Friday morning we had a terrific sail across from Favignana Island to Marsala (famous for its sweet wine) on the west coast of Sicily - upwind with flat water and 12 to 15 knots of wind - perfect conditions for ALMA and we made great time and were in the harbour just after midday. Just as well as the wind was up to 20 knots by the time we'd finished securing all our lines and up to 30 knots within an hour followed by torrential rain and thunder (with even stronger gusts) - I haven't seen as heavy rain since Singapore's monsoon rain.

Hope to explore the west coast of Sicily next week and then next weekend make the final stage of our journey along the south coast of Sicily (would like to visit the ancient Greek temples at Agrigento and Selinunte) and across to Malta (which lies about 70 miles south of the southern point of Sicily).

Hope you're all well.
Best wishes
Iain and Helen

Favignana island (the island of goats in Homer's Odyssey) was lovely with a spectacular high ridge in the centre of the island with a commanding fort built for Catherine of Aragon on the highest point. Favignana is a local (ie Sicilian) tourist destination but not many non Italian visitors and so hardly any English spoken. After Portuguese, Spanish and French this summer we're now trying to learn a few words of italian. I confused a shopkeeper in Favignana by saying thank you in Portuguese! We had a wonderful dinner watching Palermo beat juventus in the Italian Football league - a very popular result - absolutely no-one in the restaurant cheered for juventus! The restaurant was on the quayside and of course the "menu" was almost exclusively fresh fish but what was particularly special was the whole tuna on the counter - steaks were just sliced off and put on the wood fire grill - basic but marvellous. Favignana was a major tuna port and the old warehouses line the harbour - but now its a centre for tuna conservation (apparently)!

20-27th September 2010

Hi,

We are now in Malta for the weekend but on the move again today and tomorrow. Iain sailed the boat with the help of Andy, Ian and David from Minorca to SIcily where the boat now is while Helen flew from Minorca to the UK and then to Malta. Andy and David flew back from Sicily to the UK and Ian has remained on board to sail a little further towards Malta with Iain. There was not much wind on the way to Sicily so the engine was on so that deadlines could be made.

After a weekend here of R and R plus the gym and some inevitable admin, Iain leaves this evening for Sicily and Helen tomorrow for the UK before meeting up in Sicily next weekend.

Hope to report next weekend on the sail to Sicily. Looking forward to visiting Sicily for the first time but also very much looking forward to arriving in Malta – what a wonderful experience it should be to sail into Grand Harbour Valetta past Forts St Angelo and St Elmo. From Sicily we should be able to get to Malta in 4 or 5 short day sails so by next weekend after this last long leg to Sicily we should feel we’re nearly at our destination.

Hope all going well for you.
Best wishes
Iain and Helen.

In the past week we’ve sailed around the south and east coasts of Mallorca and then crossed over to Menorca with friends Nick and Lindy from Reigate. Its been a great week of sailing with good breeze most days and good anchorages, especially the island of Cabrera (a beautifully quiet island off the SE coast of Mallorca which is a nature reserve; a permit is needed to go there and only 50 boats are allowed to stay there overnight) and a lovely inlet at Es Grau on Menorca recommended by a friend David (who visits Menorca in summer but whom we met skiing in Les Carroz! Small world.) Es Grau is a small village with numerous fishing boats and one restaurant where we had the best fish ever (well maybe on par with the crab house cafe in Weymouth). We also went round to Fornells Bay for lunch – its a lovely bay but quite a busy tourist destination so we preferred the quiet local feel of Es Grau and went back there for another night. (thanks David for your recommendations for both anchorages and restaurants – both excellent! And for guiding us around.)

On Saturday we sailed into the historic harbour at Mahon – what a wonderfully sheltered harbour and it’s easy to understand why the English navy made this their base in the Med in Napoleonic times. Sadly many of the historic fortifications have not been well maintained and the town itself was a little disappointing. But it was a terrific experience to sail into the harbour and imagine Nelson and Captain Jack Aubrey sailing in here around 200 years ago.

Sunday 19th Sept – in Mahon, Menorca getting ready to leave tomorrow evening for Sicily. So a day of cleaning the boat and doing a few jobs. David, Andy and Ian are joining me for the trip to Sicily while Helen is going to Malta for a week and then on to the UK to deal with the changeover of tenant on a small apartment we let out in London. As the changeover is on 30th Sept/1st Oct, one of us has to deal with that and the other has to continue the delivery trip on the boat to Malta - I think Helen drew the short straw!

It’s been great to have so many friends who have helped us sail ALMA from the UK to the Med this summer. We’ve greatly enjoyed everyone’s company and in addition it’s made it much easier for us and allowed us to have a much more restful journey. So many thanks to all of you who have sailed with us this summer and we hope you’ll join us again next year!

So as soon as Andy and Ian arrive tomorrow on Easy Jet from London (David is already here for the weekend with Tricia) we’ll set off provided the weather is OK. Journey to Sicily (Trapani in NW corner) is over 400 miles so if we can average 5 knots the trip should take about 4 days and we should get into port Friday evening – at latest hope we arrive by Sat morning as Andy and David are booked to fly back to UK on Sat afternoon – tight schedule. However if we are making fast progress and if weather looks like holding we might have a very brief stop in southern Sardinia as the route to Sicily passes very close to the southern tip of Sardinia. If not, we’ll need to go back to Sardinia in future as I believe it’s a lovely area to sail in with some lovely anchorages/ports and a Swiss chap on the boat next to us here has lent me his pilot books for Sardinia and Sicily and lots of info on places to visit. So if we’ve got the books (and charts) we should go!

Since Wednesday, Helen and I have been catching up with the normal domestic jobs (yes even in paradise the same jobs have to be done!), cleaning the boat, got an oil change done and an electrical problem fixed, and managed a bit of sightseeing – we took the train to Soller and the ancient tram to Port Soller on the west coast; lovely trip with great views of the countryside and the mountains on the west coast. Also visited Deia (which is a lovely small town in a most beautiful part of this island) for a superb anniversary lunch. Wonderful sleep on the train back to Palma!! Also met up with friends Peter and Gill from Yorkshire who keep their boat here and enjoyed a great time wining and dining with them and their friends Hilary and Sue.

Now just relaxing today and getting ready for the next leg to Menorca – plan to set off from Palma on Tuesday.

Hope everything going well for you.
Best wishes
Helen and Iain

We had a lovely sail across to Ibiza (150M), especially once we were through the shipping lanes on Thursday night – there was a lot of shipping going up and down this coast and we were pleased to get away from the main lane and get offshore for a quiet night. We enjoyed a lovely dawn then Ibiza appeared on the horizon. We’d made good time so we anchored up off Formentera for lunch and a swim before heading into Ibiza town. Unfortunately we discovered the new marina must be the most expensive in the world – Euro 190 for the first night; ONLY E140 for subsequent nights. So after Douglas and Edward headed off for the airport and Roy and I had got the laundry done and a major shopping trip, we sailed out to find a quiet and inexpensive anchorage in Cala Llonga on the east coast – and it was a great anchorage with just a few boats and a beautifully calm Mediterranean evening. However we had to go back into Ibiza to pick up Helen and Jackie who had flown from Malta (via Valencia) but who had been delayed a day thanks to Ryanair “technical problems”. Ibiza town has some interesting historical buildings and must before the tourist explosion have been a lovely old town. But now it seems to be the hedonistic capital of the Med. I’ve never seen such a concentration of bars, clubs, restaurants, thronged with such a variety of people from the super rich to the wacky and everything in between – quite an extraordinary place; but a couple of nights there was enough for me!

We sailed north for an overnight stop on the NE corner of Ibiza – unfortunately it was quite a windy night and although we were on the lee side of the island the wind whirled around the cliffs surrounding the bay and we had a bit of a disturbed night as the boat rolled and swung around in the downdraughts. Roy and I were both up several times during the night to check the anchor but it was well dug in and hadn’t dragged. It would have been nice to have a late start but the weather forecast suggested the wind might get quite strong later so we set off for Mallorca at 0700. We had a fast crossing in 22 to 25 knots of wind – even with 2 reefs in the main we maintained around 7 knots speed over the ground. So we arrived in Andraitx, a lovely fishing town in SW of Mallorca, around 1.30pm and had a lovely evening there with Roy and Jackie’s very good friend Geoff who has a property (actually it sounds more like a major construction project as he’s converting an old finca) in the hills near Andraitx. Next day, Wed 8th, Roy and Jackie were flying out of Palma so we sailed round from Andraitx again in a good breeze over 20 knots – at least until we got into Palma bay where the wind died and we had to motor into Palma. But however you enter the bay it’s a wonderful view with the great cathedral sitting above the marina.

Gibraltar to Palma, Mallorca – now resting up in Palma Mallorca at the Real Club Nautica de Palma – The King of Spain’s yacht club so as you would expect it is wonderful. Lovely bar, restaurants, great showers and toilets, lovely swimming pool, even a great gym – wish we could stay for a month or two! Need a bit of a rest as it’s been a long trip from Lagos where we set off from on 21st August after our return from our summer break in the Alps. In the 19 days since then we’ve sailed nearly 800 miles – firstly with Michelle along the SW Spanish coast to Gibraltar where Helen and Michelle flew back to the UK and Roy, Douglas and Edward joined and we sailed from Gib on Sunday 29th August along the E coast to Aguadulce and Cartagena then across to Ibiza. We refuelled in Gib where thankfully the fuel is a bit cheaper – but to get to the fuel dock we had to sail alongside the airport runway – just before an Easyjet flight landed! If there is a flight due before you pass the end of the runway you have to wait (lights flash!) until the flight has passed! Also passengers walk across the runway on their way to/from terminal! Gib is a strange place we thought – worth seeing but a day or two is sufficient. We sailed out of the bay around noon on the Sunday and had a glorious view of the Rock as we sailed towards Spain.

We hadn’t intended to stop at Aguadulce (about 180M from Gib) but on Monday night the weather was deteriorating as we approached Cabo de Gata on SE tip of Spain and around the cape the seas were quite rough so we decided it would be better to turn for port rather than struggle through a rough unpleasant night – I think everyone on board was quite pleased to head for port and we got in around 11pm for a well earned rest. Aguadulce doesn’t have much to recommend it but we enjoyed a relaxing day, a great lunch and a good night’s sleep! Next stop at Cartagena (125M from Aguadulce) was much more interesting. We arrived just before first light and we moored up and asleep by 7am! After a couple of hours sleep we explored the lovely town centre and visited the wonderful Roman theatre and museum and then after some shopping set off again at 1.30pm Thurs for Ibiza.