Lining up sailing jobs in the Bay Area. Very excited about getting to crew on USA 76!! Isn’t she beautiful?! She is an old America’s cup boat, now used for charters here in San Francisco. She might be “old’ but she is far more complicated, and everything is sooooo much heavier than what I’m used to. And faster! Some stats for the sailors among you: 84 ft, 50,000 lbs, 115 ft mast, 2800 sq ft sail area. Wahoo!

You can learn more at acsailingsf.com - and buy tickets 🤣

Back to Wednesday night racing in the Bay. It’s one design racing on club boats, so super competitive - and fun! I’m back on David’s boat. This race I did jib sheets and foredeck. It is always great to sail with David, as you learn so much while still having fun. This race was extra fun with us coming in less than a boat length after the winner, after a 90 minute race! We had two incredibly close calls with other boats while tacking (we were the stand on vessel both times) that forced us to do emergency tacks - it has definitely gotten even more competitive since I took a hiatus to do last year’s big delivery!

Back at my old club (Spinnaker) in Redwood city, doing an afternoon sail with Fred to try to remember how to sail 25 ft boats with outboard motors, to get ready to start racing again. Turns out I have forgotten how to dock too!

Those of you who have followed my blog since the beginning, know how frustrated I’ve been with the weather forecasts, especially in the Med. I use Predict Wind and ECMF the most (just started using Arome recently in the Med - thanks Jos!), but have a dozen services and a handful models I check plus I also check land weather for that area. And I’m still often caught by surprise. Finally I read an article that helped me understand why!

So we were supposed to have 10+ hours of sailing on the 14+ hour crossing from Ibiza to Valencia. Instead we had 10+ hours of motoring. Very annoying! Some good sailing in the midddle, and a gorgeous sail into Valencia at the end with dramatic skies and a setting sun. Then as we pulled into the welcome dock to get all paperwork sorted the sky opened, lightning all around us and the wind pushing the boat off the dock. Made for exciting docking for sure! I did tell myself that if James can land a jet plane he should be able to dock a boat - and he could! 🤣. Now this whole adventure has ended and we are cleaning the boat, while I start thinking about where to sail next….

We left Ibiza early in the morning, having checked weather in all possible apps and with all models, hoping to sail most of the way to Valencia. It felt good to be on the move again - I was struggling at first with being so stationary as we have been this past week, and being frustrated that we couldn’t get to Mallorca as planned. But now looking back at this week in Ibiza I realize that it is a gorgeous little island that deserve the time we spent there. And I’m starting to understand “Cruiser life” and seeing the beauty of following the weather and taking time to explore locations rather than just being on the move and fix what breaks. Definitely want to try more of it!

One of the beauties of sailing is being so close to marine life. (Though much depleted compared to earlier times). In addition to dolphins and turtles, we have seen beautiful fish and a lot of jellyfish (they are a problem here this year. And yes they sting…). Another thing I love is bioluminescence (crossing the Atlantic I spent many hours looking at it in our wake) and there is some here too! Going to the toilet in the middle of the night you get (as we use water from the sea for the toilet) bioluminescence in the toilet bowl! I have to confess I have had a bit of extra water at night just to get more shows! Tried to take a photo for you but it didn’t turn out unfortunately - as you can see…

Wind is a fickle friend (at least I think that’s a saying?). We are still on northern Ibiza, as wind has been too weak and/or from the wrong direction. James is reminding me that this is cruising - changing plans to go where the wind takes you, or waiting for the right wind. Here in the Med that seems to mean a lot of waiting… I have read some good books and done some hiking. Tomorrow there should be wind, and regardless: we have to go to Valencia as I have a plane to catch on Wednesday morning… We will probably do a night sail as James want to arrive during daylight. Can’t believe this month is almost over already! Yes, I need to do more of this!

We’re still on Ibiza’s north coast - now in Portinaxt. Too little wind to sail over to Mallorca unfortunately - will have to explore Soller some other trip. Now we are looking at the weather to see when we can sail to Valencia which is Arkyla’s new home for the next year. Looks like a night sail tomorrow night is the best option. I love a good night sail, so don’t mind! Let’s just hope the wind comes in - don’t want to motor all the way, but I do have a plane to catch… 

Still no wind so we motored up to the north coast of Ibiza to stay in this little bay recommended by someone last year. Super cute and well sheltered. We got paddle boards out. Harder than it looks, and still not convinced kayaks aren’t better, is my conclusion… But one more thing off bucket list! (Yes my bucket list is looooong). Then bay filled with boats what all anchored too close together. Wind changed direction 180 degrees within minutes and two swung into each other. Fenders, confusion, ineptitudes, discussions, and scrambling provider perfect dinner entertainment. Finally a gorgeous sunset behind a rock formation (said to look like queen Victoria - do you see it?). Beach full of onlookers, including some African drummers. Magical!

No wind so we stayed put to enjoy the clear warm water. Finally got a chance to dive off the boom - a bucket list item for many years. A lot slipperier and wobblier than one would imagine! Swells started rolling in during the night so it was quite folly. Ready to get moving tomorrow!

Still very little wind, so we are staying on Ibiza, slowly moving from the south to west coast. We’ve been ashore to provision and eat, and Ibiza so far is everything people say it is. And surprisingly busy considering school holidays haven’t started in Europe yet. We had a pesky cloud over us all day yesterday but this morning it looks glorious! I might try paddle boarding for the first time…!

After sailing up the coast from Cartagena and being underwhelmed by the options of good anchorages with decent views, and looking at the weather forecast, we turned east and did an overnight towards Ibiza instead. In the morning we reached Espalmador - a gorgeous island between Ibiza and Formatera. I was there last year but was too busy to get off the boat so was very excited to be back and have time to go ashore. Weather finally tuned warm too, so got a day in swimsuit in paradise, swimming, napping and on a dinghy excursion. Today we sailed onwards to Ibiza, and after some challenges getting the anchor to bite finally found a spot where anchor holds. We are right in the beginning of the season so quite a few boats out, but no mooring balls laid here yet.

So loving being back in Cartagena! This city has amazing history and nice Spanish architecture, but also a very active port with lots of tug boats (In case you didn’t know, I have a weakness for those - favorite Instagram is tuglife), super yachts, coast guard boats and military ships. And who can resist a town that has two submarines parked downtown?! Weather is still much colder than expected - wearing my one wool base layer I packed last minute most days and am missing my San Francisco sail gear that is still at home, while my four swimsuits I did bring are untouched….

We’ve been running with the wind most of the sail, and have been able to use Arkyla’s twin headsails. Pain in the …. to set up, but once rigged they’re amazing: provide both speed and stability. And look great! Last night we were joined by a large pod of dolphins hanging out and playing by the bow. James got a great shot I think he’ll post on his Instagram. I have given up on my dolphin shot dreams after my failed attempts on the Atlantic (harder than it looks), and just enjoyed watching them and two whales swimming alongside us (pilot whales, James thinks). Night shifts went well as well - still hard to stay awake but dancing still works to keep me awake. Now off for my next shift!

We finally left Gibraltar yesterday morning! It was cold and gray, and forecast had some thunder in it, but we were very ready to leave! Most of the sail we had no cell reception so I got a chance to play around with and appreciate my new Garmin sat phone. Feels good to be able to stay in touch with family and check weather while offshore. But now as we’ve rounded the corner by Almeria, we have cell reception - two bars! Very exciting!

We’re still in Gibraltar - now on anchor outside the marina (for those of you who have read that blog: same place where we stayed last year before starting our sail west to Canary Islands at 4 am). Strong easterly winds and some lightning for the last couple of days which we decided not to head into. Tomorrow it’s looking like it’s improving, so we are planning to leave in the morning and heading straight for Cartagena. Should take three days if weather stays as planned. Those of you who read last year’s blog will know how much I like Cartagena and how much I like offshore sailing, so I’m excited!

We made it! Quite an intense day!! We timed our departure to 11am to get favorable current through the straight. We ended up leading a convoy of sailboats hugging the coast and heading east to Gibraltar. Peak excitement when we had to pass a tuna fish net area. Going outside didn’t feel good with all the orcas around. So James decided to try to go inside. The nets went all into the beach! At one time we had 1.3 meters under the keel!! I was at the bow trying to see where the nets were… We made it through though! The keel boat behind us chickened out and went around. The Cat followed. The rest of the way was less eventful. Rounding Tarifa is normally stressful with its wind tunnels. But with what we had just been through it felt like a piece of cake… Now we are docked in Gibraltar, and next we’ll head into the Med with hopefully warmer weather and less to worry about!