More from the Med.

The French sailor on the pier opposite us in Marseilles offered to take us to the supermarket as he had a car and gave some interesting advice on good destinations in the Carib and Eastern Pacific. He also had some horrendous stories of abandoning his boat in a storm of New Zealand last year and being picked up by a container ship. Yuk.

The internet weather reports indicated it was going to be blowy but it surprised Nick and I how big the seas could get in the Mediterranean. The passage from Marseille to Mayon, the safe harbour of Minorca consisted of one leg heading south-south west across the Gulf of Lions which is notorious for its difficult sailing due to the strong Northerly Mistral winds or no wind at all. The forecast was for North-westerlies 5-6 going to 7’s and gusting to 8’s overnight and continuing with this force for the next 3 days. One thing Nick and I have had to adapt to is the consistent use of the Beaufort scale in Europe. No one talks in knots which makes is far easier to exaggerate the ferocity of the conditions, for example: Force 6 ranges from 22-27 knots (nautical miles per hour), which are slightly longer than land miles for an unbeknown reason) and is described as “strong breezes, large waves being to form, white foam crests, probably spray” and force 8 (34-40 knots) is described as “Gale, Moderately high waves, crests begin to break into spindrift”. We thought after the lovely downwind sail to Marseille that another fast downwind leg wouldn’t be bad so we set off mid morning. Leaving Marseille, we motored between the islands of Ile et Chateau D’If and Ile Ratonneau of the Frioul island group. These are very rocky with only sparse low vegetation, only a few seabirds and a hospital for black plague victims that is now in ruins. There appeared to be a charter yacht - Round the Island tour going on because we navigated through a fleet of Jeauneau’s going the other way. The glossy sea shifted in low rounded humps until we were at least 5 miles out to sea and free of the coastal day trippers, when a fresh westerly started to blow broad on the starboard bow.

Well the waves got bigger and steeper the more fetch they had. It was comfortable though as the wind swung so that it was aft of the beam. My watches include the hours from 1800-2200 then 0200-0600 during the darkness of night. This I am very thankful of because on awakening at 1000 the next morning to resume the watch from Nick I was slightly perturbed at the size of the following sea that I had blissfully navigated unaware the previous night. When its possible to see these great masses of latent energy approaching, there is apprehension of its arrival.

Nick got pooped twice. On two occasions a steep wave approached the stern broke before the boats transom could lift and allow the wave to slip underneath. I surfed down a very steep face reaching speeds of 12.5 knots. Good learning times. The auto pilot did a fantastic job of steering our coarse which allowed us to keep a good watch , trim sails (although I still don’t really know how to get the best performance from the great white scoopy things) and hang on.

We made our landfall after 32 hours of sailing. It wasn’t such a fast rip after all because the rough weather caused us to shorten sail to only a handkerchief of the headsail out.
Minorca is lovely though. The harbour of Mayon is deep and convoluted with many anchorages. This coast is indented with Calas (deep narrow coves or bays) that are suitable for anchoring. Mayon is also where Mayonnaise originated. The story goes something like this:

A Spanish queen, who’s king ate lots of aioli dressing, loved him but thought his breath always stank of garlic so she whipped up the corm free version and it went down a treat. Today I would like you all to make your own mayonnaise and think of us. Take 3 fresh hens eggs, divide the yolks and beat them with a pinch of salt until they are a little pale and creamy. Then introduce a tiny trickle of XV olive oil (4 tablespoons), still beating furiously (lucky you if you have 240 volt power and a food processor – Nicks arms just about fell off!). this should go quite thick and creamy. Then add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a bit more salt I think. If this goes runny then cube potatoes and pour it over them before baking with a stuffed tuna you have just caught and thick slices of eggplant crusted in herbs. Eat this hot with a glass of ambient chilled Rose overlooking the Ile de Molo fortress on a still shining night. Perfect.