Formentera
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sat 17 Jun 2006 19:06
|
Hello Friends
This message is from Formentera (island
south of Ibiza) where we arrived at midnight on Friday night after a nonstop run
from Gibraltar.Three days, two nights and 355 miles, though sadly involving
little actual sailing.
We saw many dolphins - they seem to have
rather energetic ones in the Med who jump right out of the water, compared with
the more lethargic ones in the video. A pod of pilot whales went past off the
Costa del Sol and George saw a more unusual sight as we approached the Balearics
- like a depth charge going off about a mile away, followed by a dozen or so
smaller fountains in the water. We thought probably a large whale surfacing and
hyperventilating? Fortunately a mile away, though I wouldn't want a whale too
close to the boat...
We saw quite a lot of turtles floating close
to the boat - since they have to be close to notice them at all we assume that
the Med is stuffed with them. Any good soup recipes Athene ?
The run included two nights - night sailing
is not nearly as boring as it sounds - sometimes you hear a splash in the water
which is too far away to be the wake of Blue Sky. If you look quickly you see a
luminous trail as the dolphin streaks towards the boat, disturbing plankton we
think (unless you know better!). When the propellor churns up the water it seems
to get the plankton really over excited and we motored with what seemed like
balls of luminous candy floss being ejected from under the back of the
boat.
We still eat well on passage - below, dinner
(cassoulet) under way somewhere off Spain.
 Now we're in the Med it's MUCH warmer and
this message comes to you from a freshly cleaned cockpit (a couple of showers
seem to have washed half the sahara desert on to the decks). George is preparing
supper of something involving smoked salmon, lamb cutlets with a beany thing and
boat-made rhubarb ice cream. I dare say a glass or two of something may
accompany it all.
We have about a week in the Balearics now
(more in September with the Greenwich Golden Girls) so probably off to Palma
soon where Kemp Sails have arranged for a local firm to repair our spinnaker and
Andy will leave Blue Sky, hopefully to find paid work on boats.
Best wishes to all
George & Michael
|