LinoCat

Waiting for a good weather window ..... What to do? Watch the worldcup and work a little bit and organizing things. These pictures are from a "family viewing event" in Matthias barn. Two grills were used for the BBQ and around 30 people showed up. We won 4:0 and i hope this will continue today....

Sailing is healthy... until you flip over and get soaking wet in the harbour basin. LinoCat is well know for its 5 star cuisine and so we used the sandwich maker and did dome "Olaf and Michael"-sandwiches. and some salad and a beer The swandich maker was way to small for our hunger :-)

The barometer fell from 1015 to 1008mbar yesterday and this morning it is 1001mbar. We left the marina yesterday morning and had wind and waves on the nose. Half way to Almeria i called the marina on the phone and they were full. Our speed reduced while the wind was picking up and we were only doing 3 knots at times. We felt well but thought it is just stupid to continue since the forecast predicted wind on the nose for the coming 5 days. In Gibraltar with gusts up to 9bft and waves with 3m which i would not want to sail against. So we turned around and reached Cartagena at midnight. The ride back we were at least doing 7 knots at times with only the genoa out :-) Would have been fun with the spinnaker. So we might fly home tomorrow and try again in a week or so. Another option would be to haul the boat out here instead of Portimao but today is a holdiay in Murcia so i can not explore this option.

Olaf having breakfast before entering the marina. The breakwater in front of the marina entrance. Pedestrian area nice houses

We stayed at a nice anchorage near Cartagena for 3 hours to get some sleep and then motored along the coast to Cartagena. At around 1200 we reached Cartagena. There are 2 marinas in the port and the one we used is the right one "Yachtport Cartagena" on VHF 9. They speak english and we paid 39 EUR for the night with Internet for 2 PCs included. Some pictures from the city of Cartagena will follow. From today onwards the wind has shifted and is now coming from the west onto our nose. So the rides might be less pleasant....

The Nokia phone rang at 7 in the morning and we directly left the anchorage. Our target is Cartagena in Spain and we want to cover as much distance as possible today. So most likely we will sail through the night but we will decide half way. We still have the option to reach the coast earlier and sleep somewhere. Breakfast was done on the way and i was amazed that Olaf is drinking at least as much coffee as i do :-) So we already had to cook coffee twice this morning. The sun is out and temperature around 25 Celcius. The wind is weak but at least from south east. Currently one engine is running at around 2000rmp doing 5knots but i will try to bring up the sails now and see what we can gain from that. It is now 11.40 and we have 108NM to go which means roughly 21hours from now.

We reached Formentera at 2100 and realized that mooring buoys were in place. So we grabbed on and tied LinoCat to it. After nice spanish sausages and icebergsalad for dinner we decided to go to bed early. We also had the red MOJO sauce which was still on board from the Canary islands and the red peppers which were from the caribbean. All washed down by a Piton beer from St Lucia :-)

We got up at 7 and we both slept well. Olaf bought a warm baguette and then Ludger Peters from the Lagoon 380 "Green Duck" visited us. He recently bought his boat in Italy and is now on the way to Wismar. He will stay in Real Club Nautica tonight and then follow the same route. So after a chat we left at 8.30 and motored away because the wind was zero. I did a safety briefing with Olaf and we adjusted one life vest for him. around noon the wind picked up and now was coming more from the port side and so we set sail but we kept one engine running because we needed speed if we wanted to arrive in daylight in Formentera. From the current wind and swell direction i picked Cala Sahona as a possible anchorage. 4-6m deep and sand well protected against southerly wind and swell. We agreed that we will decide in the evening if we anchor or directly sail through the night. Currently Olaf is having a nap and so lets see how our mood is later. The last butane bottle has been put in actio...

After getting up at 1.30 my brother Andy drove me to the Frankfurt airport. Poor dude! Thanks for that! 06.45 i landed in Palma de Mallorca and took a cab to the Dic del Oeste where the Amstelgracht was moored. The Philipino crew welcomed me and offered coffee and so i was chatting with different crew members for 30 minutes and then LinoCat was the first boat to be unloaded. Meanwhile Olaf showed up and i picked him up after being unloaded. Over the radio we asked for a berth since the boat was mega dirty and we also needed new fresh water and some fuel. They gave us a berth (stern-to) and it was quite rolly. It has calmed down now until the evening. Diesel costs 1.08 EUR. Welcome back to Europe! Also the german boat behind immediately complanied about some things, so you know you are back! We went to buy some food and had some coffees and later went to a blockhouse steakhouse after walking around in the city. The berth for LinoCat for oen night here was 70EUR. Tomorrow in the morning...

Amstelgracht has reached Mallorca. To be more precise, the Dique del Oeste, the westerly part of the harbour. I have no confirmation from the real club nautico yet about a berth but i am sure LinoCat will find a space somewhere. We also need to fill up water and gas and since the wind predictions have changed, we have to hurry a bit in the beginning. We will keep you informed :-)