The ship’s journal from the Delivery from Mallorca to Fiji

15/01/25 06:30 CET East of Gibraltar

During my previous night watch at 0000 hrs on Tuesday, 14 January, I started writing a new report. I was musing about how often we feel we’ve been lied to when actually we have misunderstood the message. Night time is the right time to be philosophical, especially when conditions are calm. Those calm conditions were the catalyst of those thoughts. Has the weather report been off or did I misinterpret it? Another potential liar on board was our fuel gauge. Either our brand-new engines have widely differing consumption rates, or one of our two tanks is not as full as the gauge suggests. Before nightfall An and I debated on whether we should pull into Almeria to top up with fuel, losing time in the process. After studying the weather report we decided to head deeper into the sea where the breeze should pick up. 

I stopped writing when the winds of salvation arrived and allowed me to turn off the engines. When Jan arrived on deck at 3am we were sailing nicely under the Code 0. For the non-s sailors: This is a giant sail made of light cloth that, in our case, can be rolled up with the push of a button. But, still, it’s big and fragile…

As a light squall was indirectly about to pass us by, I briefed Jan on how we would furl the sail. The true wind steadily grew to 20kts. I let off the sheet a bit and some pressure went off the sail. We were having a great ride which made me reluctant to take the sail away. The wind slowly touched 25kts and then settled back at around 17 kts. The next 3 hours we made great progress in well controlled fashion. Usually I am napping somewhere near to Jan during his 3 hours of watch but under Code 0 I had to stay up. 

At 0600 hrs Sara and An got up to take over our watch. I was never going to leave them alone with Code 0 and at that moment another squall arrived. So Jan and I started to furl the sail away. It’s not easy to keep the next part of the story short, but I’ll try. 

We managed to furl the sail but it wasn’t furled tight which is concerning because it can catch wind and start unfurling by itself. We pulled the sheet a bit to tighten the wrapped sail and when I pushed to furl again, the breaker tripped. The sail was now unfurled at the top but not at the bottom. The wind was high. Every time I worked with a sail like this I dreaded that this would happen. We had to drop the half rolled sausage on the foredeck where I was standing. While standing on the foredeck trying to pull the flogging giant tentacle inboard, we had to drop it fast and I had to shout simple instructions to my novice crew. I decided to call for a fast free drop. As a result, part of the sail ended up in the water and under the boat. Horror. I looked at it and saw a dolphin swim by. Surreal! But I told Jan, who was at the foredeck by now, pulling the sail with all our joint force this was a good omen! Fast forward: we managed to stuff the whole thing in the sail locker by 0730. Amazingly there was no damage, apart from my shattered ego. 

An and Jan worked very hard and calmly with me while Sara stayed with the kids who had woken up and watched Jan and I strangle a sail on the foredeck. 

Later in the morning the girls and Oceaan enjoyed another playful dolphin display. We sailed well the rest of the day. At sunset the wind dropped again.

At this moment we are motoring to Gibraltar with fuel gauges which are hopefully being dead honest after all.