P2: Warm debrief, trial sail. Torrevieja to Isla de Tabarca.

(Author's note, this contains sailing technicalities locally known as 'nautical bollocks')

Okay so we needed to bite the bullet and go out on the water sooner or later. 

We spent Saturday shuttling to the boat to load up the last kit we have been buying (everything from plates to Duraglit glasses to new fenders). Final food for a 2 day voyage was sourced and held in Quesada for a run down to Marina Salinas in the morning.

We have been slow to move about here. Spain in the summer is pretty slow moving as it is, (see other posts about the Kafkaesque bureaucracy) but it has been hot. 36 to 40 Centigrade, with humidity in the high 70%'s to 80%. Working below in a twelve-ton Tupperware box pretty quickly becomes intolerable and by noon we have to find air-conditioning. Add to this its been 28C-ish at nights, we have been pretty worn out. 

That's why we have been slow.

A daily drudge of getting up at 0630, getting ourselves together, getting down to the boat for about 8, working until about 11.30 or 12. (Everything from re-wiring the loo to putting away bedding)

Up until now, we have been replacing old and worn out kit on the boat, and sourcing things I personally want to ensure safety and comfort borne out of experience in the chops of channel. The natives are tad more relaxed about things here in the Med. However I was keen for us to go and test the primary kit and have a 'shakedown' sail. Iron out any wrinkles, check everything is working and find out if there is anything not quite so.

So rather than doing a huge trip out from Torre to Formentera or the Mar Menor (Where we would have had to negotiate with the local chaps to get a swing-bridge open, and the entrance is 'sporty' in any wind with a S'ly component.)

We chose to pick Isla De Tabarca, 15nm, 40 degrees Magnetic.  About 3 hours.

Isla de Tabarca 38° 9′ 59″ N, 0° 28′ 56″ W Good holding in sand, shingle and rocks. No Posidonia, Open to a SE'ly swell.

Sunday, we spend a final couple of hours faffing about - everything from the last fenders to Hoisting My Colours (more on that in another post).

Depart a little after noon. 

First thing noted, Bow Thruster is unserviceable. Annoying but we aren't getting anything done on a Sunday and we will have to cope. Planning to anchor anyway.

Motored for about an hour to get used to Steering, and noticed a building SE'ly swell, and a fresh SE'ly breeze, 15 to 18 knots gusting 20. Lovely. I proposed getting the sails out to Mrs D and i was met with the usual 'eye-rolling-not-your-usual-nautical-bollocks-evolutions' face - but I prevailed. we needed to get them out.

1 Slab in the main and the Genny all out. 

In the groove

In the groove at 6.5kts SOG (Speed over the ground) the boat is stable, comfortable and much happier under sail. With a building swell, there was no corkscrewing and she handled the rise and fall in comfort.

Arriving at the anchorage, it was indeed open to the SE  and there was a chop running. We circled (as you do) sniffing out if there was a wave shadow (there wasn't). So i decided to drop the hook see how she takes the ground anyway and then see if it is tenable.

I have upgraded to a 25KG Rocna with 60m of 10mm chain. (Legacy was a 18kg CQR - which I have retained as an 'Angel' or 'Chum' that I can clip on to the Main bower should it come on to blow and I needed to take the ground in a fashion of being 'bolted to the seabed'.

A couple of Swings round the bay and I note the smaller motorboats are really rocking and rolling. There's also a Nauticat 38 that looks uncomfortable, a Halberg Rassy 40 shifting about a bit and a Jeanneau 53 slopping up and down and slapping her sugar scoop.

Hmmmm. Not sure I like this. But we are here...hook it and see.

8m, over sand, picked between the Rassy and the Jeanneau - into wind and instruct Mrs to drop, call when we have dropped half the content of the locker. More if we feel like it. Not doing us any good there, is it. Chain in your locker, depth behind you and fuel on the dock isn't helping.

As we fall off the wind (now 24kts) the anchor bites in and hard. (Really good ground tackle this) But the openess and the swell makes for discomfort and it will run hard until well after the sea breeze from the mainland has died.  (A parenthesis: sea breeze here isn't the gentle ones we get at home - its the Med, Force 6 all day with a chop to match is more the order.

Now other boats are abandoning the anchorage. 

Nah. I don't like this. OK, Time, 1730. Decision. I would rather be in a marina wishing i was out here, than out here wishing I was in the marina.

So up comes the hook, and in so doing, the chain jumps the windlass, locks on the fairlead and jams the electric winch. Winch cuts dead.  We have still 10 meters of chain and an anchor down. The anchor is dragging the sea bed and in this wind we are going to creep.

Gaah. Don't know where the cut-out breaker is, and we are rolling. Easy decision. Unlock the chain, main strength and bring her up by hand. Detail Mrs to hold us in to wind, then get a-hauling.

10 mins of back-breaking effort and she's up, catted and fished and we can get underway. 

Now there's a 15 mile bash to windward (And into the eye of the wind). This has a predictable effect on Mrs D, who does take 2 to 3 days to get her sea-legs.

It was twilight when we got back to Marina Salinas, and fortunately there were Marinaroes on hand to help us in. With no bow thruster, reversing a 12 tone 43 foot boat onto a concrete mole - and a mole of a heigh designed to trash your dinghy davits and passerelle was going to be sporty. Add sunken double lazy lines just waiting to foul your prop. No shame in asking for help and help the boys did.

So couple of take-aways. 

We are both rusty. We last sailed 6 years ago - and whilst we puttered around on the narrowboat for 10 years - this is a different order, and we need to knock the rust off old skills. For me, its riding a bike, for Mrs D - its new ground (again)

Me:

Handling a new boat (I aint current, and this was my first time manoeuvring the old girl)

Delegation skills - remembering that Mrs D isnt amphibious yet and needs detailed instructions on what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. (Clove hitch?) 

Mrs D:

Comp-crew skills from scratch again. 

Boat:

Found the jumper switch for the Anchor - so lesson there. 

Bow thruster. We have since had exercises with the local electrician and fitter. The motor is locked out and irreparable. When the replacement arrives we slot it into the bow thruster gear-box connector and add the new controller.

We will go back to Tabarca early next week when we have the thruster motor replaced and we complete our provisioning for a 3 weeker. This will be a a stepping stone for the rest of the Balearics.

So - boat shaken down, remembered old skills and feeling happy that the boat will look after us.

PS: Oh - and the fender socks have arrived.

PPS: The Bow thruster has arrived. Operation OLYMPIC start line is now Tuesday 12th Aug.