Mile Building Blog from Pheobe B as she traveled the Mediterranean
Departing from Greece on 16 October Bavaria 46 Phoebe B Heads for Sardinia on a mile building distance cruising trip.
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A mile building cruise sailing from East to West Mediterranean with stronger winds than forecast, and some new experiences for most. ! |
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Fri 16 Oct 38:20.1N 15:22.4E
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The big day finally arrives, Phoebe B and crew set sail with Abi at the helm to the sounds of David Gray's 'Sail Away' and a big cheer from the shore team. A quick motor to the south of Lefkas took us into a good north-westerly wind, engine off, sails up.
(The crew are of mixed abilities and all keen either to build miles for further qualification and experience, or are just interested in a long distance cruise. The Mediterranean offers opportunities for challenging sailing and mile building in hopefully a more temperate climate than found in U. K. waters.) |
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Sat 17 Oct |
The early hours of Sunday took us across to the Straits of Messina mostly under sail. The Straits themselves were navigated at night and were perfectly calm, possibly not the best preparation for the weather to come. |
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Sun 18 Oct |
Turning west out of the Straits took us into an un forecast westerly (yes that's the way we were trying to go) eventually gusting to 40 knots. The planned short final leg to Milazzo had to be abandoned at around 0800 after ground speed dropped to around a knot. Suffice to say the chaps had left Abi, Iona and Louise at the helm in the pouring rain. We had a great surf back to Messina Marina on the waves. |
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Mon 19 Oct |
Lots of adjusting the rigging first thing and we send Abi up the mast for a look around and adjust. Given a favorable forecast we headed out of a very calm Messina for a non-stop sail to Cagliari. Unfortunately the forecast was wrong again and turning west took us straight into headwinds. Motor and sail on. This turned out to be another hard day of pounding the increasing waves, with the added spice of thunder, lightning and hail for Colin and Barry on helm taking the new line in exfoliation like true men! About 2000 Matt called a very short meeting to mutually decide whether to divert, which ended in him sticking his head through the hatch to ask those up to and getting a face full of wave and saying "that's it, I'm deciding" - so after only 50 miles headway in 34 hours off we went to Milazzo. A warm welcome from the man at marina telling us to 'GET LOST - Sirocco!' left us circling for a space before just mooring anyway. Next was a 1.5 hour negotiation using paper, sign language, friends translating on the phone etc before we were allowed to stay the night!
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Tues 20 Oct 39:10.0N 09:44.5E |
Set out at early (for us) in some welcome sun. A quick man overboard drill with a lost cockpit cushion and then off around the headland into squalls and headwinds (one of us is jinxed). Iona reads the pilot book properly and finds the panel all about the Aeolian Triangle and its wacky weather which never follows the forecast - at least we have an explanation.
The weather clears up and dolphins and turtles join us briefly. The fishing (and gradual loss of tackle begins). The wind moves SE but not strong enough yet to make our destination in time so engine on. Later on 30-40 knots took us to in excess of 9 knot boat speeds until we managed to reef - biggest waves yet.
Dodging the peculiar sets of floating old bottles arranged as fishing gear.
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Wed 21 Oct |
What we thought was a fish on the end of our line turned out to be some of that fishing gear snagged around the prop and a happy half hour spent winding it in and cutting free - the rest to be dived for at the next port. Next up on the maintenance front started when we noticed the pin holding the gooseneck was working loose and needed working back with a new split pin.
More turtles today. Louise very poorly and looking like she needs to get off the boat at the next stop. Add some sail to speed the journey and shorten suffering.
On into the night - the early hours see the weather worsen, and skipper Matt takes the helm as we're head to wind again in waves peaking at 7m. Prompting a decision to again divert and head for Porto Corallo on the south east tip of Sardinia instead of Cagliari. Much easier sailing, but not in the right direction.
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Thus 22 Oct |
Farewell to Iona as she rushes off for her flight and farewell to Louise & Colin as Louise sees a doctor and is currently too ill to carry on. Mega clean up of Phoebe.
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Fri 23 Oct 37:35.0N 00:10.0W |
Forecast poor and Phoebe B stays in port. Provisions sought and loaded. Long lazy lunch for the remaining crew in the bar...... Meanwhile Louise improving enough to go home on her own and Colin allowed to rejoin tomorrow. The first leg of the mile building trip has been completed, it was hard work at times, with strong winds in the wrong direction for a portion of the journey. The next distance cruising leg of the trip takes Pheobe B from Sardinia onto Gibraltar. |
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Sat 24 Oct |
Set out for Cagliari to collect Adam and Colin, in a reasonable northwesterly only to find it turns westerly south of the island! More diesel is burned as everyone pounds the waves in a 10.5 hour marathon.
Set out for Cartagena in some sun and a favorable if light NE wind. Mix of sail and motor, weather warming up. Night sails quiet for a change.
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Mon 26 Oct |
More of the same, but today the expense of lost gear and adjustments to the fishing tackle pay off and we land a Dolphin fish !!!!!!!!
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Tues 27 Oct
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A quite day wind wise but managed to get the cruising chute up even thought just for a few minutes. Lovely day for getting a sun tan!! Caught a dolphin fish at 1030 to much excitement from the crew. Cleaned and put in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. The forecast E15 wind doesn't materialize. A small bird nicknamed Biggles arrives looking tired and thirsty. Good entertainment until he flies inside the cabin and through the back through a hatch open for stowing sail and disappears into the steering gear. Cue Abi & Colin to go in and chase him out for the next half an hour or so! A quite day wind wise but managed to get the cruising chute up even thought just for a few minutes. Lovely day for getting a sun tan!! At dinner time 140 miles to Cartagena ETA Wed lunchtime ish. |
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Wed 28 Oct |
Tried the sails again for a while, but not much help at all. Crossed the Greenwich Meridian at 0851 local time. Best school of dolphins possibly 20 turn up in the afternoon and videoed. Arrive to the dramatic entrance to Cartagena at 1700ish. |
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Thus 29 Oct |
Prep the boat to sail as soon as we have the wind we need. Possibly tonight, but looking like tomorrow now. |
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Fri 30 Oct 36:20.00 N 04:52.50 W |
After a good nights sleep, we set off from Cartagena at 0800 in to light winds. As proven optimists we put the sails in-out-in-out-in a few times for good measure before our old friend head to wind comes back yet again late afternoon!!!!!!!!
Fog patches develop overnight and everything gets and stays wet!!!!! |
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Sat 31 Oct |
Much talk of fog burning off by 10am at first light - which it doesn't! A brief brush with P&O's Aurora which was briefly predicted to pass 75ft from us doing 25knots got Matt on the radio quite quickly just in case.
Having heard no fog signals all day Matt decides we need to be doing the right thing ourselves as it thickens considerably later in the day so he gets the aircan horn out. At least the fog clears as we near land and makes mooring at La Duquesa easier. Lots of I'm over here where are you chatter on the radio all day.
A couple of beers and an Indian meal finish the day nicely
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Mon 2 Nov |
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Tues Wed 3-4 Nov |
Monday involved lots of rest, cleaning the boat from end to end and hello to new crew mate Tom in the evening.
Most if not all of Tuesday was spent provisioning the boat with Matt and Barry in Morrisons for over 8 hours and the rest of us stowing it all on Phoebe B. There's a photo of the 55 packs of 6x1.5ltr bottles filling the foredeck, never mind all the food. Still that's mostly it now all the way to the Caribbean. New crew mate Raj joined us mid morning.
On Wednesday we needed to prep the rigging for the next mile building leg to protect the mainsail while sailing downwind for so long across the atlantic. So birthday boy Colin got his wish to climb the mast complete with 2.5 hours work on the spreaders. Rory did the same on Tranquilizer and some fun was had swapping rolls of tape mid air between the two boats.
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Phoebe B left Gibraltar for Las Palmas on the 3rd leg of her mile building journey on 5 November taking a route via Porto Santo (Madeira). |
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Phoebe B arrived in Las Palmas after a brief stop on Porto Santo and started her preparations for the ARC distance cruise across the Atlantic. The end of a successful mile building trip from Greece to the Canaries.
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