38:50.00 N 08:51.00W

We left at 1400 on Saturday and a bit of a blow assisted us at he start of the trip with winds from the east that allow us to sail at last. We hit 11 knots maximum under jib alone but mostly were making about 8 knots with a fair size following sea and a full moon. Of course we can’t turn off the engine for fear it won’t start and the forecast was for light winds to come. As the night wore on the winds gradually abated so that by midnight we were motoring again and during Sunday we had very calm seas and little wind. On Sunday night we spotted some dolphins leaping high out of the water – you don’t usually spot them at night. That is the third dolphin sighting, but none have been for very long.

At midnight the generator, that was charging the batteries, stopped. So now we had to switch off everything except the navigation lights (these are so other ships can see you) including the electric autohelm (steering system) and had to steer by hand throughout the night and all next day. This isn’t as easy as you imagine as you need to keep fairly close to a course while the boat screws around on each wave and there was a reasonable size swell running from behind us.

In the early hours we could see the lighthouses on the Majorca coast and as daylight broke we could see Majorca. The last stretch around the coast and into Palma, Majorca gave a really nice sailing opportunity and we sailed into Palma bay and docked at the marina at 1400. During the morning Neil noticed that the ignition key for the engine was in the ‘off’ position. It transpired that, by chance, Nick had started the engine in Sicily and then in Sardinia and each time then switched the key to ‘off’.  This explained why the engine wasn’t charging the batteries and hadn’t been for the last 4 days! At least it wasn’t an expensive failure. ( A marine diesel engine will run happily under its own power once started without the ignition system – unlike a car – but can’t connect to the batteries without an electrical connection of course).