….. ACROSS THE MED

 this leg of the journey was a mixture of holiday and longer distance sailing. The idea was to have a few relaxing days before crossing the western part of the Mediterranean towards Italy, and then enjoy some more tranquil days.

Besides the left overs from the last weeks [Christian, Susanne, Maria and Hans] - here’s the new crew for this 14-day sailing leg:

Pick up was again the ‘La Lonja’ charter dock. This time we benefited from our previous experiences in provisioning and all went a little smoother. Just as well as we needed to bunker for 2 weeks this time. After all was well stowed away and a dinner in town we headed out of the bay of Palma on July 24 in direction La Cabrera, a small group of islands off the south eastern tip of Mallorca. Previously a prison island it is now a national park requiring an entry permit for anchoring in the main bay of the largest island. As we arrived our reserved buoy was taken by someone taking a chance without having a reservation – bad luck, they had to move on.

We all went ashore to explore the castle and some went for a discovery walk to some more remote points the next morning.

We then headed back to Mallorca and used Porto Colom halfway up the east coast as an overnight stop to then start the passage to Menorca. We headed out with both main and genoa up and reasonably good winds. We then decided it was time to hoist our gennaker for the first time. After some preparatory thoughts and actions it went up beautifully and it looked stunning.  We were all looking ahead towards Menorca and were surprised when looking astern to see a black cloud approaching fast. We just made it to dowse the gennaker when a squall came down. For about 10 minutes the boat was washed down and then it was all over.

We first called into Cala Covas, a fjord type cove on the south coast of Menorca, but decided it was too full and too rocky as the swell was south easterly.  We continued towards Mahon and as we arrived we found out that both Mallorca and Menorca experienced minor flooding that day. We anchored in pretty busy Cala Taula, next to our friend Hans Geilinger only to be woken up in the morning by tourist glass bottom boats claiming their passage by passing very close to the various boat anchored close to the marker buoys. We then transferred to Mahon’s Club Nautico for one night. After several long and interesting walks through the historic centre and a dinner out we left the next day, July 28 for our first long passage towards Corsica or more precise the Strait of Bonifacio.

After a passage of 3 days/2 nights and 253 nm we arrived at 1800hrs at Cala Paragnanu for our first stop on Corsica. The passage was without any great problems and events, which is good. Winds were not always favourable for the direction we travelled, but still had the chance to hoist the gennaker again for some time. We had to motor assist at times, but that is nothing unusual for the Med around this time of the year. Next day we entered the port town of Bonifacio, a place steeped in history.

We decided to anchor in one of the small side bays, as the mooring on offer in the commercial harbour didn’t smell too exiting.  It was only a short dinghy ride to town anyway. We explored the lower and upper parts of town thoroughly and it was worthwhile the visit as the setting is truly spectacular. One can feel the history around every corner…..

On August 1 our next stop was the rocky Lavezzi island. We didn’t have much of an idea what to expect, if anything at all and were totally and positively surprised. Snorkeling in crystal clear water in bays surrounded by big round boulders in all sorts of imaginable shapes. A real gem - and topped by a memorable sunset.

Next day we crossed over to Sardenia for our first chance to fly the Italian courtesy flag, only for a few hours though.  We said a sad good bye to Susanne in the port of Santa Teresa and then headed out to the Islas de Madalenas for a brief stop over. The entire group of islands is a conservation area with limited anchoring possibilities and hence we decided to return to French waters. Crossing the strait of Bonifacio again we headed up the eastern coast of Corsica and tugged in behind the Isles de Cerbicales for the night.  Next morning we lifted anchor to continue our trip north. Wind forecasts were good with a change to southerly winds, but unfortunately they never came that day and we had to motor [with intermittent sailing] up the coast. At first we thought it would be a boring few days ahead, but were pleasantly surprised to find out how mountainous Corsica is, making a spectacular back drop to an always changing beach scape. We had a calm night outside Etang de Diane, an estuary dedicated to mussel cultivation. To pass time we had ‘drag competitions’ behind the boat, who can drive the boat straight ahead [and sitting up straight .....] and Maria took croq for a swim. 

By now it was August 4 and time to cross over to the Isla d’ Elba. Between motoring and good sailing we just made it to arrive with the very last rays of sun in Cala Polverata and put down the hook under the most western lighthouse on Elba. Next morning we went ashore to climb the steep road to the village for an exploratory walk. We were rewarded by picking fresh ripe figs of the tree – and knew we were in Italy.

Our final stop for this two weeks was Portoferraio, the capital of Elba. We were lucky to arrive early enough to get one of the sought after mooring spots in the Porto Medici, right in front of the old part of town. Say no more ………

After a final dinner of – guess what ??? …. pizza of course, the crew disembarked the next day for their various home destinations. The overall sailing stats were 390 nm in total, 193 under sail and the rest being a mixture of motoring and motor/sailing.  Thank you all for being such fantastic and competent company on board for 2 weeks and ....... Franziska and Peter- for your wonderful baking.

.... SAIL AWAY

Well, here it is - the first Paso Doble sailing update with crew on board. As I am writing we are crossing the western Mediterranean rounding the northern cape of the Isla de Asinara in Sardinia, with becalmed waters and virtually no wind, and I am taking my chances to trace back our last 3 weeks.

On Wednesday, July 6 at 2100 hrs with threw off the lines from mooring 4542, our temporary home in Port Ginesta for the past 6 months. The very last day we could have left to arrive at Palma de Mallorca in time to pick up our first sailing guests on July 8. As you can imagine we had some very busy days getting the boat ready, trying to finish as many of the started and not finished jobs as possible, tying up all the loose ends with suppliers and saying good-bye to our ‘cat friends’ we made in and around the marina. On board with us was August, who tirelessly worked with us during this last week to make sure all important electronic bits were functioning. The weather predictions for the night sail to Mallorca were what one could call close to perfect for a cat. North-westerly winds aft of beam of 20 to 25 kts plus and …… we flew away. We all [and the boat, I guess] enjoyed the wind blowing around our faces and we celebrated the beginning of this journey. Arriving on Mallorca after about 20 hrs we called into the first cove we found called Cala Basset, nestled behind the south western tip of Isla Dragonera - and ‘chilled out’.

Connections via Astrid from Multihull Charter supplied us with a spot on the charter dock ‘La Lonja’ in the harbour of Palma. We were watching the chaos of charter parties leaving and new ones arriving with all their luggage piled up while cleaning teams frantically emptied out the boat and scrubbed it before they could take over. Then our team arrived and we participated ourselves in the incredible hustle and bustle of ‘provisioning’ the boat for the coming weeks.

Let me introduce the first crew on board for the trip around the island of Mallorca.

 

Last Crew member being Croq - pick up by Susanne floating in the middle of Alcudia bay

We set off on Sunday, July 9 to sail up the east coast. We left the bay of Palma with good winds and our first stop was Cala del Pi, a narrow cove of crystal clear turquoise coloured water surrounded by rock faces. Our resident photographer Annemarie took the opportunity for a photo shoot. As a result we finally have been able to replace the stock shots from our original post of ‘Belize Specifications’ with our own – worthwhile checking out by clicking on the November post.

Cala del Pi was followed by Cala Mondrago and Es Trenc, two more wonderful anchorages. On the beautiful turquoise waters of Es Trenc we mustered up the available crew power and replaced our existing quite uncomfortably knotted trampoline net with a tailor made version made by Christoph Wendland from Yacht-Netze. What a wonderful product and no comparison to before – thank you Christoph. It extended our outdoor living area by about 20 sunny square meters and was most welcomed by all crew members. Besides being by far the best place for just ‘hanging’ it has proven itself as a most magnificent dolphin watching platform. It is a perfect match to our other most visible alteration to the boat, our new fiber-glass bimini. Without going into the details of how this piece of work came into existence I want to thank Ramon and team from our stainless steel workshop in Port Ginesta for welding the frame and Jaume from EscoPrem fiber glass moulding for the last minute huge effort. I will dedicate at some later stage a smaller post to explain more about this combined effort.

Next stop was Porto Cristo with its very cute and narrow harbour, where we parked on the public mooring. We had a very mediocre meal out and decided we are better off with our own quality catering on the boat. After replenishing supplies we headed north around Mallorca’s most eastern point, Cabo de Pera into the bay of Alcudia. That night we anchored off a secluded beach with more crystal clear water near Betlem and enjoyed another wonderful sunset. This was followed by crossing the bay to Cala Engossalba, a narrow cove with steep cliff faces and more crystal clear, but this time blue-ish coloured water.

The week ended in Alcudia where we said good-bye to the first crew. Many thanks to them for putting in such a great team effort to stretch our new out door relaxation area into place. Your work will be eternally appreciated by all guests that follow ….. guaranteed.

The second week was our first ‘private’ week. Susanne, Maria and Christian and I rounded Cabo Formentor, the most northerly tip on a rather choppy and confused sea with fresh winds of force 4-5 to make our way south along the spectacular rocky west coast of Mallorca. The icy blue, almost arctic coloured water in Cala Calobra was our first anchorage. After 7 pm quite often these spots overcrowded with day tourism miraculously empty out and on that night we were the only once left. The serenity of the night was followed in morning by bleating of the wild goats which inhabit the rocky capes and a secluded swim through the cove. No need to say more ……. but divine. By 9 am it was all ‘on again and within half an hour we weaved our way out through all the other boats meanwhile anchored around us. The final stop was in Porto Soller, the major port of the west coast and followed by a great sail along the impressive rock faces of that rugged coast line south towards the Isla Dragonera and Palma back to our busy charter mooring, getting ready for our next crew and new adventures.

Finally some sailing stats for those who are interested;  total distance covered was 324 nm, thereof were 175 nm under sail and 149 nm with motor or motor assisted.