How did the ancients do it? Skippers perspective of the 370 NM crossing from Fromentera to Sardinia

How did the ancients do it?

Sailing for days on end, days without land in sight, sailing through the dark nights. How did the ancients do it? We all know that Colubus cheated, and actually knew the route to the New World. The Vikings were the first to make it to Amerika. They needed to rely on the position of the stars, sun and the moon for navigation. This offcourse, could only give them the lattitude, as the Longitude problem would be solved a couple of centuries later in Greenwich. They had primitive compasses, and a sun stone, a stone that would allow them to locate the sun, even when covered by clouds. Their ships where sturdy, but open, and the man and supplies were exposed to the elements. For days, weeks, months even they would have to endure, not knowing how long to wait for the next landfall. They could not have seen any rocks at night (especially if the moon is not up, there is cloud cover, or the moon is simply shining from the wrong direction).

The crossing from Fromentera to Sardinia is some 370 Nautical miles, and we expect this crossing to take 3 days. Our tank is fueled up, weather forecast downlowded and checked, the course set, and we are off. We know that even if there is no wind, our diesel tank will last the whole stretch, and our larder will provide for far longer than 3 days. We haven't quite learned how to economize on the water consumption, and we go through a quarter tank roughly every two days. Fortunately, the water maker and solar panels can easily keep up with this rate. More importantly, our music and book collection will last much much longer than that.

Back to the vikings, staying motivated, without the luxury of hot showers, music and books to read, chilled drinks, and fresh food, and unlimited amount of drinking water, exposed to the elements for weeks on end. Our crossing went smooth, with the least amount of waves we have had thus far had in any crossing. For several days we only saw one or two ships visually. Since the radar and AIS can look much further, these devices could pick up quite a few more ships. Sometimes you can see the land when it is as close as a few Nautical miles, and other times you can see land from around 50 nautical miles. If the land is mountainous, this will improve the visibility significantly, and at night, we can see the lighthouses from about 40 nautical miles on a good night. Our radar can pick up targets from as far as 48 Nautical miles, if they are big enough. The vikings, of course did not even have lighthouses to go on. The Egyptians started the lighthouse practice, but this technology had not been transferred to the New World when the ancients landed.

This means that you need to either know that the location where you are planning to make your landfall is quite large and hard to miss, or alternatively you need to keep the cross track error in your navigation less than 5 nautical miles on a low visibility conditions, or 50 nautical miles on high visibility conditions. Fortunately, for the vikings this is true for America, which stretches across both hemispheres. It actually becomes quite a lot trickyier when navigating to small islands, such as the pacific islands, Svalbard, Madeira, and so on. Can you imagine, to miss the one island in the pacific you where planning to hit some islands are less than 5 km in diameter, and than having to go on to Australia? Or Happening on the next possibly uninhabited and uncharted island? Back in the day, this is the method how quite a few islands where discovered. And even worse, lost! If the navigational notes were off, it could become impossible to find back the place where you spent such a sweet time and planted your flag...

On our 3 day crossing, I had plenty of time to think about all this. As I write this, we are less than 30 Nautical Miles away from Sardinia, and we picked up the first land at about 50 Nautical Miles distance. As I type this, I am having a chilled fruit juice, and our boat speed is above 7 knots. When we left, our water tank was at one quarter, right now it is at 3 quarters full. How Times have changed. My respect for the vikings has deepened by an infinitive amount. Going out there, without knowing what is out there, and whether it is possible at all is in my mind the ultimate proof of courage. And we all know, the vikings had no shortage of courage!

SaltyPaws serves freshly made pasta on its crossings

The owner of the SaltyPaws taking a nap

The one vessel we see, and we need to take evasive action!

Tuxington overseeing the evasive nautical manouvres

Another sunset seen from Salty
Paws

At anchor in La Coruna - Our first night on anchor

At anchor in La Coruna.

The first night we spend at anchor was at La Coruna in Spain. I was amazed with how quickly the Rocna 40kg anchor dug in. It was a beautiful anchorage, next to the local beach, and harbor. The lights of the buildings looked impressive from out spot at anchor. As the rain was poring down, we were enjoying some light dinner. As a precaution, I had set 2 anchor alarms, one using the navigation system, and one using my nexus 10. The Anchor never dragged even a centimeter according to the gps. The nexus 10 anchor alarm went off, but this was only due to a change of the wind direction. The wind had calmed down from 30 knots out at sea, to a mere 15 knots while we where in the sheltered anchorage. We have enjoyed our best night of sleep so far, even better than the night before in the local marina.

Costa Del Sol - A cruising perspective

Costa del Sol

We didn't spend too much time around the Costa del Sol. The things that struck me most about the Costa del Sol:

1. It is hard to escape the apartment buildings. Even the pilot guide is full of phrases like: “aim for the 4 large apartment blocks” to make your way to the anchorage or marina. This phrase is typically not very helpful, as there are apartment buildings everywhere.
2. We could see the snow on the peaks of the mountains peaks. I didn't expect that the SaltyPaws would ever see the snow, and now she has.
3. The anchorages are not very sheltered, and especially when the wind has a South component, it is hard to find a sheltered anchorage.
   

   

La Isla Fromentera - Skippers log

La Isla Fromentera

At First I thought that Ibiza would be too much partying. We ended up anchoring of La Isla Fromentera, just south of Ibiza. At night we could see the sun set over Ibiza. What a lovely place this was. The white beaches made the place look a lot like the carribean. We had a cycle ride, along the salt pans on the island, and also enjoyed the nature reserve. At our anchorage, just north of La Salina, we sometimes had the place to ourselves, at night that is. During the day, mostly motoryachts would come in from Ibiza and anchor in the bay. The restaurants were very accomidating to boaters, and you could order your paella over the VHF, and they would deliver to your boat.We never found out how the paella was, due the the extortionate prices that went with the service. Another well appreciated feature was, that the super market was next to the beach, and only a dinghy ride away. All in all we spent 3 nights at anchor here, the longest we stayed in one spot so far. Onwards to Sardinia.

On the way out we passed the town of Ibiza. From the water it looks like any other village on the costa del sol. Sprawled with highrise buildings. I just entered a note to self on the map: “Do not anchor here”.

On the way out, very close to our anchorage, we are send of, by a lone dolphin, making a couple of jumps in the water.

Crossing to Sardinia and Happy birthday to Mom (Jane Spiteri) – a perspective from the first mate

Crossing to Sardinia and Happy birthday to Mom (Jane Spiteri)

On departing Spain, we could not have had better sailing conditions.  We were doing a brisk 5.5 knts with the wind on our beam and the sea was a calm as an inland lake.  Waves no more than a few centimeters.  But the wind was lively enough we did not need to run the engine which was perfect for high quality naps in between night watches.  When conditions are so good, skipper and I are usually inspired to do different things.  Skipper has been learning the guitar from his computer and myself I have been doing lots of cooking and doing some research in mathematics with the help of Dr. Jim Lambers, a brilliant math professor teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi.  In honor of my mom’s birthday and her approaching move to the right side of the Atlantic (she is moving to Spain), I cooked a little Spanish meal that I wished she was there to share with us.  Happy Birthday Mom!!

Saltypaws under attack by the cracken – our first catch

Saltypaws under attack by the cracken – our first catch

During the night sail from Fromentera to Sardina, the SaltyPaws was under attack from the cracken. We did not take any of the cursed pirate gold, from Tortuga, so we where highly surprised of the sudden attack. We haven't been too inspired with fishing lately, and especially after seeing all the fishing vessels and nets and traps between France, Spain, Portugal, Spain again and Italy, one would think there would be very few fish left in any case. No revenge from this side therefore either.

The cracken – a 15 cm baby squid jumped on the stern at night, and by the time it was done attacking the SaltyPaws, and we actually found it, it was too late for us to return it to the sea, as it was no longer alive. The squid jump out of the sea, in order to escape from predators, using their built in jet engine. The baby squid have big eyes, and that's why events like this never happen during the day. We did carry the correct navigation lights, but our stern light is offset to starboard, and the squid happened to jump on the port pontoon.

Unfortunately we where too far away from the Internet to look up baby squid recipes. Next time, we will be better prepared.

Mar Menor – a perspective from the first mate

A little known fact to us is that Spain has an inland sea just south of Alicante.  Mar Menor as they call it is an inland sea that is almost 12 nm long and its deepest point is 6m.  The water’s high salinity, density, and temperature make a great spot for water sports…such as sailing.  We made a one night stop over with the assistance of the port captain to had to open the bridge to let us in.  Next stop the Balearic islands.