Sailing

While reading my last few post I realise that most of my blog is about my discoveries ashore, and that I hardly mention anything about the sailing. Actually I spent most of my time on board, and sail quite some time. The first problem is that is very difficult to take pictures of sailing. I'm on board, so I can only capture a small part of Madame Curie in a picture. Last week some people I met took pictures of my boat sailing. When I receive them, I will post them on my site.
The wind is rather variable here. I really mis the steadiness of the Dutch wind. Here in the Mediterranean, the wind can go from windforce 2 to 8 in 5 minutes, and during these 5 minutes it can also shift 180 degrees! And I don't see it coming. It is still sunny, and there are no threatning clouds. And local weatherforcast do not always pick up these sudden changes. So everytime something like this happens, it surprises me.

Last week I wanted to visit the "Blue caves" on Bisevo, and that is a pretty long sail from the mainland, about 42 miles. These caves have holes in the ceiling, and the sun shines through and colors the water underneath blue. One of the Germans I met showed me a video, and I must say, it looked really pretty. But I was reluctant to motor 42 miles, so I waited for a nice day with wind. With a lovely windforce 6 I sailed beam reach to Bisevo. Upon arrival there was a large swell in port. I saw a pick-up truck drive down from the mountain to the harbor. An old man got out of the truck and assisted me in berthing Madame Curie. But I was not happy with this situation. With every wave Madame Curie came up 1 meter. The old man spoke italian, and asked if I wanted to buy wine of fish. I bought two bottles of wine. I asked him if he thought the sea would calm down. His answer was: "nobody knows, but we will know tomorrow". He also thought it would be better if I left to Komiza, which is a more save harbor, especially because I sail alone. But before I could leave he asked if I could come ashore. He gave me 2 kisses on the cheak to congratulate me on sailing alone. Then he gave me a two teeth smile. He told me to only come back to Bisevo if the sea was calm. Because it is not possible te visit the caves when there is a swell.

The next morning in the port of Komiza (safe harbor) I went to the tourist information to ask if the Blue caves were open today. Because during the night the wind had picked up, and in the morning there was still a strang breeze. The ladies at the tourist information thought it would be closed. But did nothing to verify it. Just shook there heads and said: "maybe tomorrow?". It was lovely weather, so I decided to sail. First to Bisevo to see about the swell and then sail on. Near the caves I saw it would be impossible to enter the caves. The entrance is about 1.5 meter, and the swell was still 1 meter. No way, this was going to work. In hindsight it was a bad decision to sail for the caves with wind. A lot of wind means a lot of waves!

One of these arches is the enterance to the blue caves.

After this I sailed to Palmizana. The blue caves I will save to my next visit to Croatia. I left with the first reef in the genoa, en the first reef in the main, and did not hoist the mizzen. It started out still rather comfortable as you can see in the videos.

In the mean time I just sit behind the windscreen, all is comfortable.

Later that afternoon everything became not so comfortable. The wind picked up even more. At the end of the afternoon I had only a small piece of the genoa (second reef) hoisted and I was doing 6.5 knots down the waves. This is above my hull speed, so I was surfing the waves. Not funny!! I was not dangerous, Madame Curie handeld it fine, but I  was bruised and thrown around. Entery of the port of Palmizana was rather difficult. It is a well protected bay, but you are only protected when you actually in the harbor, after passing a very narrow enterance. So I could only furl the last bit of the genoa when I was already in port. On that moment I also decided I would not sail the next day. First I needed to rest en recover from my bruises. So for Frits and Charly, two sailors I met in Komizana, I hope your trip was more comfortable.

Madame Curie moored in the harbor under the arrow.

The following morning I took a taxiboat to Hvar, on the next island. Hvar is a beautiful old town, and from the castle that towers the city I took this picture of the islands.