Off to Malta - just 1000 miles...
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 10 Jul 2010 07:19
10th July
2010
Time to finally bid
farewell to the Eastern Mediterranean and to start heading back towards
Gibraltar. With around 2000 miles of the Med to cover by the end of
August, a long passage from Herzliya to Valetta in Malta seemed a good way
to get some sea miles behind us. The chart tells us it's approx 1030
nautical miles along the rhumb line - that would be about 10 days at sea,
depending of course on conditions.The prevailing winds are from the North West,
exactly the direction we want to go (no change there then!), so it could be a
long beat to windward.
Having stocked up on
all necessary supplies, we finally checked out of Herzliya, dropped the lines
and were off. Once outside the marina we hoisted sail and set them for
best course to windward, which actually put us on course for Port
Said! This was going to be an interesting journey. We carry enough
diesel to motor a maximum of 450 nautical miles, so no putting on the engine
every time our speed dropped a bit, or motorsailing to get close
on the wind. We would very definitely be dependent on the wind.
After two months of pretending to be a motor vessel and using the engine nearly
all the time, it felt good to feel the wind in the sails and to hear
the gurgling as the hull cut its way through the water.
Malta here we
come...