From the Balearics to Sardinia

We spent some more days in Mahon and did more cultural visits. Indeed, Liz knows about each and every free events or museums we can reach by dinghy! We meet Bert and Annette on Adventyr (we saw them also in Galicia last summer), they are friends of Vida Vagabond. They are unstoppable at telling us about the great time they had on Madeira and on the Canarias where they spent the winter. On May 31, after endless discussions with our neighbors and comparisons of all navtex, grib and RTTY available we decide to get out of here. We kiss Liz and Tom good bye, we would have enjoyed travelling a little bit with them as they are super cool but we are heading in different directions, maybe we will see them again one day.
10am on June 1rst we finally pick up the anchor (buried after two gales) and leave Mahon, the Balearics and Spain where we have spent almost 9 months. We set course to Sardinia, 190NM toward East.
We know that the wind won’t be strong (max 2-3 Beaufort), it will variable but always with some West in it. The first 24hours are ok, we cover 90NM despite a flat calm for 4 hours and thanks to a good force 4 between 2 and 6am. In the wake of Atajata we see a lot of Pelagia Noctiluca, jellyfishes pink at day and fluo at night.
At dawn, Ludo wakes me up after he jumped himself when a whale surfaced just near the boat (maybe two whales, hard to say). The sea is more agitated and it’s not easy to spot them but we can clearly see water spurts and Ludo sees one whale plunging. This second day is painful, the wind is variable force 2 but the sea remains agitated and we have the swell from the side which makes the boat rolling. Inevitably I throw over board the content of my stomach during my night watch. Just before dark we meet our first Risso’s dolphin. He is rather curious and stays several hours playing with the boat and observing us. Sometime he swims away then comes back and to let us know he come close to the boat and whips the water with his tail. Risso’s dolphin are different from the usual dolphins we all know, they have a square head, a big dorsal fin, are 3 to 4m long and full of scars from fights with other dolphins and squids. During the second day we score only 55NM!
On the third day, let’s be honest, we are fed up and we really want to arrive! 50NM left, no wind and we are not looking forward another night stuck at sea. Stubbornly we try to take advantage of the lightest breath but finally we give up and start to motor.
Around 11pm, on June 3rd, after motoring for 30NM, we reach Porto Conte, North East of Sardinia. It’s a well sheltered anchorage in a large bay, guarded by impressive abrupt 180m high cliffs of Cape Caccia.