A Rough Crossing

After returning to the boat in Sardinia from a week exploring Rome, we were joined by our good friends, Marcia & Tim. Marcia & Tim are hearty, true adventurers and so they singed up to help us sail from Sardinia almost 300 miles across the open Med to Menorca.

It's a good thing they're hearty, because it wasn't an easy crossing. After arriving in the afternoon jet-lagged, we had a wonderful dinner in Porto Cervo and woke up early the next morning to depart. Exiting Porto Cervo we were greeted to 35 knots of wind and 8 foot waves! After bashing upwind for an hour to get around a nearby point, we turned down a bit and spent the next 30 hours close reaching in the big waves and wind. No one got much sleep in what was a confused sea state that had the boat launching off one wave and crashing into the next.

There aren't a lot of photos from the crossing itself (after all, we were busy, and Ryan was barfing for the first 15 hours our so...), but boy are we glad we had Marcia & Tim!! Mara and I agree that without them, we would have been stranded in Sardinia for a while.

Here's Tim comforting a very queasy Ryan:

Most importantly, though, the girls have both now done a legit, rough, open-ocean crossing. It's very good to get them a little experience in less than ideal conditions before the next two months, where we will do over 4000 miles at sea! I have to say, they handled it like champs. KK was our "snacktician" -- making lunch and food to keep everyone going, and even Ryan stayed positive when she wasn't getting sick.

They have made it clear to us that they do not want to do that again, but we know they can if we have to. And almost all of those upcoming 4000 miles should be downwind, which is much easier than what we just did, even if it's windy. So keep your fingers crossed for us for fair winds and following seas!