We spent last night at Cala d’Or; had a small cove all to ourselves again. Lovely. Lots of Germans sailing here; I think one of their clubs brought a ‘convoy’ over. Got up & started motoring early today; once we got off the point of Mallorca we put up the sails as we had some breeze. Had a nice afternoon of leisurely sailing, but by 5:30 pm the wind had died. So we fired up the engine & are now motoring through a totally calm sea towards Formentera. It looks like a lake out here; that’s how calm the seas are. It’s staying lighter longer as we head west and south, so at 7:40 pm we can still see the horizon. We’re motoring slowly to time our arrival after daylight. There’s only one ‘good’ pass between Ibiza & Formentera at night; we figure we’ll just mosey along & reach it in the morning.

I’m getting tuna’d out, but Shadow thinks life is grand. We had grilled tuna for dinner, then Robert grilled more this morning so I could make fresh tuna salad for lunch. Then I made a tuna casserole for dinner. You get the idea … Hey, it’s fresh tuna, something you folks back home pay mucho dinero for. And here it practically jumped onto our boat, twice! We froze some so we’ll have a couple meals later in case our luck runs out. Robert’s not fishing for a couple days

Right now we’re in schedule to get to the Canaries by Halloween. This, as always, depends on Mother Nature and what the wind & seas bring us. I read a book today on the Cape Verdes, and a couple days there before our ‘mates’ arrive should be adequate, so plan is to reach Praia on 25 November. Mike arrives the 26th, Rod the 27th, & we’ll head out the 28th unless weather prohibits it.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada, Columbus Day in the US, & some major holiday in Menoraca/Spain. As such, everything was closed in Mahon. We heard the big celebration was in Barcelona, where Zialater is (lucky dogs!). Anyway, we headed south to Cala de Porter and it’s a beautiful cove. High cliffs around, but a nice beach. We were the only boat here; gotta love it.

Next few days call for light air, so looks like we’ll be motor sailing to reach Mallorca & Formentara. At $9/gallon, that doesn’t excite us — to say nothing of the diesel fumes!

We made it to Mahon, Menorca just before dark yesterday. We had great sailing conditions the entire way from Sardinia, making the crossing of about 250 miles in 33 hours. The waves changed on us around 6 am yesterday & made it noisy & rough, so we were glad to get in last night & have a quiet night. We caught a black fin tuna yesterday morning, so Mother Ocean continues to smile upon us with her fruits of the sea! At this point, Shadow has no interest in kitty kibble.

Mahon is the capitol of Menorca. They have a naval base here; one of their ships (looks like an old American one)headed out past us this morning playing some music. It’s a beautiful town with a gorgeous natural harbor. We’re heading to town today; they have a daily market. Next we’ll head to the south side of the island & visit Cala Cove & Cala en Porter, where we’ve been told by friends to visit the Cave Bar.

Jamey mentioned he goes to Google Earth to look at the places we’re visiting. Others might enjoy doing the same.

We’ve had some nice days here in the Sardenia archipelago, but now it’s time to head on. We headed out today towards Capo Testa. We have very little wind, but we’re sailing (barely!). We saw two dolphins this morning; the first over in the Med. The water here is very clean & clear; perhaps that’s why they’re here rather than the mainland. Tomorrow we’ll head thru the Fornelli Passage and head towards Mahon, Menorca, a distance of ~250 miles (as the crow flies, not as we sail). The forecast at present calls for easterly winds, so it will be a nice sail if the forecast is correct (for once!). After a couple days around Menorca, we’ll head down to Mallorca, then Formentara, then over to the Spain coast at Alicante.

Our sister ship, Zialater, hopes to be in the Canary Islands for Halloween. That’s a very ambitious schedule & we may be behind them somewhat. They are currently headed towards Barcelona. At some point we’ll meet up with them, as we’re planning to do the trans-Atlantic crossing together the end of November. I had calculated our trip to reach the Cape Verdes earlier today, & came up with 51 days down there. That doesn’t work since we have people flying in there in 45 days! As such, we are going to spend less time getting to the Canaries. Once there, we’ll know how much time we have to explore before heading the 900 miles south to the Cape Verdes.

We made it to Sardinia about 3:45 pm Monday. It was a long, uncomfortable trip. But we’re in a nice cove & it’s peaceful & calm. The good news is we caught a large yellow fin tuna on the way, so we’ll have fresh fish for dinner. Shadow’s already had two helpings of fresh sushi & is a happy cat!

We will probably stay here two nights & do boat maintenance. Robert’s having to work on the starboard engine again, plus needs to get the watermaker working & didn’t want to work on it in the river in Ostia.

Just a quick note to let you know we finally left Ostia at 9 am yesterday.  Forecast was for light winds. So much for the forecast! It’s now 7:25 am and we’re still 40+ miles away. It was a long, rough day & night with very little sleep.

Well, the boat didn’t get into the water until mid-day on Thursday.  They had to move us 5 times to get us in. This took three days total, as they’d work on us awhile & then do other things. We got in and went across the river to get fuel. After filling up, the starboard engine wouldn’t start. So we went back to the boatyard & tied up using just the port engine. I had Robert change the oil & filter on the generator so I could start doing wash, then he started working on trying to figure out the engine problem.  Then he took a break & changed the oil & filter on the port engine.  Never could figure it out that day.  Slept on it & the next morning got up, went below & had me try starting it & got it working.  Voila! Glad he was able to get it figured out, and we have a spare part for the one that is sticking.

I ended up doing about nine loads of laundry between Thursday afternoon & Friday. We got the halyards back up & the jibs on deck and on the ProFurls. Filled the water tank.  By last night we were ready to go.  Bad news is that a front came/is coming through and we’ve got strong winds out of the west. So now we’re waiting for those to die.  Worse news is that once they die there won’t be much wind! So we either have to go get the hell beat out of us or motor all of the way to Sardinia (about 127 miles as the crow flies). I’d rather motor than get us & the boat beat up, so we’ll probably wait ’til tomorrow & leave mid-day.

We had some friends from Australia head out on Thursday; they thought they’d have calm seas & motor the entire way. I heard from them today & the wind kicked up and they had rough seas & strong winds the entire way. It took them almost 28 hours to get there, & it was dark. Fortunately they’d been to the area where they were heading so knew it.  We need to arrive in daylight since we’ve never been there before.

We’re both anxious to get sailing again. We plan to visit the islands in the Bonifacio Strait between Corsica & Sardinia, then along the west coast of Corsica before we sail over to Menorca in the Balearics.

Our friend, Mike, who is making the crossing from the Cape Verde Islands with us, located another person for the crossing that has sailing experience & has owned his own boat.  Rod’s about our age & lives in Alberta. We’ve exchanged several emails, & it sounds like a good fit of people.  So we will have four people for the crossing the beginning of December.  That’ll make it easier on everyone for watches, as people will be able to have six hours off.