We were most excited to be on our way after a week in port and just a few miles off shore we faced our first “hazard”. What happens is you see amost a speck in the distance, then as it becomes clearer you know it’s a ship, then you realise it’s a cruise ship . We travel around 5 knots and they travel around 20 knots so before you know it what looks like it’s a really long way off is just a couple of miles from your bow. In this case it was the “Wonder of the seas” which passed us. It was close enough for us to see the giant television on the top deck – I guess you can watch it from the swimming pool. We knew it was big – but Wikipedia tells us “As of January 2022, the largest cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, has a gross tonnage of 236,857, is 362 metres (1,188 ft) long, 64 metres (210 ft) wide, and holds up to 6,988 passengers.” So maybe a few thousand passengers were looking out of their windows at Gemini J and wondering what it would be like to really be sailing 😉
After that excitement the evening went well and although it was rocky on the sea it was not too uncomfortable. We slowly left Mallorca behind us and headed into open water towards Ibiza.
We enjoyed a stunning sunset and I went down to try to get some sleep before my night shift. Skipper Nigel was once again in his element and was hoping to get some sails out but the wind wasn’t quite in the right direction. He tried with them a couple of times unsuccessfully – bit it’s always worth a try if there’s a breath of wind 😉 I tried to take my shift at 11pm but Skipper felt good so I got a couple more hours sleep before coming on deck at 1am. By this time we could see the lights of Ibiza and lots and lots of stars. The boat was rocking and rolling by this time and we could see lots of beautiful stars between the clouds.
Through that darkness, we could also see distant lightening over the island (we were around 9 nautical miles off shore). It was quite spectacular and we thought it could be quite bad weather on the island. Skipper went down for a rest around 2am with the instruction to wake him if it started raining. The sea state was really quite swelly by now and it was difficult to move around the boat. We had to be super careful when coming up on deck or going down below and we both fell over at different times simply due to the swell. At about half past four it happened – rain ! Not just any rain – from one or two drops to an absolute torrential downpour in less than a minute. Not enough time to get our waterproofs on or even to close the hatches. It was a wet, chilly, sudden shock ! I ended up down below securing everything and Skipper took the helm. It was only the next day that I found out it was really quite a scary few minutes for the Skipper with sideways rain and extremely high winds. In fact a couple of days later Skipper Nigel told me it really was a pretty hairy few minutes and he really had to work hard to keep the boat in the right direction and on course. It was definitely the worst weather we have ever been in on Gemini J. Luckily about 20 minutes later we were through it – absolutely soaked to the skin but none the worse for wear than that. I came back on watch at about 6am ready to take the dawn shift.
The dawn over Ibiza finally came around 8am and it was worth the uncomfortable, bleary eyed wait ….. as soon as it was daylight everything was beautiful as we looked back on the island of Ibiza which we had passed during the darkness.
We were left with a 2m swell so we still couldn’t really move around the boat and it wasn’t from a consistent direction so it meant using the sails was tricky. The wind was also much stronger than forecast gusting up to 20 knots. We could see the mainland and decided to keep onwards (there was always an option to head to Ibiza or Formentera). By the afternoon we were able to reef the mainsail and increase our speed and by the evening we had our mainsail out (still motoring) and our destination of Moraira in sight. Coming round the headland is always a relief after a crossing and we were very happy to arrive before sunset. We were put onto a berth on the opposite side of the marina to normal – which we weren’t completely happy with but we we were so glad to be on berth we secured the boat and slept!! and slept …… 117 nautical miles and 26 hours of rocking and rolling, a few bruises to show for it but another fabulous aventure aboard our beloved Gemini J.
The Adventures of Gemini J 