In a few hours I would raise the anchor and start to move towards… Palma, Mallorca. 

The actual destination is Almerimar, Spain.   Yes, the same place as the last year.  

It have taken a lot of time, endless discussions with all friends — probably driving them nuts! —, checking and re-checking all plusses and minuses… 

In short, the decision where to go — has taken toooo much efforts then needed, and tooo much nerves… 

Why Palma, Mallorca ? 

It is difficult to find the proper weather for the time to reach Almerimar in ’one shot’.  So, the Palma looks like a reasonable stop — if needed, in the middle. 

To re-group, to rest, to get the next weather window. 

This time I will try to use Squid Routing module.  What it is doing — picking up the data for all models, and trying them to find the optimum time and route to get from point A to point B…  On the screen — it looks beautiful… However,  what is it in reality ?  I have a good friend, who said it works very very good for him… 

Not far away, in crossing from Sardinia to Rome, etc…   My guess is — it is all depends on the weather model accuracy,  and the proper characteristics of you boat… written in polars diagram…  In short, how good your boat is moving with this or that weather conditions, angle to the wind… 

It looks beautiful on the screen. 

I remember the article / interview with Mike Golding, who was using something similar during his Vendee Race… He was saying — it was always a challenge to make the decision and to choose which result to use…  

Of course, I’m in a different league… Of course, I have the different and less sophisticated software… And obviously, I’m not  going in the ‘racing machine’ as Open class boat, for whom the polars were measured probably to the same degree of accuracy as for Space Shuttles… may be even better… ;-) 

But… It will be fun to check the outcome and the results… 

At the mean time,  final preparations,  a bit of rest… 

Everything is fine on board,  

Talk to you soon, 

M.