One day at anchor in Mar Menor we received the following invitation from our neighbour on a beautiful ketch flying the Dutch flag: Of course we were up to nosing around somebody else’s boat, particularly a beautiful one such as De Witte Raaf (‘White Raven’). The next day, we picked up some of our friends from the other boats with … Read More
Receiving a Mayday: immigrants at sea
We left Mar Menor to cross to Formentera in a fleet of 5 boats. We took the 10am bridge opening and from leaving Mar Menor up until later in the evening we had a lovely sail doing about 4 knots on average. Then the wind died down and we turned on the engine because the mainsail was just flapping around. … Read More
Meeting fellow sailors when cruising
Last year we barely met any other sailors. This year – so far at least – it has been the opposite. During the winter in Gibraltar we met various fellow sailors that we’ve stayed in touch with. Because a lot of people head east from Gibraltar to the Balearics, it’s very likely you meet up with each other again somewhere … Read More
Sailing in bad weather around Cabo de Gato
It is Wednesday 9th May 2018, 14:03. We have just left the anchorage in Aguilas and are heading towards Cartagena 25 nautical miles away. There is very little wind so we had to put the engine on. We want to arrive in daylight so the speed under sails of 2 nm was not really fast enough. So far it is … Read More
The first sail of the season 2018
Preparing for our second sailing season End of April 2018. After being settled in Gibraltar for 7 months, we needed a few weeks to get sailing ready again. Because the weather had been so bad in March and April we hadn’t had a chance to do all the necessary preparations yet. The main job was to fit our new solar … Read More