Saturday 20 June 2020
After one of the worst nights ever on anchor, the alarm went off at 0430 and the crew was up and ready for sea almost instantly. Once the engine was on and the anchor up, the first lightening of the sky was appearing in the East and we motored for eight hours solid, as the promised light Northerly never bothered to blow. Mate gave in to the idea of her favoured anti-seasickness remedy, a French drug called Nautamine, and was soon able to prepare soft-boiled eggs and Marmite toast soldiers, eaten at the cockpit table!
On schedule around noon, the afternoon breeze stirred into a delicious Southerly, the mainsail and genoa relieved Trevver, and BobbyCool took over from Jeanny to steer us ever onwards. Unusually, and a real treat for our first passage in three months, we were able to sail the course we wanted, and I maintained a steady five to six knots on a close reach, even when the wind built to the forecasted F5, and we dropped to staysail and then first reef in the main. The skies remained blue, the clouds were swept away (unlike in Northern waters, where cloud = wind, here no cloud = more wind) and the sea was the most beautiful shade of azul – Spanish blue. The crew took turns to nap on and off through the day, and we completed a heavenly passage of 81 Miles in time to drop the anchor onto clean sand in Cala Bassa, on the West side of Ibiza, before sunset. The day was rounded off with a quick stir-fry supper in the cockpit and a blissfully peaceful night, fragranced with warm pine and under a velvet blanket of stars.
