Consulting Time II en route

From Doug Diehl

Greetings All:

It is 1430 Med time, Saturday, 30 Sept 2006. Consulting Time II and crew are just off the southeast corner of Mallorca enroute to Palma from Porto Colom, Mallorca. We arrived in Porto Colom about 0930 yesterday morning. The night before was spent sailing part of the time and motoring in very light wind part of the time. I think during the entire night we saw one commercial vessel, which surprised us all (the vessel didn’t surprise us, we just expected more traffic).

After we were Med moored at the local yacht club, Jim asked for the Fodor’s book on Spain to read up on the sights of Porto Colom. He was shocked to learn that not only was it not discussed in Fodor’s, it wasn’t even on Fodor’s map of Mallorca! I told him that only sailors knew about this town. Actually, Porto Colom has a wonderful natural harbor with moorings and a large area to anchor. It is mainly a tourist town for English and Germans, complete with a lot of good but expensive restaurants, some nice beaches and one laundry run by a very hard working German lady (who did our laundry). We rented bikes for the day and got to see a bit of the area. Jim and I went to a beach while Pete and Beau sought out internet cafes to get caught up on sports scores and business, respectively. We enjoyed Porto Colom but had to leave this morning about 0815.

After motoring out of the harbor, we tried out my new snatch block strap for the end of the boom. We ran the boom out almost perpendicular to the boat and ran the jib sheet thru the block to see how the jib would set up as part of a double-headsail, no main, downwind rig for the Atlantic crossing. The jib seemed to set well. We will use the spinnaker pole on the used 120% genoa that Bill Richardson helped me buy from Bacon’s in Annapolis. It will come over here as checked (overweight) luggage on the next trip.

We have had a delightful trip today. The wind came up to 15 kn , on the nose, of course, shortly after we got done playing with the half a downwind rig. So we tacked in moderate seas down the east coast of Mallorca enjoying the cliffs and calas and local sport fishing boats. At about the half way point we rounded Cap Blanco and we began close reaching. As we have rounded the island, the wind has been more and more aft and now are on a broad reach with 11-12 kn. It is a beautiful sunny day and 84F.

Beau flies out tomorrow morning early and Mike Coppe arrives shortly after noon. We plan to depart Palma on Monday morning after playing tourist and buying a few groceries. The weather forecast is for 10-15 kn winds the next few day, generally from the SW and of course, our course is SW!

Anyhow, all is well and I will keep you updated.

Best regards, Doug

Michael Thieneman on 10/19/2006 21:10

Dear Doug, I am in the process of buying a new Morris 486 and wanted to make contact with you to learn a little more about your experience with your boat. John DiPretoro said you were cruising in the Med. I am outfitting my boat to do some world cruising. Sounds like she is doing well for you! Are there any things you would change if you had to do it all over again? My boat hull just came out of the mold. Inside cabinets being made now. Any advice you could give on things different would be appreciated. Have a great time in the Med! Mike Thieneman

By Ocean Navigator