Yoyage of SY Nessaru - Port Ginesta to Almeria
20 April 2024 | Almeria, Club de Mar
Colin Maslen | Overcast, light winds

Those of you who are following Nessaru's blog will have observed that we have stopped! Yes, we are in Almeria in the south of Spain, about 165 nm east of the Strait of Gibraltar. More about that later.
We departed Port Ginesta on Friday 12 April, and commenced our voyage in high spirits, glad to be finally on our way, even with two important issues still to be resolved - our Australian Registration Certificate and our new insurance policy with coverage beyond the Mediterranean and the coast of Spain and Portugal. We were hoping to download both using Iridium while on passage.
Our first course of 200 degrees was into wind so were beating either side of our planned route in light, variable winds, and making slow progress towards the islands of Mallorca and Ibiza. Nevertheless the yacht was sailing well and all systems, including our new Raymarine autohelm, were working well. First night out Michael cooked up a ravioli dinner and we dined at the cockpit table.
We decided to do four-hour watches and "split the dogs". For those not familiar with watchkeeping routines, the watches are as follows:
20:00 to 23:59 - First (traditionally midnight is recorded in the log as 23:59 or 00:01, never 00:00)
00:01 to 04:00 - Middle
04:00 to 08:00 - Morning
08:00 to 12:00 - Forenoon
12:00 to 16:00 - Afternoon
16:00 to 18:00 - First Dog
18:00 to 20:00 - Last Dog
(By splitting the Dogs into two-hour watches, the watch system rotates so that, for example, the same person doesn't keep the Middle watch every night.)
The light and variable winds continued over the next few days, and our best speed achieved on a westerly tack was about 5.5. knots. At night we saw a number of cruise ships which seemed to be steaming slowly around at about 2 knots, probably waiting to enter some port such as Barcelona the following morning. They were all brightly lit and it was often difficult to distinguish any navigation side lights (red or green) to determine which way they were going. One was showing bright purple lights which were extinguished at about 03:00 which is probably when the disco stopped.
Overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the wind died and we just drifted while trying our best to take advantage of even the slightest breath of wind. A still, clear night at sea can be beautiful. One can literally see millions of stars, with the reflections of the brightest stars dancing on the ripples of the water. For a while it was so calm and still that Michael was startled when, before seeing them, he heard dolphins blowing air through their breathing holes. Later when I came on watch, another sailing vessel gave up the struggle and started motoring; I could hear the put-put-put of their engine from about two miles away.
At 16:50 on Sunday afternoon we also gave up trying to sail and started motoring with the Mainsail set and the Genoa fully furled. At 03:00 on Monday morning we passed between Ibeza Island and Gabo de San Antonio on the mainland of Spain on a course of 210 degrees. In the afternoon we started to get some wind, and at 15:35 we stopped the motor and recommenced sailing with both sails fully set. Having used more fuel that initially intended, we decided to amend our plan to include a stopover in Almeria where we could refuel, top up provisions and enjoy a short break, and adjusted our navigational plan accordingly.
From here on it started to get interesting as the wind, which was now on the starboard quarter, continued to increase. At 03:30 on Tuesday we fully furled the Genoa and reefed the Mainsail to the third reef, in other words we reduced our sails to the minimum. Reefing a mainsail is one of those sailing evolutions which sounds straightforward when you read about it, but is not quite so easy at night in a stiff breeze and a choppy sea. Nevertheless, with practice we got better at it.
Other things happen at night, when the cabin is darkened, and the yacht is rolling from side to side, and we are tired. In daylight after one such night I found coffee grounds all around the galley; they seemed to be coming out of the woodwork! Then one of the crew fessed up; in the middle of the night he inadvertently tried to load coffee into the coffee pot using a fork!
In daylight hours on Monday we sailed with both sails fully set until 16:30 when we again reefed the Mainsail and partly furled the Genoa. The wind was now gusting to about 25 knots. We did not use the autopilot and were steering by hand, which is not so easy in a following sea, requires some concentration and can be quite tiring during a four-hour watch, particularly at night.
The sea increased during the Middle watch (00:01 to 04:00) on Tuesday morning to Sea State 5, described in the Beaufort Scale as: "Larger waves forming; whitecaps everywhere; more spray; wave height 2.5 to 4.0 metres". I can attest to the wave height with some waves level with the top of the spray hood, and I got a drenching!
At 10:45 that morning we rounded Gabo de Gato and adjusted our course for Almeria, and were alongside an allocated transit berth, the "Waiting Wharf", at Club De Mar marina, at 13:00. On arrival, the marina administration asked for our passports and copies of our insurance and registration. Fortunately Mandy and a friend in Bundanoon (thanks Stephen!) had emailed me copies of our registration certificate (AMSA sent the original to Bundanoon) and I was practically downloading the certificate and emailing it to the marina administration at the same time.
On the subject of email, Iridium GO! should be renamed as Iridium GO SLOW! Logging on and downloading anything is tedious, tiresome and takes a long time, with frequent disconnects - which means starting all over again and waiting for the system to search for satellites, connect and re-start the download! Downloading the registration certificate while on passage would have been out of the question, so we had to wait to log on to the marina WIFI in Almeria.
Since our arrival Michael has searched in vain for a marine engineer to check the motor. The answers to his inquiries include "impossible" and "maybe in September", so he has been reading and re-reading the manual and checking every inch of the motor, and tightening every slightly loose connection. We have also replaced the old batteries with new ones as a precautionary measure.
As I mentioned earlier, our current marine insurance provides coverage for the Mediterranean and coastal waters of Spain and Portugal. Shortly after our arrival in Almeria I completed and submitted an NBI - a Non-Binding Insurance Indication for an "insured route: Spain to Australia via Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal." This included answering questions and providing details which would have been impossible to complete using Iridium. So now we have no choice other than to wait for our insurance cover to be in place before we proceed. Hopefully this will happen on Monday or Tuesday, and we will be on our way again.