It's boating after all...and if there is one part of life that adheres rigidly to the adage of 'the only constant is change' it is boating, or, as we say rather fancily: yachting...
Leaving Cascais on the Thursday, we had to turn back due to some technical issues and finally set off again on Sunday early. We had the most glorious sail south along the Portuguese coast: a good 20-25 knots over the starboard quarter propelling us south at about 9-10 knots, while basking in sunshine...what else can one ask for?
Alas, it didn't last; the first indications arose when we turned the corner at Sagres, and Gibraltar remained shrouded in clouds, with the occasional top of the 'monkey mountain' tipping out of the clouds....the next morning, as we were pulling into Almerimar along the Spanish south coast, things got lively....and by the time we turner the corner again, all we could was head north to beat ourselves out of the most of harms way....
Croatia, where we were supposed to go, was some 1450nm east of us...and in the last few hours we sailed 45nm...making a disappointing 15nm easting...even motorsailing, things were not getting any better. With a rather flat bottom, we couldn't motorsail close to the wind without slamming the life out of the boat, so we were back to beating our way north...
Then the phone call came...how about Corsica? Or sailing to the Cote d'Azur and then heading to Corsica?
It sounded like music to our thoroughly beaten ears and within no time we had tacked and were heading towards Mallorca.
Sailing past this wonderful island in the dawn was a surreal experience...somewhere so close to our hearts and so very much like home...having it so close by without being able to stop stirred some very mixed emotions...uppermost, the joy of sailing the rugger NW coast in calm weather...seeing the cliffs rise out of the morning mist and enjoying the smell of warm land with the faint whif of pine...what a lovely way to end a watch...
We're in Villefranche now, with another busy day ahead tomorrow before we set off to Corsica on Tuesday. Looking forward to going back there, this time by boat and my last (and first time) having been 18 years ago...can't wait to get the season properly started!