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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