103º(T) Salgar, Menorca 94NM 39:28.4N 006:15.2E

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Tue 21 May 2013 07:02
Pleasant sail through the night. Mostly overcast, plenty lightening up to 0200'ish and plenty drizzle from time to time. Lots Nimbostratus clouds seemingly to be like this for continuing duration. Good to get salty decks rinsed with fresh water for free! Presently aiming towards Salgar, few miles S of Mahon. Likely ETA early hours of the morning and although Salgar is quite open, we can expect protection from W - N, which is good because wind is expected to go round clock from NW to E backwards after we arrive, maybe giving us a short window to hop round the coast to Addaya on Thursday? Only problem with entering Salgar in dark is absence of shoreside navigational markers. "Slowly, slowly we shall go" and if slightest unhappy drop hook Mahon - plan B. We don't think any chance getting into Addaya due to threatening N'ly winds and not wanting a good place to navigate down precarious channel in dark! Could not get heard by Halfmoon on Dragnet this morning. Could hear Hobnob closing on Monistair, Tunisia, although they didn't hear us either. Likelihood is we are now out of range now for 6516 kHz boat-boat traffic in these conditions. Last heard from Taralee around 12h since when they were 30NM away and heading Mallorca- also out of range now.
We would love a weather change FOR THE BETTER. It's cool (18ºC) and drizzling. Fortunately the NE F4 continues to provide us for close/beam reaching. Will get new grib file towards end of day although not expecting much to change. Being 90NM from our heading and more than 100NM to any other land there's not much VHF traffic now either. It's more or less as close as it gets to isolation and traffic is sparse this neck of the woods.
Pleased to report temporary caulking leak where stbd D1 shroud passes through deck successfully fixed. Wet salty carpet in saloon now bone dry (this goes back almost 4 years when new!) 4 years to find and 10 minutes to fix. Was able to listen to BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz last night. Pleasant change to our music but they played national anthem & shut down at midnight to my disappointment. Getting reception so far from UK is a nighttime propagation quirk which is first time for us!
Been on job & main overnight, now thinking of swapping jib for genoa to maintain boat speed >6kn. OK during even gloomy daylight on a grey day when can watch for squalls. Grey..... that reminds me....... must get back in touch with Carol of s/y Indigo who recommended 50 Shades of Gray to me!
Have a great day xxx

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