On April 4, 2002, under a heavy and dark sky we finally severed our ties with Turkey. It had been home to us for almost five months and we had made some wonderful friends there. My heart felt as heavy as the sky looked, and I hated to leave. It really was time for us to move on though, as Dan planned for us to be in Gibraltar by May first. One entire month would do it, wouldn't it, seeing we only had about 1800 nautical miles to cover? In Gibraltar the boat needed to be outfitted with a loud alarm for the radar, so it would wake Dan up when he needed to sleep, as from Gibraltar he would be sailing alone. Duke would be onboard to help of course, but maybe Dan could count on the alarm more than Duke!

Since we left Fethiye and Turkey behind pretty late in the afternoon, it soon got dark and night sailing I was not looking forward to. I wanted to sleep then and not stare out into a dark night! Once we had left the Turkish mainland behind, the winds came from south to southeast, 10-15 knots, so we could shut off the engine and sail only. While we were under sail, Dan and Duke disappeared into the cabin to lay down, as I had opted to sit watch first. It didn't seem that bad to stay up while day turned into night, and by midnight it was Dan's turn to take over. By the time I woke up the following morning at daybreak, we had almost arrived to our first planned stop, the island of Simi, which belongs to Greece. Simi is an official check-in point in Greece, and since our friend Tom and his boat XTC hadn't checked in yet, we figured we would stop there rather than in the small and crowded port in Rodos. Dan and I had checked-in to Greece in Rodos in January, when we went over to buy our new batteries, and when we left, we didn't bother to check out, so we still had our travel log and official papers. That wasn't all together kosher, but we got away with it!

Once Stress Relief and XTC were anchored in the beautiful and enclosed bay at Panormitis on the southwestern side of Simi, Tom found a ride into town and checked in. We had gotten the weather through our brand new NavTex machine and also through the German program "RTTY", and both indicated that it wouldn't be good for us to try and cross the Aegean Sea for a couple of days. On Sunday we went ashore, after Duke was locked inside the boat, and walked over to the Archangel Michael's monastery buildings, which are the only buildings onshore, along with a "taverna". Archangel Michael's monastery is the island's most famous monastery, and a major center of pilgrimage. The original church of Saint Michael was built around 450 AD on the site of an ancient temple to Apollo. We just peeked inside the small church and had a quick look around, and I saw the original paintings in the ceiling. What was more impressive to me, was the bell tower, with its colors and decorations, and the artichoke patch behind the buildings. The artichoke plant looked like a gigantic thistle and only one purple fruit on top of each stalk. We assumed that the fruit wasn't ripe yet with its dark purple color, but on some we noticed the lowest leaves had started to change to a light green tinge and maybe those could be harvested soon.

Tom had organized a ride over the mountains and into Simi town with a young man, Sebastian, who works at the monastery. He makes candles, which are sold to the tourists who come to visit! We soon piled into his small car and set out to zig-zag up the steep mountain to the north, and what a spectacular view. On our way back we stopped along the road to admire the view and also so I could take some pictures! Across the top of the mountain the road followed the ridge and then it went zig-zag down the other side and into Simi town. Sebastian dropped us in the Town Square, and promised to pick us up at 1700. That way we had plenty of time to do what we wanted to do, which was to find an Internet and check our mail and "weather-on-line". We also needed Euros, so a bank's ATM machine was located, lunch was eaten at a local restaurant, and last we bought some groceries in a small store. At 1700 Sebastian returned to pick us up, and before we knew it we had arrived back to Panormitis and our boats. "Weather-on-line" had shown pretty good winds for our continuing journey, so we agreed that heading out early Monday morning was in order.

If the weather would permit, Dan wanted to sail across the south Aegean Sea without stopping anywhere. That meant that the Dodecanese and the southern Cyclades had to be mastered, which could be tricky, as the weather could change very quickly in those waters. We had looked up alternative anchorage on some islands along the way, just in case, and on Monday morning, April 8 we pulled up our anchor and headed out from the natural harbor at Panormitis. Until we had passed a chain of smaller islands west of Simi, we moved along with the engine on and the genoa out, but soon we could turn the engine of and sail for awhile. That only lasted for a couple of hours until the wind totally died down. To begin with it was so quiet and calm, but after awhile of not moving forward, we started our engine and powered along. Eventually the winds returned much stronger and from northwest, which wasn't the best direction for us, very uncomfortable, but manageable. Duke and I couldn't do anything but sit still and hold on most of the day and into the night. It was not comfortable sleeping, and neither Dan nor I slept very sound when it was our turn. I almost created a calamity on my first watch, when I let our boat and XTC come too close together! As it started getting dark, I saw XTC on our port, and slowly he started to move ahead of our boat. Every now and then I checked his position and the distance between our boats looked good to me. Then once when I looked again, I couldn't see his mast light! Where was he? Had he pulled that far ahead? Peeking under our genoa, which was pulled out on the port side, I saw a white light, which to me looked very close to our boat, but a bit in front. I have a very hard time judging distance on the water, and in the dark it's almost impossible to guess how far we are from an object. To be on the safe side, I hollered to Dan and woke him up with a start! Dan came flying out into the cockpit, put the auto-pilot on standby, and spun the wheel quickly to starboard. Our boat made a 360 degree turn, and in so doing we saw XTC's mast light bouncing on one side then on the other! By the time we knew we were not going to collide, I was totally confused about directions, but Dan and our auto-pilot soon had us on the right heading again. Tom didn't even know he came so close to a collision, as he usually sets his radar with alarm zone on and goes to sleep. Of course my heart was pounding during this confusion, and I had a hard time relaxing and going to sleep later, when Dan took over the watch.

All day Monday and the night to Tuesday we had sailed, and after 24 hours out from Simi we had covered about 119 miles and were almost alongside the island of Thira. In our cruising guidebook we had seen pictures from that island, which looked awesome, and so it did through my binoculars. The island looked like it was the edge of a volcano crater, and reading in our cruising guide confirmed it. There is says: "Thira is a giant volcano. The principal island is Thira, shaped like a new moon encircling the rim of the crater now filled with water. To the northwest Thirasia forms another part of the rim and in the middle a black mass of cinder and lava is the volcano plug". During the night the wind had changed direction to more north-northeast, which immediately became much more comfortable for us. After Dan and Tom had discussed the updated weather report, they decided to go for the southern point of the Peloponnisos, before stopping; that was another 130 miles ahead! During the day Dan hoisted our jennicker to catch as much wind as possible, and so we moved along all day and during the night to Wednesday. The closer we came to the Peloponnisos, the more ships and ferries we noticed, but none posed a problem for us. They usually passed us with at least one mile to spare, which made me happy. After another 24 hours we had sailed 87 miles farther west, so by evening I knew we would be in the port at Neapolis, on one finger of the Peloponnisos, and that made me feel good. Around the southern end of the Peloponnisos is a busy shipping lane, which splits towards Athens or continuing farther east; we had to cross those lanes. It wasn't as bad as I had thought, and soon we were on the land-side of the lanes. The wind was very unpredictable so close to the land, and at times it came rip-roaring down the steep mountainsides in gusts and slammed into us. By now we were kind of prepared and had reduced the genoa to only a little handkerchief, but the main was up. Eventually we started the engine and powered up to the open port at Neapolis, where we sat on anchor. In 55 hours we had come 245 miles farther west and we all were happy to have the Aegean Sea behind us!

As it turned out, we only stayed long enough in Neapolis to go ashore and buy some groceries, as by 2000 Dan and Tom had decided to continue up to Pilos, on the western side of the Peloponnisos, before some strong winds were expected to arrive. Pilos was a check-in, check-out port for Greece, and a bigger town than Neapolis, so if we had to sit and wait for the weather, we would rather do it there! That meant one more night-sailing and just as well to get it over with! On Thursday morning, April 11, before we had reached up to and rounded the last point, from where we would have a straight line to Pilos, we noticed three jet fighter planes flying overhead and making large circles. It wasn't until after awhile that I noticed explosions on a small island to our starboard that we put two and two together. These jet fighter planes were exercising and dropping bombs on targets on the small island, and it was those explosions, with puffs of dust, we could see. We couldn't get away from that area fast enough! What if the planes had missed and caught us instead! Once we were safe in the new marina in Pilos, I read in our cruising guide about the island the jet planes were bombing. There it said that the island was used for military exercises and for boats of any shape and size to give the island a wide berth!

Another 93 miles from Neapolis had brought us up to Pilos, where we chose to find a spot in their fairly new marina. Inside the breakwater wall was no order, boats tied up in a jumble, but even so we found room to drop our anchor and go stern-to on the last quay. Tom did the same when he arrived, and so we stayed for about nine days waiting for the winds to be good for us to cross the Ionian Sea. There was no water nor electricity on the quay and consequently the daily charge was not high. On the outside wall there were five big fishing boats tied up when we arrived. We found out later that they were Italians; if they were in the port the weather was bad. They left once for a few days, but returned and stayed till the day before we left; we figured that it was safe for us to leave then also!

While we were waiting for good winds, we located an Internet in the town of Methoni, a few miles to the south of Pilos. Dan and Tom were brought to that spot one evening by a very friendly Greek, and the next day we wanted to find it again on our own. It was too far to walk, and the bus schedule wasn't too good, so finally we rented a small car for three days instead. That way we could drive to the Internet when we wanted to and also be able to drive around on the Peloponnisos and see what "the fingers" looked like. After we had negotiated the price for a three-day rental period and received our small car, we drove out of town to Methoni. The Internet was open and we were the only customers. The lady, who is the proprietor, started talking to me in Swedish, which totally surprised me. Her mother was a Swede, her father a Greek, and she had been married to an American and had two daughters in Oregon. Besides English, Swedish and Greek, she also spoke German! She had worked in different countries at one time or other and learnt the languages that way! She was definitely a character, and I would have liked to found out more about her life, but once our Internet use was done, we paid, thanked her and moved on. Before we left Methoni that day, we made a tour out to and had a quick look at the old castle and Turkish tower, which guard the entrance to the small harbor. We also stopped at a local restaurant and ate lunch before we continued our discovery tour along the road, heading southeast out of Methoni. Here and there along the shore or up some protected valley we saw small villages and towns, lots of plateaus with olive trees were everywhere, and even some fields with other produce. Eventually we arrived to the small town of Koroni, where we drove through incredibly narrow streets to reach the open square down by the water. There we bought ice-cream, which we ate while admiring the view of the old Castle. The harbor was very small and not very protected, but even so it was full of small local fishing boats. Soon we were ready to head back up and out of the town, but when we came to a sharp corner it was stop; in front of us and trying to maneuver the sharp corner was a regular size tourist bus! I could not believe it had made it down the street, never mind making it back up. Of course after some jiggling back and forth, the bus finally made it around the first sharp corner, and all the backed-up traffic followed. At the next incredibly sharp corner, the road split to two one-ways; the bus drove straight up the one-way coming down, while the rest of the traffic was directed the other way. What confusion! I certainly was happy when we came out onto a wide road on top and could head back the way we had come.

On Sunday, April 14, we decided to head north for our excursion of the Peloponnisos, even though the weather wasn't the best. It was very overcast and hazy and the view was very limited! We followed the coastal road north, until we reached E55 towards Tripoli, where we made a turn inland. We didn't want to follow some major highway very far, so we sought the earliest opportunity to take a lesser road, and soon we were bouncing along a rutted road that started climbing up towards the mountains to our south. The higher we went, the worse the road became, and since our road map of the Peloponnisos wasn't the best, we soon were lost. We figured the road would came out somewhere, so we kept following it, but when it turned into a cow path we became a bit concerned. By then we were high above the last small village we had passed and could basically see down either side of the ridge the path followed. It did look like the path continued down on the other side, so we decided to forge ahead. To our left the mountain rose higher and on that side everything was blackened from a fire. It was a pretty desolate looking place! To our right the valley stretched out and far below we could see greenery again. Even colorful flowers bloomed there and it was a much cheerier sight! We followed the dirt road as it wound its way down the mountainside, and before we knew it, we had arrived to a nice asphalt road. Why would such a nice road come way out here where hardly any houses could be seen? Sometimes the nice road was only passable in one lane though; the other lane was covered by a landslide of gravel and mud, which no one had cleaned up! Our blind wondering in the mountains finally brought us down to the city of Messini, from where we quickly found our way back to Pilos and our boats. Our day ended with a nice visit on a French boat. A retired professor of philosophy and his wife, Eugene and Madeleine, lived onboard their boat, and this early in the summer season they were still tied to the dock; otherwise they spend most of the summer on anchor farther out in the great Pilos bay. Anyway, they lent me a guidebook about the Pilos area and told of a museum in Chora and some great archaeological sites a bit in-land, which they thought was worth seeing.

Last day of our car rental, Tom and I, Dan didn't want to come along, decided to set out for Chora to have a look at their museum, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays. All was not lost, because we still had the Palace of Nestor archaeological site to visit, and we had seen on the way to Chora, that the site was open. The palace at Pylos, known as the Palace of Nestor, considers to have been built at the beginning of the 13th century BC, and consisted of three buildings. The main building seems to have been the king's residence, and there were the most impressive finds. In the "throne room" we could clearly see where the throne had sat, markings showed in the floor, and in the middle of the room was a great circular fireplace. Behind the throne room were the oil magazines; several urns still sat in the same dug-outs, and it seemed we still could smell the oil. The elaborately decorated bathtub in the bathroom, was very short, but deep, so I kind of wonder about the peoples size back then? Our visit to Nestor's palace was cut short, both by rain and closing time at 1500, but on the way back to the boats, we decided to stop and have a look at a "tholos tomb". The first one we looked at was along the road, so it was easy to find. Once we had trampled around in long grass and under numerous great olive trees, we reached the tomb. It was not very well preserved, but from what was left we could imagine how it had looked in its original state. The base was round with sloping upward walls that ended sort of in a conical shape, and I think that "tholos" describes this particular style of tomb. One more "tholos tomb" was located closer to Pilos, and when we arrived to the sign showing where it was located, we decided to have one last look. I got a bit apprehensive when the road took off to the left, in amongst the olive trees, and even more so when the road didn't look much traveled. It was basically two ruts with high grass in the middle, and the farther into the groves we drove, the wetter and muddier the ruts became. Finally I voiced my opinion to Tom and thought we should be turning around. Tom had barley said that he was experienced in this kind of driving, slipping and sliding, from driving on sand dunes, when the car lurched to the left and we were hopelessly stuck. The front wheels were sunk deep in the water and very sticky mud, while the undercarriage rested on the grass between the ruts. After several attempts to stuff rocks, branches and anything under the wheels, that could help give them traction, plus jacking the front up so we could back out, we had to concede defeat. Now what? From the excursion the day before, when we had driven by on the same road, I remembered a small village not too far off, so that's where we decided to head for. It was drizzling and not so nice, but we needed help and hoped to find that in a farmer and his tractor, which we thought would be the only vehicle that would be able to get into where our car was and pull it out! About a three kilometers walk found us finally in town, and at a local caf'e we met a man who could speak a little English. To him we explained our dilemma, and he in turn organized one farmer and his tractor for our rescue! Both Tom and I rode on the tractor along with the farmer; Tom hung on in the back, and I got the big fender. The farmer spoke not a word of English, but with hand signals we told him where to go. The closer we got to the site where our car was stuck, the more the farmer was shaking his head! He probably thought we were crazy to have headed into the olive grove with a car! Soon we could see our small white car ahead of us. The farmer stopped behind, reeled out his chain and hooked on to the back of our car. First attempt broke the hook of the chain, and the second attempt didn't budge the car; it made the tractor wheels spin like crazy and sling mud everywhere. Finally the farmer decided that pulling the car out backwards wouldn't work; instead he bounced his way in front of the car and hooked up. Tom was sitting inside the car steering, and while the tractor pulled our car forward, the mud slowly gave up its suction on the tires and the car leaped forward. Finally the car was loose, and that was encouraging! The farmer and his tractor pulled our car, with Tom and me in it by then, almost all the way out to the main road; guess the farmer wanted to make sure we could manage from there. We didn't know how much money to offer the man, but whatever it ended up being was worth it to me. We paid 20 Euros each for being pulled out; a good day for the farmer and a great relief for us! What a story to tell Dan once we got back! The next day, before the rental car could be returned, Dan and Tom were on the dock rinsing the car off. Dan said the mud was caked on everywhere! The car was splattered on top from tires spinning, the hubcaps were caked with sticky mud, and underneath the car globs and globs of mud still hung on. Tom and I didn't fare much better; our clothes and shoes were covered in mud, as well as my backpack from the tractor tire slinging up mud! So much for enthusiastically pursuing archaeological sites!

Our last sightseeing before leaving Pilos, was to "The Fortress of Pylos", to where we could walk from the marina. The fortress was built by Turks in 1573, and controlled by them, but later the control of the fortress changed numerous times. It was located to have complete control of the southern entrance to the bay of Navarino, the largest natural harbor in the Peloponnisos. Since the fortress was the last interesting site in Pilos, and we felt it was time to be moving on, weather permitting of course, Dan and Tom decided to visit the customs and check out. I was a bit nervous about our checking-in in Rodos, leaving there and never checking-out, plus having stamps from Turkey in our passports at the same time, but obviously the officials weren't that concerned and did not scrutinize our papers, so soon we had the right to leave. After the last groceries had been bought and Dan had downloaded the weather chart, we decided that this was a good time to leave for Sicily. All the Italian fishing boats had left the harbor the day before or earlier the same day, and that boded good for us we thought!

Late in the evening of April 20 we let go of the dock and headed out of Pilos harbor. We were expecting about 350 miles before we would reach the shores of Sicily and had crossed the Ionian Sea. Sixty-eight and one half hour later we arrived to a big bay at Taormina, along Sicily's eastern coast, where we could anchor and reflect upon our Ionian experience. The crossing had gone pretty good. We had experienced different kinds of weather on the sea; we had sailed only when the winds arrived, and motor-sailed when they left. The second night out we were visited by a beautiful small bird, which happened to fly into our cockpit. We of course thought it to have erred and helped it out, but the following morning when Dan found three dead birds on top of our boat, we felt very bad. Maybe the bird had been looking for shelter from the wind and the cold, as that particular night was very chilly? The same thing with visiting birds happened the following night also, but then we let the birds stay inside the cockpit as long as they wanted. For one tragic bird the road ended; Dan found it sitting outside our side window all burred up trying to keep warm. He brought it in and held the small bird in his hand, but nothing could revive the bird and by morning it laid flopped over with its neck hanging limp! A burial at sea followed again! From where did these birds come and to where were they flying, were questions we could only guess at. Did they come from Africa and were flying to their summer nesting places in Italy or farther north into Europe?

From our anchorage in Taormina, Sicily, we had an impressive view of Mount Etna's snow covered sides. How beautiful, but at the same time menacing! We only spent a few days resting and replenishing our stores before continuing north along the Sicilian coast. At Messina we located a diesel dock and filled up, and soon we were working our way through the twirling and swirling waters at the entrance to the Messina Strait. We were heading for some off lying islands on the north side of Sicily, and it would definitely be an overnight sail again. It ended up being two nights before we arrived to Isola Vulcano, which boast an active volcano, whence its name! From the active crater we could see steam rising into the air, and a very strong sulphur smell hung over everything. Even in the water where we were anchored, small bubbles of sulphur escaped, which made the water look like it was boiling. On shore you could wallow in a mud bath, if you so choose, and many people did. The mud baths of Isola Vulcano were known for its healing qualities and people from afar came for a dip in it! We only stayed one full day and one night on anchor by the island, before the weather reports Dan received from his RTTY program indicated a pretty favorable crossing to Sardinia. Time to continue, as we still had about one thousand miles to cover before reaching Gibraltar!

On Sunday April 28 we left Isola Vulcano behind and headed across the Tyrrhenian Sea towards the south corner of Sardinia. Early in the morning to Thursday May 2 we started nearing the harbor at Teulada, on the south coast of Sardinia, but since it was too dark to try and find our way in, we circled around outside in deeper water. Of course the weather would not cooperate and stay fairly nice, but came at us with a vengeance. The winds howled and the water sprayed, and here we were just a stone throw from safety! When the winds abated some, Dan said he was going for it and started heading in towards the harbor opening. Morning was just around the corner by then, so we could see where we were going. As soon as we entered the harbor, the waves and winds calmed down and then we could work our way up to some brand new pontoons, that lay mostly empty. Only a few other boats were tied alongside, so we did the same, and as always it felt best to me to be securely tied and sitting still. Again the crossing of the Tyrrhenian Sea had brought us a variety of sailing conditions, but since that now was behind us, I could soon forget my worries and start thinking about the next leg of our journey.

The next leg didn't happen very quickly, as we were forced to stay in Teulada for seven days waiting for some hurricane force winds to go by. Thank God we were in the harbor when we saw our wind-speed meter reach 64 knots once, before it calmed down to a mere 35-40! The pontoons in the harbor were new, as it didn't show a marina in our cruising guidebook, but anchorage. Since neither the water nor electricity was connected yet, no one ever came to collect money from us and the other boats; can it get much better than to be able to tie up to heavy, rugged pontoons for free? The town of Teulada was eight kilometers inland, which would be a good hike, we thought. Dan didn't want to walk, so he borrowed Tom's bike, but Tom and I walked all the way into town and all the way back one day. Boy, was I pooped when we returned to the boat, especially since I had been carrying my backpack full of groceries. From then on Dan put his moped into service and rode it, and then the trip to town was a piece of cake! We even had some nice rides inland on it, just sightseeing, and one day Dan and Tom rode the moped to Cagliari, a bigger town farther southeast, to find an Internet Cafe'.

Most of the boats in Teulada's harbor were fishing boats, and one day the fishermen were very upset. Nato naval exercises were supposed to be played out along the coast farther southwest, and when it was going on the fishermen couldn't fish in the area. Of course that's where the fishing was the best, and since the fishermen wouldn't be compensated for their losses, they went out in a long convoy to protest! Soon the convoy returned with a small military ship, and evidently some kind of agreement had been reached, as many of the fishing boats loaded up and headed out to work. We thought that day would be a good day for us to sever our ties to the pontoon in Teulada and head for The Baleares, another 325 miles closer to Gibraltar!

Guess it wasn't such a good day for us to leave for The Baleares after all! It soon became evident that our steering was going to give us trouble. The packing on the wheel started dripping, and to begin with it stopped as soon as Dan added some more air pressure to the hydraulic steering cylinder. We had done the same several other times and figured it would work this time also! After the third time of adding pressure to the cylinder, it was becoming clear it wouldn't work any longer; time to dig out our shiny, new emergency tiller and hook up the automatic tiller pilot! After testing the new tiller and pilot in Turkey, the two tiller parts had been stowed behind the bank of new batteries for easy access. Dan now went to retrieve them, but a commotion erupted and all I heard was swearing! What was going on? One of the tiller parts, the one with the pin on it, had wedged itself down behind the batteries and a piece of shelving still in place, and it was stuck! Dan yanked and yanked, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, with all his might Dan pulled the tiller free, but in doing so the pin punched a hole in the top of one of our brand new batteries! Battery acid drained out on the aluminum shelf the batteries sat on and dripped to the floor. The acid smell became strong at once, so both Dan and I hacked and coughed, and it wasn't very pleasant. Dan hurried and mixed together some epoxy, and after he had dried of the area where the hole was, he smeared the epoxy over the hole; luckily it held and no more acid drained out! A hole in one battery, the emergency tiller usable but by hand steering, as the welded-on pin broke off when Dan tried to attach the auto pilot, and still over 300 miles to go, made Dan decided to turn around and head for the nearest port. That happened to be Calasetta, on the northern tip of the island Saint Antioco, along Sardinia's west coast! Of course all this happened after it got dark and the winds started piping up from northwest, so we ended up motoring all the way back to the safe harbor. When all this happened to us, Tom and his boat XTC were far ahead of us. We called Tom on the radio to inform him of our troubles and to let him know we were returning to shore. He decided to turn around also and come after us. We arrived to the strange port in the early morning, but managed to find our way in and anchor. Tom arrived late the next day, and soon both our catamarans were on anchor in the small but well protected harbor. Dan and Tom took apart our steering wheel and replaced the worn out rubber seals, added new hydraulic fluid to the cylinder and tested the steering. Everything worked great again and best of all, no leaks! Dan also mixed up more epoxy and smeared over the previous layer on the punctured battery, just to make sure everything was covered and would not start leaking again! Once the repairs were done, we were free to continue, but every time I thought about that, I got knots in my stomach. After the last episode I really didn't want to let go of the safe harbor again!

On Mother's Day, May 12, 2002 we were still in Sardinia waiting for favorable winds to continue. A phone call from Chris, Mae Sue and Tyler sure brightened the day for me. By my birthday, May 19, we had already crossed the Sardinian Sea safely, but not without problems of course. We had sat on anchor in Cala Calamanca on Ibiza in the Baleares for a few days. We had said good bye to Tom, as from here on during the summer our paths would not go in the same direction, and now we were motoring over to the fuel dock in marina Botafoch, in Ibiza's harbor, to fill the fuel tanks before heading for mainland Spain. Tom was heading for Barcelona, where his lady-friend, Val would be joining him for the summer cruise on Canal du Midi across France and north to Ireland. While crossing the Sardinian Sea, at times the sea was totally calm and looked glassy, and reflected the stars and the moon perfectly in the water. At sun-set the sky turned a periwinkle blue close to the horizon, before it merged into a steely gray color higher up in the sky. In between the periwinkle blue and the steely gray, was the softest hint of rose color, and so very beautiful to look at! At one point before it got totally dark, there was no distinction between land and sky; made me feel like we were floating in a void! The Sardinian Sea was also full of thick floating bands of teeny, tiny jellyfish; the jellyfish looked like miniature Portuguese man-of-war. Their bubble had a bluish tint to it; we could see that well from the few jellyfish that washed up on our stern. Sometimes we saw huge brown turtles feeding in these undulating bands of jellyfish, and there the food would never dry up. Now and then we also observed swordfish lying close to the surface of the water, sunbathing! When the fish are sunning themselves, they flap their fins in the water now and then, and that's what caught my eye. With the binoculars I got a better view, but close we never got! The sky during our overnight motor-sail from Ibiza to mainland Spain showed some of the same beautiful colors we had experienced on the Sardinian Sea, but the sea life wasn't as rich and varied.

Our first stop-over along the Spanish mainland was at the anchorage off Cabo de Palos, where we figured we would hold up for a few days while strong winds passed by. Well, the strong winds arrived three days later but from a totally unexpected direction, so we woke up from the boat bouncing up and down with the waves from northwest. Time to pull up the anchor and continue towards Gibraltar! After only a day sail, we opted to pull in to the harbor town of Aguilas, and we knew we could anchor in their harbor; we had been there before on our trip into the Med! We ended up staying in Aguilas a few days, but on Memorial Day, May 27th it was time to continue. That day would only be a day sail also, as we were able to reach a beautiful big bay south of San Jose, called Puerto Genoves, where we anchored over night. The following morning started the last push for Gibraltar! As we rounded the last point of Spain at Cabo de Gata, we saw a Turkish warship circling off the coast, and we wondered why it was there and what it was doing? Anyway, the hazy coastline surrounding Cabo de Gata soon disappeared and we motor-sailed on. We encountered very strong current swirls in the water as we were getting close to Gibraltar. The water coming in through Gibraltar Strait fans out once inside the Mediterranean, and by doing so it sets in motion great swirls. New water brought new food into the Med, and the many large dolphins, which it seemed to be an abundance of, thoroughly enjoyed feeding in the swirls. During this last face of our journey, Dan had dragged his fishing line behind the boat, and he caught his fourth fish, and on his birthday to boot! He was so happy, and a good size fish it was! We figured out it was a "king fish", good eating, so it was worth saving. We had encountered very light winds all day, but as we were about to round "Europa Point", the winds picked up. We can say we sailed the last few miles north to the good anchorage in La Linea, on the Spanish side of The Rock, where we also had been before and knew where to anchor, even if it was dark by then.

Finally, the sailing part of our journey out of the Mediterranean was done. We had come 1912 miles from the east and it had taken us much longer than expected; we were about one month late according to our plans. Now the needed boat repairs had to be organized and carried out, before Dan and Duke could set out alone for northern latitudes!

Dan made an appointment with Sheppard's Marina to have our boat hauled, so for a few days we stayed high and dry. While "on the hard", Dan sanded the bottom of our boat and repainted it with bottom paint! The Autohelm electronic gauges had to be tested to find out why some didn't work? The wind speed and direction gauge was set to measure in "seconds per meter"; no wonder it showed much less wind on the gauge than what we were experiencing at the time. Only the multiplexer board, which ties all the information from the gauges together and sends them to the Cap'n navigation program, had to be replaced. The alternator bracket for the Yanmar engine had broken on the way; it got re-welded and re-installed. An external fire alarm was installed for the radar; now Dan could sleep while underway and still be awakened if something came within his safety zone. That was a must for sailing alone! The zipper to our door for the cockpit had lost some teeth and needed to be replaced so it could be closed properly. Since there was no sail-maker shop in Gibraltar, it was up to me to sew it! With thick thread and using the same holes through the heavy plastic, eventually the new zipper was installed. Back in the water with our boat, the fuel tanks filled, some more minor repairs completed, food stocked up, my airline ticket for Paris was bought, and on June 14 it was time for me to leave. I was thrilled to be going ashore for the entire summer, but at the same time I felt I was abandoning Dan and Duke. Dan reassured me that no matter what, he wanted to sail to the northern countries, and maybe this would be a good experience for us both; me away from the boat and the stress, and Dan to find relief on his own. And so we went our separate ways!