Tuesday 25 June 2019

Despite the late night yesterday we were up and on the go promptly this morning. We had to move closer to Mahon where we would meet Tom and James, our next guest crew. We had been trying for some time to arrange a berth in Mahon itself but without success, so we had hit on an anchorage that was close to the airport where we would meet.  This necessitated us sailing from the north east corner of the island to just around the south east corner onto the south coast. We had a very enjoyable passage, with good wind, although not from the ideal angle It was great to actually be able to sail with Chris, he has been unlucky with the weather on some of his recent trips.

We found the bay that we wanted and realised that it was rather smaller than we had expected. In fact it was the tightest anchorage we have ever been in. We put the anchor down in the middle, with the appropriate amount of chain a-out but then found that with the boat’s length as well, we were only about 8 metres from the cliff face.  This was extremely disconcerting. Tricia went for a swim taking her mask and snorkel and checked both that the anchor was set, and what was under the water near us.  It was great news that the anchor was properly set and that the cliff face behind us was near vertical below the surface.  She reported that the bimini would be hitting cliff before we touched anything under water. Even so I knew that it would be a worrying night, we had no room for the anchor to drag at all. At least we were well protected by the cliffs on either side of us.

The tightest anchorage we have ever been in

We were kept amused by lads jumping from the cliffs into the water

Once Tom and James indicated that they had landed, we gave them instructions as to where to get the taxi to take them.  The bay that we were in had no road to it, so we said to go to the next bay. The driver was rather unsure that they really wanted to be dropped off in a car park near a beach at about 7:00 in the evening, but they reassured him that this was correct.  Once there they were there, I went around in the tender to collect them, although the weather conditions, the size of our tender and their luggage meant that I had to make two round trips.  They seemed to be very exited to be collected from an apparently random beach and taken to the boat which was not even visible from where we initially met. 

Soon all was settled on board, we ate and got an early night as the plan was to make an early start tomorrow on the crossing to Sardinia.

Distance covered today	25	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	910	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	910	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)