17.-19.05.2023 Cala Millor, Majorca, Spain
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Fri 19 May 2023 19:41
We thought we could see a break in the relentless and strong Mistral winds from the north so we set out to somewhere in the Balearics on Wednesday evening. The winds were as expected but the waves were very big and mainly across the deck. We snagged an escaped lobsterpot at one point but it freed itself when threatened with a knife. About 100 miles out, the engine spluttered to a halt and the diesel generator followed soon after. It looks like our diesel tank had taken in seawater through a poorly fitting filler cap wh We were thrown back to 18th Century sailing technique on our second night out as we approached the island of Menorca. We struggled to keep north and soon the port of Mahon became impossible to reach. H and I had short watches but we were becoming very tired trying to reach anchorages on the south, hopefully more sheltered, coast. These anchorages also turned out to be difficult to reach upwind as we had some problems with untried sails. We are not really heavy-weather sailors and usually resort to the engine unless there a nice breezes behind so this was all too scary. The island of Majorca lay to our south and we turned down wind hoping to be able to find a bay and it was with some relief that we dropped anchor near Cala Millor on the NE coast.