On July 7th, we decided to make the 70nm crossing to Ibiza. The winds were forecast to be out of the North in the 10-15 knot range and it was to be a nice easy downwind sail.
In the end, we saw winds average 15-20 knots, and reach the upper 20’s for an hour or so. I’m pretty sure that I enjoyed the journey a bit more than Deb.
The great news here is that my new gyro compass did a fantastic job and has really enhanced the downwind steering under autopilot. The gyro compass sends not only heading but also heel and pitch data to the autopilot which is programmed to interpret this information and “anticipate” changes in direction. It works!! This is great news for those of us that plan to make the 3,000 crossing to the Caribbean in November.
We reached the NW corner of Ibiza an hour or so prior to sunset and pulled into a small harbor called Cala Portinatx. Nothing special here. Nice but not great. Sort of felt like a town and resort area that was well past its prime and just barely surviving.
Morpheus Sailing 