After a very much delayed launch of Sea Otter into the sea, we got underway. The work just dragged on and would not end, despite promises and word of honours from the Shipyard owner. But in Tunisia a word of honour is not worth very much. We should have learned from working in the same kind of countries before, but once an optimist always an optimist.

The work that we with the experience from last year thought should be well done, turned out to a nightmare. We had to constantly supervise and check every detail that was to be done, yet the work was not well done. It was a too big work for these people in Monastir. Anyway, we got it at a good price and with that we can afford to adjust and fine tune the mistakes when we find an experienced cabinet maker with a good reputation. Below you can see the result of the new ceiling. The insulation really made a difference and the white colour gives a light interior.

The 4th of May in the afternoon we were again in the water. After a quick check-out from Monastir we sailed two hours up to Al Kantaoui for the night. Al Kantaoui is a nice little marina just north of Sousse, with very friendly people in the management.

The photo with the sunset is from between Sardinia and Mallorca, Béa always captures the good shots!

Next day in the afternoon we left Tunisia and sailed straight for Palma de Mallorca. We had as usual no wind so it was a motor sailing trip all the way, which took us 3 days. Arriving in Palma was like joining civilisation again. What a lovely island! We hired a car and drove round the island. Especially, in our taste, the northern part in the mountains is the most beautiful.

One day Béa came back injured, escorted by 3 police officers. She had fallen off her bike while coming home from a shopping tour. A lorry had panic braked in front of her and she braked so hard on the bike that the front wheel locked and she lost control and fell hard on the street. Her lips and one front tooth broke and she injured her knee quite bad. Luckily we had a doctor friend in Palma who took care of her and now tooth is mended and the lips are healing well. She still has pain in her knee, but it is also getting better, day by day.

We stayed in Palma for a week, as Béa could not sail with her pain and weak knee. Mallorca has been a favourite of ours now, an island we would like to return to. But we needed to carry on westward, so we left Mallorca and planned to sail direct to the Malaga area. It should be another stop on the way, this time due to severe weather we encountered passing the south east corner of Spain. As we passed Cabo de Gata, the wind increased up to 40 knots and when we decided to seek shelter in the nearest marina (Agua Dulce), normally just 2 hours away, the wind increased to a maximum of 56 knots. It took us 7 hours to get to Agua Dulce. The wind was never below 45 knots. It was the hardest blow we ever have encountered and we were glad that we have a strong boat, nothing broke and not a drop of water was leaking inside. We stayed in Agua Dulce for 4 days before continuing towards Malaga.

Now we are in the Malaga area and will slowly sail westward and maybe spending the winter in Southern Portugal. The delay in Tunisia made it too late to sail up to France and Bretagne as we had initially planned. Béa’s 6 week vacation for sailing became only 3 weeks of sailing. So, it will only be next year we shall visit the north before heading west over the Atlantic. Now we wish all a good summer, maybe we will write if something special happens for us, otherwise we will just enjoy the Spanish and Portuguese south coasts until next post in the blog.

The photos below are all from Mallorca.

The following pics are from Agua Dulce Marina west of Almeria

The last photos from May are from Benalmadena just south of Malaga. An extremely touristic place close to Torremolinos. A constant terrible swell into the marina, even with moderate winds. We will recommend sailors not to go there unless in an emergency.