So a fun filled trip, we left with Force 5 winds, a 1.5m sea and a weather report that said the wind and seas would drop to Force 3-4. Within an hour we had Force 3 winds and 3m seas, that were building when we decided to pop into Mgarr Marina on the northern Maltese island of Gozo. On leaving (take 2), we had a forecast again of slight seas and moderate winds, within two hours we had 20-24kts of wind, and late that day were in 4m seas, you have to love weather forecasts.
We’re very happy to be here and the plan is to stay for a week. We’ve got some things to do apart from having fun though.
First job will be to clean the outside of the boat. It’s FILTHY!!!!!! Salt stuck all around since we’ve been washed by some big waves, bird shit everywhere and God knows what they have been eating to shit like this; and let me just say that apart from some big tankers and cargo ships we saw when crossing the shipping lane, we’ve been pretty much alone in the middle of the Med, so there’s loads of room for the birds to perform their business, but NO, they do it right on top of our boat! And what an aim!! Could have been worse, I’m glad we weren’t on deck at the time...
Cleaning the outside of the boat, apart from the cockpit, is a bit tricky with the motion. We can always give it a rinse but a real good decent scrub has to wait until we’re in port since none of us is willing to go overboard in the name of tidiness.
There’s also the rib. It was punctured by one of the solar panel brackets that broke as a result of the rough seas we’ve got on our second day. Not a biggie but I wish it hadn’t happened.
On the bright side, we are definitely glad that Miss Bossy saw us through the sun and rain, the calm and storm and here we are, safe and sound, the three of us:-)
Off to get breakfast now on terra firma. We would have a beer to celebrate our successful passage but it’s just 9 in the morning. Ah well, it’s past 12 somewhere in the world...
See you,
