Heading west
It hasn’t all been plain sailing, in fact there has been very little sailing to talk of. Motoring between blows has been the name of the game, this practice as you might imagine, is not only boring but also very expensive! So when we had a 2 day leg from Corsica to Barcelona to plan for, we jumped at the chance of some ‘proper’ sailing. Ryan scrutinised 4 different weather models and we both concluded that conditions were good to go. No more than 15 knots , they said. On the beam, they said. Only 1 metre or less swell, they said.
Imagine then, our utter despair when we found ourselves in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, slogging very slowly and uncomfortably into 25+ knots in a 2 metre swell, wind on our nose, MOTORING! We were peeved to say the very least, the silver lining was that the girls slept right through the noise and commotion, lord only knows how!
Suffice to say we made it through that dark, moonless, abyss of a night (no exaggeration!) and came out the other side to finish the journey in a lively style. We are now reaching into big sea and wind, listening to loud music, kids making dens, marble runs, booby traps and other inventive games; amazing what they manage to do to entertain themselves! Of course, out in the cockpit we have the stoic company of Sophie, who struggles more than the others in challenging conditions. Soph has become our chief admiral: keeping watch, adjusting course whilst being showered with the odd wave and smiling throughout!
We’ll be pleased to get out of the Med just to get a reliable weather forecast. The weather in the Mediterranean is an enigma to me. Swell, wind and pressure can all be effected by landmass,temperature, external pressure systems and an innumerable amount of other factors… not to mention the 8 different names they have for wind directions, how about just calling it a north westerly??? Give us a good ol’ high or low pressure in the Atlantic basin and we are happy!
Yes, true to say we’ve enjoyed plenty of things about the Mediterranean, but the weather systems are not one of them !
Getting through the last of this bouncy journey now and looking forward to a city break in Barcelona. A nice quiet marina berth with a shower and supermarket within spitting distance and a bar you don’t have to dinghy to, now that really is the stuff of dreams!
How did the forestay hold up in the blow? Luckily, from the video you had Admiral of the Fleet Jocie in command. Hope you are enjoying Barcelona. Don’t forget to go to that market on La Rambla for breakfast. Love to all xx
Soon be Barcelona,its a great place,espescially the Ramblas i,iexpect you know it,anyway well done,plenty off resturants there so enjoy your time in Barcelona,its lovely reading your Blogs.
Oh My! You all look so healthy and happy! Love and miss you! XXX
good to see you still going strong and just how far you have been!
Hi guys, good to see you’ve made it across the Med… Swell from all directions and lack of them sounds all too familiar! We’ve been in Portugal for past two weeks with some other family boats and loving it! We’re now waiting for our window to head south… So I’m sure we’ll see you in the Canaries!
Thanks for the messages guys! We are whistle stop touring Morocco now which is exhausting but very interesting! Looking forward to hooking up with you other ARC boats in the canaries and for the rest of you land lubbers, blog to follow soon xx