Gibban

15-17 March 2012 The passage from Mahdia to Monastir was a day hop just under fifty miles up the coast and with a light breeze blowing we got the opportunity to raise the huge Code 1 headsail for the first time. Despite heading down wind, Moksha was able to almost match her boat speed to wind speed with the big sail up. Getting along through the water at 10 knots in 11 to 12 knots of breeze is impressive. Unfortunately what wind we did have disappeared way too soon and we were forced to drop sails and revert to diesel power for much of the trip. With nice smooth seas it was a very relaxing passage. Wolfgang, who joined the boat in Malta had been having trouble settling in on board. His idealised expectations of life on Moksha turned out to be a lot closer to that which a charter guest would enjoy rather than that of a crewmember sharing the workload and he never really adapted to reality. A German anaesthesiologist who had been working at Mackay Hospital in Australia, Wolfgang seemed ...

October 25 – 29, 2012 Next morning we woke to heavy rain beating down on the decks above our heads. It certainly wasn’t the weather you would normally want to leave harbour in but we had two issues weighing on our minds. Firstly, we’d phoned ahead to book into the marina at Estepona and had been told we’d got their last available berth. We didn’t want to risk losing it by delaying our arrival. Secondly, we all hated the marina at Benalmedena so much just wanted to get out of there as soon as we could. By the time we’d had some breakfast and got the boat ready to cast off, the rain had eased and the visibility improved significantly so away we went. The combination of drizzling rain and the cool breeze saw us breaking out our heavy Musto wet weather gear for the first time since being on Alcheringa . This served as yet another strong reminder that winter was just around the corner. After such a great summer we are really over the cold weather and not looking forward to its return. Howev...