Our last day in Gozo/Malta was quite enjoyable. I wanted to leave midday for the trip across to Tunisia, so we only had a 1/2 day to check out the island. We rowed ashore and found a cab to take us to the megalithic ruins.

These ruins are over 5,000 years old -- older than the pyramids of Egypt! The ruins consist of two temples, side-by-side, that were supposedly used for life and fertility rituals. The 10-foot walls were mostly of large rocks piled on top of each other with the voids filled with smaller rocks. Some of the rocks were shaped so the sides of the walls were more or less flat. An interesting aspect of the walls is that the tops of them were wider than the bases. This was so the roof of timberss/mud/grass could be more easily supported. So the walls had a curve to them as they ascended from the ground.

After seeing the ruins the cabbie took us to the town cathedral. What made this church interesting was that it wasn't a 500-year-old church like all the other ones we have seen. It was built over 20 years and was finished in 1971. This modern cathedral -- the co-cathedral to the one in Valetta -- is much lighter than the dark, Middle Ages cathedrals we saw. The outer facade looks like it could be 500 years old. But step inside and the limestone walls and fresh marble tell a much more modern, clean story.

We got back to our boat midday and headed out for the long crossing to Tunisia. At 160 nm, this would be the longest overnight passage all three of us had undertaken by a fairly large margin. We have done 100 and 120 nm passages. But adding 40 nm is equivalent to adding an extra day passage. That is why we needed to leave midday rather than later in the evening -- to make sure we made port the following day before the sun went down.

I am going to describe our strategy for the crossing in detail for those who might have interest in this sort of thing. So if you have little interest in this, you might want to skip the rest of this.

The wind was forecast 10-20 from the WNW. We were headed slightly south of west, which meant we were going to be hard on the wind...for most of 160 nm! The prospect was not encouraging.

We took off around noon on starboard tack in a 17k breeze and started sailing immediately. We were sailing 20-30 deg. below our rhumb line, but it was early in the passage and knowing how the wind can change I wasn't too bothered. I opted to sail 'fast', so we had the bow down. We could have been hard on the wind and gained another maybe 10 deg. towards our destination. But I knew a lot could happen with the wind and so I wasn't that concerned about the direction at this juncture of the passage. Also -- and this was important in my decision -- I had noticed that the wind veered (went clockwise) the closer you got to Tunisia. So I figured I might be able to get lifted up to our target as we approached the coast.

Around 1900 I went down to take a nap to rest up for the night watch. At that point we had covered about 49 nm, for a 7k average. Not bad. I was thinking we were looking pretty good. The wind was holding in the 16-19k range and we were doing 7s close hauled. Life was good.

When I took my watch at midnight I checked our progress and we had only gained 10 nm on our target in 5 hours! I was livid! I knew Will and Ruth had sailed the boat well enough to put more distance than that on the boat. So it had to be me, and I was upset that I had screwed up on my calculations.

As it turned out, I had failed to take into account distance made good. Sure we were doing 7s. But we were also going away from our target at a 20-30 deg. angle. So our 'effective' speed wasn't 7k, but more like 5k. This is a pretty fundamental geometry problem and I was quite disappointed that my navigation tools clouded me from seeing this.

Anyway, as soon as Ruth and Will went below at midnight, I furled the jib, turned on the motor and turned the boat straight for the barn and started motoring straight into the wind to try to make up for some of the lost distance through my miscalculation. About one hour into my watch (0100) I noticed the main was pulling. So I unfurled the jib and kept the motor on.

Now I was bombing upwind! Instead of a steady 6.5k, we were motorsailing at 7.5 and 8 knots. Downwind that is a good speed. Upwind it is bloody scary for this boat...especially at night. But I kept it there to make up time.

About 0300 the wind picked up to 20-22k and now we were simply going too fast -- even for me! I started looking for ways to slow the boat down. Everything I did to the sails only made us go faster! Then I remembered the engine was still on! (You obviously don't have to be a rocket scientist to sail around the world!)

Anyhow, I shut off the engine and now we were beating at a more tepid 7.25k. Still quick enough, but under control. And, even more importantly, we were headed for Monastir! Sure enough, the wind had veered so we could sail in.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We eventually had to start the motor in the morning as the wind died off, only to refill as a sea breeze (coming onto shore) later in the afternoon. So the last 10 nm we were able to run with the breeze and made our port well before sunset.

So overall, we got lucky when the wind veered to the right for us, allowing us to do the last half of the trip headed directly for Monastir. Early on the strategy to not worry about direction so much paid off as well. There are times on long passages when 5 or 10 degrees can make a big difference. That is when you expect the wind to be very steady. But if you think the wind might be variable in direction, then speed becomes the overriding factor.

But I (re)learned that if you aren't headed directly in the direction you want to go then you had better take that into account when calculating distance made good. Laura also told me that motorsailing can be bad on the motor because the tilting of the boat doesn't allow engine oil to fully lubricate the engine. Ooops! Makes sense. I guess we'll be more careful about motorsailing.