Our second day of the Med.
Set off yesterday just after 0900. The wind was forcast to be Southerly becoming Southeasterly by tea time, but was already SE when we set off - a mistake?
We sailed across the gulf de Fos for an hour or so and then started the engine to make some progress South toward the exit of the bay - 10 miles away from Navy service. The wind had aleady increased from 13kts to 20ish and as we passed the entrance to Etang de Bouc I was having thoughts about going back as we struggled to make 2kts under engines into the chop. Mayuri wanted to carry on so we did and after another few hours, we made it to the sea.
We turned East, cutting behind the two Westerly cardinals to save some distance & time which took us across the shallow areas that created some quite big waves. We hoped to be able to make a starboard tack as we turned East, but as usual the wind swung around keeping 0 & 30 degrees which is not enough for us (or any cat?) to sail.
Mayuri had helmed for quite a while but decided to go to bed after she started feeling queasy. I carried on plodding East for another few hours, sometimes unfurling the genoa when the wind veered a little, but always with the main reefed & the staysail pulled tight down the centre to the mast. The reef was tied in by hand as when I came to do it, the line had been pulled through the boom. The dingy also had to be re-tied as it started to blow off in the wind which had increased to a steady 22kts, gusting 26. Luckily the auto pilot was behaving which made things easier.
The waves seemed oversized for the wind, and boyunced us around a lot as they seemed to comes from all angles (forward!). I was quite enjoying it when Mayuri came up and said it was wild, got thrown to the floor and then went back to bed. I looked in on her a little later but her head was under the pillow as the spray was coming in through the bedroom door.
The wind eased as we came into the lee of Frioul and we headed into the anchorage. After dropping the anchor in 10m and letting out what seemed like loads of warp we went in & looked at the key and found we only had 30m out - which isn't really enough, but after setting off tired from the last few days of finishing the boat and then 8 hours of sailing to cover 20 odd miles I decided it would be ok as the wind was only 8kts in the good shelter (joke!)
After a hot shower and tea I slept until 0330 when the wind picked up and there were lots of strange twanging noises coming from the warps. I had to keep sitting up to see another boat near us to check we weren't dragging. I went back to sleep at around 6ish and only quickly got up at 0900 to turn off the anchor light - noticing that either we had dragged or the boat next to us had moved forward while I was asleep.
I got back out of bed slightly more quickly at 1030 when I rolled over and noticed a big jagged rock out of the window that shouldn't have been there. As I burst through the doors still pulling on my shorts the wind was at 30kts and we were very lucky.
A few other boats came and anchored for the day, usually straight in front of us - now that I had 40m of warp out. The wind stayed at 20-30kts all day causing a few other boats to drag - and nearly hit the same rock as us.
I just wanted to sleep, but a problem that we had found when we arrived was bugging me - the port bilge was full of seawater - so I had a look and found the exhaust pipe had split. It was already looking a bit tired but the pressure of the waves between the hulls the day before had maybe finished it off. Water had been shooting up through the cockpit drains which I've never seen before and while Mayuri was in the bathroom jets of water were squirting out of the sink plughole - one of them causing janix to sick up a big hairball just like a real cat - which has saved me a job in a few weeks when it would have blocked!
At 1500 we dragged again and in total have reset about 5 times. We motored around to the next bay to see if we could find any more shelter, but there wasn't and with the wind at 36kts we struggled to even get back into the old bay.
We've reset again now & it seems to be holding, although it's going to be a long night - sleeping in the saloon for a better view of the rock transits! Just one other boat here and he's been knocking steel pegs into the rock all day and is securely tied up to them.
Set off yesterday just after 0900. The wind was forcast to be Southerly becoming Southeasterly by tea time, but was already SE when we set off - a mistake?
We sailed across the gulf de Fos for an hour or so and then started the engine to make some progress South toward the exit of the bay - 10 miles away from Navy service. The wind had aleady increased from 13kts to 20ish and as we passed the entrance to Etang de Bouc I was having thoughts about going back as we struggled to make 2kts under engines into the chop. Mayuri wanted to carry on so we did and after another few hours, we made it to the sea.
We turned East, cutting behind the two Westerly cardinals to save some distance & time which took us across the shallow areas that created some quite big waves. We hoped to be able to make a starboard tack as we turned East, but as usual the wind swung around keeping 0 & 30 degrees which is not enough for us (or any cat?) to sail.
Mayuri had helmed for quite a while but decided to go to bed after she started feeling queasy. I carried on plodding East for another few hours, sometimes unfurling the genoa when the wind veered a little, but always with the main reefed & the staysail pulled tight down the centre to the mast. The reef was tied in by hand as when I came to do it, the line had been pulled through the boom. The dingy also had to be re-tied as it started to blow off in the wind which had increased to a steady 22kts, gusting 26. Luckily the auto pilot was behaving which made things easier.
The waves seemed oversized for the wind, and boyunced us around a lot as they seemed to comes from all angles (forward!). I was quite enjoying it when Mayuri came up and said it was wild, got thrown to the floor and then went back to bed. I looked in on her a little later but her head was under the pillow as the spray was coming in through the bedroom door.
The wind eased as we came into the lee of Frioul and we headed into the anchorage. After dropping the anchor in 10m and letting out what seemed like loads of warp we went in & looked at the key and found we only had 30m out - which isn't really enough, but after setting off tired from the last few days of finishing the boat and then 8 hours of sailing to cover 20 odd miles I decided it would be ok as the wind was only 8kts in the good shelter (joke!)
After a hot shower and tea I slept until 0330 when the wind picked up and there were lots of strange twanging noises coming from the warps. I had to keep sitting up to see another boat near us to check we weren't dragging. I went back to sleep at around 6ish and only quickly got up at 0900 to turn off the anchor light - noticing that either we had dragged or the boat next to us had moved forward while I was asleep.
I got back out of bed slightly more quickly at 1030 when I rolled over and noticed a big jagged rock out of the window that shouldn't have been there. As I burst through the doors still pulling on my shorts the wind was at 30kts and we were very lucky.
A few other boats came and anchored for the day, usually straight in front of us - now that I had 40m of warp out. The wind stayed at 20-30kts all day causing a few other boats to drag - and nearly hit the same rock as us.
I just wanted to sleep, but a problem that we had found when we arrived was bugging me - the port bilge was full of seawater - so I had a look and found the exhaust pipe had split. It was already looking a bit tired but the pressure of the waves between the hulls the day before had maybe finished it off. Water had been shooting up through the cockpit drains which I've never seen before and while Mayuri was in the bathroom jets of water were squirting out of the sink plughole - one of them causing janix to sick up a big hairball just like a real cat - which has saved me a job in a few weeks when it would have blocked!
At 1500 we dragged again and in total have reset about 5 times. We motored around to the next bay to see if we could find any more shelter, but there wasn't and with the wind at 36kts we struggled to even get back into the old bay.
We've reset again now & it seems to be holding, although it's going to be a long night - sleeping in the saloon for a better view of the rock transits! Just one other boat here and he's been knocking steel pegs into the rock all day and is securely tied up to them.
