21 June 1993 Cuidadela
Shopping, bank statements and tax (groan!) It was a really muggy day with thunderstorms at night. I took a film to be developed and, as I suspected, it didn’t have anything on it. I’ll have to take pictures of Mahon, Fornells etc again. I rang Carol and she told me that the missing half of the Calvert Course had arrived 1 week later and she has sent it to the Club Maritimo, Mahon. Bless her.
22 June 1993 Cuidadela to Cala Algayerens
Another really muggy day. The wind picked up as we rounded Cala Bajoli and we had a very pleasant sail upwind to within 2 miles of Cala Algayerens. Lots of thundery-looking clouds around, but they didn’t cause us any problems.
This Cala is perfect. Lovely beach, lagoon with lots of wildlife behind the beach, rocks at the edge of the beach which are good for snorkelling and no hotels or tourists! I got the windsurfer out because the winds were 15 knots – still not enough for me to plane, but enough for me to swim when I gybe! Brett and I went snorkelling over the rocks for 10 minutes – his swimming is very good now. “Bonnie Day” turned up with some friends on board.
P.S. The Cala is perfect until the swell is from the north which it was all night!
23 June 1993 Cala Algayerens to Fornells
We were going to stay for the day, but we were hit by a 25 knot squall under a thunderstorm, so we decided to sail on to Fornells. It was a nice downwind sail to get there. We tried to anchor twice, but kept dragging, so we asked Ramon if we could use his buoy. “Bonnie Day” followed us in to the Lagoon and picked up another buoy. I went windsurfing in the afternoon. The wind had of course decreased by the time I had rigged up. We went for a meal with Neville and Margaret in the evening.
24 June 1993 Fornells
I did a few jobs on the boat until lunch time then went windsurfing. “Bonnie Day” went aground overnight, but got off OK.
25 June 1993 Fornells
I did a few jobs on the boat until lunch time then went windsurfing. I’m starting to get the hang of gybes now! Mario’s wife brought us some mail that had arrived at the Club Maritimo De Mahon (where she works). I opened it with some excitement, expecting to find the missing half of the Calvert Course – it wasn’t! We hope that the “missing mail” is at the Post Office awaiting collection. We’ve had another wonderful day in Fornells.
26 June 1993 Fornells to Mahon
We had good wind this morning. I wanted to go windsurfing for a “few” hours, but Glenys wouldn’t let me. We motored for a few hours to charge the batteries and then we had a great sail into Mahon harbour. We picked up a buoy opposite the town quay next to “Bonnie Day” (again!).
We went to the Club Nautico and found a form saying that there is a package at the post office for us. We went to “French Mistress” for drinks.
27 June 1993 Mahon
We went to S’Algar by bus then taxi. I bought a mask and snorkel and some fins for Brett. Glenys and the boys played in the pool all day and I went for a dive.
We went for dinner on “Bonnie Day”. I am absolutely in awe of Neville’s ability to understand morse code. Before we moved onto the boat, I did a course to try get my Ham Radio license. For the practical part of the license you have to be able to read 10 words of morse code per minute and transmit at 6 words per minute. After doing 30 minutes of practise every morning for three months, I was able to read a pathetic 4 words per minute - I gave up...
Neville used to be in the Navy and used morse code all the time. We were sat on “Bonnie Day” tonight having a glass of wine and chatting. In the background, Neville had his short wave radio tuned into the morse weather service. I was vaguely aware of it quietly screeching away. In between the normal banter, Neville was listening to the weather forecast and later told us the weather forecast for tomorrow. I guess it’s like learning any language - you must get to a point where your brain just thinks in Morse.
28 June 1993 Mahon
We spent the day getting Glencora ready to head East to Malta. We went shopping, put water in tank, filled up with fuel, bought gas, picked up the laundry and picked up the mail from the Post office - the second half of the Calvert Course at last! After lunch, we tidied up to get ready for the five day passage. “French Mistress” left this morning, but turned back because of easterly winds. It doesn’t bode well for us tomorrow!
29 June 1993 Mahon to Cagliari, Sardinia (Day 1)
It was windy (SW20) during the night, but this morning there was hardly anything. We decided to motor until lunch time. Then we had a nice SW20 wind from lunch time to half past four when the wind decreased and suddenly went northerly. An hour later it was back to SW10. Rock and Roll.
A swift came to visit us, landed on the spinnaker pole five times, but couldn’t hang on. Eventually it fell into the sea and I saw it struggling to get back into the air as we sailed away. Poor thing. By half past nine, we’d had enough of sailing at 2 knots, so I dropped the main, rolled the jib away and turned the engine on. We’ve had a 2-3 metre SW swell all day.
30 June 1993 Mahon to Cagliari, Sardinia (Day 2)
A NE10 wind appeared just after midnight. I waited for a bit to see if it would stay. (I was feeling a bit queasy – too long in harbours!) I started sailing with the genoa and mizzen on a 5 knot reach with a 10 knot wind. The wind dropped to nothing at nine o’clock this morning, so we put the engine on. At least the annoying swell seems to be going.
We decided to do a slight detour and call in at Sardinia to get more fuel because there is no wind. We motored all day with the awning up – we would have fried if we hadn’t. It was an “exciting” day at sea today – we saw 1 ship, 1 light and loads of swell.
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