It was 10am by the time we had paid the bill in the delightful Ser-Mar marina, taken the rubbish and generally got Gemini J set for her long crossing back to Menorca. We checked the sea state too – it was looking flat calm in the bay (fingers crossed). The Omiggiatori/marinero aguided us out in his dinghy since the spot was a little tight but actually Skipper Nigel didn’t need any nudging and we were out perfectly and on our way …..
We were cut up by a catamaran less than five minutes after our departure and then had to negotiate pots and fish farms in the busy bay. It was to be the most excitement that day as it turned out !!
We had had an amazing time in Sardinia and we’re sorry to leave but the forecast showed calm waters and clear skies with light winds – so it was time for us to take the “weather window” and head back to Spanish waters. For those of you thinking that we had over-ordered on the pizzas our last night in Alghero, there was method in our madness as the saying goes. Once we had negotiated the pots, breakfast was served 😉 Skipper Nigel also did a bit of crew work as we set Gemini J for a day long motor sail. Day one passed well, we saw a few dolphins playing in the distance but no whales this time. Not many boats either, just one sailboat heading for Sardinia and a tanker as dusk fell. Our autopilot worked really well and the most difficult job (definitely not to be underestimated) was trying to stay out of the afternoon sun !!
As night fell we watched another wonderful sunset which never fail to amaze me. Unfortunately as it got darker we hit a roll on the waves. Not a lot of swell so the forecast was correct, just a funny rolling sea that made Gemini J rock from side to side quite a lot. It wasn’t long before I started feeling queasy, normally if this happens (which it does from time to time) we change the direction of the boat to go along with the roll or I take the helm and focus on the horizon. Skipper Nigel tried to work out how we could get Gemini J to rock less and work with the swell but because we were on a passage we didn’t want to divert course. Me jumping on the helm to watch the horizon wasn’t an option since it was pitch black by now – so, proper seasickness ensued – for the first time ever !! We have had Gemini J for 7 years now so I haven’t done badly to stave it off so far! The sky was absolutely full of stars and what we thought was the milky way – we now think it was a “delta aquarid meteor shower” which is occurring at the moment. Another thing it was difficult to photograph but it did make the darkness much more interesting and beautiful. Luckily Skipper Nigel enjoys his night sailing and is quite good at shifts too. He took the lions share of the overnight watches and luckily with the sunrise came a horizon and calmer waters so I was able to recover and take more watches while Skipper rested.
Day two was calmer and once again, passed without incident, we did see some turtles which was exciting but un-photogenic since we only spotted them when we were almost past them and it was too late to grab the phone ! You’ll just have to believe us on that one 😉 No other shipping traffic, no waves and light winds – just how we like it on a crossing. After about 24 hours at sea we started calculating our arrival time – we hadn’t quite made the planned speed of 5 knots overnight so we worked out we’d be arriving in the dark. That’s something we never like to do so Skipper Nigel got out his trusty pencil (while I rested some more) and worked it all out. If we pushed on we could arrive around sunset time a journey of 34 or 35 hours – so we aimed to do just that.
As we were finally able to shout “land ahoy” it was a great feeling although I must say the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. Because Menorca is a relatively small, low island we were around 20 miles offshore when we could see it (when we said goodbye to the sight of Sardinia it was over 30 miles away). We battled on as quickly as we could and we were getting really close as the sun started to set …. not quite the position we hoped to be in but we carried on. We didn’t appreciate the sunset much until looking at the photos the next day as we were so focused on finding a mooring buoy. Unfortunately by the time we had entered the buoy field/anchorage it was more or less dark. We had to get out our searchlight torch and look for the buoys which we couldn’t pick out amongst all the boats. We discussed simply turning back out and bobbing around at sea til daylight but we knew enough from all the information to know it was a fairly safe anchorage. So, once again we switched to our plan B – drop anchor for the night! It wasn’t easy but with a combination of excellent skippering, crystal clear water and a decent torch we managed to set anchor – it was really quite dark by this time and Skipper Nigel took the first watch to check we were OK as neither of us wanted to sleep in case we slipped anchor – especially since we’d done the whole thing whilst pretty exhausted. At around 2:30am Skip was happy enough to go to bed and then I kept a watch out every hour or so til it was light. We also had an anchor alarm set and watched our position om the phone. Once it was light we could see the buoys ….. and we could see we’d made the right call since the available ones were through a field of other boats – it would have been impossible in the dark. At 10am we upped the anchor and went less than 1 minute away onto a mooring buoy. We confirmed our booking with the marinero and ….goodnight – we went right back to sleep !!!! We are now in Es Grau / Isla Colom in Menorca for a few days and on first impression it looks like another wonderful stop, but for now, time to relax aboard after a 35 hour adventure!!
The Adventures of Gemini J 