The journey over from S. Pietro to Balearics was a toughish one. 

Left early Sunday to head out around top end of S. Pietro and hoping we could make Menorca on the one board.  The Navtex weather forecast was for light NW’lys, later going north, which indicated we might need to use the engine also for the first half of the 200 mile leg. 

What they did not predict then, but we receipted late afternoon, was that a F7 gale was brewin up in the ‘weather kitchen’ of the Gulf de Lyon – some 250 miles north of where we were.  Red lights were popping off continually on the Navtex as the French, Italian, Spanish and even Croatian weather people started issuing gale warnings to send people scurrying for shelter.

Half way over, it made more sense for us to sort ourselves out and beat our way through it – so that’s what we did.  It hit us maybe 4 hours later, middle of the night, and inside 10 minutes we were down to sailing under a two reefed mainsail alone. 

Big seas.  Not sure of what height but we seemed at times to spend several seconds climbing the face of each big swell that rolled in on us from the north west.  Guess maybe 4 metre height.  We’d tend to smash over the top with a blast of white water over the whole boat, and then we’d experience the huge shuddering crash as we fell off the backs of the 1 / 2 metre waves riding on top of the swells.  We had no choice but to ease off on speed, and spent most of the night making less than 4 knots westward.  We found our most comfortably course was slightly south west, allowing us to take these big seas on our front quarter, and we continued on this roller coaster until dawn.

It proved to be bananas for lunch, pot noodles for evening meal, and Sue brought up her idea of trading to a caravan once again!

Sun-up saw the wind ease to F6, and the seas somewhat moderated - albeit as we rose on top of each crest and saw the miles of white water about to march down wind towards us - and knowing we had many miles yet to go - the caravan began to sound appealing. 

But the easier wind at least allowed us to resume a course that would see us at least hit Mallorca.  By early morning, the wind veered even more north, allowing us to lift and possibly make Menorca – our preferred choice. 

Still big seas, and even more impressive when you can see them properly in sunlight, but in bright sunshine, hand steering to head us up through the white water on the top, and slide off along the backs, kept our speeds reasonably high without too much bashing and crashing and felt pretty good. 

Shot past thre high headlands protecting the entrance to Mahon on Menorca at 1400.  The winds were still gusting 30+ knots and dissappeared to ziltch as we ran into the shelter of the harbour cliffs.

This port is a deeply indented cala running east / west and set into the north east tip of the island, with smaller calas in turn running off north and south of it.  Its reported to be one of the best natural harbours in this part of the Med.  About 4 miles long and maybe half a mile wide, with houses set on both north and south shores as you come in, and a few islets in the harbour itself. 

Mahon town is set on the southern shore right in at the head of the cala.

Strangely, 95% of the berthing options here are run by one company.  They have jetties in town, 4 floating pontoons, mooring buoys set up in some of the smaller calas, and licence rights over anchoring in some of the other spots further out in the harbour.

Could his dad be the mayor? 

But luck was not with us.  Despite being exhausted all oir attempts to find a berth were rejected.  'Sorry senor, we are full’.

So too knackered to care if we had to argue later with harbour police, and despite our chart notes saying that anchoring is forbidden, we dropped ours  into 15 metres of water alongside one of the small islets in the harbour.  We were well sheltered from every bit of weather that might arise, outside the main shipping channel, and it felt REALLY good to turn off the engine, find ourselves stationery on an even keel, and without the howling winds.

Cheers

JOHN