Well not quite sicily

Here we are on the island of carlo forte about 10 miles off Sardinia. Well how did we get here? We left Ibiza which as well as being the party centre of the world (see the thong burns) is also a very beautiful island, and when you can locate a calla (cove) without thumping Belgian trance music polluting the air it is exquisite. Anyway as I’ve learnt journeys are meant to be continued and on a wet windy Tuesday afternoon we left Santa Eualia heading for Sicily. Netanya had joined us (ironically from Sicily, but that’s another story) and we headed on. Its was blowy about force 3-4 and our hopes were up for some good sailing, within an hour the winds had died and the motor was on. As all on board know this leaves me frazzled for long periods of time, as constantly i am ministering to the engine, listening to slight changes in the engine tone, having to adjust the cutlass bearings etc. This went on for 16 hours through the night not a blot of wind. My first night at sea is always miserable, a combination of the adrenalin, of leaving, and not everything going exactly to plan add the constant throbbing engine and my inability to sleep on the first night of any voyage (a tradition it seems) and i am a monosyllabic grunter. Dawn kept (annoyingly) promising there’s going to be wind and finally next day at noon the wind and my spirits picked up and we were sailing along at 4 knots. Gabriel and Dawn saw sea turtles, Netanya is reading the old sea tome “a clockwork orange” And on the 17^th Hannah had her birthday. A birthday at sea, and she was 13. She was so wonderful and appreciative of the situation. Her presents were some cake mix for her to bake her own cake which was wonderful, some sweets (that we all ate) and some t-shirts etc. We were out of sight of land and friends, so we sang happy birthday, played scrabble and actually had a great time. I think she will remember it.

This journey continued for 4 nights as the journey continues i begin to enjoy it more and more, i get to sleep and start talking in sentences. On the fourth day we fired up the satellite phone checked the weather and saw we were sailing into a pretty big storm just before we got to Sicily. This caused for some serious thinking.  Heads together we were 100 miles South West of Sardinia and made the sensible decision to shoot up there, hunker down and wait out the storm. Heading North (with  increasing winds) we headed North  East. 

Now is a good time to discuss watches. Maritime law (and common sense) require someone to be on watch thru the night. This as the name suggests is to watch for shipping and obstacles. On Mithril we do three hour watches thru the night 9 to 12- 12 to 3- 3 to 6.  Generally you sit up in the cockpit if the engine is on you have to check the raw water outlet (the exhaust) listen for blockages in the water intake  and check the radar. If a boat appears on the radar you need to calculate whether we have to change course. Netanya for this journey has been doing the first watch 9- 12. Different to me she knits (who taught her this?) on the second night i heard a scream of Dad, Dad Netanya had correctly heard a change in the engine intake and noticed that water had stopped coming out, immediately i closed down one of the water intakes and opened the other. Netanya had caught her first small octopus. Digging it out of the filter with an old toothbrush all was sorted. Anyhow that is why you need someone on watch, without her spotting this the engine would of overheated (well done tan) . I always do the 12-3 watch because if the engine is on it needs to have fuel hand pumped to it every 4 hours and this enables me to do it for the watches either side. The first night you can still see the lights of a big town forty miles away however on the second night there is no light pollution and the starry night is truly unbelievable  it is as much as a religious experience as i could ever admit to. You see shooting stars milky ways a planet i cannot identify and then orion and ursa major the north star its amazing. I got Gabriel up at 4 in the morning not normally something that would enamour me to him and he thought it was cool too. I  love watching the stars and do it for most of my three hours. Sometimes i get the binoculars out but its not so good its better seeing the whole thing than bits of it in more detail... a bit like life really.

Dawn does 3-6 cos she likes seeing the sun rises over the horizon, this suits me as its usually about 6.30 which gives me an extra thirty minutes kip.

Anyhow we have now arrived off sardianas south west coast on a tiny island called carlo forte we are moored next to the commercial vessels in the town centre, it looks great and we will be here a few days, i have yet to explore it. Blog to you soon. Adam