Atlantic Crossing July 2020 Part Two (Horta To The Med).

Sunday 12 July 2020 (day 1).

After fueling and clearing out (read “me paying the marina fees”), we set sail from Horta at 11:00. The wind is good at 12-23 kn from 175-210°, so although we have the wind almost aft, the boat speed is fine at 7-8 kn. The weather forecast is again problematic as we have to sail NNE for a day before we can head for the Strait of Gibraltar to avoid too much wind on the nose. In a couple of days we should meet rather strong north wind of up to 36 kn (BF 8 Gale), but if the forecast is correct we will have that wind at an angle of 90° on the Port side, so we should be OK and have a fast sail. We do need a good speed to avoid the very strong winds coming down the west coast of Portugal in a week’s time. This wind seems to be particular strong this year. Unfortunately the current forecast shows east wind at Gibraltar and further east of the Strait, so we might have to look for an anchorage and wait for the wind to change. I understood before leaving Horta that Spain has again closed its borders because of the Corona-virus, so we will have to stay at sea.

It is now 19:00 and we have had great weather with loads of sunshine and no clouds. The wind starts to fluctuate between 10 kn and 23 kn and we have been busy reefing in and out the sails. The boat speed is still good of between 5-8 kn and the waves are about 1.5 m, but we are now closed hauled. The distance to Gibraltar is 1.150 NM and should take us 9 days.

Monday 13 July 2020 (day 2).

So far the weather has been good to us and the days are nicely warming from the cold Azores, but by sunset it is again cold and warm pants, jumpers, etc. are needed during the night watches. We have enjoyed great sunshine on the first day, but today it is cloudy.

Yesterday we were met by a lot of Dolphins and they, as always, avoid the fishing line, which is not the case for the birds which continues to hoover over the line, but no fish for dinner tonight.

The weather forecast showed that the wind would change around midday to north at 15 kn, so we tacked, but we only had north wind for about an hour, before it went back to east and that was not good, as we then had the wind on the nose. At the moment we keep the course - too much to the south east - hoping that it will soon change to NE and N - crossing fingers.

I am supposed to cook this evening and the plan is to have my Chili Con Carne with mashed potatoes. Hopefully the new crew will like that? The two new crews are Bartolo, a 39 years old Portuguese Architect from Porto and Luca a 35 years old Italian living in Lisbon and works with Microsoft projects. They both arrived in Horta on a last minute arrangement, as they were able to fly in. All the other crews I had selected were in countries that had no good flights or some restrictions because of the Corona-Virus, so we could not make any arrangements. Serena ended up staying on board and has again taken charge of the boats management and keeping us on our toes making sure we don’t make too much of a mess. She also have taken charge of the food department, which is challenging with three males on board with different tastes.

Yesterday we noticed a nice dark blue sailing boat having a boat speed of one kn faster than ours. She came from Horta and we speculated that she could be the nice Swan that was moored close to us in the marina, or it could be a biggish US boat moored a little further out. During the night she apparently tacked a few times, judging from the AIS signals and then she disappeared from the screen. A bit strange and we can’t figure out her maneuvers and why she disappeared from the screen.

Tuesday 14 July 2020 (day 3).

Most of yesterday were covered in clouds and only late did we get a little bit of sunshine as the clouds slowly disappeared, with the effect that the night sky showed off with all the stars possible and until the moon came up at 02:00 we had a splendid “starry, starry night…”. It was a wonderful show. Once the moon showed up its light took away most of the light from the stars, but on the other hand, it allowed us to see the horizon which I always appreciate.

Unfortunately the wind did not yet change to the NNE, so our course is still too much SE. I hope the wind will start going more to the N so we can go back to our course and - hopefully - ease the sheets a bit and thus accelerate.

At the moment we have 18-23 kn apparent wind from 56° and an unfavourable W going 1.4 kn current. Both sails are reefed with two reefs and the boat is well balanced and with less efforts on “Auto”, so we enjoy a speed of 5-7.5 kn over the ground (SOG).

Now we have hardly any clouds and the sun is nice warm, but at night time it is still cold. Dinner last night was the Chili Con Carne served with mashed potatoes and as we had made a big portion, two of us had a second helping for lunch today.

Both Bartolo and Luca seems to have settled well into the boat and their cabin, as well as the watch system, which is four hours watches during daylight and there hours watches during the dark hours. This ensures that there is a rotation and we don’t always have the same watch day after day.

Thursday 16 July 2020 (day 5).

The weather has been much more rough than was forecast when we departed Horta. Thus, it has been difficult to do much writing lately, so not much news since a while. But as I mentioned it has been rough, to say the least, with apparent winds of up to 30 kn (near Gale BF 7-8) and the worth is that the wind is from ENE and not NNE as forecast and waves of 3-5 meters. These waves comes from the wind direction and are almost on the nose and they can almost stop our speed when we are climbing up on them. When this happens and the boat speed drops ”Auto” has difficulties in keeping the course and at times the Genoa starts to flap before Auto can recuperate and get us back on course. All in all this is what I consider the most unpleasant sailing conditions and the trip will end up taking longer time than I have calculated.

We have some new leaks in the deck with both the aft and front cabins getting water on the sides and mattresses, which I must try to repair once time allow and we are at anchor. The front cabin’s leak is new, but I believe I can fix it, whereas the leak in the aft cabin is more complicated to fix.

Although the sailing conditions are rough the hydraulic repairs done in Horta seems to hold, so far, but I noticed the hydraulic aft-stay cylinder has again a small leak.

As to the crew, Serena suffered from a slight stomach problem the first day, but has since recuperated well and is, as always, active in the food department, taking her watches and keeping us all on our toes to be tidy and clear up our mess. Alex had left four Dorades (ventilation) facing forward, which resulted in water filling them when waves roll over the deck and they scoop up the water. Bartolo and Luca volunteered to go on deck and turn them around to face the aft of the boat. They both returned to the cockpit soaking wet, but the operation went well. This trip is the longest they have yet undertaken and I believe thy like the experience of sailing a part of the Atlantic Ocean and in rough weather.

Fortunately the latest forecast is for more moderate conditions as of the coming night and even more moderate winds the following two days, but likely east winds as we are closing in on the Strait of Gibraltar. We have 719 NM to Gibraltar as of 08:00 today.

Friday 17 July 2020 (day 6).

What difference a day can make. The strong wind and big waves started to diminish during the night and here in the early morning it starts to fluctuate from various directions from 50° to 355° giving us a wake up call each 5-10 minutes and the strength fluctuate between 7 and 14 kn (TWS) so I unfurled the sails and the SOG is now 5.5-7 kn. But it is a gray and cold day, so far, but the sun is trying its best to break through the cloud cover and I hope the sun will win the battle, as it is still cold with the water temperature of only 21.7°.

My watch is over and I am off to bed. We have 602 NM to Gibraltar.

Saturday 18 July 2020 (day 7).

By the end of last night we completely lost the wind and about 01:00 this morning I woke up Volvo so we could stop the sails banging and make some progress.

It is now 07:45 and everyone, except yours truly, are soundly asleep and Volvo is still at work. No sunrise today as it is cloudy, humid and cold. The water temperature is 21° but that did not stop us yesterday afternoon to slow down the boat and we all went for a rather refreshing swim in the mid Atlantic. Good fun. I had rigged a big fender in a long rope so we could hang on to it and as security, just in case. A lot of laughter and jumping into the beautiful dark blue Ocean and a small competition of swimming past New Dawn by Serena and Luca, whom are both excellent swimmers.

The forecast has again disappointed. OK we were supposed to get less wind by now, but we were supposed to to use wind power and not Volvo power. At this moment the wind starts to turn to the north, but only at 7 kn and I hope it will straighten a few kn more so I can roll out the sails and put Volvo back to sleep and we will again be able to hear the peaceful Ocean and its water bobbling along the hull.

Luca has brought his violin and have given us a brief concert from the front deck. He plays well, although he only started playing a few months ago. He is apparently also a good guitar player. Very nice.

All the crew, except for me, are excellent cooks and can prepare nice meals, but most of our dinners comes from the freezer, where Serena and I have prepared about 30 meals for four persons. These frozen meals are easier to warm up and add staples like potatoes, rice, pasta or mashed potatoes. They were great to have during the past few days when we had the rough weather. But it did not stop Serena to cook another four meals.

Unfortunately more water is seeping in, especially in the aft and front cabins, and I am running out of towels to keep the mattresses dry. More work to be done once I get the time and we will be at anchor.

We have now 500 NM to Gibraltar and it is now 18:00 and I take over the watch from Serena. We have had no wind since midnight and are still relying on Volvo power, but it has been a beautiful day with plenty of sun, few clouds and acceptable swell/waves of 1.5-2 meters coming from NE.

Luca has put out the fishing line, but so far no fish has found out yellow-green plastic bait sufficient appetizing. This is my fifth North Atlantic crossing and the first one without catching any fish. What a pity, but we are still trying.

We are currently baking a nice big loaf of bread and Serena has adapted the ingredient to what we used with success before. It is nearly finishing baking and has risen much more than earlier trials and it almost touch the lid of the bread maker. It smells good when we bake bread. I have found that, although we need about four hours to bake a bread, if we have good sunshine, or strong wind, or running the Volvo, we don’t consume any excess power for the baking and the 24 V Battery bank remains fully charged on 495 Ah at 24 V DC. We learn all the time and it is great with freshly baked bread out here in the mid Ocean and the boat smells wonderfully like a bakery.

We are now close to position 35°03.5N/12°52.9W which is where the “Ampere Seamount” is located and is a shallow part with only 55 meters dept. It is strange to see this shallow part raising from the Atlantic Ocean floor of about 4.200 meters depth. I have seen several of these “mountains” before and the most shallow one is 21.5 meters depth. We passed another one with 25 meters depth. I guess that if these volcanoes had not stopped working millions of years ago, there would have been many more islands like the Azores, Cap Verde, Madeira and the Caribbean islands. We will soon pass another one with only 20 m depth and on that one there is a special warning buoy, radar reflector and I believe a flashing light. After all, some of the commercial ships like tankers I have seen have a draught of 26 meters and these “mountains” would pose a danger to such large ships. The latter one is called “Gettysburg Seamount” and I have passed it before and is part of the Gettyborg (Gorringe) platform which has several mountains/platforms, some of which has only 34 meters depth. In general the Atlantic Ocean has a depth of 3.500-4.800 meters and we recently passed an area with 5.300 meters depth. Interesting world out here.

We have now 443 NM to Gibraltar.

About the fishing, we had a good news in that we caught a smallish size Mahi-Mahi this evening. Everyone were exited and it received its last dram of my South African Whisky and it could go to sleep in a decent manner, or perhaps a bit tipsy. This was the first fish caught this year during 3.500 NM sailing from the Caribbean. Fish for dinner tonight.

Sunday 19 July 2020 (day 8).

Yesterday we ran Volvo for 16 hours and after dinner and during my watch, the wind started to show up, although modestly in the beginning, so I put Volvo to hibernate and adjusted the sails. How nice it was to be sailing by the wind again and not to hear any mechanical noise. The wind soon became steady as the night progressed and we had only modest waves, giving us a nice SOG of 6-8 kn, slightly heeled and wonderful boat movements. We are sleeping so much better in these conditions.

This morning the sky is totally covered by clouds and it is humid and cold, but the water temperature has risen one degree to 22° and I expect further increases as we approach the Med.

While Serena fillet the Mahi-Mahi, Bartolo kept a keen eye on her work and Luca entertained playing his Violin until the sun was well below the horizon. We were debating with Serena on how the Mahi-Mahi should be cooked. Should it be in the pan, BBQ it on foil or rapped in foil? For my part I am not yet sure what was decided, but I will be happy with however it will be cooked. Small things make me happy. What a nice evening it was and we were all happy and content. I put out the fishing line at the start of my 06:00 watch, as we are now in hunting (fishing) mode again.

The number of commercial tankers and cargo ships are increasing as we are getting into the shipping lanes. Most of the ships head for, or leave the Strait of Gibraltar, but there are also many ships that sail the N-S routes along the European and African coasts. We hear more and more communications between these ships and once close to the Gibraltar Strait the traffic will increase and it can become very crowded, as I have experienced during my earlier four Strait passages and we will need to keep a close eye on all these ships, especially when we get close to the Traffic Separation Zones.

As to the technical parts of the sailing, all the systems are, so far, running well and the hydraulic systems works OK, but I see again a small leak on the back stay hydraulic cylinder which worry me. The repair chap in Horta told me that the rod has a slight bend and he could not straighten it completely. I guess that a visit to Navtec in Cannes will be needed and possible I will have to replace the rod, or the complete cylinder. The new hot water boiler does not yet work well and I will need to find a solution.

We are running Auto in “Wind mode” as the wind direction fluctuate and we can thus optimize the boat’s wind angle without continuously adjusting the sails. This optimize the boat’s speed once the sails have been balanced and set to the wind angle.

Yesterday we baked a big loaf of bread and it turned out very good. We are improving each time and its is great to have freshly baked bread out here and the boat smells nicely of the fresh bread.

As to the entertainment, Luca and Bartolo read books and Bartolo does some work on his architect projects and as I mentioned earlier Luca play his Violin. They also play Backgammon and have watched some films. We often listen to the CD’s Nicolas recorded and gave me years ago in particular Bob Marley and they remind us of the Caribbean. But just now we are listening to Andrea Borcelli, to get a bit of Italian thermosphere for our two Italian crew.

Remember what I wrote earlier, namely that “sailing is 90% hassle and 10% enjoyment”? Again, if that is correct, the sailing for the past 24 hours with great wind on a reach is certainly in the 10% bracket, as the sailing conditions are almost perfect. We have had a lot of adverse weather and difficult sailing conditions the first six days, but now we are happy and enjoy it fully.

As to the wildlife we have not seen Dolphins during the last 24 hours and hardly any birds, no Portuguese Man O War, but a ten cm Squid got airborne and used the deck as its landing strip where it dried out until Luca picked up its mess and put it back into the water. It is now 18:30 and no more fish caught - yet. It is now 24 hours since the Mahi-Mahi was given that tot of Whisky.

The sailing conditions continue to be great and very pleasant, but the wind has strengthened during the afternoon and here in the evening it has freshened up.

We have now 302 NM to Gibraltar and this morning’s forecast showed variable winds south of Portugal and strong east winds in the Strait of Gibraltar, which is less than good for us. But as I have experienced earlier the winds in the Strait can change suddenly and either comes from the west or from the east.

Monday 20 July 2020 (day 9).

Serena cooked the Mahi-Mahi last night and it was excellent. We all enjoyed this great fish and the fishing line was set out again this morning by Serena, as Bartolo has ordered Tuna for our next dinner. Bartolo also mentioned he was missing white wine with the fish dinner. We all agreed, but my preference is that we don’t drink any alcohol while at sea, as I have in the past seen certain crew not being able to limit their drinking to just one glass, so I prefer we abstain, and we can make up for it once we are at anchor. Tough life on board New Dawn?

During the night we had thunderstorms mainly from behind us, but here at 07:00 we had them all around us and we received a well needed free boat wash and even hails, as well as a momentary 41 kn wind. The wind fluctuate constantly with all these systems passing by. I noted a 45° wind change during the last 30 minutes and we are zig-zagging trying to keep the course of 83° T heading for the Strait. Unfortunately the current of 1.6 kn is against us, but we are able to keep the SOG at 5.7-8 kn even though I have the sails heavily reefed just in case we receive another blow.

We have now 227 NM to Gibraltar and have sailed 907+ NM since leaving Horta. The sea temperature continues to raise and is now 23.3°. Getting close to the Med.

Tuesday 21 July 2020 (day 10).

After several changing of wind direction last night, the wind totally disappeared this afternoon and by 16:00 Volvo was woken up so we could progress. There is now a lot if ships around us and those coming from and going to the Med are lining up to use their respective traffic separation zones and they look like pearls on a string, one following the other. My current plan is to stay - as usual - to the north of these zones and close inshore to the European side of the Strait.

A bit of excitement today in that a tanker “Nisos Delos” (meaning Delos Island in Greece, which I have visited) made a VHF call for a sea and rescue mission as they had found a boat with a problem. They called the Spanish Coast Guard and offered to stand by the boat which they described as a small fishing boat. We were close to the tanker and could see it changing course and closed in on the fishing boat. I was not convinced it was a fishing boat, but rather a boat with refugees coming from Morocco, which the Strait is well known for. Eventually the Coast Guard came at full speed (30 kn), passed us and picked up the crew of the small boat and soon sped back to Spain, but we did not see them towing the boat, so I assume they sank it and it was indeed refugees.

We have now 43 NM to Gibraltar and it looks like we will arrive at dark, so I plan to drop anchor and fuel in Gibraltar ASAP, depending on the wind, which I supposed to be on the nose the coming days, or there will be hardly any wind.

Wednesday 22 July 2020 (day 11).

But things changed quickly. As I was preparing dinner with Bartolo, the wind dropped to nothing and Volvo was again asked to perform, but out of nowhere we got 30 kn wind on the nose. The Strait is notorious for these sudden changes and as we could not motor, nor sail against such strong wind, I changed course and we headed for a bay a bit to the north of Tarifa. But we were close to sunset, so I put myself in racing mode to try to arrive at the bay before it got dark. Our speed was up to 9.2 kn and as we dropped the anchor 400 meters from the beach, the sun went down, the wind started to drop and the waves moderated.

We then had a few drinks and congratulated each other on the achievement of sailing 1.200 NM from Horta and arriving back on the European continent, which New Dawn had left in 2013. The night was nicely calm, although we had a slight rolling, but we all slept well now that New Dawn was no longer sailing.

We stayed longish in bed and by 10:00-11:00 everyone were waking up for breakfast and Luca and Bartolo went for a swim to the beach and we started to plan the work for the day. We will stay in this bay for another night and if the weather allows, we will head for Gibraltar to fuel and depart when possible. But I fear the wind will be on the nose or there will be no wind, so we are prepared for delays.

The bay has a nice sand beach, a tiny town mainly involved in a big excavation of a Roman town which also has an impressive Amphitheatre. Loads of people are on the beach and we are getting back into a holiday mode, not experienced since Marigot Bay, in St Martin.

Friday 24 July 2020.

Yesterday as we arrived in Gibraltar we zig-zagged between the numerous ships anchored around the Rock and we fueled at the Marina and finally got rid of the many garbage bags we had accumulated. Thereafter we dropped anchor on the Spanish side outside the Marina Alcadidesa, where I have been before.

We needed to repair the SB Davits which the day before accidentally broke when I had to collect Bartolo from the beach, as it was too long and dangerous for him to swim back to New Dawn. Usually I disconnect the power fuses for the Davits when I have new crew on board, but this time I forgot it as it was about 20:00 when I collected Bartolo. By disconnecting the power, I avoid accidental pressing on the switches. We will try to remember it in future. In any case Luca helped me taking out the motor and get the Dynamea rope re-installed and by sunset and sundowner/dinner we were all good again and could prepare for the next morning’s sail.

We finally left the anchorage at 10:15, but had almost no wind, so we ran on Volvo power again for most of the time. We have selected an anchoring spot close to Punta De Capo Pino, almost 45 NM east of Gibraltar and will stay there for the night. Luca is currently on the fore deck giving us a violin concert and Bartolo is working on his architect projects from the saloon and Serena is as usual busy in the “pantry”.

The weather is nicely warm, or rather hot and sunny, but when leaving Gibraltar the rock was covered in fog and the ships were sounding their foghorns. We have now at 17:00 only 9.4 NM to the anchorage and an ETA of 18:40.

Sunday 26 July 2020.

After Gibraltar we anchored for the night in Cala Moral close to Punta Pino. We had hardly any wind and Volvo did most of the work. Yesterday we sailed the remaining distance to Malaga. As a farewell meal Serena had cooked crepes which she served with caramelized fresh Pineapple and custard creme and Bartolo served his cider. Delicious.

We were not allowed to enter the new marina and were forced to go to the beach where Bartolo and Luca departed at 19:00 in an emotional way. These two chaps were really nice to sail with and we have had a good time and a good team. They will be welcome to join New Dawn again when their work and family will allow. Serena did a quick shopping while I guarded the tender, as there is a lot of theft in Malaga, I was told.

We were back on board at 22:00 and prepared New Dawn until midnight so we would be ready for an early departure. But we have no wind and the forecast is unfavourable, so perhaps Volvo will be needed again. A pity. As I am writing this we have 5-7 kn west wind, which is not the best for our east course, but it allowed us to stop Volvo and roll out the Genoa, giving us a speed of 4.5 kn, which is acceptable and hopefully it will remain like that for a while.

While I was guarding the tender on the beach yesterday I was observing the people and the landscape. The beach was full of noisy unattractive people and there were many Muslims bathing fully dressed. The beach is unattractive and so is the buildings surrounding it. But we met a couple of friendly people that helped us take our farewell photos of the team and helped us taking the tender up on the beach and away from the waves. But Malaga is not a place I would like to spend my holidays.

It is very hot and we have bright sunshine with a water temperature of 27°, which is only 2° lower than what we had in St Martin. Unfortunately the water was very polluted at the anchorage in Malaga, so the swimming was limited, although Serena managed to swim 1.000 meters around New Dawn before the rubbish came back.

I am surprised of the few sailing boats seen so far. There are plenty of Marinas along the Spanish coasts but I wonder why there are so few sailing boats out on the water. Perhaps the Corona-virus is the cause for this low sailing activity? But as usual there are a lot of small boats out fishing and we have to be watchful to avoid hitting them. We have now 700 NM to the Golf Of St Tropez.

We are now at the Costa Del Sol, which I call Costa Del Plastic, because of the millions of m2 plastic green houses that dominate this coast and are one of the main producer of fruits and vegetables for the north European markets. Not a nice site and apparently these green houses can be seen from the space station by those of you that are getting a ride up there.

Today we thought we had a fish on the hook, but unfortunately it was just a piece of the plastic. A pity as we had again booked a Tuna for a BBQ dinner tonight.

Monday 27 July 2020.

Last night’s anchorage at Fondeadero De Castell De Ferry (east of Puerto De Motril had nice clean water and a crowded beach next to a small town, but, as is the case with most of the anchorages along the Spanish south coast, it was a rock and roll night. Fortunately having just sailed thousand of miles, we are familiar with the boat’s movements so are less bothered by the rolling.

Although this morning’s weather forecast showed very little wind and most of it would be on the nose, we lifter anchor and are sailing only on the Genoa as the breeze come from 240°, or almost aft for the moment and contrarily to that forecast. Surprisingly the wind increased a tiny bit and I rolled out the mainsail and the SOG increased from 3.5 kn to 5.6 kn - what a pleasure to be sailing like that.

I am also making water as the fresh water tank was running low and I would like to soon have a full tank again, meaning that we will have 1.000 liters of fresh water. I have also been in the engine room a few times trying to get the new hot water boiler to work. So far I am not completely sure why we don’t have hot water, but I suppose it is caused by the valves linking the engine cooling water to the boiler. Thus a bit of fiddling with these valves and it now seems to work. We generate hot water via the 110 V AC heating element and also via the engine cooling water. Unfortunately when SVB in Bremen send me the new boiler to Horta, they delivered it with a 220 V AC element, that should work, but will take double the time to get hot water. Hopefully SVB has now shipped the 110 V element to me in France.

In the end we motored most of the day and arrived at a beach anchorage close to the Almerimar Marina where we anchored a bit too close to the beach and as soon as we were anchored a couple of annoying chaps swam out to us wanting contact and wanted us to play ball game, but as usual when this happen we ignored them and they soon lost interest in us and departed back to the beach.

The sun has been shining most of the day, but through a layer of clouds until the end afternoon when the clouds partly disappeared and it has been very hot, so it was nice to have a refreshing dip in the sea. We have 650 NM to St Tropez. I need to find an anchorage without waves and swell so I can swap the 20 HP outboard with the 10 HP as the 20 HP is now unusable as the propeller slips even at low speed and the petrol is leaking and needs repairing. It is a difficult job and I have to find a way how to do it. Most of the anchorages along this coast is rolly so if I don’t find a good one we will have to wait till the Balearic Islands where I know some good spots. Dinner tonight will be BBQ.

Tuesday 28 July 2020.

Last night’s anchorage was calm and with only a little bit of waves, until this morning at 05:00 where we got a bit wind, so I got up early and we set sail. But the wind soon dropped to nothing and Volvo went back to work. Boring.

Saturday 1 August 2020.

We arrived at Cala San Pedro last Tuesday end afternoon. I have been there together with Bob in 2010. It is a well protected bay except with E-SE wind and it tends to have catabatic winds coming down the valley, which is disturbing. But it was calm enough for our outboard works.

The bay is known for its Hippy culture and many walk across the mountain on a scary one hour walk to arrive at the beach, where they camp. There are no sanitary facilities and nothing else than a couple of bars, but the ruined castle San Pedro has a small spring with fresh water. People sleep in small tents which they have either carried across the mountain, or they arrive with the steady stream of taxi boats. Once the taxi boats collect their last passengers by 19:00 the place becomes calm and we could hear the guitar players and singers through the night. We were 5 boats at anchor during our stay. We had to wait for the strong north wind to change to be able to set sail again as it was blowing hard.

As usual there were a long to do list of work on New Dawn and I spend a couple of days on the outboard engines, which the mechanic in Brazil has messed up. I found several problem he had caused, but could not repair them all as I will need parts like a fuel prime pump, propeller, fuel hoses, none of which I have on board. I interchanged the fuel Prime pump from the 20 Hp to the 10 HP and it seemed to work, but it leaked again with petrol and stalled. More work….

The wind finally changed direction and moderated, so we departed this morning in light south wind and managed to use both sails. Our SOG is only 3-4 kn so it is slow going. The first WP is around Cartagena about 66 NM to the north and we will then have to decide if we continue to the Balearic Islands or stay a night in Cartagena. The wind window is narrow again as tomorrow we might get E-NE wind, right on the nose, thus I hope we can speed up soon.

A few days before we reached Gibraltar there was a sailing boat that was attacked by four Orca (Killer Whales). We heard them calling the Coast Guard telling them of the attack. I hailed them offering our assistance as we were only a few miles apart, but after three tries, they did not answer, so we continued sailing. Later Luca has found the boats FB pages which explained what these Whales did and that they damaged the rudder so they had to be towed to the nearest marina. I still wonder why they did not answer my calls.

Today is another wonderful sunny day and it is hot again. The water temperature is 28°, small waves coming from the south and, although we are not sailing fast, it is a comfortable and pleasant sail. As we are not sure how far we can sail without stopping, we have started a watch system of three hours on and three hours off in case we continue to the Balearic Islands.

Sunday 2 August 2020.

We crossed today the Greenwich Meridian and thus went from W to E longitude. Also this afternoon we met a large group of whales, but could not see what type they were.

Thursday 6 August 2020.

Have been busy the last few days with boat jobs and only managed a couple of hours walk on the private Esplamador island, where we had the famous mud bath and went for a short swim. The anchorage is now controlled and one need to book in advance a mooring buoy, which is too complicated for me, so we dropped anchor at Formentera Island. But both islands were disappointing and have become the victims of their own success in that they are very overcrowded. They are still beautiful with nice sand beaches and clear water, but one can hardly see the beaches for anchored boats and after 10:00 the speed boats arrive at full speed and very close to us making dangerous waves and swimming almost impossible. There are boats of all sizes and up to 130 meters and most don’t respect people swimming and boats at anchor.

It was awful and yesterday we had enough of this madness so we departed quickly sailing past Ibiza and with Mallorca as the next destination. At first we had an acceptable wind, but soon it disappeared and we motor-sailed the last three hours to reach San Telmo on the west coast of Mallorca, where we arrived as sunset. I have been visiting San Telmo for a family holiday 40 years ago when Nicolas was 1.5 years old. It is still a charming kind of fishing village at the end of a protected bay, although there is now a couple of hotels and apartment blocks. But it remains an unspoiled village judging from the anchorage.

As we have time constraints to reach the Golf of St Tropez for Nicolas and family’s arrival the coming weekend we lifted anchor early today and motored along the NW coast of Mallorca. We had only 2 kn wind on the nose and it was not forecast the change the coming days so we motored.

This coast can only be described as dramatic, as it has high rocks coming right out of the sea and many indents (Calas) and the water is deep close inshore. There are hardly any habitation as the cliffs are too steep.

The weather is excellent with a cloud free sky and nice sunshine. The moon was full a couple of days ago and gave a nice light all night shining through the windows.

As the destination for Menorca was too long to arrive at daylight, we ended up anchoring in a wonderful bay “Cala Figuera” on the NW tip of Mallorca. It is a great bay, well protected and almost a mile long with high cliffs on each side and a small beach at its end. No buildings but a small steep pass leading from a parking area down to the beach. The Cala was full of boats when we arrived and they were mainly small speed boats, but also several medium size sailing boats. We managed to anchor in the middle on stone and rocks. By 19:00 most of the boats had left and we were only six boats left to share for the night in this beautiful Cala and its crystal clear water. Just before sunset an additional super-yacht arrived and anchored a bit further out from our position.

As I mentioned the water is clear, no waves, no wind, so swimming was on the Menu. It was one of the best anchorages we have been in for a long time.

Friday 7 August 2020.

Waking early up in such a nice bay was a privilege. The night was calm, except for a crew on a nice Swan 53 sailing boat that had been partying since they arrived and became noisy as the evening and night progressed and started to jump into the water screaming at 01:30. But apart from them, it was perfect.

Our anchor was stuck in the rocks and we had to motor forward to get it free, with the result that one of the main fuses blew the 24 V system. Fortunately I carry a lot of spare fuses so I was able to replace it and we were on our way again.

The weather forecast showed no wind at all, all the way to S France, so to advance quicker, we decided to head NNE even if we had to motor the remaining 300 NM; not a nice perspective. We plan making a stop in Porquerolles, which I know well and can anchor if we arrive at night. It is now 10:40 and still no wind, but bright sunshine and no clouds. The water temperature is still 28°.

A few miles out of the Cala I spotted a jet-ski adrift and wondered if I should pick it up, but decided otherwise to avoid having it on tow and the complication of handling it with officials. There was another boat arriving and it looked like they stopped.

It is now 15:30 and I am back on watch and we have 185 NM to Porquerolles. The sea is like a mirror with the sun baking down on us. The wind starts to change to SSW (215°), but only 3.5 kn and Volvo is again working and it is a boring sail as usual when there is no wind. I noted the engine cooling water is at 95° C and this morning I had filled up with water. Thus I worry being on engine for a long time and perhaps we have a leak somewhere, but I can’t find it.

We have seen an amazing amount of big splashes a few hundred meters from us and we have seen what could be Whales jumping out and blowing out when they surface. A few looked to be large whales as we could clearly see their tails before they dived. We don’t think they can be Orca whales, at least we hope they are not these dangerous killer whales.

A bit excitement here at 16:00 in that the fishing line quickly ran out and the rod nearly broke by bending dangerously to an extend I have not seen before. I tried to haul it in, but it got away. It must have been a big fish, as the real can hardly be released even when I try by hand. Well no fish for dinner tonight.

However at 18:00 we got a big bite again and it turned out to be an 8-10 kg Yellow-fin Tuna. It was powerful and hard to land. Once on board we were surprised to see its size and it needed quite a lot of Whisky to finally stop moving. We hang it on the SB Davits so it could bleed off a bit and after we had our dinner, Serena fillet the Tuna and we froze most of it, but kept a good portion for tomorrow's dinner.

While Serena fillet the Tuna we had a spectacular sunset with beautiful red colors reflecting in the water and up in the sky. We took a lot of photos and videos of this light show. I wonder how many photos I have taken of the sun and moon raise and sets during my seven years circumnavigation? There has never been two the same. They are all different.

It is now midnight and it is still warm, a bit humid, but hardly and wind, so we are still on motor. But some wind has started to show up and the direction is changing from west to south, to south-east within minutes, so I doubt it will be possible to roll out the sails.

Saturday 8 August 2020.

It is now 00:20 and I am on watch and the wind is light and variable and comes from the S to SSW but not enough strength to set the sails. Thus we only hear the now familiar Volvo melody. We have motored for 17 hours and are not yet half way to Porquerolles. Boring, but the forecast did show there would be no wind on this stretch.

We had another nice sunrise at 06:40 with nice colors, but 1.5 hour later heavy fog came and I can only see 10-40 meters ahead so we are using the radar. Exactly the same happened to me in 2012 when approaching Porquerolles on my last trip from the Caribbean. But the sun is present and will hopefully disperse the fog once the temperature increase. In any case I know the island well and can anchor in fog, if needed.

I received an email telling me that Gabriel (five years old grandson) is looking forward to arrive at the house in S France on Sunday and looking forward to see New Dawn arriving from our beach, as well as using the tender. He has not yet seen New Dawn as I left the Golf of St Tropez on 20 September 2013, or a year before he was born. It will be interesting to see how he will react when he will be on board.

As there are no clouds the light of the moon lights up and we can see the horizon tonight the moon is 79% and waning (decreasing). There are no waves and swell , so nothing to slow our speed and we are running on 1.300 RPM and a SOG of 7.5 kn.

Not much traffic this night except for a small tanker, a 50 meter private motor yacht heading for Cogolin and a ten meter sailing boat.

We keep our three hours on/off watch system which is tiring and we are lacking of sleep, so we are looking forward to have a break in Porquerolles where we hope to depose our garbage bags. The last time we could deposit them were in Malaga, 14 days ago.

Sunday 9 August 2020.

We arrived at the anchorage in Porquerolles Island last night at 20:00 as the sun started to set and fortunately the fog lifted a bit so we could easily find a good spot outside the numerous boats at anchor in the bay. We were both very tired from motoring 36 hours. The dinner was the Tuna and a good bottle of red wine “Pinotage” 2016 from SA. And we went early to bed without any alarm set as we were tired.

Today we plan on doing nothing except for getting rid of the dustbins, tidying up New Dawn and do some swimming. We need a break and try to relax as the trip from the Caribbean has been a long one.

Serena’s plans changed completely as her mother will not come to France because of the high cost of car hire and hotels so Serena will now take the bus back to Rome and we are adapting our plan to suit that.

Nicolas & Co are on their way to Beauvallon and should arrive today. I will see them Wednesday when I arrive at our beach.

My circumnavigation is then completed and it took me six years and eleven months, as I departed the Golf of St Tropez on 20 September 2013.