The last blog was getting long so created a new one…
Great new friends. What an amazing family on a similar adventure to ourselves. Thanks Joe for all your help and thank you all for becoming a part of our family.
Our crossing back to Menorca, seeing loads of flying fish. Finally got to photograph one….
Just before the night sail (above)..the sunrise below.. The trip had thunder and lightening, speeds up to 10.1 knots, dolphins, sea sickness and dirty fuel problems again. 2 reefs put in the main around midnight. But hey all part of the adventure. Thank you again to “Charm” staying with us through the night and then shooting off with speeds over 13 knots by wind alone…they have a great boat.
The Russian vessel “A” was with us in Cartagena, then she was in Olbia with us and now travels with us across to Menorca and is currently anchored in Mahon with us….I think she is trying to get Arctic’s attention. She is an amazing vessel especially when she is sailing nearby.
13- 16th August – Porto Brandinghi – Sardinia
It’s our Jessica’s 9th birthday today – amazing to think this is her 2nd birthday whilst living afloat. Boy that year has passed in a flash. She is certainly moving quicker into adulthood than I would like but we can’t do anything to slow it down can we. Let’s hope she enjoys her special day.
So we head out of Olbia thank goodness, for a bay we haven’t been in before. And it looks like the world and his wife are all out too. This week Italy is on holiday – everything closes and it seems that everyone who owns a boat is out making use of it. Its manic!. There are boats absolutely everywhere, at all angles of the compass and many without any fore thought to the bow waves their ludicrously large motors make for us sailboats to contend with. Brandinghi opens before us as we drop down the coast, a large bay nestled in behind broken rocks at its entrance. Where to go? We decide to head for the left side of the bay and pick our spot. At the same time a German boat; who has just upped her anchor; moves towards the same side of the bay we are heading for. We slow to allow him across our nose as he was rather close quarters, for him to then just suddenly drop anchor whilst still moving forward at speed. He wanted the space we had chosen that badly he wasn’t prepared to wait sensibly for it. What a berk. The bay is big enough that aggression is not needed but I guess certain inbred racial characteristics are hard to overcome. We alter course and choose a different space and drop gently into 6 mtrs of pure clear water onto a sandy bottom. We settle down to enjoy the birthday celebrations. A full on day of playing in the water, eating favourite foods, baking a chocolate birthday cake and trying to make a 9th birthday (devoid of friends and family) fun and memorable. Reminiscences of previous birthday parties are discussed – seems like she enjoyed her previous years passing’s and remembers them all as fun times. At least we are doing something right. Let’s hope in years to come these birthdays will be remembered as fondly as the ones spent on land with classmates and family.
After being holed up in Olbia, Brandinghi is a breath of fresh air. Beautiful clear water and a long white sandy beach. For the 1st time since the start of the journey it feels like a holiday. We relax on the beach for a few days (well in between the peddlers passing every 10 minutes with their differing wares) and just breathe.
17 – 18 August – Isla Ruja – Sardinia
Heading south again and we drop into this bay for the night even though we have been in before. A swift row to the shore as the outboard still won’t work for the girls to run up and down the dunes before the sunsets and the mosi’s descend on us. Its peaceful and beautiful, a wonderful place and it’s not too crowded either.
18 – 19 August – Cala Golorize – Sardinia
A fabulous sailing day today. Not too much wind 6 -10 knts but we make decent progress. We tack to get a better angle for the cape and manage to make the long sweep on the 1st tack. Woohoo….As we pass Cala Luna the wind picks up considerably – 22knts and building, time to reef in things as its getting hairy. Flying fish are darting across our nose as we fly along with them. We make much better progress as it gets later in the day and we decide to stop somewhere new. This isn’t really a bay, just a long coastline but it will provide us shelter for the night; we are however in 14mtrs of water over sand so need nearly all our chain out. The upshot is that it’s beautiful. The rock faces are full of crevices and interesting shapes eroded by the sea into bridges and other shapes. Lovely and calm and quiet – well until about 09:00 the following morning when the tourist boats descend making cala Luna look like it was deserted – time to leave!.
19 – 20 August – Porto Frailis – Sardinia
High winds are forecast so we drop into a spot we know will provide shelter and a good night’s sleep as long as we have a rear anchor out too. Once the smaller boats leave we can set the rear and know we shall be ok for a decent night rest. Restock of food and beverages – Howard does the honours as I injured myself whilst trying to raise Big Blue today. My hand got trapped between the winch and the rope as she filled with wind and I have rather battered and bruised fingers and wrist. At least the Arnica gel is coming in handy, it really helps the bruising to come out.
The girls take it in turns to row the dinghy to the shore to collect Howard and it’s quite a distance to get there. They are fabulous. On one trip Jessica misjudged the angle and ended up getting into the swim area by mistake, I could see the look of disbelief in her face when she realised. Getting the boat back over the ropes and floats proved harder than she thought and took 2 attempts to traverse but she managed. Our engine issue is still proving a pain and more urgent to get it fixed – if only we could figure out what the problem is.
21 – 26 August – Capo Carbonara ( Villasimius) – Sardinia
The winds have gone and so we make our way down towards Cagliari. We have 13 – 16 knots of wind on the rear and a sea that’s the worst we have had all trip. We have a 4 metre swell which lifts us up and surfs us forward. At times it feels like we are literally being thrown forward like a paper plane. The rolling movement is pretty big but no one has succumbed to the motion – yet. We must finally have our sea legs. The sea state does not subside until 16:00 and we still have another 3 hours travelling to do.
We head on into the nature reserve where speed is limited to 10 knots and admire the fact that Italians don’t seem to care about that. We enter a shallow area (10 m) between rocks and are amazed at the stunning scenery. Some lovley bays are dotted along this part of the coastline which are not in the pilot books. We carry on to Capo Carbonara near Villasimius though as we need to be in a big bay should the engine decide to play up again. Famous last words……this time as we drop into the bay, having motored for the last 1.5 hrs, the silly thing won’t give revs in forward or reverse this time – it’s never done that before. We can always get reverse if we don’t get forward but not this time. Luckily we just drop the anchor quickly, hoping that to the layman nothing is wrong with the boat. This issue is now not funny. We have spoken to so many people about it but we cannot get an answer on exactly what the issue is. Some say the propeller not working as it should, others say the clutch / gearbox needs replacing and another the fuel pump may be sticking. All we know is that we need to rely on it working correctly in an emergency situation and it’s not. So we have to wait to find an engineer who can look at it and hopefully diagnose the problem correctly. I’m not holding out much hope of that happening – I just know that it’s going to be a big cost and a long wait.
Now I can hear you all saying how sorry you feel for us – stuck in a hot place with lovely water and a beach. Great if you’re on holiday staying in a hotel that provides all your entertainment and food; not so when its miles to row (outboard still won’t start) and the shops are miles away too. Sometimes I just wish that the problems only come in ones but we always get piles at once. Oh well, chin up and all that. Think positive thoughts and positive things will happen. I so hope so…….
On a much lighter note, the girls have been in for their morning swim today and have caught 4 small fish by hand. We have them in a pot in the cockpit swimming around like they are in a tank. That puts dad’s efforts to shame – he still hasn’t caught anything at all.
Well we have had a reply from the engineer. He wants €350 just to come and quote for the work, that’s not to actually do anything. What a rip off.
We dinghy into the marina (under oars) and pass a 55’ catamaran flying an American flag. They also have the same swings hanging at their mast as the one the girls have. We decide to go over and say Hi. They have 3 children – Cobin (10), Marin (6) and Tully (3) who inform us they are sailing around the world. They become very good friends. Joe is a very quiet person who is deep in thought and working hard on cleaning the bottom of the boat. Jobs never stop…Howard and he discuss the issue and Joe thinks it’s the fuel. He and Howard check the filters and they are as black as your hat. So we change them and hope.
27 -28 august – Porto d agumu Sardinia
Heading to this bay we have anchored in before and due to re connect with charm and her crew. Hopefully the throttle will behave once we arrive. No wind to use so motor on but at least it’s using fuel up!
Had a close ish call with 2 tankers bearing down on us from the ports to our starboard. Had to evaluate collision points and take action to avoid both even though they were moving swiftly and in opposing directions with us in the middle.
Anchored in 4.7 mtrs over sand and rocky bottom. Charm is an hour behind us as they left Cagliari to head this way so should be here soon.
Spent a nice day getting provisions, although the walk nearly cripple me as I did it twice in quick succession and in this heat 20km is pushing it a bit!.
29 august -calasetta sardinia
Today we did a crew swap with charm. We have cobin on our boat and they in return have Olivia. Will be fun to see how it works out for all concerned. Seems odd to see liv across the water playing on a different boat.
Jessie and cobin are below after helping with the anchor lift and hoisting the main. They stay there for the rest of the trip doing maths puzzles, spelling games and then ipad time. Lots of laughing drifts up which is pleasant to hear.
Wind is on the nose so motor sailing with the main up to help with the rolling motion. Livvy is having a ball swinging around on charm and bouncing on the trampoline net at the front of the cat. Not sure she’ll enjoy the mundane teak deck now she has experienced the cats trampoline……
45 mile trip and we average 7 knots, not bad as we drop into the mud of calasetta. Tomorrow we shall finally leave Sardinia. We had not intended to stay so long. After the initial impressions of not really liking the place, it’s grown on me. There are some beautiful spots you just have to know were to look to find them. I shall miss the place but not the problems we have encountered with the boat whilst going here. Let’s hope our luck has changed.
30 – 31 august crossing to Mahon menorca.
We ready to leave and motor away from Sardinia at 11:30 am. As usual wind is on the nose, feels just like back home going on a bcc cruise. At 14:05 we see flying fish. They are rather small but boy can they travel some distance. The sea is flat calm though so you can pick them out as soon as they leave the safety of the water, still haven’t caught one though.
Sea is now building as we finish dinner, typical that it’s doing this just as we want to try to settle for a decent nights sleep. I know the girls will sleep no matter what the sea is doing, I just wish I could be the same but I won’t rest properly. By 21:00 it’s as dark as pitch and we are still motoring with the main up. There is slight cloud cover and a half moon is rising. Girls are now in our bed at the rear and I make up a snack pack for Howard’s watch. 22:00, Howard’s watch begins and I drop below to try to get some sleep. However as predicted I don’t manage to drop off completely. I hear the Main sail banging as the battens flick from left to right as the head wind continues making it untenable to sleep when right below it. I pop my head up the companion way and tell Howard we will put in a reef to the main to see if it helps with the noise. So at 01:00 I’m up at the mast, hooked on, reefing down to see if it helps.
02:00 it’s my turn for watch. Bit tired but the stars soon have you thinking how wonderful it is to be outside in leggings and a t shirt whilst sailing at this hour. I send the genoa out reefed as the wind finally moves to a position to use it and we carry on pounding.
By 08:00 we have shaken out one reef from the main as the wind helps us along. Sailing yacht A seems to be stalking us, it’s right off our starboard side. We radio charm and sing happy birthday to joe hoping that it’s a nice surprise.
12:20, poor Olivia has succumbed to the horrid motion and is not feeling her best. The throttle issue is still being a pain and to top it all we are now trying to run from an electrical storm too. Managed to dodge the storm but it came pretty close. I found the radar invaluable during this time. You could watch the bad patches really easily. We clock 4000 miles at 14:30 in position 39degrees 49′.407N 004 deg 32′.573E.
We try to turn the engine back on as we approach Mahon and what do you think happens, the engine starts but the throttle once again plays up. We cannot get any forward motion with it. Great. There is a large regatta going on as we approach and they are all heading for the channel into Mahon. We call charm who went ahead of us and joe says he’ll come out in the dinghy if we need him too or at least be on hand to help if we need him. It’s really unnerving knowing you are entering a smallish place with the potential of an issue. However, We enter the anchoring area and drop it rather swiftly as the engine throttle once again refused to work when needed. Thank good ness the anchorage is not too crowded. Guess we’ll be working on this blinking problem again tomorrow. For now, it’s party time over on charm to celebrate Joes birthday. We have a great time and meet other new people with children also from the USA. Hazel, Leo, Jenna and Jamie are all on Sofie, another cat. They have guests with them too- sigi and Richard who are from Germany. We all have a good night but I make our excuses as we are dog tired, I think charm are too.
I Have also had to change log books as I finished the one we started off with. I am so used to the format and layout of the old book that this new one is not becoming my best friend. I will need to hunt out another Weymouth log book when I can because it’s so easy to use and it’s a part of my daily life too. You know how it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks…..
198 miles undertaken in 28.5 hours.