Tue 12 Jun

The plan today was to head to Palma which was estimated to be about a 12 hour trip given there was so little wind. We’d reserved a slot in the marina in advance of the 40 knot westerly winds predicted to sweep over the island on Tuesday night. We got up early after (having had very little sleep due to the constant rocking backwards and forwards), left the swelly Soller anchorage at 0800, motored out and hung a left at the entrance. The swell was rolling right us towards which was making our short journey so far pretty uncomfortable. Unperturbed we decided to hoist the main to add some stability to the boat.

As we slackened the halyard (the line which pulls the big main sail up) to unhook it from the cleat on the mast, we dipped off a wave which swung the halyard forward and on coming back, it it managed to wrap itself around the radar reflector. No matter how many times we tried to swing and loop it lose, the thing wouldn’t budge. We considered leaving untangling it until we reached Palma and just motoring all the way. Trouble with that though is if for some reason your engine fails you’ll need to get the main sail up as fast as possible, which with a twisted halyard wouldn’t happen. We figured the only way to fix it was to go up the mast and untangle it. Going up the mast involves a bosons chair (a harness thing you sort of sit in) plus a lifejacket to which you attach two lines; the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard, which acts as a safety line. With the main halyard out of action we could only use one, so we agreed it’d be best to send the lightest member of the crew up – me. It went without incident and the line was quickly untangled.

By now the swell was making for a really uncomfortable ride so we decided to turn 180 degrees back and head around to Alcudia which is on the NE side of Mallorca. We motored for a good few hours before rounding the north eastern headland and it was then the wind picked up, and fast! It started at a comfy 10 knots, so we hoisted the main. Next minute we were zooming along in 25 knots so we decided to reef (reduce the sail size) which still had us doing 7.5 knots of boat speed. I didn’t realise that was even possible? As we continued around the bay the wind dropped a little so we got the jib out (the front sail) and continued for the next two hours in big gusts, rain, no wind and bright sunshine. Definitely the flukiest weather we’ve experienced so far!

We’d deiced to stay in a marina tonight due to the strong forecast winds so we headed towards the entrance, dropped the main sail (expertly managed by Tom!) and I brought us into our tight berth with a sigh of relief.

After that we headed into Alcudia which is even more touristy (and tacky) than Soller. Starting to wonder if this is an emerging trend? We had a couple of drinks on the beach, grabbed dinner and now as I’m writing this Tom is dozing in the cockpit. We’re absolutely exhausted after our 8 hour sail and ready for a good nights sleep! If only the karaoke we can here booming from here would quieten down! 🙂