Tuna (2)
Finally, after months of fruitless searching for fishing tackle shops, talking to all kinds of sailors, local fishermen and every other expert about the habits of the indigenous fish, after endless loitering at moles and hanging around at quays making observations, spending substantial part of our budget in local currencies in shops, convinced by tens of merciless sales persons about the qualities of that or this particular piece of tackle , I silently promised myself (and Mira) never to calculate the price of the fish that I would catch (if ever). But then, after a mere 1000 miles of fruitless trawling all kinds of expensive kit at every possible depth and speed, a modest tuna-ish kind of fish happened to find it self unfortunate on my hook. It happened with the loud �snap� of our home made �fish detector clip� (wasknijper).
The fish was about 50 cm, about 4-5 kilos and tasted as good as it looked. Juicy, fresh and beautiful. A second and third tasty catch the next week proved that I had not merely ran out of misfortune, but that I was really doing something right� Slowly slowly, I have now started to regain my self confidence and extend our fish recipes. Killing and cleaning the fish still proves to be quite a bloody history although we are slowly getting better at it. Someone told us that you can kill a fish fast by pouring alcohol into the kieuws/� So we now kill the fish with pure vodka, but this proves to be another rather expensive method as we used a big bottle on three fishes only. Animal friends as we (think we) are, we want to kill it fast and most of the vodka is spilled in the act. We now have a large syringe that we will use to aim the vodka better.
Carthagena to the Balearics
Entering the ancient Spanish city of Carthagena on Wednesday 17 of October, suddenly something went seriously wrong with Rudy, our engine. After recent troubles we had decided that our engine needed more of a personal touch and we had thought of a name. What was more appropriate than Rudy for our fine 15 HP Ruggerini?
Nonetheless, a screaming sound escaped from below the engine cover, now. The noise was so loud and alarming that we turned off the engine before it would stall itself. Disillusioned we notified the Marina on the VHF radio and sailed into the harbour. The only other Dutch boat in the harbour happened to have a ex-naval engineer on board. Together with Henkjan, we had a look at our Rudy and came to a diagnosis: a broken water pump. Nothing too serious, but it needed to be fixed before we could call on Rudy again. To make a long story short, a week and some pleasant evenings with Henkjan and Christine from s.y. Ambroijn passed and another small fortune was spent on a new pump and DHL but the new pump was mounted. On Tuesday evening October �, a few hours after Rudy was fixed with a new water pump, we left for Mallorca.
It was a nice and quiet trip to Mallorca. It took 3,5 days of non stop tacking, in light winds (mostly 2-4 Beaufort, occasionally 0, 1 or 5). We had to be in time in Mallorca because Mira�s mother, sister and cousin would arrive on Sunday 27 October. On the way we had the most beautiful starry nights one can imagine. We also caught fish, saw dolphins and were able to sleep and eat well due to the calm weather. We anchored in Palma bay upon arrival in Mallorca.
Storm or hurricane?
After 2 weeks of hot weather and sunshine (one day with 30 centigrade was reportedly the hottest day in October for the last 10 years) during the stay of Mira�s family, the weather changed dramatically. We had made plans to meet our friend Juan who is chartering here in Mallorca with a large 45ft sailing yacht in Cabrera, an island that is a natural reserve and where you can only come with a special permit of the Ministry of Environment. It has a large bay which is an almost perfect natural harbour and protects against all winds (at least that is what we thought). The bay has 50 moorings, it is forbidden to anchor due to the status of natural parc, where fish eagles and other special birds live and all sorts of reptiles as well as waters where many types of dolphins and whales are said to live.
Shortly after we took a mooring and climbed the hill to the mountain, Juan arrived with 4 German guests on his boat. We had dinner together and drunk a lot of wine. That night, the wind picked up and Juan had to decide whether to leave or stay. Stay would mean stay for a few more days as real bad weather was predicted, storm from the North. Juan went back to Mallorca because his guests would have to leave for Germany in a few days and we decided to stay as we were not in any rush to leave. Alone, no other sailing boat in the bay and we felt good: lots of food and water on board. A nice island to visit and the port was free so no worries about money. Our only worry was the Spanish course in the university that was to start on Monday (it was Friday so lots of time).
During Friday November 9, the weather steadily worsened and the Northerly wind increased up to force 7 or 8. It got a bit uncomfortable due to the fact that we were on the lee side of the large bay, but we were well protected from the waves from the sea, fortunately. In the afternoon, the National Parc guard came with a big speedboat to warn us for �some real bad weather and storm�. It must be real bad he said, because that had called and warned him from the mainland and they had never done this before. Never. He advized us that we would have to take the dinghy on board and tie it up real strong. If we liked we could come to the little mole that was on the other side of the bay and wait for the storm there. But we liked it where we were on the mooring and as a precaution, we took another (extra) mooring with the dinghy (it was just possible to row against the wind). That night we did not get much sleep, as we kept checking our position every hour as the wind increased and increased. In the morning, we saw the wind blow off the water from the surface of the bay. Clouds of spray were blown over the bay by this strong wind, but it was nothing compared by what was still to come�. We decided to move to the mole on the other side of the bay, because that was the most protected by the mountains and we would be able to go on land. In a carefully planned manoeuvre, we released ourselves from the moorings and motored to the mole with every horsepower available. The wind was so strong that we could only get away from the lee shore very very slow. Along side the mole, in the little harbour (there were also two small wooden fishing boats and 3 national parc speed boats), we were helped by 3 people. They adviced us that the mole might submerge in the storm and that it would be better to stay at some distance as we might end up on top of it... We brought a cable across the harbour to the other side and also laid the anchor there so we could move to the middle of the harbour if necessary. Some 9 lines and chains from several different cleats and winches tied us to the mole. It took the rest of the day to do this. The national parc guide cooked us dinner as we worked non stop and did not have time to eat and were all wet and cold.
One of the biggest problems with heavy winds is the chafing (wearing) of the lines. Especially when there is a heavy swell (long waves in a harbour) or when tied up to a concrete quay, the lines chafe a lot and can chafe through in just one night. In a fierce storm, you might not have an opportunity to tie up again and loosing a line can mean that you loose the boat. Therefore we put cloths and tubes around the lines and use chains if we have to attach to a quay in bad weather. The other problem is that if something goes wrong in bad weather (something breaks or fails), even if it is a very small thing, usually it causes larger problems very fast.
During the evening and night the wind further increased and became very gusty. The boat heeled over in these gusts as if we were sailing. Mira and I were taking turns to check the lines while the other tried to sleep a little. We moved away further and further from the quay, until we were about 5 meter away, as the waves started to wash over the quay. The gusts came from all directions (due to the high mountains around us) and were so strong that the whole boat shook. The rolling reef (we had put on the sail covers real tight) caught so much wind that it shook the whole boat so bad that I set the extra forestay in case a stay would break/turn loose. The wind made it hard to breathe and we were wearing the lifelines on deck, as we were not able to stand upright in the tremendous gusts. It was like a giant with a huge vacuum cleaner was going over our tiny little boat and we felt like we were in caught up in some real bad movie. The wind/water was everywhere now and it blew right through my foul weather clothing so I wore another sailing-overall under it to keep a little warm. At the height of the storm we prepared ourselves for an evacuation as we could no longer foresee what would happen if something (a cleat, a rope or a stay) would break and we expected something to break any moment. It was very scary and we stayed inside as much as possible, thinking that we might have to loose the boat. That night, the national parc guard and guardia civil watched us every few hours from their land rovers ashore, and this gave us mental support during the worst of the storm.
To make a long story short, the storm subsided in the morning and we had no real damage(!). However, everything was wet inside the boat and we were very tired. We stayed a few days to wait for the wind to further decrease to force 4-6 and the sea to calm down. On the island I was taken to the telephone repeater station that was damaged (the Rutland wind generator had lost all its blades and the 2 arrays with solar panels were blown away). Wind speeds measurements on the hill showed gusts of 146km/hr, gusts of hurricane force (12 Bft). On Mallorca, large numbers of trees had fallen, blocking roads and cutting electricity and telephone lines. There was damage to buildings, lots of boats had drifted from their anchor or mooring on the rocks. Our friend Juan was without electricity for 3 days. According to the authorities, it was the worst storm in 20 years and the state of emergency was declared for the island.
On Monday when the weather was quieter, we sailed to Colonia de St Jordi where we moored to a quay in the outer harbour. We went to Palma for our first Spanish lesson in the University. Lateron that week there was another strong gale (it was the same depression that caused the storm, and it came back!) that caused such a heavy swell that waves broke over the breakwater behind which we were moored (quite scary) and we had our first serious damage: a big cleat was ripped right off our deck. The situation became unsafe and we had to move into the inner harbour before the wind got really bad. After this gale, we were now really tired of all the storms and decided to move to a permanent place/ port as soon as possible, moreover now that the last gale had caused havoc in the port of Porto Colon (which is said to be rather safe) where a pontoon broke and some 10-20 yachts were damaged and many of them sunk!
The events of the last weeks have shocked the boat owners in Mallorca and caused millions of damage. It has made us realize that for this kind of storms there are no real safe ports as every port has its typical problems and that a strong mooring is probably the best option (though it can be very uncomfortable) to wait out the storm, or else a place on the shore. For the next weeks we will now stay in Porto Cristo so we can keep an eye on Juan�s boat as they are on holiday, and after that we will probably move back to the (expensive) Palma area and look for a place to take the boat out of the water.
Back to school!
Our Spanish course has now started and we enjoy it very much. We subscribed to a 4 months, rather intensive (3 times 3 hours per week) language course in the university which will take us through the winter here. With all these storms we have realised that it is better (safer) to wait for spring before we can sail on to Italy and Greece. Our classes in the university are small: Mira�s beginners class as well as my (advanced) class consist of 5 students from various nationalities (Germany, UK, Tjech, Kurdistan, S Korea, Benin). It looks as if we have taken a good choice and will learn a lot here. The teachers are good and speak just Spanish. The good thing about it is that we have a chance to practice the language here, better than when you study a language at home.
