Of dilemmas and decisions

In the morning of Sunday we sailed off, day's goal was Isola Piana in bay of Asinara. The weather forecast in the meantime got worse, with storms forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday. So we were still indecisive what we'll do next - we could sail down the West coast of Sardinia to Alghero and wait there till Thursday or return to one of the marina on the North coast. We were planning to check the weather again that evening and decide then.

We sailed by the pretty town of Castelsardo. We did have plans to stop and visit it, but we were late, and it was hot and town is on the hill. So we sailed on.

In late afternoon we reached Isola Piana. Anchorage was pretty full, although it was quite rolly. We went for a swim and made us a dinner.

We noticed couple of dragon flies flying around our boat and they rested on lines of lazy bag (where the main sail is stored).

After the dinner Captain started to push to sail off towards Menorca right away. It looked like it was not going to be comfortable to sleep in the anchorage, and he thought we might just miss the first storm that was forecast for Tuesday afternoon and sail into Mahon right before the second storm forecast for Wednesday. I didn't like the idea to be on the way two nights and one day when we could do it in two days and one night, but waiting would probably mean sleeping in rolly anchorage and then going into a marina for one to three nights. After a while I gave in and we sailed off at around 7 in the evening. We sailed beween Isola Piana...

... and a tower on the South side of the shallow Pelosa passage.

In the evening we had some wind and sailing was good. Captain took the first watch and soon he had to start the engine. Unfortunately it was quite rolly, so I didn't get to sleep very well.

I took over at four thirty in the morning. There was not much happening, except that we had some blind passengers - not two, but five dragon flies. They huddled together near the small light near engine instruments. We were very careful not to harm any of them.

I was motoring my whole watch, and the sea got bit more calm. Captain took over again at ten in the morning and I went to bed for two hours.

The day was grey and the sea looked like it was made of liquid steel. Not very nice. The only positive thing were the dragon flies. They woke up with the sun light and were sitting on railings and all kind of ropes.

They flew around the boat to catch themselves something to eat and this one even got to the table to eat his catch. How civilized.

And he only has to finish off the legs of a beetle...

I liked how they lowered their wings when they were resting, like parked helicopter.

Later in the afternoon the clouds got thicker on the west, we saw lightning and heard thunders and it started to rain. I packed most of our electronic devices into my oven, just in case. With time rain got stronger and stronger and lightnings came closer. I really don't like lightnings on the boat, they make me nervous. The big cruise ship came out of the clouds, it was going in opposite direction, and I was thinking: oh good for them, they got out of it. With time wind increased and rain got even stronger. Wind was almost on our nose. We were sailing with main with second reef and a small solent sail, also reefed. All of a sudden a lazy line broke, the weigh of the water that collected in folds of reefed main was too much for it. That was not good, the lazy bag was hanging down on one side and it would not be possible to store the main away. But if wind would still get stronger, we would at some point have to do that. So we tether (privezali) Captain and he crawled onto the deck and managed to use the halyard (dvižnico) to get the lazy bag up again. Then wind started to turn and got stronger and stronger. Now it was almost from behind, sea spray was in the air and wind instrument registered 50 knots. At that point I even had the time to make a photo, although the waves don't photograph well.

We decided we need to store away the main. This required turning the boat into the wind. With the engine on I tried to do that, but wind wouldn't let me and the main didn't land in the lazy bag completely. At that point also the wind instrument went crazy and din't show the correct wind direction any more. Right on time! So we turned back to West and run with the wind with only a very small piece of solent sail. Our speed was between 8 and 10 knots, I think it would probably be the same without the sail as well. By now the waves developed and boat was rolling like crazy. We were both wet, tired and cold and we knew we had to do something with the main, before next storm and before the night comes. After an hour, luckily there was still some light, wind eased up a bit, so we repeated the procedure - we tethered Captain and he crawled onto the deck and tried to pull main down wit the boat hook and put it in the lazy bag. I was controlling the line on which he hung and shouted to him when the bigger waves came and he needed to hold on to the mast with both hands. So somehow we managed to take care of that too. Things were manageable now, so we decided one of us will try to get some rest while the other is outside on watch. It was way too bumpy and rolly for sleeping.

We were still 40 miles from Menorca and I was dreading the thought that we might get into another storm in the night. I didn't like it one bit even in daylight. Wind was still strong and our speed high and somehow the distance got shorter by the hour. We've seen some lightnings around us, got a bit of rain, but nothing as wild as before. I even managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.

At around 6 in the morning we sailed into the channel into port of Mahon. It was still totally dark and we had some problems finding a spot to anchor in a bay full of boats. Thanks to radar we somehow managed it. And we went to bed.

Bay Taulera is very closed and calm and we slept well. We got up at about noon. We both were very tired, and I was feeling so empty of any thoughts and emotions. There was no relief that we got through the storm well, nor fear in hindsight. I didn't even feel any hunger or thirst. The day went by in doing nothing and trying not to fight, I was very irritable.

Next night was calm as well, I was still having trouble falling asleep and was then waking up many times. In the morning Captain decided we need to fix the lazy line that got torn in the storm and get the broken wind instrument from mast, which we did. He climbed up the mast and while he was up there, he took some photos as well.

Entrance to cala Taulera

To the East there is only thin stripe of land separating cala from the sea

In late afternoon we dinghied to the town of Mahon. It is quite a ride, it is almost 1,5 miles. Our first stop was gin factory, they produce a very aromatic gin and plenty of beverages based on gin. And there is free tasting of everything in the factory shop. It is not easy to not get drunk. 

Next we visited Pedro's chandlery, we bought anchor chain there 8 years ago and they were very helpful then. This time we didn't buy anything, but very friendly employee gave us plenty of good advice on where to go and where to eat in the town.

We walked up to the town, the old part is of course up on the hill.

There are many pretty historical buildings there.

The view to Isla del Rey

And the view to the entrance into the port.

We had a great dinner in a restaurant recommended by the guy in Pedro's chandlery and returned to Heron with full belies and fresh fruit and bread that we bought.

The night was even calmer than the ones before, wind completely died towards morning. We studied the weather forecast and decided it was calm enough to sail around the North and West coat of Menorca in next two days and then cross to Mallorca on Sunday.

We left cala Taulera on Friday morning. we sailed by the fortress at the entrance to port of Mahon.

There was a classic regatta that weekend and we saw many pretty boats.

Punta S Espero at the NE point to entrance to Mahon, viewed from the South...

... and from East

Ftrher North the coats is very rocky and wild. This is the lighthouse on Cabo Favaritx.

We still wanted to have a calm night, so we chose a bay of Fornells for our night stop. There were some very wild rocks at the narrow entrance...

...and an island inside of the bay, close by we dropped the anchor.

The view to North to the entrance to cala Fornells.

The East bank of the bay is natural reserve, anchoring is forbidden there and it really looks wild and calm. Unfortunately water was not very clear and blue as in more open bays with sand on the bottom. We swam anyway.

The night was calm, except for rather busy road on the West side of the bay, but we slept well. Couple of gin&tonics helped with sleeping as well.