Night Sailing

We hadn’t planned on leaving Cartagena so soon, but a few days ago we did just that. Originally we were going to hop along the coast a bit further north before jumping off from the mainland for a day sail to the Balearics. But the imminent weather was too good to ignore, and the forecast for the next week at least was not ideal.

So, within a couple of hours of making the decision to leave we had done a big supermarket shop and stocked up the boat with provisions, returned the hire car, prepared the boat for departure, checked out of the marina, and refuelled. We motored out of Cartagena with a couple hours of light left in the day and pointed our nose for Formentera; a 24 hour sail away.

The conditions were perfect heading into our first overnight sail without any crew. We alternated two hours on / two hours off, and averaged about 7 knots through the night on just the headsail. The stars were out in full force, and sometime in the night we crossed Greenwich Mean Line from West to East. Unfortunately by the morning the wind had died off and we motor-sailed the rest of the way to the islands. But with following seas and calm conditions, we couldn’t have been happier. It was a real confidence boost to have a seamless crossing.

Our one and only sailing goal this year had been to get to the Balearics; a milestone we’ve been trying to reach since March. We happily pulled in to Formentera just as the sun was setting, dropped the anchor, cracked a beer and fired up the BBQ. Job done.