Tuesday 30^th September – On Passage

38:56.926N 9:00.016E

Following a successful sea trial this morning by Cape of some repairs to the fuel system on their engine, we set sail this afternoon.  We have enjoyed Carloforte, hopefully we will return one day.

With the promised Mistral now forecast to come through a day early and leave the weather unsettled for a few days, we decided to make straight for Cagliari rather than coast hop as planned. 

When we set off, the wind was behind us, around F4 and gave us a gentle sail to the bottom of the island.  It then increased to F5 and pushed us along the coast nicely.  Fortunately being in the shadow of the land the swell remained quite low but there was a bit of an uncomfortable chop as we crossed Golfo di Palmas.

After nightfall, the wind eased and we finished our trip on the motor.  As we passaged we could see distant lightning flashes in the sky, both ahead of us out over the Tyrrhenian Sea and south of us in the Sardinian Channel.  We hoped they were not coming our way – fortunately they didn’t.

As Cape had just had some work done on their engine we had sailed nearby just in case any problems developed.  In the end though it was us that were grateful that they were around as around midnight something caught on our prop.  We are not sure what it was – maybe a bit of old rope or some sacking – but it caused the prop to vibrate when we put the revs on.  Richard gently set the prop into reverse and then ahead which seemed to improve things; he then did it again, reversing up for a bit.  Fortunately this seemed to do the trick and it was fine for the rest of the passage.  We’ll have to go down and check the prop now, but certainly a worrying time.