All you need is LOVE

Ibiza known as the island of the Hippies and the spirit still exists but for my taste too much in a commercialized stance. Anyway, here my impressions from Ibiza:

Ibiza Impressions

This was close....

 Or maybe they even touched. 

A anchor of a Mega Motor Yacht slipped and was about to collide with a Mega Trimaran. Maybe they have been lucky. Difficult to say from the video taken at a distance of about 500m.

Close Collision of two Mega Yachts

Since yesterday night I am weathering a depression with strong winds (gusts of about 30kn) in the anchor bay east of Ibiza Town.

Mallorca Impressions

 

The reputation of this island isn't the best but I must say, every time I am here I am overwhelmed with its beauty of the scenery. They same impression we had 25 years ago when we circulated the islands with an rented scooter. This time at least I could get a glimpse of the scenery anchor places, one of the best I visited so far. Here a few impressions....

Mallorca Impressions

Saving 2500,- bucks (in fact Euros)

 In the meantime I sailed from Menorca to Mallorca and are here since a couple of days. The transfer was with light winds and therefore I had to use the engine almost all the 45 nm. More than 8 hrs motoring is annoying. The trip was in particular annoying as I had to steer manually with a malfunctionung autopilot.

 

The autopilot is one of the most essential supporting devices on a boat. You can sail without it which is fun for some time but definitely not for longer cruises. For single handed sailors - as I am currently -  in fact it indispensable. It's not only essential to get some rest from steering, to go down to the loo, or to prepare some food but also when you need an extra hand on deck such as holding the boat in the right angle to the wind while working at the mast and reefing the main.

We have a very very old Autopilot on T-Fish which was already there when we bought the boat and likely has been onboard since the early days of T-Fish. It always was very reliable, but recently - on fact already last year when we were on the Maddalena Islands - I realized a strange behavior from time to time. This was getting worse when crossing from Sardinia to Menorca but luckily it was manageable with occasional manual interventions. However, it became obvious that this needs a repair or a renewal. Modern devices are expensive. Just the sensors (fluxgate compass and rudder position sensor) plus the steering computer bring you back some 2500,- Euros. The drive (electronic motor driving the steering) is another 1000 but I am pretty sure that this is not the faulty part and could be even used with new sensors and steering computer. Before ordering new parts I decided to give a inspection a try in particular as friends told me that the malfunction often is related to corroded cables or contacts (which BTW is the single most reason for electronic malfunctioning on a boat). Thus, I checked all wires, used contact spray, made some new crimping joints, but nothing really solved the issue. 

At this point I was close biting the bullet and investing in a new system but decided to check the fluxgate compass as a last possible error source. Maybe a broken connection inside? But how to open this damn thing...... 

This took me a while to figure out. The point was that the screws were sealed with plastic caps and looked like being part of the whole plastic housing. I could push through the caps with a needle, bend them and then they became loose. Woww - what an engineering masterpiece and in fact, not mentioned in the manual at all. 

When opening the housing the reasoning for the malfunctioning became obviously clear. In order to leave sufficient space for the coil gimbal to swing, the cables inside were guided with a plastic plate on the bottom to the outside wall of the housing. This plastic plate became loose and the cable's blocked the coil from swingling freely. That easy....

Indeed, an easy repair which saved me 2500,- (at least for now :) 

And here a link to my impression from Menorca:

Menorca Impressions

ADDENDUM:

Two days after the repair I had a shaky ride and the Autopilot problem reoccurred. My first thought was that the fixation of the cables was getting loos again but after opening it, all looked fine. After some check it turned out that also one of the soldering pads connecting the coils with the cable was broken and had only loose contacts. The fluxgate compass must have been exposed to an extreme shock breaking the bottom plastic ground and a soldering pad. After re-soldering the cable (I connected it now directly to the pin with the cable) the Autopilot works fine again. 

Somewhat scary!

My fishing skills are legendary. In all my sailings I had about a handful of bites and only caught 3 fishes, a suicide makarele in the North Sea which was hooked on the side of the body (likely when crossing the fishing line) and 2 Lampuga or Dolphinfish, the Mahi Mahi of the Med, but much smaller. Precisely speaking, this is not true as I caught several Mahi Mahis when sailing down the Baja California, but there is so plenty of fish that this really does not count. 

When crossing from Sardinia to Menorca I had a bite again when sailing about 5-6 kn. I first slowed down the boat taking away the genua und opening the main, thus only drifting downwind but still with some 2-3 kn. It took me about one hour fighting with the fish and slowly bringing it to T-Fish. It was a several kg Tuna, in fact a bit too big for me, but with the ice box I would have had Tuna for several days. 

The question was then how to haul up the fish on my shaky boat and not falling into the water at the same time. Unfortunately, I had no stick with a hook but only a net. At a certain moment the fishing line got somewhat loose. I then bended over the reeling to check if it is still there and saw next to the boat several larger Tuna watching the death struggle of their budy. What a scary moment! 

They must have followed their comrade for at least 2 nm when I pulled him to the boat. I assume this is just based on poor curiosity to see what he has caught and if there is more to feed from but one never knows.....

By the way - I finally did not manage to get him on board. When fixing the line to the boat using a cleat in order to have two hands free for hauling him up, the line broke. 

Honestly, to a certain extent, I am happy that I did not need to eat this budy (but nevertheless not converted to a vegetarian). I bought a stick with a hook in Mao, Menorca and now waiting for the next bite. 

Cutting the lines and hitting westwards

 I arrived back from Bavaria to Castelsardo on May, 6th where I met my Roman sailing friends and ex-colleagues in the port who just arrived back from a trip to Corsica under heavy weather conditions. Together we spent a nice evening in our favorite restaurant in Castelsardo.

As the weather forecast predicted very favorable wind conditions for  a crossing to Menorca in the next three days, I decided to cut lines the next day after last preparations, filling up gasoline and having a nice last lunch with my friends.

Leaving Castelsardo (Pic taken by my friends) 

The crossing was one of the best sailing I had so far. Here some impressions:

Out of the 237nm trip I did all under sail besides the last 40nm due to the reason that the wind fell asleep. Most of the time I had 10 to 15kn of wind about 60 degrees on the bow. There was only one occasion when considering reefing. This was when the wind increased to about 20kn during the first night. I finally decided just to pull away a bit of the genua and ease the main a bit knowing the this condition will only last a couple of hours according  to the forecast (which was on the spot - really amazing how precise the forecast skills became in the last years!). At this time T-Fish was peaking more than 7kn. The whole trip was made with an average speed of 5.7kn. Not bad for a small monohuller....but certainly the second night without sleep was very challenging....and the arrival therefore really rewarding when dropping the anchor and ketching up sleep for a full day.