13th August
Sealion
Richard Martin
Thu 14 Aug 2008 12:39
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The idea was to go from Santa Pola to Compello.
With a light Southerly wind, we set the sails on the beam and started a nice
sail. It was not to last though, the wind swung to the SE and we were soon
close hauled.
The wind then began to rise and we reefed the main
and Genoa accordingly. But the wind kept rapidly rising and was soon exceeding
20 knots - I decided it was time for plan B - sails came down and we headed N.
West for Alicante harbour about 6 miles into the bay we had been
crossing.
Good decision as by the time we had reached the
harbour the wind was blowing a staedy 26/27 knots. The marina said they were
full but rather than turn us away in the deteriorating weather they allowed us
to spend a night on the waiting pontoon. By late afternoon the wind was
whistling through the harbour with its shelter at 28 knots -
probably 30/35knots at sea.
Weather forecasts in this part of the world do
not seem to reliable.
Having looked at the Grib files for the next few
days it looks if we will have a calm window tomorrow, but with stronger winds
around Friday coming from the North. France & the Balerics clearly getting
some Mistrals/Levante winds blowing hard for a few
days.
Picture of castle at the back of
Alicante.
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