World Cruising and Sailing Wiki

This morning we had 68 knots of wind in the bay of Palma (Mallorca, Balearic Islands). We were fine, aboard the schooner Leopard Normand III, thanks to a 97 kilo CQR on 100 metres of chain and a 33 kilo Bruce on a handsome warp taking the heat off the chain. Others were not so fortunate (or, perhaps, so well-prepared) and we watched one unfortunate skipper trying to battle his sloop forwards into the teeth of the gale (no sails up, obviously) but his motor wasn't up to it - I doubt if anybody's yacht motor is capable of bashing a hull through wind and seas like those...

We called some friends who have a small wooden boat to check on their welfare and were delighted to hear that they had moved into a marina when they heard the forecast - just as well because the bay they had been in, Illetas, where we spent a couple of seasons anchored while we ran the restaurant and bar at the Anchorage Club, was a seriously dangerous place to be today. We were so grateful that we are anchored outside Palma Nova, on the other side of the western area of the bay of Palma.

Anyway, we mentioned to our friends that we had seen a couple of boats beached, outside Puerto Portals, through the binoculars, but that Illetas had been obscured from view by the white-out caused by the wind whipping sea water into the air. They called us back later on and told us that they had driven round to Andratx on the southwestern side of the island to sort out a tree that had been blown down in a client's garden and seen that a pontoon had broken up and deposited twenty yachts onto the beach there. Wicked winds.

Anyway, all this set me to thinking about sailors in general and I remembered that I had joined the World Cruising and Sailing Forum in summer but hadn't got around to actually posting there yet, so I thought I'd go and do that in the delightful lull that is taking place before the expected return of foul weather tomorrow. Having introduced myself, I went to see what was happening in the forum and found the post about the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki. Good idea and I thought I should post the link here (in the title of this blog) in case you'd like to visit...

Well, not a lot else is new, or at least not a lot you'd be interested in...