All about our travels on the high seas
A nautical generator expert came on board this morning and fixed the generator in 45 minutes. He disconnected the cooling water outlet and the connection was clogged with salt. We had already checked the cooling water inlet, the impeller and the outlet in the hull, but we would never have found this particular connection. All good, and we’ve learned a little more about the boat.
Wednesday: A short run to Santa Eulalia marina, a few miles north-east of Ibiza town. An excellent marina with lots of facilities, but pricey.
Thursday: A 10 hr/62 nm day today, so we left early at 0600 local. A good SW wind so running downwind all day. We used the preventer on the boom and also experimented with two foresails and no main. It worked, but one of the foresails needs to be poled out to stabilise it.
Jane left her hatch open a crack not realising that the sea wasn’t as calm as the day before – the bed got soaked…
There was a Mayday during the morning. We plotted the position but were too far away to assist.
We welcomed Shirley on board on Friday and said goodbye to Jane on Sunday. We’ll be sorting a problem with the generator (overheating and shutting down) in the morning then it’s off to Cala d’Or on the east coast of Mallorca.
We left Valencia a day late because the car was broken into overnight in Sitges, just south of Barcelona. The police told us that foreign and hire cars are targeted because the thieves know there will be lots of stuff inside. I took the “tech bag” into the hotel, so laptop and iPads were safe, and I’d strapped some bags in the boot together so they couldn’t drag those out of the window. Still, they got away with €300 of food and two travel bags with sailing equipment and clothes inside. That all meant we had to delay our departure from Valencia to get the car into a repair shop.
Enough of that. We slipped from the Real Club Nautico Valencia for the final time at 0500 this morning. It’s 92 nm to Formentera, 13 hours or so, and we wanted to arrive before dark. The plan worked, mainly because there was no wind so we were able to motor at 6-7 kt all the way and we did the leg in 12:45.
We’re now at anchor at the Punta Sabina beach with a lot more boats than were here in February. Still, it’s a beautiful stop. Ibiza tomorrow…
We had some maintenance carried out in Palma and worked our way back to Valencia in early March. We then left Mistral and drove back to France. The next day, Spain went into lockdown and a fews days later, France followed.
It’s now mid-June and there are signs that the lockdowns will be lifted soon. When we can travel back to the UK without quarantine, we will do so and visit friends and family. Then we’ll be back on Mistral for as long as possible in 2020.
Back to a big marina for a change, the Real Club Nautico de Palma. I’m doing the Yachmaster Ocean Course here next week, so this is a good base for a few days. There’s little wind anyway so we’re not missing any sailing.
Whatever electrical adapters you have on board you never have the right ones!
And we’ve ordered Lithium Ion batteries to be installed next week.
This bay was recommended to us by a bloke in a ship’s chanderlery. Absolutely beautiful.
A longish day of sailing to Mallorca. Plenty of wind until later in the afternoon. We anchored at Cala Major, the first bay to the west of Palma.
A short 11 nm trip from Formentera to Ibiza. The nav instruments keep failing when the bow thrusters are used. Will try to get them fixed when we get to Palma.
We explored the town a little. Very quiet out of season. Valentines dinner at the marina pizzeria with a posher meal the following evening.
We had a couple of very pleasant nights here at anchor. We replaced the battery on the tender and had a play with it. We also got a technician to come to the boat to try to diagnose the electrical problems. Not fixed, but we have a better understanding now of the systems.
While trying to get the tender working I managed to fall into the water. Not cold at all. How Karen laughed. My new glasses fell off so we found a local driver who came to the boat and recovered them!
Today (Tuesday 11 February) we made our first proper passage in Mistral. We left Valencia at 0605 and arrived at Formentera at 1940 – over 13 hours and 93nm.
We spent most of the time on the engine but once the sun was up and we left the fishing boats behind we sailed for a while. When the wind dropped the engine wouldn’t start! After some time troubleshooting and searching for circuit breakers, I switched the engine battery off and on again and it came back to life.
