12) Menorca, Spain

Puerto de Fornells, Menorca, Islas Baleares, Spain 40° 03.9 N 04° 08.2 E

Puerto de Pollensa, Mellorca, Islas Baleares, Spain 39° 54.2 N 03° 05.2 E

We are still on the hook and preparing to depart this morning.  John and Alan went ashore so they can e-mail and pick up some pastries.  They were back in 15 minutes.  Yes, the Internet café was closed and so was everything else.  Once back on board they said that they were going back in 15 minutes when the stores opened.  I said, so we’re still here for an hour or so.  They said, oh no 45 minutes tops. 

 

Alan wanted to put gasoline in the dinghy tank.  The fuel is stored forward on the deck and tied to the lifelines.  John and I witnessed how major accidents/incidents happen.  While John and I were talking in the salon Alan walked across the cockpit carrying the blue 5-gallon jerry jug and asked if that was the jug to use.  He shook it and it was half full.  If he hadn’t asked then the potential was a destroyed outboard motor.  Blue is for drinking water, yellow is for diesel and red is for gasoline.  And, on each bottle are embossed letters denoting the contents.

The boat weighed anchor and we were on our way out of the bay at around 10:30am.  Originally we planned to depart at 8:00am for a reason.  We had heard through Nancy that there was a weather system moving into the Mellorca area later this Friday night and the seas were predicted to be 10 feet.  We intended to leave Menorca on a heading of approximately 250° and that would have taken us directly to our next port.  The planned distance was 42 miles and we estimated that it would take us about 8 hours to get there.  After leaving Puerto de Fornells we wanted to hug the shore in order to get a close-up view of the spectacular headlands.

The stage is set.  Here’s a recap: a storm is forecast; need to leave early; under a time restraint; close to shore sailing; and to top it off it’s a boat.  Now sit right back and you’ll hear a tale a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship…  make sure you hum that to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. 

While we were close to the cliffs and John and I were taking pictures an audible buzzer alarm sounded at the cockpit helm.  After a cursory glance at the temperature, oil pressure and voltmeter we determined that the motor was over heating since it displayed a temp of around 240°.  Not good.  Not good at all since we were motoring and within a few hundred yards of terra firma.  

The first thing that needed to be done was really two things: the motor must be shut down and all the canvas put up to get away from shore.  But, the motor would not shut off.  With a diesel, the only way to stop it is to interrupt the fuel flow.  The shut-off at the helm would not stop the motor.  So, we then did the other first thing and put up the mainsail (aft of the mast) and the stay-sail (forward of the mast and aft of the Genoa which is the largest sail on the forward stay).  I have adopted many flying principles to sailing and when the flying got rough I was taught to fly the plane first and then figure out what was wrong.  In this instance I took the helm and John joined Alan below in the engine room.  This event was one of many that were pretty much all very important. 

I had the helm and the winds were out of the west at around 10 knots.  This was just enough to move the boat.  At this time I did not even consider adverse current that could potentially take us into shore.  I pointed us 90° from the hard stuff and headed due offshore to get as much distance as possible.  John comes scooting up from the engine room and yelling at Alan below not to use that fire extinguisher (it was Halon).  He grabbed one from the salon and went back down.  Keep in mind that the engine is still running and overheating and the alarm is still going and I’m still sailing.  I’m stuck at the helm heading offshore.  A lot of time goes by and we meet in the cockpit several times to discuss our options of how to stop the engine.  Much time went by and Alan came up to the cockpit and asked John and I why we don’t turn off the engine.  We laughed out loud and said we were waiting for him to figure it out.  He got out the engine manuals and got to work again.

Here’s what happened.  There was a short circuit in the ignition solenoid on the engine.  While they were down trying to stop the fuel flow the diesel fuel return line was removed and John got splashed in the face.  There were sparks flying and that was the reason for fire extinguishers.  Luckily, diesel does not easily ignite.  They then looked at the solenoid and it appeared upset.  Somehow through luck Alan pulled or pushed or yelled at it and it stopped running.  This was 1 hour and 45 minutes after the alarm first went off.  Most boaters want to get an engine running and we wanted to stop it.

It’s 1:15pm and the engine is off, we are sailing and John unwired the buzzer alarm.  Now we have to troubleshoot the overheating issue.  A couple manuals and lots of talk and Alan went below.  We decided to keep going to Mellorca as Menorca has no facilities and Mellorca has better opportunities for us to ride out a storm.  A problem with sailing and the course we were on is that based on the wind direction and the direction of land we had to head north and we wanted WSW.  That was bad.  That made our approach to Mellorca much later than planned, after dark and into the storm.  We needed that engine.  They figured out how to turn it back on and that was good.  Then Alan found an internal cooling leak.  Granted this was 4 hours later.  We had been sailing into diminishing winds and got not very far offshore.  On top of that the leading edge of the storm was here and funnel clouds were visible. 

Small funnel cloud forming in the low clouds.

We had all the canvas up and were on a course for Barcelona, Spain on the mainland.  If the storm arrived and the wind moved to the north as predicted we might be able to sail to Mellorca but that would be into 10’ waves and very strong winds.  That is a recipe for disaster.  For this entire afternoon John and I played the helm and tried to keep that boat moving offshore.  The small squares with black dots in the center on the chart below are planned way-points; the black line is the planned route; the red line is the actual route.  You can see the first deviation where we headed due offshore.  We decided that we were far enough out and the tack angle was good to clear the point if we turned left.  So, we turned left.  Then the wind died and we had to turn right and offshore again. Then the wind really died.  We were drifting and twice went completely around in a circle. 

Alan came up and said he thinks he fixed the cooling problem and to turn on the engine.  After 20 minutes or so the temp remained at 185° and we said kick it in gear and lets go.  We dropped the stay-sail and Genoa and fired it up to 7.5 knots.  We were in a hurry to beat that storm.  It was 5:30pm, the issues started at 11:30am and the GPS said we would be in port by 11:30pm.  A simple 42-mile 8-hour run turned into a 13-hour 62-mile run.  When the line turns to the left and goes straight that indicates when the motor was turned on and we got going again.

So for the next six hours I stayed in the cockpit and watched the temp, the helm and the weather while reading and listening to music.  Due west of us the lightning was spectacular.  Then it was ahead of us but still to the west.  We lucked out on that issue.

Around 8pm the seas started picking up and so did the winds.  By the time we reached the inlet the winds were 20 knots out of the NW and the seas were only 2-4’.  At this time the rain started.  When we dropped the hook in about 13’ of water we were relieved.  It seemed pretty flat.  But, overnight the wind picked up and the swells were coming in the bay and wrapping around the points and we were rolling.  It was an uncomfortable night at anchor.

John and Alan are currently onshore looking for another place to anchor, making phone calls, scouting laundry, food, etc.  It’s 11am now and earlier I wanted to make pancakes so I stayed behind.  The wind is blowing 16-22 out of the NNE where we are hooked, the boat is rocking and rolling and it’s raining very heavy in the surrounding hills.  We are the only boat in this anchorage.  I’m ready to go ashore.