Although the forecast had indicated winds out of the north, veering to the northeast and then the east during the course of our passage to Minorca, the northern most Balearic Island in Spain, there was barely a breath of wind. That, of course, meant we were motoring again. In the hopes that we may be sitting in a wind shadow, we kept the mainsail hoisted, but, by 0830, we reluctantly dropped it and Roy went for a nap.
On Elaine’s watch, a slight breeze picked up from the northeast at around 0900; Elaine’s cue to unfurl the headsail. Once Roy surfaced from his nap, we unfurled the 150% genoa completely, placed it on the barberhauler and increased our SOG (Speed Over Ground) by 0.5 Kts. We we taking everything we could get.
During Elaine’s nap, a favourable current set in too, increasing our SOG to 6.8 Kts. We realised we’d probably be paying the piper later, but we were just pleased to enjoy the ride.
Apart from one or two yachts heading south, down the west coast of Sardinia, and one or two fishing boats, the only other company we had were cargo ships in the distance. We’d assumed there would be a convoy of yachts heading west today, given the number of yachts that were in the anchorage last night, but we’ve come to realise that we’re the only idiots heading west through the Mediterranean; everyone else is heading east into the world’s largest cul de sac, but enjoying great downwind sailing as they go.
On each of our watches we saw a lone dolphin; quite sad really, but not surprising, given that we’ve seen very little sea life other than turtles in Türkiye since arriving in the Mediterranean last March. Neither of us has seen a single fish at anchor and usually there are teams of them under Paw Paw. Even in the crystal clear waters of our anchorage last night, part of the “International Nature Park” established in 2010, not a single fish.
By 1800 the winds out of the northeast started to strengthen slightly, which kept our SOG high without the advantage of the stronger current we’d had earlier in the day. For this and the sparkles on the flat seas we were very grateful.
With the waning gibbous only rising after midnight, it was a very dark night initially, but it was lovely to see the stars as well as bioluminescence disturbed by Paw Paw’s propellers again.
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