39:06.71N 1:30.79E Approaching Ibza
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Thu 15 Oct 2009 14:01
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Hi folks,
This morning at 7:30 we left
Mallorca. This trip "we" is myself plus Chris Lander, again a
small crew but hopefully this time we will not be pressed to do quite
so many night sails. Today we are just headed across to Ibiza around
60Nm trip and we plan to overnight in Cala Portinatx which seems quite
sheltered. As with my last sailing in the Med we are subject to low
pressure over the south of France which has resulted in some pretty
impressive waves and some reasonable wind, though this has abated as we
have sailed through the afternoon. Inevitably we are progressing the last
few hours under engine which is a shame but we want to get in to port before sun
set so better safe than sorry.
The sunny weather that had graced the Balearic
islands all last week has given way to clouds which mean it is a good deal
colder and not really swimming weather this week, hopefully it will brighten as
the week goes on and we travel south. Our final destination on this trip
will be Estopona just before you get to Gibraltar and we hope to get there by
Tuesday/Wednesday
The re-fit seems so far to be a great
success. The generator and new batteries seem to be working as
advertised and the inverter allows us to make ice and run the
mosquito killers at night (yes it still seems to be mozzie
season). If anyone needs an engineer in Mallorca I can recommend
Reiner Popp, he appears to have done a very professional job, and though it was
late completing that was due to lost keys and no access to the
boat rather than his efforts. He told me 7 days and worked
through the weekend to get the job done, and have the dubious pleasure of
collecting the the boat from Palma where it was sitting with Viva
Charter.
Very sadly we had some problems with the boat where
it was left at the Viva pontoon in Palma, someone has removed the rigging for
our self tacking headsail, since I am not using it right now it is not an
immediate problem but the line would be an instant back up for the main sheet,
also the spinnaker sheet blocks (newly purchased in Corfu) have been
stolen. Whether this is the guys at Viva making trouble or just some
petty thievery from passer by or other staff I do not know,
but I can't say I have many happy thoughts
about that organization right now as at very least they have lost my keys (and
been no help in trying to find them) and put an ugly sticker on the back of my
boat.
Daily updates to follow hopefully with some pics if
we can find some wifi in Ibiza and along the coast of
Spain.
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