There is always something to do on the boat and we knew when we left Balsamo in Puglia that there were some jobs still to do and some that hadn’t been done well enough. Overnight the intervening months, we have been addressing these to make sure we are ready for the trip. It now feels close but I thought jotting down some of the things we have done could prove helpful.

The mainsheet, which is the line that holds the main sail in place has a traveller on Mariadz which allows us to move it from side to side to improve the angle of the sail.  Within the car of the traveller there are sheaves, round disks that help the rope go around and back out of the traveller.  One of these had shattered and needed replacing. Fortunately we have exactly the same car for the staysail (the smaller sail at the bow of the boat) which actually doesn’t have lines going to the car and just runs free.  The immediate resolution is to take the sheave out of one car and put it into the other – then order four replacements to cover us! At the same time the bumpers for the track are brittle and falling apart so we will replace those too.

Our navigation lights on the bow have been a little problematic and I changed the bulbs to fix this but the box for the starboard side light broke which lets in water!  That’s now good and they are discontinued.  I eventually found a like-for-like replacement which was a result until I found it wasn’t and I had to drill several holes in the stainless steel baseplate – not as easy as it sounds and takes a very long time even with the right, and expensive, drill bit.

Some of the fixes we have had to make are correcting issues or finishing work that we had hoped would be completed by Balsamo in Italy before we left. One of these was the freezer which wasn’t working well and had a coolant leak. We had mentioned this a year ago now and wanted it done over the winter so it could be done properly.  Unfortunately the work didn’t get started and then instead of pulling out the freezer and either repairing the pipework or fitting a completely new base unit, they unilaterally decided to fit a new cooling plate within the freezer.  Unfortunately the plate was too small and didn’t cool the whole freezer so we would have -15 at the top and then zero degrees and lots of rotting meat at the bottom!  B the time that the failed resolution to the problem had been agreed, it was too late to do the job that we had originally requested.  We have therefore had to turn the freezer into a second fridge and have bought a second Engel to act as a freezer. Not ideal but a solution to our problem until we can get the work done.

Unfortunately whilst fitting the holder for the starlink on our solar array, Balsamo decided to use an angle grinder to cut metal.  Now as most people know flying hot metal sparks and plastic do not mix well and over time the metal rusts leaving lots of rust patches all over the nice shiny hull – that is something we will have to correct in the future.  At the same time, it appears they sat on the rib while it was up in its davits which put a lot of pressure on the lifting points – one of these sheared and also needed to be replaced!  The Rib had been in the wars as we had a number of new problems with leaks developing in the hard part of the RIB after it had been on the hard at Balsamo.  The team did a good job of filling these but at one stage it looked like we might have to change our rib.  Anyway now, Connie the rib (Clyde and Bonnie) is back to being watertight.  We have also adjusted the way she is held up on the davits to hopefully make this more secure.

We also ran out of time for the Balsamo team to feed the wire from the starlink mount on the solar array through the boat and they had hit a dead end on how to do it.  Fortunately when we got to Pasito Blanco, the electricians there, didn’t see the problem and, with my help, we fed the wire through the boat to a 24v connection that we could use. A small thing that made Maria happy because we didn’t have trailing wires across the boat! For some reason, the Balsamo team had also cut all of the cable ties keeping the solar wires tidy. Not sure I understand why but something else now fixed 😊

On our first sail away from Italy, I mentioned in another blog that we had an issue with our Balmar alternator that provides the power from the engine to the domestic batteries.  It wouldn’t charge which created a few problems.  After much diagnosis and checking we found that the wires had been accidentally pulled out on the alternator when the Lewmar engine was serviced!  This took a long time to diagnose and I benefitted once again from the remote support of Ollie from Seapower in Ipswich, who was brilliant as always.

One of the things we should have been checking more was the anchor swivel which allows the anchor to turn 360 degrees without twisting the chain.  On a check of the fittings on deck after we had got to Sicily, I noticed that this was loose.  It pointed to another problem – the way we lash the anchor to the deck was via the shackle.  If that bolt had given way we would have held on to the shackle but lost the beautiful anchor.  Needless to say we have no intention of losing two anchors!  It is tightened up also has Loctite on it to stop it coming loose again.  At the same time we now tie down the shackle and the anchor with separate lines – nearly an expensive lesson learned!

On the sail across to Sicily, one of the 25 year old Lewmar blocks failed and caused us a few problems.  These blocks guide the lines that run down the mast and help to change direction to come towards the cockpit.  On speaking to Richard at Compass Rigging, we decided to change these to Selden blocks similar to the new blocks supplied when our rig was changed. 

The last part of this job, was changing the continuous line for the mainsail which is a continuous line, a necessary change if we want to have the security of new blocks.

On a boat, all cupboards need to have a lock because the movement of the boat could cause the door to open and the contents to go everywhere. Clearly sub-optimal! On a moody a number of these locks are the push buttom type which makes the lock flush with the door but in its core there is a single pastic guide that gets brittle over time. For some of our doors that time had come.  Fortunately I had found some of these locking mechanisms a long time ago and had a supply.  I was a bit of a fool on the first one as I decided to take the lock apart and replace the part that was faulty rather than just replacing the  whole thing.  For the second, I didn’t make that mistake which probably explains why it took more than an hour to do the first one and five minutes to do the second!  The second in particular was rewarding, since it locks the knife drawer inside a cupboard.  It kept jamming which meant it needed to be teased to open up at times (or actually just don’t lock it!).  Having spent five minutes fixing it with a part i have had for years, Maria asked the obvious question of why this hadn’t been done years ago – fair cop to be honest!

I described the issue we had with the alternator which meant we couldn’t charge our domestic batteries from the engine.  We have a lot of redundancy on Mariadz and so in addition to the solar, we can also charge from the generator.  Whilst we were having this problem, we decided to use the generator which was fine until a sudden spike in the requirement caused the generator to report a problem with exhaust gas heat (i.e. not enough cooling), after which it shut itself down!  The generator, and engine, had been reportedly serviced at Balsamo but clearly this wasn’t the case as we found when we pulled the impellor that drives the water around the generator. 

This was clearly old – so another service was organised. We also checked the water coming into the engine from outside that should be colling it and the intake was clear.  During the testing of the generator during the service, there was clearly a lot of exhaust back pressure, which should not be happening. We checked there was nothing in the engine, like a broken part of the impellor, that was blocking flow and eventually traced the problem even further downstream.  Mariadz has a split exhaust system for the engine and generator.  Most boats push out the exhaust gases with water that has cooled the engine which provides a familiar flow of water from the exhaust which helps to confirm that there is cooling to the engine.  On Mariadz there is a simple system to split these, with the water going out below the waterline and the exhaust gases coming out of the back of the boat.  The eventual diagnosis was that some water had got into the piping for the gases which at times blocked the pipe and pressure built up. We sucked out three litres of water from this pipe and now we are ok.  Important diagnosis for the future though when we run the engine or generator in rough seas where water may jump into the air exhaust.  At least we now know the generator is serviced properly by the great Oscar Marine Engines in Torrevieja.

As part of this work, Oscar identified an issue with the stuffing box which provides the water tight seal for the shaft as it exits the boat.  Although dry, there was a lot of salt around which signified that water had come in but had evaporated.  This meant that we had to come out of the water to have this done (for the second time of the season). A replacement means that we can sleep comfortably for several years knowing this is not going to cause any issues.  As part of this work, Oscar also noticed an issue with our Autoprop propellor, which although it had been services, had a lot of play in some of the blades indicating too much wear and tear.  This would also need the boat out of the water but with at least a three week delay in getting parts we agreed that we would do it later.  It means there is some vibration from the prop but Oscar also reviewed the entire engine setup and checked all of our bolts finding some that needed tightening.  We like it when someone checks things over and resolves a problem before it becomes a disaster!  It was once we were in Gran Canaria that we were able to get Mariadz back out of the water, for the third time this year, to have the autoprop completely rebuilt and it now works as new.

Our Raymarine autopilot has a remote control commander that allows us to steer the boat from anywhere on the boat – this was always amusing in the Orwell, when I would be sat on the stern steering Mariadz remotely while Clyde sat in front of the wheel looking out – we may have got some funny looks then!  However, like all rechargeable batteries, eventually the battery dies.  The job is reasonably simple to replace it with a standard rechargeable battery with some soldering required to connect it up, but all sorted now and there was an easily followed youtube video that helped a lot!

At times in the Mediterranean, you have to use the engine for long periods – there is either no wind or too much in the wrong direction it seems!  The engine room obviously gets warm at this time but Mariadz has a powerful fan that gets rid of the hot air and cools down the room.  When we were returning o our home berth this was never a problem but the fan, having been set in the UK, worked tirelessly for up to eight hours to get the temperature down to 40 degrees!  In the Med, that is quite difficult when it could well be 40 degrees outside without running an engine or generator.  The other disadvantage of this was the huge amount of power that was used.  Not large in domestic terms but on a boat this used a sizeable chunk of our battery power.  We decide we didn’t need the engine room to be another fridge!  I have adjusted the thermostat and now we stop the fan after an hour or two and let the rest of the heat dissipate naturally.  A really minor thing but something that had implications for the battery usage and comfort on the boat with the noise of the fan.

One of the projects over the last year was the replacement of the air conditioning system after 25 years.  The latest technology is really advanced and the inverter versions don’t even have the massive spike of power drawer when they start.  We decided to swap to the frigomar units and replace like for like across the boat.  As part of this we discovered that two of the units drained the condensation that they gathered into the bilge.  That wasn’t right so we added a new box to get this water and move it through the grey water box out of the boat.  Marine air conditioning, like the engine, cools using seawater.  Sometimes when the boat heels over a lot the through hull where the water comes in is out of the water and drains leaving an airpocket. The solution to this is a little bleed valve near the water pump that allows the air to exit and water to be drawn in.  I fitted a new one of these for the aft unit as part of this work, making sure that I used top quality parts that are used for through hulls.  The one for the saloon aircon had already been fitted before we took ownership.  Over time, this was deteriorating but this also wasn’t helped by Balsamo fitting the pipework for the new aircon over the top of it! How am I meant to access that!  The first time this year I had to bleed the pipe the valve handle broke so I decide to replace it all with top quality component and also move it to above the pipework to ease access!

Another common problem with the Moody 54, and other models, is the cloth headlining.  The glue they used over time failed and the cloth sagged looking really poor.  We have tried several things to resolve with mixed results.  One of the areas that was bad was the sea berth which also had really poor plastic fixings that over time fail and the headlining falls down.  Fortunately, I have finally fixed this by using long screws on the lughtswitch which hold the headlining against the wooden frame. Fingers crossed but since then we haven’t had an issue.  This did uncover an issue when I was doing the work while Maria washed the boat – we know Maria is dangerous with a hose and hence I always wear swimming trunks because I know I am going to constantly get soaked with cold water accidentally I presume. however, I now found myself getting wet through the sea berth window!  We found that there were missing bolts and loose bolts in the frame which let water come into the boat.  A trawl through the assortment of screws and bolts found some candidates that could take up position and tightening them gave Maria second opportunity to soak me through the window – this time unsuccessfully!

Regular readers will know that we like to look after the wood on Mariadz and have tried several things on our toe rail.  While in Balsamo marina, and we were in the UK, the stern part of our toe rail was damaged.  We decided to have it replaced with a new piece of teak. This looked amazing but had been varnished which put the rest of the toe rail to shame meaning it all had to be varnished.  The end result was great and our job now is to keep it looking good.  However, while in Torrevieja, we believe that a boat trying to get into the berth next to us had a problem and got caught on our bow lines.  They loosened these off, not telling us and not tightening them up afterwards.  Of course when the winds came the new piece of teak got an absolute beating and has now split.  Gutting.  Rather than replace it again I have added screws across the grain to keep the wood together and filled these with wood covers to hopefully make it look ok.  It isn’t perfect by any means but once revarnished should work well.

We have also looked at our rig and how best this can work for the transatlantic and beyond.  When you are downwind sailing with twin headsails, you use a pole to keep the foot of the sail out an in the right position.  This means that the sheets (or ropes!) are then led back to the boat on an alternative route.  In the Biscay when we did this, we used the existing rig as much as possible but it was clear that we needed to add a couple of turning blocks to make this more efficient and safe.  The work on the turning blocks at the mast has freed up some blocks which helps and we now have a new way of rigging the boat.  Equally, in this configuration traditionally you have one pole and use the boom as a second pole.  This isn’t optimal since the boom is further back in the boat.  Some yachts are fitted with twin poles for this reason and we decided to go this way, agreeing with the yard in Gran Canaria that we will have a second pole fitted.  We expect that this will significantly improve our downwind sailing. We just need to make sure that we run the lines the right way and make sure we don’t have a problem with damage to the lines caused by chafe.

We use netting at the bow of Mariadz which stops things, or people falling off the boat.  We first fitted these before Biscay and have decided it is time to replace these. 

Our pasarelle is the posh plank we use to get off the stern of the boat (we also have a cheaper real plank that we can use too!).  This was originally with the boat and had a guard rail on the side which wasn’t there.  I have now had a new one manufactured so that we can safely walk the plank!

After twelve years the Marco UP3/E water pump that we had fitted gave up the ghost.  This was originally fitted because of a particularly quiet one we heard on a friends Moody 54.  Ours wasn’t quiet – it screamed. We never got to the bottom of it until……   It finally failed and I needed to replace it.  Whilst researching to understand what I needed to do, I checked about the “screaming” – oh this is a common issue when there is not enough water coming from the water tank and the pump is suffering water starvation.  That got me thinking. The Marco pump was quite a bit smaller than its predecessor and to overcome the issue with the length of pipes I had, quite proudly, fitted a second filter – nothing will get through those two babies!  Bad! The extra filter slowed the water flow too much and caused our problem.  Just removing the filter element of it and using it as an expansion tank would have resolved the screaming! Anyway, when fitting the new one (which was a UP2/E by accident during ordering), I did this correctly and now we have the quiet pump that I promised Maria twelve years ago 😊

As you can see a lot can go wrong on a boat even after it has had a lot of work done.  This is also likely to keep happening and we wont always be close to a supplier of spare parts.  To that end, we have had to equip Mariadz almost like a chandlery with key spare parts to keep us going and hoping the redundancy we have with multiple systems will help us to keep going.   We have added a number of key spares to our inventory:

• Autopilot – having had the problems in Biscay we have added a drive and gearbox to the other mechanical spares we had,.  In addition we have a new autopilot EV400 drive unit.
• Raw water pump for the Yanmar engine – this is a common failure and causes the engine to overheat.
• Life jacket rearming kits – in case we fall in and want to reset the lifejacket!
• Another Marco water pump – the original may have lasted a long time but we are taking no chances
• Complete service kits and other spares for the yanmar engine, the Onan generator and the Suzuki outboard
• Several water pumps – whenever a waterpump has gone, I have replaced it with a new one and then have set about repairing the old one.  With the exception of the first Marco pump which had water ingress into the electronics, I have been able to fix them all – we now have nine water pumps of different types
• Spare filters for the water system and watermaker

Then we have additional requirements that the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers require you to have on board.  Most of this is common sense although some people, would argue that it is a bit of overkill.  When first deciding to do the ARC we had though that the thorough safety check at this stage would act as a good test of whether we were truly ready to go around the world.

• 24v search light – we had originally bough one of these for finding anything in the water several years ago and when we recently tested it the on-off switch was faulty.   Grr, so that has to be replaced.
• Document the Man Overboard Procedure.  It is important that we all know what to do if someone goes overboard and documenting this effectively will help people remember every step when stress is at its highest
• Document the mayday call – we have all been on courses and simulated a mayday call.  In the calmness of the classroom it is easy to get this right.  In the stress of a real emergency, this isn’t so easy. A script that can be read will help make sure that important call has all the important information.
• A plan of the boat with safety equipment locations – we actually have five plans which show the locations of emergency equipment both above and below deck, storage locations (which can be cross checked against the inventory), positions of through hulls (each of which has to have a dedicated and labelled wooden bung to seal it if necessary!) and key locations for items such as batteries
• We need a new high power 24v socket and electrical connections behind it to power an independent high power water pump which can get water out of the boat or bring water in if you are trying to stop a fire.
• Additional lines and buckets to allow us to scoop water up if we need iot (again putting out a fire maybe)
• Another checklist of everything you should pick up in the event you have to abandon ship including mobiles, radios, satellite phone, hand held navigation, extra water and food etc
• Emergency VHF Antenna, in case the mast is lost

As you can see, getting a boat fixed, ready and prepared for a world cruise is a big job, taking time and money and, as we know, cruising is really fixing a boat in exotic locations so the list will go on!

It’s not quite a circuit of the Mediterranean but it signifies a stage of our journey where we cross our path and are on our way back out to start the trip around the world. 

We have addressed a number of the minor and not so minor problems and Mariadz is in good shape to go. 

We are running a little short of fuel having had to motor a lot more than we wanted from Sardinia and although we have 200 litres (with another 80 in cans), we decide to top up anyway so we have enough to get us to Gibraltar where it will hopefully be cheaper. That said, having paid €2.21 in Italy a few weeks ago, we are pleasantly surprised that it is €1.87 in Torrevieja. We add a little extra fuel – we don’t know how much it would cost in Almerimar but that feels like a good price so we add 350 litres. It takes quite a time – the pump is not fast but the bill is significantly less than the €1,000+ we paid last time!

It is an English bank holiday weekend at the end of August which gives us loads of time to travel the 150 miles south to Almerimar where we berthed for a couple of weeks four years previously.  The weather forecast is benign to say the least – as they say about the Mediterranean, either not enough wind or too much in the wrong direction! Today is little with barely a couple of Knots of wind coming from the East so the sea is calm with an occasional swell, from previous days weather or the wake of big ships maybe. We should arrive in about 24 hours.

Today, Bonnie has decided it is her day and has joined me in the cockpit. Two hours later she is still stuck to my side! That will her watch done as she goes back down below. We are conscious that this will probably be her last trip in the boat with one last road trip home back to England where she will remain on terra firma as we go around the world. It’s mixed emotions for us, on the one hand we will miss her terribly and one thing she has proved over the last four weeks is she can handle it. On the other hand, she is not a young cat and any health scare at sea could be serious. She will be happy with Lisa in England and her happiness is our main priority. 

And then suddenly nothing happened, and nothing continued to happen for some time until Maria decided it was time to start fishing! Fresh sea food for dinner it is then…. 

Having spent some time consulting with her new best friend, Charlie the ChatGPT, she is ready to get the first rod out. The sea is like glass apart from our wake and in the distance I can see some ships traversing the traffic separation system off Cabo de Palos. The only interesting thing to do is to watch Maria working out how to catch fish 🙂 she is so confident she is lashing down the rod with a thick line to ensure we hold on to the rod when the “big one” bites. Hmmm, we’ll see 🙂 while we wait for dolphins or a fish to bite, the only distraction are the brown fried egg jell fish drifting past with lots of little fish under them apparently seeking safety from larger predators. Looking that up was a highlight 🙂

And then the dolphins arrive but they are shy and stay between 50 and 100m away from us going in the opposite direction. At one stage, we thought a couple had peeled off to have a play but they turned back to be with their friends. Maybe later.

We always keep a listen out to channel 16 when on passage and there are regular reports in it as well as ships initiating communications. In this part of the sea, the information is presented as a pan-pan, which is unusual. Unfortunately, when you say it three times with a broad accent, it sounds like the old Perl and Dean cinema adverts- 

“papan, papan, papan, papan, papapan, 

papan, papan, papan, papaaaaan.”

Every time he comes on, we start singing it!

Dinner is straight from the freezer tonight and a lovely lasagne homemade by Maria. Really tasty. As the sun sets, we are starting to think about the night watches. I will probably get some rest at 10pm and come on watch at midnight with a plan to see it through til 4am so Maria gets a good rest. I will then come back on at sunrise. Maria will get to see sunset and sunrise which she loves and get some rest too. It has worked well recently so hopefully tonight will be the same. It promises to be a quiet night with no wind to speak of and the sea still.

A few hours later, as it comes up to midnight, there is a bit of commotion as I hear Maria chasing Bonnie round the deck – there goes her night time privileges – Bonnie not Maria. As Maria brings a caught cat back into the cockpit, she tells me of the interesting few hours she has had. She has seen a bunch of random green lights which seem to be marked buoys not on the charts. She has had to adjust our course to keep these on our starboard side but they have been regular, and really well lit. It has kept her on her toes, as well as Bonnie’s antics.  Maria also describes one that looked like a yacht but seemed to be a marker buoy too. Shortly after I come in watch I see one of these too, except mine genuinely is a yacht running with navigation lights, steaming light and anchor light. Hmmm very confusing but a mile and a half away so not a problem for us. Maybe they look at our navigation lights and steaming light and think we are running with the wrong lights! 

It’s quite a bright night with the moon having been full a few nights ago. It means there aren’t lots of stars but it does help with spotting things in the water and getting an idea of distance. Maria has adjusted course and seems to have us perfectly aligned in the channel between all of these buoys as I continue to see them for a long time into my watch.

At this stage, Bonnie has been down below sulking having been caught on her wander round deck. She thinks a suitable time for contemplation has now elapsed and moans at the closed door. I decide to let her back into the cockpit but she will only be allowed to sit with me and maybe next to the winches. We will see how she does but for the moment she is happy snuggling up to daddy-cat.

I remember from various courses that the Med. Is not particularly tidal but we have noticed quite a current at times impacting our speed by one knot (which at yacht speeds is significant!). We are now running with it, having fought against it for the early evening and our arrival time, which had been drifting into the afternoon is back to being late morning. There’s plenty of time for that to change either way though. As we leave the med, we will need to be conscious of the tide as the flow hardly ever favours us heading west because the med is constantly being “filled”. This is caused by evaporation in the Mediterranean but means that there will almost always be a current against us as we try to leave. Hence why we think of the Mediterranean as a lobster pot, easy to get in and difficult to get out again afterwards.

After about an hour of my watch, Maria’s well lit buoys have stopped but I have a fishing boat and a large sailing yacht to contend with in the next hour. AIS is truly a great thing although it is easy to become reliant on it and miss the fishing boats (deliberately not using AIS to not reveal their position to their competitors) and other small craft that aren’t using it. As I change course to avoid the large yacht, Aurelius, which will get too close, the green lit buoys return to keep me on my toes. Like the big ships, we like to make minor course changes a long way out to avoid other boats and I have made quite big changes to avoid Aurelius. At about a mile away, they make a small change to open the gap a little further. Any further changes from me would have started to get me closer to land so I am grateful for their late adjustment. Maybe they just wanted a good view of Mariadz! Once they are past I can get back on course. 

At just after 4am, it’s time for Maria to wake up for her watch. I take us through a few obstacles – a yacht and phantom east cardinal buoys – someone added to the chart but they aren’t there, before I get my head down for a rest. I’m woken with a start when Maria talks to me about a fishing boat we have come up upon. We are behind and so there is a danger of nets that we need to avoid. We agree to turn to port to get around her. And that’s it for my sleep, Bonnie is not sitting nicely having cuddles but running the mummy gauntlet trying to get onto the deck with stern words being exchanged.

The sun is up and it is going to be another clear, windless day with three knots of wind on the bow, plus the wind we generate doing six knots. Our speed through the water is steady but our speed over ground is dropping again as we fight the current coming into the Mediterranean.

The current is slowing us right down but the wind has shifted and strengthened as we cross the southern coast of Spain. It is now a northerly, so on the beam, at eight knots. Maria is in a rush to get in and I am keen to get the sails out at some point – so they all come out. We add two knots to our speed and knock off some time from the arrival too 🙂 we may be motor sailing but at least we are sailing at 7.5 knots 🙂

It isn’t long til we arrive at Almerimar, tie up t the quay next to the office, scene of a hiccup when leaving four years ago. After checking in we can go to our berth which is easy enough with loads of space and Mariadz has her home for the next two weeks while Bonnie journeys back to England.

The next leg of our journey takes us from Sardinia to Spain, hopefully in time for Maria’s 60th Birthday and catch ups with Justine, Maria’s sister and, our daughter, Kristy with her family.  We now feel we are on our way o join the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, and will be flying our courtesy flag to show we are in it this year. It seems somewhat surreal since we have literally been talking about this for more than a decade.

After a good nights sleep, I’m up quite early to get on with some chores. I had noticed before we got to Sicily that we had some issues with the navigation lights on the bow and actually the starboard light has some broken clips. I can’t fix it so I have to tape it up and I will order a replacement from one of the few chandleries with one in stock and one is in Majorca. We may even stop over and collect it. I uncovered why the log wasn’t working as it appears we have grown a little reef within our paddle system which is jamming it. I clean it out and in the test I have it spinning at ten knots apparently :). Our generator also fails under load with a high exhaust temperature issue. We will need to get that checked out although it shouldn’t be happening since we have literally just had it serviced by Balsamo. It seems ok at lower loads. Of course, the reason this has been key is that the engine alternator has not been charging the domestic batteries. It definitely seems related to the cable that tells the generator that the batteries need power. I find a second plug with a blue line and the electric cables don’t seem particularly well seated in there. I take out the plastic plug and plug them directly into the female socket. “get in”! We have 1.3kw of power going into the batteries. I replace the holder and test again, nothing, little wiggle and we are back to power. It looks like we have the culprit. I have forced them in as far as I can but at least I know the first thing to check if we don’t have power going in.

So a successful morning followed by a lovely swim in fresh water with Maria. We were hoping to meet up with our Lazio supporting friend, but unfortunately it hasn’t worked out this time but definitively next time.

It’s 1pm and time for us to get on our way. A quick look around shows that we anchored really well yesterday, we have a good thirty metres on all sides before another boat and we are almost perfect for the grid of anchored boats that you always get. We did that when it was pitch black and without too much stress. In the morning, an Italian charter boat has come and anchored close to us, they are within a boat length when we all turn, not really a problem in a crowded anchorage I guess but not necessary today! We start the engine and I see charge going into the batteries so that is good although the engine won’t be on long.

The true wind is a southerly blowing 6 knots but we have a three or four day journey ahead of us and half a tank of fuel. We don’t want to do it under power but be like “proper” cruisers and use our sails. Next week I can work from the boat as we drift across the Mediterranean. It’s all sails up and actually we aren’t doing too bad, our cleared up log says we are going about 6 knots although we seem to be fighting a tide (or I have cleaned better than I thought) because we are only getting 5 knots over ground. There are other boats out sailing and as we all head down the coast, we have different approaches. A number of them are tacking regularly but we have established our course and are tight to the wind. Once I adjust our traveller to give our main a better angle on the wind we are going really well and holding off the, admittedly smaller, other yachts. We and Mariadz are not racers but Maria is like Gandalf and “You shall not pass,”. One yacht, in particular, Popys, a French boat, seems to want to race and tacks back and aims straight at Mariadz. There is no need for that and it is a bit frustrating as we have to avoid them! It doesn’t help them as they go behind us and never catch us up.

Maria has decided on a light, healthy lunch today, especially as I had cereal at midday! She chops up a cantaloupe Melon which is really refreshing. However, that just whets the appetite and turns into a starter for a hot dog main, maybe not quite so healthy but generally we eat little and often on passage.

As we get to the corner of Sardinia, we are prepared to steer westerly to head toward Spain. The Southerly wind is now only 3-4 knots so we are sailing quite slowly but making progress. Maria and I have agreed that we will not use the engine unless there is no wind and the sails are flapping. That isn’t the case now as we have limited wind on our beam but are making the same speed forward, that’ll do. We just need to stay on our west south westerly course and wait for the wind to pick us up and deposit it us in Spain in a few days. The forecast looks good for that. We have music playing and just chilling as we wend our way towards Spain,

Typically, a couple of hours later, the wind drops to 1-2 knots and the headsail starts flapping, grrrr. Away she goes, engine on, low revs and set the remaining sails for close hauled for the wind we are creating. The weather forecast says the North Easterly will be coming in over the next twelve hours so it’s now just staying in the game until this happens. If the wind picks up we will drift along again but at the moment we are making way at 5-6 knots and our engine management system says we could drive to Spain with the amount of fuel we have left! and before you ask, yes the alternator is working and charging the batteries! Hurrah!

It’s now evening time and the sun is starting to go down so it is time for Bonnie to come up. She loves a bit of Bonnie time in the evening and then she will go back down to sleep. she does like to have a backrest and today it is the cameras turn!

The wind has gone for a while so it can regroup and come back in a different direction and the sea is like a mill pond. Maria and I are talking and it seems strange that we are soon to be leaving Italy, where Maria has been for most of the last year, and it will be a while until we return. We will miss all of our friends around San Michele although hopefully some of them will be able to come and sea us on our journey. Alternatively, we may need to come back from time to time and we can then catch up but it feels a momentous occasion.

As we leave Sardinia, Maria spots an island on the horizon that I hadn’t even seen on the chart, Isola del Torro. It’s only about 300m round and 112m tall, so easily missed on a chart but would be quite a painful bump when you got there! it looks quite deserted and we can’t imagine many people go there but at least it broke up our journey in the flat calm. We pass as the sun sets and we prepare to start our night watches. Tonight, we are going to go for longer watches so the person off watch can get a good rest. Having had a good nights sleep the previous night we think this should work. The decision is to go with three hours from 9pm, with Maria on watch first. I stay up for a while but get a solid 90 minutes sleep before midnight when I can relieve Maria. The first thing I have to do when I wake is put away the main and staysail. We are still in very calm conditions, although the wind has moved to the East, it is between 2 and 3 knots, so we are going faster than the wind currently under motor. I’m sure it will catch up with us and provide the much anticipated push to Spain but for the moment we remain at reasonably low revs on the engine and going between 5 and 6 knots.

The wind is being a pussycat rather than a beast and, talking of pussy cats, as I said night time is Bonnie time and I start my watch accompanied by a happy little cat who stays with me for a while even after.i make lots of noise putting the sails away. That is before she disappears back down below, content that she has checked what is happening up top, to get some sleep of her own. Both my girls are asleep, there is nothing within ten miles of us, and the sky is looking amazing again.

Maria is next on watch, no surprise when there are two of us. While I sleep she is out on deck watching the stars as much as the sea, she sees loads of shooting stars, sounds like a lot of wishes to me 🙂 we are still under power but the wind is now firmly I. the east even even if it is only blowing six knots or so, useless for us. I’m not sure the pictures do justice to the colour of the sky and the amount of stars but hopefully you can get a feel for it.

The sun rise rivals last nights sunset with the depth of colour across the horizon and it is the start of a brand new day and a work day for me.

By morning the wind has increased to 9 or 10 knots and although we won’t be going as fast as under power, we will still be bobbing along at about 5 knots. That is enough for us to switch off the engine and we sail poled out goosewinged, headsail and main on either side of the boat which you can only do when you are pretty much dead downwind. We have preventers on our pole and the boom and I am happy with the way she is rigged for this sailing. This is how we should be sailing for the next few days, all the way to Spain.

Never, ever, ever say these things! A few hours later the wind is dying and the sails are not liking this at all. I have been on a work call and Maria is not happy with how we are running.

We have the Starlink going , as I am also working, so we can check the real time weather forecasting and it seems that the best winds are to the south of us. Turning south and running with wind on the beam will be fast and hopefully we will find the wind again, whilst heading towards our goal. Immediately our speed shoots up to 8 knots and, as Maria, said, she feels like she is sailing now. I am keeping an eye on the wind and the winds are consistently better as we head south – the temptation is to take advantage of this and turn back to our original course but we don’t want to fall out of the wind envelope so let’s go into the heart of it.

When we eventually decide to make the turn before we get to the shipping lanes, it is a bumpy ride. The rocking of the boat is changing the wind direction in an arc of 60 degrees which means we are beating up our sails as we rock from side to side. we try various combinations of sail and course to see if we can get this down to a minimum but whichever way we try we always seems to fail. This is quite frustrating for both of us, and we may have had a little argument at this stage! It’s clear we are not going to get this working so it’s back to engine. Our attempts have included poling out the headsail on both sides, angling the main to try and deflect wind towards the headsail as well as headsail only. Exasperated I go to bring in the pole for the headsail. As we put the sail away the pole is jammed hard against the sheet where it attaches to the sail.. previously I have had to apply a bit of pressure here using the other lines – the halyard we use to control the height and the preventer. I am using all my guile to try and separate the pole from the sail but no luck. I can see the problem but getting the knot through the eye of the pole is proving difficult.

Then, suddenly a jerk and the pole is free. More precisely the jerk pulled hard and the pole is now in free fall, aiming straight for the jerk’s head. I was disappointed to learn later that there wasn’t a comic clang when the pole hit me straight across the bridge of the nose and the side of my face. It has left a mark though. I am desperately trying not to get blood on the deck, do you know how difficult that is to get out, as Maria goes to the first aid box to sort out some plasters. A couple of plasters on the bridge of my nose and my temple and I am able to continue putting everything away – it will be fun when I am on work calls tomorrow having to explain my new injuries. Maria is convinced that some people will think she has thumped me!

With the deck tidied up, I return to the cockpit to recheck the damage. Maria decides a couple of steri strips will be needed on my nose and the temple is just a scratch. She sets about resolving these after I have had a refreshing shower, whilst trying not to bleed anywhere

We are probably both a bit grouchy because we haven’t eaten and Maria gets her pre-made chilli con carne ready. That helps but we are not a happy ship as we start our night watches. Initially, Maria tries to get some rest but she can’t get comfortable with the pitching and rolling and after a couple of hours gives up getting some rest. I fair a little better and over the next couple of hours, ttil about midnight, get a little rest and feel a bit better when I take over from Maria.

I am still puzzled by the conundrum of the sailing – we have a following sea and a wind between 9 and 13 knots but the rolling is still occasionally giving us a huge range of wind direction. I am micro adjusting our course to see if there is a way I can get the range of wind direction down and also for the wind not to cross the stern of the boat (when it causes a problem for our sails) whilst still going in the right direction. As I continue to work the problem, I glance up at the wind instrument that I have adjusted to show the wind across the boat to see something completely different. A glance at the navigation shows a 90 degree wind shift to northerly., perhaps with a little East in it. This is right across our beam and perfect for Mariadz. Maria still hasn’t gone to sleep and I am contemplating getting sail out to take advantage of this change of fortune when the wind starts to shift again. The wind is reducing but is still usable if we motor sail, it would just be very slow if we only sailed. Previously, we had discussed this and thought that as long as the sails weren’t flapping, we were happy but now Maria is keen to arrive in Torreevieja and we both just want a comfortable journey. I think Maria is awake and go to gently speak to her to explain the plan, she must just have drifted off because she wakes with a start. Oops. I explain that I am getting out full main and the staysail which should be fine but I will have our system set to reef the main at the slightest hint of a pick up in breeze. As the wind starts to settle in the north east, our wind indicators are steady. Sail is up quickly, but it is now a little after 1am so I am not going to be silly as we continue to motor sail with the intention to change sail plan again once it is light. We are still going at a reasonable pace but I am hopeful we will be back to pure sailing in the morning when we will be about half way through the journey. Maria goes back to sleep and I resolve to let her have a few more hours because I have disturbed her. (oh in so many ways!). We have kissed and made up and hopefully in the morning everything will feel brighter although I will wake up with a couple of shiners… honestly, Maria didn’t smack me!

Short handed sailing as a couple is quite hard anyway. If you assume that you both get your sleep of 6-8 hours a day, with the other on watch, then you only get 8-12 hours together when you are both awake. Factor in that I am working during the day, even if I am not full time these days, then we get very little quality time together and I can imagine it feels a bit lonely for Maria and not what she signed up for at all. Especially as she has been on her own, albeit surrounded by our Italian family, for the last year while I have worked in the UK. I think the start of the journey was meant to feel a bit different to this but it will get better.

Between us we are now sporting a variety of injuries. I smashed my little toe a couple of weeks ago which is still very painful and hopefully just muscular but I have it taped up anyway.. that is on the back of being on a collapsing ladder at the house last month and smashing my elbow on paving after a ten foot fall. Back to the boat, I missed the cushion of one of the chairs with the rolling of the boat and landed with my coccyx squarely on the stainless steel tube, that was very painful for a few days and now a selection of head wounds! Maria seems to have glass in one of her fingers that we are trying to get out and twisted her ankle this morning again on a rolling boat! She also nearly badly caught her hand between one of the sheets and a winch, you hear the horror stories of that and people losing fingers so I am pleased we extricated her from that position quickly and safely but she has a bruised hand now. So we are a right pair.

The wind is now 16 knot’s on our starboard quarter and I am sure we will be able to work our magic with that in the morning if it stays with us. all this focusing on the wind and you would worry that we were missing all of the other boats but literally, and not dissimilar to the last time we were in this area, we have not seen a single other boat within ten miles of us!

We have been reviewing over the last few years how fair is our choice of taking the cats with us on this journey. Bonnie is now 16, and Clyde didn’t quite make it that far, and as an older cat, we had concerns over her ability to handle long passages. To the extent that we have reluctantly decided to spare her the stress and let her spend the next couple of years in comfort. Of course, with our cats, they love to prove you wrong! So Bonnie has been completely happy on this trip. She is eating , drinking and defecating normally, her fur is in tip-top condition, and you can see she is an incredibly happy cat, affectionate, loving and demanding. She has found her spots on the boat. She loves the air conditioning vent in the saloon and has always been partial to the shelf by the side of our bed – especially with the new scirocco fan blowing lots of air onto her. She lies there for ages sleeping with a smile on her face, noticing you as you pass and demanding a few strokes. As the day cools, it becomes Bonnie time when she comes up to the cockpit to make sure her staff are doing ok and she has handled multi-day voyages, even in bad weather whilst rolling around, like a champ. It has been a tough decision to leave her in England but she will be staying with one of her best friends while we travel and I know her and Lisa will be great company for each other. However, I also know we will miss her so much.

So when we get to Spain, we have a couple of weeks around Maria’s birthday which will be family time, and then take the boat to Almerimar Marina before a Bonnie road trip to England, a funny experience for her because she starts by moaning and then remembers how much she enjoys it! I suspect she knows I am writing about her since she has just popped up for some attention.

Maria’s watch has been uneventful too but the wind has built further and is in the low 20s and pretty much behind us. We have adjusted the main and Maria reports that we have been consistently over 8 knots and sometimes near to 10. Everything is controlled right now and we agree that we should stay as we are with the main out to the starboard side as far as it goes and a preventer on it to avoid any unnecessary banging. The ironic thing is that the wind and the sea state look the same as yesterday when we were struggling although it is a lot stronger.

It’s another work day for me with a few meetings that will mean that I am down below for some of the day but we will see how quickly I can get through those and spend some time with Maria.

At about 10am, the wind starts to die, the sea had been veering northwards for a while and for a comfortable trip we had been adjusting our course to ensure we didn’t get too much roll. With this latest change, we decide to change course, get the wind on our beam and cut across the waves back towards our original course. The wind is dropping further so we will have to see if this works with the roll we will get off the waves. having had a few good hours of sailing, we have a little more confidence today, at one stage yesterday it seemed we were incompetent crew level. Then just as we work out how we can do well with the wind, it’s gone – 2 knots! Very disappointing. Still a big following sea so we are surfing though.

So we are under power for a while but by 2pm the wind is back in our favour and we are cruising along and looking like arrival at torrevieja a day earlier than originally planned, back to Maria’s new plan, on Wednesday afternoon. I have finished work for the day by mid afternoon and so :Maria tries to get ahead on her sleep prior to the night passage.

The lunch of champions today? Fish finger sandwiches followed by melon with chicken salad for dinner 🙂 you don’t starve on Mariadz. A late change of menu deletes salad and adds chips and peas. You can be too healthy!

During dinner, a little bird flies in to say hi. We are a long way off shore so this tired little bird that probably just needs a rest.

So we have seen no signs of life all day. Not a single ship even on AIS with a range of tens of miles. Now we have our little feathery friend visiting us at dinner time. He is flying around and investigating, checks out Bonnie through the glass of the windscreen like she is a big cat at a zoo. Bonnie is keen to say hi but the bird just wants to explore. We think he is very tired, he is at least seventy miles from shore. So he can hitch a ride with us for a while and finds a safe dark spot in the rib. Maria has some water and a few crumbs out on deck – she loves animals and would always help one in trouble.

It’s getting to sunset, maria and I have had a nice chat like we both thought we would when we embarked on the trip – just circumstances and stress have probably put paid to that. But it is a welcome chat with Bonnie in the cockpit doing her own thing as we prepare for the overnight watches. We have decided to do the same as yesterday although Maria is keen that I get more rest and I don’t leave her sleeping for too long. We will see how I feel. So it’s night mode for instruments, cuddle time for Bonnie, sleep time for our little guest in the rib and rest for Maria while I scan the sea bereft of any interest!

Bonnie is back below but I’m sure will pop up during the night to say hi. Maria is catching a little sleep before my first watch starts at 10pm, which I guess means my first watch has started.

Over the next few hours we continue to plough on through the night towards Spain. Wind is very light and veering to the North which means at the next change of watch we will change the sail plan around a little to take advantage of that – at the moment we have no sail up but I am not disturbing Maria’s rest for a small improvement. In addition to our bird, I also found a dragonfly down below that I was able to get out of the boat but these remain the only external life we have seen, no dolphins, tuna or other boats. Fuel and power remain fine, we have about 400 left of our 1,000 nautical mile range and my alternator fix seems to have worked with the batteries constantly being full, which says more about how much we have used the engine to be honest. Mariadz is back to being its normal happy ship.

The list of issues to be resolved at the end of our voyages seems to be reducing, I hope that isn’t the kiss of death. When your list has “replace the locking mechanism on a cupboard door”, you know things can’t be too bad. Although I am disappointed that the recent service on the generator that I paid for appears to have introduced a problem, although we will get that checked and resolved even though the generator works fine for topping up batteries and heating water when required.

I can tell Maria has been scarred by her experience in Biscay four years ago when the mechanical autopilot failed. In the interim, the electronic part had failed also, after ten years.. maria now wants to have complete redundancy in this area so there is no recurrence of the continued hand steering we had to endure last time. To that end, I had the mother board replaced on the electronic component of the autopilot even though I had bought and fitted a new one. I am now speaking to Cliff Mogridge, who helped us so much four years ago about understanding what to do. I personally think spending £3,500 on a spare is overkill but spending a tenth of that on the key gearbox elements doesn’t seem unreasonable. We are currently in negotiation – that is Maria and I, not Cliff and I!

We also have the preparation for the Atlantic Rally for cruisers to finalise. Since Mariadz did this in a former life, you would hope that the requirements of this wouldn’t be too onerous for her especially when you think we have upgraded everything on her since then. I am keen to get these requirements reviewed and addressed prior to arriving in the canaries when I imagine the cost of everything will double. So that will a job for Spain.

Still nothing on AIS, nothing to report and no change in the wind as we progress through the night watch giving me the time to write this. I am pleased that Maria has been able to get some sleep and rest though. Giving her four hours seems to be the answer although she will not sleep down below on passage despite that bed being her favourite thing in the whole world – grandkids excepted! it does make it a little more difficult when you are on watch with someone sleeping in the same area but it means we are together and she can check on things quickly if she wakes with a start – they are always alright but you know how difficult it can be to get back to sleep if the potential issue is not answered straight away. I remember the number of clinical questions I had to answer in the middle of the night when maria worked as a mid-wife. She would wake from a nightmare and I would have to reassure her that the woman in room 4 has had her drugs/water etc!

As my night watch draws to an end, I am reminded of those times we crossed the English Channel, the Messina straights or even negotiating the “motorway” in biscay at the north west tip of Spain. In these situations we have had to be vigilant for safety but also not to inconvenience or put in danger other ships, we have literally had nothing within ten miles of us for more than a day. We can’t get complacent or lose our focus, since we did see a yacht that wasn’t on AIS a few days ago, so you can’t just rely on the instrumentation. Anyway it will get busier as we approach Spain so we had better make sure we get our rest! And then, suddenly-ish, we have an AIS track that will pass close to us, within a few hundred metres, that is too close in open seas but they are currently 20 miles away and we won’t be close to them for more than an hour. A lot will change in that time, I’m sure. Well very little changed from the cargo ships perspective, they kept coming on at us, I made adjustments really early on to open the gap but it is like they didn’t see us until the last minute, three miles away when they had to make a bigger adjustment than if they had done it at the beginning, they passed within one mile which is unusual but wasn’t dangerous.

The rest of the night is quiet and uneventful with the morning heralding a slight increase in wind and the opportunity to get more sail out. This will be our last day before we arrive in Torrevieja. The wind is still not playing nicely and we are therefore motor-sailing or motoring. We have a following sea, mostly, but occasionally there is a rogue wave which rocks us from side to side. We are making good time and will arrive at about the same time as the partial eclipse.

As we arrive, there are crowds of people on the sea wall, now I know we have some people following us through the website but I had no idea how popular we were….. as we approach the Marina we are told we will be in berth N5 (November 5), well that should be easy to remember! It is located on the outside and will be stern to with lazy lines. Maria has read the reviews of the Marina and they are all very positive suggesting that they give you wide berths and today proves that. We will be quite close to a funky bar and Jamie, the anglicised version of his name, is really helpful as we get Mariadz into her new berth for the next couple of weeks. We look over towards the sun which appears to have been blocked by clouds for the vital moment ☹️, however as it dips below the clouds we get to see the partial eclipse. Ah that’s what all the people were there for….

It’s been a reasonable trip and Mariadz has done well, more motoring than we intended and we need to stop trying to work to a timetable and start enjoying a leisurely journey more.

There aren’t too many new breakages to report and they are easily fixed. Maria wasn’t happy that the engine room fan was on for a long time after the engine finished. A quick inspection showed why… the thermostat had been set to 40 degrees. In the UK that might not be too bad but when it is 35 outside, it’s seems a little unfair to demand that the fan gets that room down to such a temperature. A slight adjustment and hopefully that will get sorted. I am getting replacement wheels, or sheaves, that are part of the rigging although I work out, in the short I can use some spares on our staysail.

It’s been a good trip and we are now in Spain, leaving Italy has been a big thing – we now need to look forward!