It’s been a minute since our last blog post, ok you’re right it’s been almost a full season since our last blog post .
I think part of the reason for the lack of updates is that we’ve become very comfortable with our life as sailors. While everyday is still an adventure and we’re loving every minute of it, it’s become our normal. And I wasn’t sure how many of you would handle a constant assault of beautiful sea’s and amazing beaches before you really started to dis like us.
With our Atlantic crossing on the horizon, it feels like we are on the cusp our next big and venture, so it felt like the right time to start blogging again in earnest.
We’ve got Startlink now, you should be able to get your daily digest of our trip in real time, the marvels of modern technology. I can’t make a phone. call from my living room in leafy Surrey, but in the middle of the ocean I’m on the internet. We do get charged by the giggly bite so you’ll have to wait for picture and videos.
So here we are again, leaving Malta for the last, last time. I think this will really be the last time we visit her rocky shores with Nautilus.
We set off from San Ġiljan (St Julian for the non Maltese among us) at 15:00 on 16 October. We left close-hauled in 14kt of wind and relatively calm seas. By sunset the sea had turned lumpy and we’d put our first reef with the wind picking up to 21kt, we made some good ground averaging 7kn. The unfavourable sea state meant that neither of us slept particularly well and by 05:30 the wind was blowing 25kt, which meant it was time for the second reef in the pitch black. Not my favourite reefing conditions but with head torches and marriage savers (hands free walkie-talkies) donned, we were back inside in no time.
We haven’t quite fallen into a scheduled watch pattern yet, instead opting to sleep and swap watch as and when we feel tired.
Our original plan was to sail directly to the Balearics aiming for Minorca, but the wind conditions are constantly changing and with some strong unfavourable weather predicted we’ve decided to head for Sardinia as a port of refuge. Distance to destination 440 miles (this isn’t a direct distance as we’re having to take a bit of a convoluted route to try and take advantage of the wind).
By 09:00 the sea state had calmed, making for a much more comfortable sail and by 15:00 the wind had died of completely. Unfortunately this means that we’re having to run the engines, we’d much rather be sailing, but bobbing around aimlessly in the middle of the ocean with bad weather on the horizon isn’t really an option.
Caspar spotted a turtle, but he’d done a runner by the time I got outside and we had a brief visit from what must have been a very tired robin.
It’s 21:00 and Caspar has just gone to bed, we’re still running and engine and hoping that the wind will fill in a little, it’s currently blowing a meager 4kt. Distance to destination 229.5 miles.
caught a small fish
caught a big fish
We’ve booked into a marina for a couple of days with Pete and Abby. We usually stay at anchor, but with all the sailing ahead of us, it makes life much easier to tie up on a jetty and plug into electricity and water. Plus its then usually only a short walk to the shops to get supplies.
Plan for today is to tidy Nautilus (who too a bit of a bashing in the passage) and to do a bit of washing and shopping.
The marina is lovely and Andrea show runs it has been brilliant and super helpful with getting us moored up.
Caspar has a few jobs he wants to get finished and ran out of time in.
Its blowing hard today and there are 3 meters waves over on the other side of the island and the locals are out surfing. We were planning on leaving at first light tomorrow to try and arrive in Minorca in the daylight, but we’d be seriously bashed around in that weather, so we’ll wait till later in the day tomorrow until we leave. Until then, it’s back to the list of jobs to get done on the boat
It stayed windy for longer than expected, so we planned for a 2 pm departure. In the meantime that meant Caspar used the available time to pull apart more of the electronics on Nautilus and finish the power upgrades. A bit later than planned, we left the marina at 3pm and pointed West towards the Balearics.
We had and awesome afternoon / evening of sailing, with a steady 20 knots of wind we were averaging 8 knots until dusk and making amazing time.
Night came and we decided to put a reef in to slow things down a bit a it was getting a bit lively (although still safe). 2 meter waves were now following us and we started surfing down them at times, with the boat regularly getting up to 10 knots and we set a new top speed (albeit briefly of 14 knots at one point)!!!
At 3am the wind jumped up a bit further, so the 2nd reef went in to slow us a bit more and the wind changed direction a bit so it started getting a bit lumpy. We shared night watches and had to “batten down” stuff was starting to get thrown off shelves. Still we were making good time.
The wind moderated in the night, so when the sun came up it was back to full sail. As a rule, we try to avoid changing the sails at night unless we have to as it’s alway a bit risky in the dark if something happens. Back to full sail and our average speed picked up again. However, the seas were still pretty lumpy from the night before, so it was another rough day as we watched the miles tick down. Despite making really good time, it was clear we were going to arrive after sunset, so we prepared for a night entry into our chosen anchorage.
