Back to Barcelona?
31 July 2012
We left Port Ginesta on passage for Mallorca on Saturday 7th July at 2:30 in the afternoon, it was to be the start of our summer cruise, a little late I know but we now had a light breeze in our hair and the sea beneath our feet, what more can one ask for, a little more wind coming from the right direction perhaps?
I'm not sure sure if I am a true sailor or simply just mean but if possible, I prefer to sail Castor and look on motoring as a sense of failure, so with a light wind on the nose we altered course for Ibiza, 130 Nautical miles to the South. Close hauled we made 2.5 knots, a snail's pace I know but we were making our way along the Spanish coast in the general direction.
The hours past and eventually the sun gave way to a red glow of light that slowly disappeared below the horizon. The flapping of empty sails brought me out of a dream, it was time to start the engine and set a course directly to the Island.
We must have been motoring for at least 3 or 4 hours when I decided to start up our water-maker and flush out the chemicals that had been preserving it throughout the winter months. Opening the engine room I was shocked to see oil spewing from our sail-drive (a kind of gearbox for the none sailors among you).
Not wishing to incriminate myself I will not explain what idiot was responsible and why this problem had occurred, only to say it was unrepairable without lifting Castor out and some major surgery.
The engine was shut down and we returned to our snail pace sailing. A decision had to be made, do we carry on or go back. Castor is primary a sailing boat and in the past sailing was a very precarious form of transport with ships being at the mercy of the wind, today we also have engines and take far too much for granted.
We don't use marinas in the Balearics, to be honest we can't afford them and we have had some experience at anchoring under sail so we decided that we would make our way to Ibiza spend time there at anchor before making our way to Mallorca and then back to the mainland cutting our summer cruise down to just a few weeks not to tempt fate too much.
The next day a steady 10 knots of wind helped us sail directly into Puerto de San Miguel and drop the anchor under darkness.