First week of sailing

Hey guys, I’m back! We are now in Almerimar, in Andalousie, ready to buy food for the crossing, before heading to Gibraltar to fill up the tank with diesel, then direction the Caribbean via the Canary Islands, and maybe the Cap Verde Islands depending on the winds.

We left Barcelona on Friday the 9th of November 2007, with 4 crew on board, the captain Michel, 67 yrs old, born in France but American from the heart and living in the US, Jerome, 32 yrs old, from Marseille, the real one with the strong accent and the rest (!) and Georgina, named George, 28 yrs old, a kiwi friend of a new Zealand mate of mine, Jonjon, whom I enrolled at the very last moment, the day after she arrived in Palma de Mallorca. No time to say a word that she was already part of this crazy adventure!

The prevailing winds blowing us towards Ibiza, we have decided to have a look at this Balearic island, very famous for its parties… we did not have a chance to check if its reputation was well deserved as we anchored at the other side of the island. We got there at night time on Saturday, and woke up on Sunday morning… to realize we were anchored right in the middle of the channel!!! A classic for sailors!!!

Among the short tales, we had the visit of an illegal alien, Titi, a small and fat bird, exhausted, who came on board on Friday night, spent the night sheltered behind the dodgers, spent the whole day with us, coming and going, jumping on us, not scared at all, and enjoyed some fresh water, crumbs of bread and cakes ! The ungrateful bird left us even without saying thank you!
Magical night on Saturday, just before getting to Ibiza, with the phosphorescent plankton and jelly fish, a real fire work show !
Another eerie moment was when a few small grayish dolphins came to visit us twice on Wednesday morning and played with Mistral, on a fantastic sailing day, with winds up to 24 knots and swell up to 8 foot.

One of the best days will remain until now Thursday the 15th. I take my watch at 7am, with awesome wind conditions, up to 25 knots, nice swell. I have fun steering Mistral and surf on the waves 8 feet high, taking the boat up to 9.3 knots, the record so far!!! Ok ok, I have to admit that I was pretty scared sometimes with the boat healing hard out! At 8:30am, I suddenly realize that I caught a fish on the line. I then pull it on board (without any problems as it was already dead) and find myself facing a beautiful tuna, maybe 5 to 6 kg! You can imagine how excited I was when I saw it, I felt like a kid who’s achieved an important goal, I was so proud and happy!!! I spent the next 3 hours emptying it and cutting filets, then washing the deck full of blood! What a great memory and hopefully the 1st of a long series!

First impressions after this 1st week of sailing: I find it hard to sleep on the boat in between the watches, with the rolling of the boat, noise of the engine, discussions of crew members on watch or awake, radio and other various noises,... but to be honest, sailing is so good that I quickly forget all these drawbacks !
I learn a lot, and all begins to fall into place. How to rig the sails, trim them, the technical terms. No risk to starve on board, Michel cooks us some yummy stuff that we all enjoy heaps! Good atmosphere, everybody gives a hand, even if Jerome, who is sea sick since we left, keeps struggling every time we go back sailing!

That’s all for now bros, catch up later in a few days for some more tu meke adventures !