to do some provisioning and maybe some sightseeing, as well as finish up some of our chores. As often happens, taking care of boat stuff and basic needs consumes much of our time.

P.S.—As I post this, the weather still looks good, so we're planning a barbecue this evening with our Dutch neighbors. We're providing the tuna, of course.

Two tuna and 53 hours later

We're in Italy, well, Sardinia. For anyone else making the passage from Menorca to Sardinia: 7-9 p.m. seems to be dinnertime for tuna. That's about the time we got the hits, and I also noticed dolphin then. I guess John did a post about catching the first tuna, but I haven't seen it yet.

The people at Marina di Sant Elmo are nice, so far, but it's a bit of a challenge communicating with them. It isn't the language; we're managing with that. They rarely answer e-mail, though, and the phone number in the Mediterranean Almanac and the Italian Waters Pilot doesn't work. (I got the Italian equivalent of not functioning.) The number on the key fob they gave us is +39 (0) 70 344 156. In the SSCA Bulletin letter on the marina, that's their fax number. I haven't checked it to see if it actually works.

It took three tries on VHF Channel 74 to get a response. By then, the marina's dinghy was next to the boat, and they guided us in and helped us with our lines. We had no problems with our first Mediterranean mooring experience, so that was a relief. There's no Internet here, and we walked into town where we were told we could get Internet, and there wasn't any there either. It's Sunday, so we'll see if the regular weekday office staff has any better information. If not, we may have to do without for the duration of our stay here. We have a whole list of chores to take care of while we're at the dock, but we also hope to do some sightseeing.

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Another Day Another Tuna

Caught another tuna today. With less than half of yesterday's tuna eaten we will stop fishing for now. Should make Sardinia tomorrow afternoon.

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Fresh Tuna Pan Seared with Lemon and Soy Sauce

We caught a tuna just before sunset today. Had a quick bite tonight. Tomorrow we'll have more. Good thing I didn't thaw the hamburger.

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Underway to Sardinia

We weighed anchor this morning and headed to the fuel dock to fill our tanks. At 1 euro 19, this is the most we've paid for fuel so far. Good thing we've had free anchorages since we left Cartagena. By 10 a.m. we were heading out of the harbor toward Sardinia. We have a light breeze, so the jib is out to give the engine a boost. It probably gives us an extra know, or less, of speed. Although the seas have calmed, we still have about a meter or a little more of swell mostly on our beam, so you wouldn't call this comfortable. The swell should continue to ease, though. We should reach Cagliari Sunday afternoon and hope that Marina di Sant Elmo has a berth for us (and our mail, which we had sent ahead to be held for our arrival).

All is well aboard Solstice.

-Shirlee

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Underway to Sardinia

We weighed anchor

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La Mola and the Fortress of Isabel II

La Mola is the promontory on the north side of the entrance to Mahón harbor. Our anchorage is protected by it. What we can’t see from the boat is the huge fortress that sits atop La Mola. We knew it was there from our earlier exploration ashore, and we see it when we’re coming back to the boat from town. It’s open to the public, and yesterday we decided to visit it.

Wow, what a fortress! We’ve seen many forts and fortifications in our travels, but nothing else comes close to the size and complexity of this one. (I’m sure John will have a photo page of it for the Web site later.) The fortress and associated military buildings cover the whole point, and the fortress itself was built using a combination of state-of-the-art plans for such structures. It has two moats on the outside, and in case the main defenses are breached, there’s an inner fortification with its own moat as a fallback position. Entrance to the fort is a little pricey at €7 each, and we got one audio tour for an additional €2, but we thought it was worth the price of admission. I’d probably skip the audio tour, though, because it was primarily about military stuff, and the multilingual signs at various points had enough of that for me.

Besides the fort itself, the views were spectacular. La Mola must be one of the highest points on the island, and we could see for miles. One of the things we saw was the sea state. It was quite windy yesterday, and lots of whitecaps were plainly visible. What really drove home the conditions, though, was watching a sailboat motor its way north into the wind. Being on that boat must have felt like riding a mechanical bull.

The wind is supposed to drop off this afternoon. When it does, we’ll put the dinghy back on board and go over to the fuel dock for diesel and water. It’s been nearly three weeks since we left Cartagena, and it will be good to top off the tanks. Then we’ll return to the anchorage and plan to leave early in the morning for Cagliari, Sardinia.

Still in Menorca

The weather is settling a bit here in Menorca, but the forecasts for the Gulf of Lyon and closer to Sardinia are still for force 8 and 9 winds from the northwest causing “rough, very rough and sometimes high” seas between here and Cagliari, Sardinia, where we’re headed next, so we’re staying put in our nice, calm anchorage. (Beaufort force 8 winds are 34-40 knots with 13-20 foot waves, force 9 is 41-47 knot winds with 20 foot waves, and a knot is a nautical mile per hour. Nautical miles are slightly longer than land miles.) Friday was the worst weather here with big winds and thunderstorms most of the day so that we ended up staying on the boat. Despite the winds, the waves can’t build up in this anchorage, so it was very smooth. It was cold enough, though, that we got out the kerosene heater we bought in Amsterdam to take the chill off. I’d been hoping that it was simply taking up space and we’d never need it again. With the Wallas diesel furnace not working and no shore power for our electric heater, I was happy that we still had it.

Saturday after pumping the rainwater out of the dinghy, we went into Mahón (or Maó in Catalan), picked up some groceries, enjoyed a few minutes on the Internet, and found out about museums and archeological sites. We were too late on Saturday for the museum, but we got up earlier Sunday so that we could be in town when it opened at 10 a.m. The Museu de Menorca is primarily a history museum, and its presentations about the prehistoric ruins on the island were quite good. From there we walked to one of the ruins (Trepucó) and had a look then called a taxi to take us to another site nearby. Talatí de Dalt is the ruin of a prehistoric (Talaiotic) settlement, and it was impressive. The houses were built of stones stacked up to make walls with huge, flat slabs of rock for roofs. You have to wonder how people managed to build those structures three thousand years ago. I just wished that John hadn’t started with the Flintstones theme: I had that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Taula and talayot at Trepucó

Taula at Talatí de Dalt with Shirlee for scale

Taula and wild olive tree

House roof support

House interior with grinding stone to right

Today we’re going to go back to town for more groceries and Internet. (That's why this post has pictures.) Then in the afternoon we may go to the old fort right above our bay, the Fortress of Isabell II “La Mola.” We took Märzen ashore for a walk on Saturday and saw that the fort is open to the public. Or we may put that off until tomorrow. It looks like we won’t be leaving here until Wednesday at the earliest.

The only reason we’re under any time pressure now is that we would like to make it to Ostia, the harbor for Rome, in May. In June the high season rates kick in, and it will be more crowded. It will be more crowded everywhere once summer is officially here, and we want to be sure to visit Sicily and Tunisia before we head back to the Atlantic.

Cala Taulera, Menorca

After our overnight sail, we slept most of yesterday afternoon. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake. Today we were awakened by a thunderstorm, and the forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. The long dinghy ride to town could be quite wet if one of those showers happens when we're out there.

Late in the afternoon yesterday we saw that the people on the neighboring Swiss catamaran, Inspirity, had returned, so we went to say hello and ask where the dinghy dock is. I wondered if they were simply vacationing or cruising full time as we are. Olivier and Corinne moved aboard a year ago and have an ambitious sailing plan. They plan to circumnavigate, but instead of going through the Panama Canal as most people do, they want to go around Cape Horn! They've been working on outfitting their boat for the high latitudes, and it sounds like they'll be very comfortable with their central heating that uses hot water. Their power generation set-up is also impressive with a huge array of solar panels and two wind generators. Alaska and British Columbia are also on their list of places to visit, and it would be fun to be back on the West Coast to say hello to them when they get there.

Olivier has sailed in the Mediterranean for 20 years, so we hit him up for advice on the weather. They use the same basic sources we do, but with their experience, they interpret them a bit differently. For example, we saw the mistral (a strong northerly wind) in the forecast for tomorrow, so we thought we would leave here on Sunday for Sardinia. Their advice was to wait until Monday to let the seas settle rather than suffer with big waves on our beam. Sounds good to us, especially after the rough passage to here from Mallorca.

I was also pleased to hear that they like a different marina in Cagliari from St. Elmo, the one we're headed to. There's nothing wrong with St. Elmo except that they've only replied to one of my e-mail messages. I'm trying to keep them advised of our plans as they requested, but I don't know if my messages are getting through. It's nice to know there's an alternative.

Later: Just half an hour before we had planned to go to town, the thunderstorms hit again. Now the mistral seems to be raging, as well, and although we're getting gusts to 30 knots, our anchorage is smooth and protected. It would be rougher if we were tied to the dock in Cartagena. We feel secure with our two anchors out, but we're still running the anchor alarm, just in case.

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Arrived at Mahon, Menorca

When I have Internet again, I'll have to post a blog about our tourist day on Mallorca. The short story is that we loved the island and can understand why everyone speaks so highly of it.

We weighed anchor at Soller at 5 p.m. yesterday and motored all night to reach Mahon, Menorca, this morning. According to the cruising guide, the yellow buoys in certain areas are for visitors. We found one and tied off, but I didn't even have the sail cover back on before a nice man in a dinghy came to tell us we couldn't stay there. He's with the company that manages the moorings, but they are in the process of removing them. The port authority, he says, doesn't like the mooring buoys, so they are building more floating islands with water and electricity as an alternative. It would only cost about 20 euros for us to spend the night at one of these islands, but we're planning to be in a marina for three nights at our next stop in Cagliari, Sardinia, so we moved out to the one remaining approved anchorage at Cala Taulera.

This is bad news for cruisers who want to explore Menorca inexpensively while based in Mahon. The anchorage is fairly far from the main harbor with nothing ashore except some old people without clothes. And, of course, there's no Internet here. Still, the rates at the floating islands aren't too bad if we wanted to try Med mooring.

We plan to leave here early Sunday for Cagliari. It's an estimated 55-hour passage, and there we will be forced to Med moor. Should be exciting. We've been doing great at anchoring and catching buoys, so it's time to develop new skills.

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Sóller, Mallorca

When we set out from Ibiza, we thought we would find an anchorage on Isla Dragonera, just off the western point of Mallorca. However, as we motored past what was shown as anchorages there, it was clear that we would have to look further. Those “anchorages” were only slight indentations in the rocky shore and offered no protection from what had become an uncomfortable swell from the southwest.

John found a spot on the chart around the corner that looked good, but when we got there, we found it already had two boats in it. It was pretty, but too small for three of us, so we continued on. With only anchor symbols on the chart and a sentence or two at the most in the cruising guide to help, we decided on a cove about halfway along the coast to Sóller. The name is Banalbufar on the chart, Bañalbufar in the guide, and Banyalbufar in the DK Eyewitness Travel book. However you spell it, the cove at the foot of the cliff provided good shelter for the night, and the beautiful view of the village and waterfall were a bonus. We were quite surprised to find waterfalls here, and it looks as if gravity and water are trying to pull the cliff down while human beings are trying to hold it up.

Yesterday we sailed for the first time in the Mediterranean. Until then, we had motor-sailed at best, using the sails to get a little more speed from our old engine. Most of the time it was pure motoring. But yesterday was different.

When we finally succeeded in retrieving our anchor and chain from the several rocks which had been securely holding them for us, we motored out of the cove. Soon a light breeze developed, and we brought out the jib. We were happy to be doing better than six knots when ahead of us we saw white caps. Suddenly we had more than 20 knots of wind racing down the mountains at us. Whoopee! We shut off the engine and sailed, doing better than six knots on the jib alone. We considered raising the main, but that’s a lot of work, and we had less than 10 miles to go to get to Sóller. The wind was on our beam, and it just kept increasing until I finally suggested (well, OK, I insisted) that we fall off a bit to flatten the boat out. The highest speed I saw was 7.9 knots—using only the jib. When there was a break in the mountains, we had wind; when we passed a sheer cliff, we had none.

At one point, we noticed a sailboat approaching us with full sails and on the same tack as we were. Hmm. Ahead of us the wind must be light and from the opposite direction. Could that be? Sure enough, just before she reached us, the other boat tacked, and just beyond us they headed up to put in a reef. And then another. And then they dropped their main altogether and fell off. Very strange, this Mediterranean sailing.

As we inched into the harbor at Sóller against 30-knot headwinds, we saw an anchored boat moving to another part of the harbor over by—wait, what’s that? Is that an American flag on that yacht? Sure enough, it was. Both sailboats were flying American flags. We didn’t know them, but we had heard of one of them, Threshold, from our cruising association (Seven Seas Cruising Association). There was no time to visit then, though, because the winds in the harbor were coming through a gap in the mountains, and they were pretty fierce. All three U.S. boats re-anchored several times before the wind died down and we could get the dinghy in the water to leave the boat.

Yesterday was also the first time that we’ve spoken to Spanish officials. The customs boat made its rounds of the harbor and stopped at all three American boats. Although they looked a bit puzzled at our new passports without stamps, they didn’t question them. My guess is that they didn’t have enough English to ask the question. Our Spanish isn’t much, but we did have to use it a little in order to communicate.

Sóller is apparently a very popular resort. It’s certainly very pretty, perched on steep, pine-covered hills. There are lots of shops and restaurants on the waterfront, and we did go ashore for a brief visit yesterday afternoon. Today there’s supposed to be a re-enactment of a battle between the Spanish Mallorcans and the Arabs. The Spanish will win. We’re hanging out and waiting for that. So far, it’s just firecrackers and a couple of speedboats flying Moroccan flags. We hope there will be more.

Good-bye, Ibiza

Well, the hippy market at Es Canar was a bust, but the anchorage was fine except for the occasional wake from a ferry or tour boat. We found something called Hippy Market, but it was closed at 11 a.m. Finally, we saw someone who appeared to have some authority and asked when the place was open. He replied, "It's always open. It's a hotel." "What about the hippy market?" we asked. He said it was only on Wednesdays. Since it was Friday, we shrugged and headed back to the boat.

We were able to get a few minutes of Internet time, though, while in Es Canar. We could see the wireless signal from the boat, but had to go ashore to connect. So we decided to continue on to Portinatx where Diane had said she was able to get wireless on the boat. It was only a few miles and put us closer to Mallorca anyway.

The anchorage at Portinatx was lovely. The resorts there are small and family-oriented. We anchored off 's Arenal, where we could see open wireless signals, but again couldn't connect to the Internet.

Instead, we relaxed and were entertained by the English families turning pink in their paddle boats and British guys who came in on a Bavaria 38 behind us. It didn't look to me like their anchor was set, but there wasn't much wind, and although they were too close to us, they weren't likely to drag our way. Pretty soon they had their dinghy in the water and were rowing ashore. When we looked a little later to see where they had landed the dinghy, we saw that they were back on the sailboat and much farther away from us-like not in the anchorage anymore. They must have noticed the boat dragging even before they got ashore. After that, they tried many times to get the anchor to set, only to drift back out of the cove. Finally, one of them rowed a second anchor out and set it. We saw the dinghy ashore later, but in the morning they were gone before dawn. I don't think they enjoyed it there as much as we did.

Now we've left Ibiza and are motor-sailing to Mallorca. When we get there, we'll find an anchorage for the night and then head to Soller tomorrow. From there we can take a train to Palma. We really liked Ibiza, but there's much more to see before we head west again.

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Lovely day in Eivissa

What a difference a day makes! When we anchored here in Talamanca on Tuesday afternoon, it was chilly and rainy, so we opted to stay inside. Yesterday, though, the skies cleared, so we took the dinghy to shore and walked to the city. Along the way we passed the marinas that we hear would charge us €270/night and congratulated ourselves on our luck that the weather let us be comfortable in our anchorage on the other side of the point.

If you aren't into the club scene, and we're not, the thing to do in Eivissa is visit the old city (Dalt Vila) on the hill above town. The medieval Dalt Vila is still enclosed by walls and only three of its gates are open. Despite the beautiful weather, we didn't feel like wandering around lost, so we stopped at the tourist office and got maps. Directions to the sights and tourist office are well-marked on the street signs here, so it's easy to be a tourist.

Then we simply followed one of the tours on the map and had an easy walk up to the top of the city. The views of the harbor and its approaches are spectacular from the hill. From the cathedral square at the top we could even spot our mast in the distance on the other side of the point. A sign for a terrace bar specializing in sangria drew me, but upon closer inspection, I opted to look further because it had no view. On our way back down along the wall we found a plaza with tables and a view and several cafés to choose from.

We picked a little self-service place. It seemed to be the choice of the locals, too, because while we were ordering, several people stopped to say hello to Maria, the proprietor. John ordered a glass of the local herbal liquor and learned that it is normally served over ice (all this without Maria uttering a word of English). The liquor was quite tasty, so we bought a bottle on our way back to the dinghy.

Eivissa is very pretty, especially in the Dalt Vila, but even the resort developments are mostly attractive. We enjoyed it a lot. Later today we're headed to Es Canar and the hippy market. We read that the hippies discovered Ibiza in the 1960s, and a few reminders of that era still remain, the hippy market being one. It isn't far from here, it's on the way, and the forecasts are favorable, so why not check it out?

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On to Ibiza

Yesterday's big winds were a good check of our new weather sources. The UK Met Office forecast was pretty accurate, and John has subscribed so that we get them by e-mail and don't have to connect at a fixed time as you must for NavTex. He has also extended the days out on our grib files so that we'll get five days now and can plan the big jumps from island to island. We tried the German weather service, but their broadcast seemed to go on forever. The part we're interested in was at the beginning, but we couldn't figure out how to save the file so that we could go back to it. It's in a different format (RTTY) than we've used before.

While we were on anchor alert yesterday, we also started looking for our next stops. We want to visit Ibiza city (Eivissa), and there's an anchorage shown in the guide and on our charts that is within the harbor. Diane from Argonaut said last year, though, that there were "no anchoring" signs up everywhere in the harbor, so we'll see. There are also a couple of anchorages just east around the point. They're less protected from the swell, but from where we're sitting now, the swell seems to be coming from the west, so they might be OK.

I've been using Diane's blog from last year as a supplement to our cruising guides and charts. It's been very helpful, and it had much to do with choosing our first anchorage here at Espalmador. Thanks, Diane! Our experience in early May, however, is much different from theirs in mid September. The water is still too cold to swim in, for one thing. And the sand doesn't look pink on a gray day.

At anchor on Ibiza: It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get from Espalmador to our current anchorage at Cala Talamanca, just east of Eivissa. We saw the no anchoring signs on the jetty for the harbor, and since no boats were in the anchorage across from the signs, we decided it probably wasn't allowed. It would have been subject to wakes from passing boats anyway. Cala Talamanca is around the corner, and the guide says it's a 20-minute walk into town from here. We saw a German slip around the northwest corner of the bay in his dinghy, so we're hoping for a secure dinghy landing there.

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Gale Force Winds Today

As forecasted the winds shifted to the NW and built up to gale force. We were going to let out more chain until a French catamaran moved in the anchorage and blocked us from adding rode. Ultimately we drug anchor thus bearing down on the French boat. We started the engine, pulled up the anchor and moved to s safer place with a better holding bottom. We now have 200' of chain out and holding steady. The wind is also easing.

All's well aboard Solstice.

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Holiday at Espalmador

When we arrived here yesterday morning, we found a few boats already at anchor: four British yachts who had been at Cartagena last week, a Danish boat, and a catamaran with a courtesy flag but no national ensign. (Here, by the way, is just north of Formentera, not Frontera as I posted yesterday without bothering to look it up.) A few hours later, everyone had left except the cat, and the anchorage was filling quickly with Spanish yachts, mostly motor yachts but also some sailboats. Dinghies were zipping back and forth to the beach, and it started to remind us of popular beaches in Mexico--without jet skis and banana boats, thank goodness. This is a long holiday weekend. May 1st is Labor Day here as in most of Europe.

The DK Eyewitness Travel guide to the islands calls the beach here s'Alga. They say that it is popular with day trippers from Ibiza and that there are mud baths a short way north. We can vouch for the former, but didn't look for the latter. Somewhere I also read that Formentera is tolerant of nudity. When I mentioned that to John, he got out the binoculars to check. He reports that it seems to be true.

Mostly, we've been resting and trying to find a better source of weather information. The grib files have been basically wrong, so far, and we're cut off from our Internet weather sources. A German at Cartagena had warned us that gale-force northerlies were forecast for Monday (today), but we aren't seeing them on the gribs. Using the cruising guides in our collection, we've tried the listed VHF radio sources, but can't hear them. We also tried the SSB nets they listed and one of the two nets that Diane from Argonaut gave us, also without success. NavTex is OK, but it isn't showing us the aforementioned weather either. Finally, John has subscribed to the UK Met Office forecasts, and we can now see what the German was talking about. It looks particularly nasty east of us at Menorca. Here it shouldn't be too bad, and our bay is well sheltered from all directions except southwest. For longer-range forecasts, we're going to try the German weather service. It's nice to be able to plan our next move a little. (If any Med-experienced sailors are reading this and have other ideas, please leave a comment. We can pick them up via SailMail.)

Märzen has adjusted easily to being away from the dock. In fact, she was quite frisky when we first set out and able again to jump the companionway step up to the salon. She's lucky that she doesn't like to go for walks because she won't be going ashore again probably until Sardinia. We're tentatively scheduled to stop at Cagliari, Sardinia, for three nights starting May 17th. Marina Sant' Elmo there is a Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) cruising station, and a letter in the SSCA Bulletin said that U.S. propane tanks could be filled in town. That would be a great savings to us because the Camping Gasz that we've had to use since we got to Spain is relatively expensive.

Today the weather is cloudy and windy, but not cold. Despite the holiday, it's enough to keep the locals away, and we're one of only two boats still here (the catamaran remains). Two more spent the night but left early this morning. I wonder where they went. This seems to us as good a place as any (outside the very expensive Ibiza marinas) to ride out the forecast strong winds.

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Anchored at Puerto el Espalmador

We topped off our fuel and left Cartagena at midnight May 1st headed for our current anchorage, which I mistakenly thought was a mooring field. I should have double-checked myself. Oh, well, that's why we have an anchor.

The weather forecast called for southwesterlies yesterday, switching to northeasterlies today. That's why we left at midnight: to arrive before the wind changed. Instead, however, we never got favorable winds and motored the whole way with the wind forward of the beam. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of wind, and for a few hours we used the jib for an assist. Despite the lack of wind, the seas were bumpy with swell on the beam at least half of the way. We had been warned about the Mediterranean.

Regardless, we arrived at eight o'clock this morning, and the anchorage is nice and calm, unlike the seas of our passage. Espalmador is north of Frontera, just south of Ibiza. We anchored in grass, which is poor holding, so if the winds pick up, we'll have to let out more chain. Right now, we want to get our radio stuff (position report, this blog post, and new grib files) finished so that we can take a nap.

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