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Madame Curie on a holiday cruise

This year Madame Curie is going on a holiday cruise. Click here to read all about her new adventures.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Ibiza-Gibraltar

A 389 mile crossing, so very doable. The last couple of days, rainclouds passed over Ibiza. Now I can get used to the (bad) weather I am heading for slowly.
Dark clouds above Ibiza town.
During this crossing I have tested my patience, but I didn't pass completely. Like I said, it is only 350 miles, but the first two days I was beating into the wind, force 6. Tacking is not Madame Curie's strongest course. So I only advanced 50 miles per day. After that the wind turned, it was a soft breeze, force 3 during the day, and force 0 during the night, directly from behind. Downwind is also not a very fast course for Madame Curie.  gAnd because the autohelm has not been repaired I have to steer all the time. To get some sleep, I drift during the night, and continue sailing in the morning. Because of the eastbound current (0,5 to 1 knot), I'm set back a couple of miles towards Ibiza. The last 4 days were terrible. Because large amounts of water evaporate from the Med, this water needs to be replaced. Most of this water is replaced via the strait of Gibraltar, so the eastbound current south of the Spanish south coast is 1-3 knots. Only during spring tide there is a change of having an westbound current in the strait. If the wind is west, then the current is against me 24 hours a day! So if I travel at a speed of 3 knots in the right direction, I will do.........

Oh only 24 miles per day!!!!! This because I have a current against me of on average 2 knots. Normally my morale is boasted when I have the current with me. But I didn't get a favourable current. Bummer. So eventhough I used the engine quite a lot (okay, 10 hours per day the last 3 days, but I really ran out of patience) I only travelled 30 miles per 24 hours. Frustrating. I had kind of underestimated the effect of the current. Of course, this whole current thing is explained in the pilot, but I didn't read the pilot until during the crossing. Maybe this is better, this way I couldn't get depressed in advance.

Afer 8 days and 4 hours I arrived in Gibraltar.

But during this crossing I also had dolphins and small whales swin with Madame Curie for a longer time. And now you can enjoy the videos. The videos are a bit rocky, but these creatures allway swim with the boat when I actually need at least one hand for myself. The small whales (not really sure if they are really whales but they are a lot bigger than all the dolphins I have ever seen, more than 4 meter. Maybe you know if they are wales) were so close to the boat less than 30 cm, I could have touched them!

And also some regular dolphins joined my boat, and despite my frustration, this always makes me happy!!!

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