{"id":59,"date":"2012-05-25T17:12:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T16:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=59"},"modified":"2012-05-25T17:12:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T16:12:55","slug":"and-then-the-sun-came-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=59","title":{"rendered":"And Then The Sun Came Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, we were hopeful of departing for Palma and left Bandol with high expectations.\u00a0 The wind was about 20 knots and the seas were very choppy coming out of Bandol Harbour.\u00a0 We thought it will calm down once we are outside, but no.\u00a0 As we sailed out the winds moved up to 30 knots, then 35 knots as we sailed in the Gulf of Lion, which has a fierce reputation.\u00a0 We decided its reputation was well deserved and went back to Bandol.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t just the wind making the sail uncomfortable but very confused seas and a chill in the air to rival Tasmania\u2019s.\u00a0 Today was just to be seven hours of practice.<\/p>\n

We came to an agreement \u2013 we leave on the next sunny day, which gave us two more days in wet and chilly Bandol.\u00a0 Luckily, Bandol has wonderful restaurants and if the weather was wet and chilly, the wine certainly warmed us up.<\/p>\n

Finally on Tuesday afternoon, the sun came out; we agreed that we would brave the Gulf of the Lion once more. We departed early on Wednesday morning. \u00a0This time it was manageable, Mercier sailed well in 20-25 knots, but the sea was still confused.\u00a0 At one time, I could see waves approach the boat from three or four different directions. We were visited during the day and evening by dolphins who would ride the wave bow for awhile.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t mind the weather at all.<\/p>\n

It was still bitterly cold, but Mercier was plowing through the waves on a reach and the Mercalm was managing the confused seas for Gaila.\u00a0 By about 11pm the winds dropped and so did the sea, the boat was going well under autopilot and James stood watch for most of the night, with a few hours of respite from Gaila. James had a visit from a sea turtle<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time we sighted Menorca the seas were flat and winds were light. It was great to sight land and it wasn\u2019t too long before we were motor-sailing along the coast of Mallorca.\u00a0 This was the Med of my dreams, azure blue seas sailing past rugged cliffs and lighthouses, viewing modern villages in the hill side.<\/p>\n

We pulled into Porto Colom about 7:30PM and anchored just inside the harbour.\u00a0 The waterside was active and we could hear dogs barking and see children playing along the harbour beaches.\u00a0 The houses are a rich white against the blue skies, very picturesque.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We set sail at 7AM, the sea is a pane of glass.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to see the 17 metrest to the bottom. We are motor sailing, as there is no wind. We are hoping to be in Palma for lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, we were hopeful of departing for Palma and left Bandol with high expectations.\u00a0 The wind was about 20 knots and the seas were very choppy coming out of Bandol Harbour.\u00a0 We thought it will calm down once we are outside, but no.\u00a0 As we sailed out the winds moved up to 30 knots, then … Continue reading And Then The Sun Came Out<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","category-dreams","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}