Category: 2020 September

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South of Spain

From Gibraltar and before Ibiza there are not many full weather safe anchorages spots, so we need to constantly look at the weather forecast and make plan day by day trying to sail around 50-90 nmiles a day.

Even if we plan to sail as much as possible we have nice night anchorages on the cost close to Malaga, Herradura, Jan José, Cartagena, … but never going ashore. We decide to stop only in Torreveja marina for 4 nights for provisioning and to wait a strong Nord wind to pass.

Torreveja marina

In this resting time I decide to complete a long due maintenance work of the cockpit table that was rotten in some parts and needed to be cleaned and repaired with some wood fillers and than repainted. Occasionally I like to paint with acrylics and watercolors and my recurrent subjects are mermaids, manta rays, octopus and sea waves so I made few drafts for the table but nothing seemed appropriate to me. Once I even tried to let the ocean paint on the table, pouring semiliquid acrylic on the table and left it wondering around with the movements of the waves… but still very untenable!!! Then while Carmine was enjoying coffee on the marina terrazzo I took out my colours and … I just left it goes without thinking too much… then I started having fun and I got lost for few minutes… When I stopped and had a look at it is was done! And Carmine liked it!!!

Leaving the marina we decide to do the autopilot calibration because the sea was really calm, but something was wrong… after few miles the autopilot gives errors… and we start hand steering but Carmine feels something is not working properly. We find that the line that connect the two rudders is broken and one rudder is going on his own way. We can still control the catamaran, but only when it is in movement… not ideal. We look on the map and find that along the cost there is a ship chandlery where we can find a new dyneema line. Then we stop in a night safe anchorage and Carmine cut and splice the new line.

  • the line that connect the two rudders
  • Carmine splicing the new line

In September there are amazing play of colors in the sky and we cannot get tired of being surprised every time!!!

Back on track and ready to cross to Ibiza!!!

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Gibraltar

We are in an emotional mood reaching Gibraltar, it’s just another stopover but we look around trying to recognize something around us.

Are we really sailing into the Med? Are we sure it is what we aimed to do? A mix of feelings of excitement, doubts and thoughts about this crazy last 2 years that passed without being able to make a plan for more than a month!!! I feel more nomad than ever, maybe only because we don’t know where we will be in a year from now…

But where are the Pillars of Hercules? Eidos sails at 6 knots with tide in favor here in the Strait of Gibraltar against a wind of 30 knots, I look at Morocco coastline on my right side (the coast between Tanger and Ceuta) and to Spain on my left side, but no sight of the Pillars! Yet I’m as excited as I was then. After almost twenty years close to the oceans, entering the Med now excites me and makes me think of October 2002 when, sailing in the opposite direction in this strait, I looked curiously at the immense ocean in front of me. So vast and with majestic waves that traveled for thousands of miles, the ocean scared me and I felt very small. Now I already miss those high and gentle ocean waves and I’m looking for the restlessness Mediterranean winds.