Slightly West of Nowhere

24/9/11 - Palma de Mallorca - 16:15

At 10am this morning we made our arrival into the RCNP (Real Club Nautico Palma) marina. There are so many boats here you can barely see the water. Towering above the gangways, the masts just about block out the sun. Standing out from the billions of sailing yachts are the big super yachts. Proper monsters - real Roman Abrahmovic stuff. Huge. The cruise ships are also pretty impressive. ‘Norwegian Epic’ passed us out last night, lit up like a christmas tree, and currently towers over the harbour. 

The skipper has me making fender lanyards again. This whipping lark is going to tear my hands to shreds.

I had planned to catch a ferry tomorrow but have been requested to stay for some stainless steel polishing. 

Also the hunt for internet continues.

Rich

23/9/11 - The Med, Somewhere slightly west of Sardinia - 09:30 

The jib is unfurled and our main is full. We have calm waters and a very very blue sky. This my friends, is sailing. 

I completed a 3 hour watch last night, from 0200 - 0500. It was excrutiatingly boring with the only highlight coming in the form of a fishing boat passing us to starboard somewhere in the range of 7.3nm away.

The watch seemed to serve as a reward (!)* for being able to successfully complete a few log entries and operate the GPS & radar systems. 

Yesterday evening’s sunset was unreal. It dropped down past the spotless horizon in seconds. I’ve yet to catch a sunrise but can only hope it will rival last night’s 3am moon rise.

The skipper just played Black - Wonderful life through the soundsystem. 

Rich

22/9/11 - A Big Yacht, Somewhere off the coast of Tunisia - 08:00

Last night I had my first ever brush with seasickness. We left the calm of the marina to arrive into big big rolling waves with a fierce chop over the top of them. It took less than 2 hours for my stomach to take issue with them. The only cure I came across was to lie down in the recovery position and just suck it up.

The seas had calmed down substantially when I rose this morning. I was also delighted to realise that the spell of seasickness I suffered through had subsided. Surfacing up to the deck I looked left and right and found there to be no visible landmarks in any direction. All there was was a massive blue expanse of Mediterranean.

I think our skipper is looking to add me to the watch list (2 hours on 4/6 hours off) in order to ease the pressure on the others. It’s quite a lot of responsibility. Hopefully we won’t collide with a big km long cargo ship while it’s my turn.

Rich

20/9/11 - A Big Yacht, Palermo - 22:00

Today involved a lot of hard work.

The skipper gave me the task of producing lanyards for all 12 of the giant fenders which line the sides of the yacht. This involved passing rope up inside itself creating a loop - no easy feat. The next step was to sew, whip (hardest rope related job I’ve had a crack at) and hot cut it up to the immaculate standard that was expected. My 1st and second attempt failed the tests our skipped put them to. Number 3 managed to scrape by and so I was able to use that as my standard. 4 are finished so far.

My laptop is finally on its last legs. The wire attaching the power button to the rest of the computer has come completely loose. Mick showed me how to hotwire it (…cool) but said he’d have a crack at soldering it at some point in the journey. There may be life in it yet.

Tomorrow we set sail. Early. The bad weather we have been waiting to pass has finally blown through. Spontaneous squalls and torrential downpours plagued us all day. This meant I never got my Sicilian swim in the 30 degree waters. I guess I’ll have to wait for Palma.

Rich

19/9/11 - A Big Yacht, Palermo - 20:00

Last night’s tear was truer to the word. 4am found us, the cast of the yacht, playing a game of Lupus in Tabula (Google it?) with a similarly sized group of native Sicilians. I won.

My sore head and I awoke this morning to what anyone could have assumed to be a monsoon. The rain was lashing down harder than I have ever seen. After clambering up on deck I was presented with a huge bolt of lightening striking the sea barely 2 miles away. The accompanying thunder was equally impressive. However, within minutes the gods had quenched their thirst for being ruthless and the pop up storm subsided.The weather which followed was the standard Sicilian sun and spotless skies. Stunning as standard

Another highlight from the day was the watermelon ice cream served in a bread roll that Richard 1 and I came across while strolling aimlessly through Main St, Palermo. I didn’t think it would work but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Could become a new favourite dessert.

Also, my necessary nickname (a result of being the second Richard on boat) has evolved into R2D2. Happy out.

Rich

Anonymous asked: hello - question how do you follow a blog.... dumb auntie/godmother London x

Usually by just checking it every so often :P

That’s what I do anyway