Drying out in Alghero beneath the Old Town Walls and under a glorious sun.  We finally left Mahon harbour and the beautiful Balearics, after spending a wonderful week there with Paul and Alison.  The four of us ate, drank, played darts!, laughed and sailed, short sails to two beautiful anchorages, and those two were eager, competent and uncomplaining crew.  It was so good to share the Beowulf experience and some of Menorca with them.  The weather was good but they left and it alll changed.

Winds too strong to set out in for Sardinia blew for three days but it stayed sunny and we did some sightseeing with Klaus and Christina, German friends of ours who wintered in Menorca too and with whom we planned to cross the 200 miles to Alghero, on the west coast.  Finally we decided that although not perfect weather we could and should make the crossing, there not being another window of wind in our favour for almost a week.

So off we set.  We had an afternoon of light airs, a sunset, a cooked meal, stars until moonrise and shared the watch through the night.  In the morning with adverse light winds we had to motor about 6 hours.  The ring around the sun in a cloudy sky was ominous and sure enough was a sign of what we knew was coming. But unexpectedly a Force 4 rose to Force 7 in the wink of Neptune's eye.  Beowulf valiantly thumped and crashed through haha 'moderate' seas from an unseen sunset on that second night right through to noon the next day, the spray, rain and hail drenching whichever of us was in the cockpit.  Trips down below were dangerous - it was like a space capsule's opposite - you were drifting freely around but gravity dragged you down and threw you into whatever it chose. Getting into and out of our full coveralls was a comedy sketch every time.  Tom very very kindly let me stay in my sleeping bag for 8 of the night time hours, huddled in the lee cloth, not moving and convincing myself the slamming and screeching was worse down below than above.  I actually slept.