9 October 2001 - Final Saga

Another damp and humid day this time on the hard at Alucidia, Mallorca, Spain. Linda caught the plane this morning back to the UK to see her mother who is seriously ill in hospital. it's not the first time that her mother has been rushed to hospital but this seems to be the most serious and presently we're not sure how long Linda will be there.

We left Cagliari which we enjoyed with the harbour being right in the City centre which was a pleasant change (although later we heard that an NZ yacht was completely stripped of all it's electronics including their radar while they were ashore for a couple of hours shopping) and headed out with a 30 knot wind up our chuff. It made for some good sailing for a change although it took a bit of juggling to get the boat to stick to some course with large wave trying to knock her sideways all the time and the autohelm losing control. This was alright for a while as we came out and rounded the bottom of Sardinia but as soon as we headed West the wind shifted on to the nose again causing us to head NE and amend our planned destination of Ibiza to Menorca. Linda's stomach performed as usual but overall it was one of our better sailing legs apart from a couple of thunder storms that soaked us and had the rigging screaming for an hour or so with winds and waves all over the compass. That is until we actually tried to head up the narrow channel into Menorca's Mahon harbour. We arrived early at dawn and actually slowed down to hit the channel at first light when the channel navigation lights were still working and right at the entrance to the 200m wide channel a thunder squall came screaming through. The rain was so heavy I couldn't see the bows of the boat where Linda was struggling to try and drop the anchor while I white knuckled the engine throttle. Linda reckon our stern got within 10 metres of the rocks and she was already to jump but we managed to get a bit of shelter behind an island when, just like a tap being turned off, the squall past and we were in sunshine. So wet and bedraggled we motored on and tied up at the first gap left by a departing motor yacht on the crowded harbour wall. We soon found out why so many yachts were on anchor or on buoys when the cost of the place was about $A70/night. Well we thought it would be only for a couple of nights as we wanted to get going a hot shower would be nice to recover from the recent incident.

About that time we also seriously considered our plans especially in terms of our budget which was seriously overdrawn due to the greatly increased costs that I had not expected ( four to five times what it cost when I had sailed to Cyprus 10 years ago) as well as whether we were actually enjoying it. I was finding it generally very boring and frustrating and Linda spent most of her time feeling sick and we came to the conclusion that it was best to call it quits while we could. There was no way we could finance the rest of the trip and could not see us being able to fnd the time or money in the future to return to complete if we parked the boat up somewhere. There was also all the costs of importing, mooring and major overhaul once we got to Australia. We initially thought that we would head to Barcelona which we reckoned would be the best chance of selling however, after sending 7 faxes to various marinas, the only place available on the hard was here at Alcudia. We have since found out that people trying to book a place at Barcelona back last January for this Winter were told the marina was full. Here they say that the only reason that we got a place on the hard is that berths are so difficult to get that if you have a berth and want to keep it you have to pay double to keep the berth as well as pay for the hardstanding space. Hence most people are leaving their boats in the water.

This hunting for a berth and waiting for the squally weather conditions to quieten down (no way was Linda going back through the gap in the rocks out of Mahon if there was a dark cloud anywhere to be seen!) took another 3 days and we headed out the afternoon of 30th Sept to sail overnight to Mallorca arriving again at dawn on 1 Oct '01. We were lifted out that afternoon and since have been cleaning and clearing the boat out trying to make it presentable to potential buyers. Linda had 4 boxes of food stashed away in preparation for the Atlantic crossing which we gave away and I was surprised that I managed to clean off all the tyre marks left behind by the pilot boats when we transited the Suez Canal. My elder son Jude came over last weekend from the UK so it was good to see him after six years.

So Linda has headed off and I will spend the next week packing up and posting what we want back home then via ferry & rail catch up with her at her sister's place in France. Depending upon the health of her mother we plan to trave end of Octoberl to see friends in New York and San Francisco before heading to NZ for Christmas with my parents aiming to be back in Australia early 2002 to start work and begin replenishing the coffers. I guess I will now be able to concentrate on fixing up my old Ford Model A which I left in my fathers garage some 25 years ago " just for a year Dad ! " when I first left NZ. I will just have to build a garage with high enough doors at our place at Clontarf.

So until next time

Don & Linda

P.S. This is Linda Speaking

Hi everyone,
I thought I'd just set the record straight about my stomach!!

I was always OK on the first day out and as long as the wind was not blowing 6's and 7's I was OK ( apart from cooking), the rest of the time. Even when it was blowing 6 & 7 I was only sick days 2 and 3 and by day 4 I was OK again. I do admit that as most of the trips were only 4 to 5 days it wasn't much help but!!!!!!!

Anyway I am still at home in UK and will probably stay here for another week. We brought Mum home on Friday as there is she has decided she does not want any further intervention and I am busy sorting out support for her when I leave, which despite our wonderful Social Service system is not as easy as it may sound. The most challenging problem at the moment is finding someone to either take her shopping or even do the shopping. I will succeed.

It is about time I got on and did my chores.

Will keep in contact.

Love Linda

The fate of the boat. Bit sad

E mail from Vivian Grimshaw to Don Laing, 12 Jun 2003

"Hi Don,
I've just got back from Mahon, you got it right, Mahon harbour was hit by a 10m tsunami. Te Kore was smashed against the harbour wall, a 2.5m x 1m hole was made in the port hull & the port forard cleat was ripped out and she sank. I am trying to sort out the insurance now, she may be a write off, but I would like to rebuild her. I am totally gutted, she sank at an angle across the walkway it was so dramatic they used the picture of her for the front page of the newspaper!"

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