Its been just over 3 months since we left the UK.

We’ve learnt so much in these three months, both about ourselves and Mokara, and we can feel that we are all starting to settle into our new life. There is definitely less talk about home and what we left behind and instead more questions and anticipation on what we will see and where we will go.

For Shawn and I learning how to manage the boat better, and not feel so overwhelmed by her power. We now understand better what sail configurations work in particular winds. As well as testing and finding out how all the different systems and equipment work. Equipment like the generator which charges our batteries and allows us to live comfortably at anchor for weeks on end. The watermaker, which turns sea water into fresh drinking water, this also allows us to stay off grid for some time. Our solar panels which help charge the batteries without the use of the generator and thus less fuel is used, so much cheaper option than the generator. The power inverter which coverts the 12v boat system into 220v which allows us to use appliances we would usually use at home like printers, washing machines, microwaves etc. The chart plotter which plots our position and helps us navigate to new places. We also use paper charts when doing long passages just in case something goes wrong with the electronics and we need to know where we are. The radar which helps us sail at night. The satellite phone, when we are far offshore without mobile phone signal the Sat phone is there in case of emergencies. We have x2 engines which need regular maintenance and checking. And the list goes on…

In hind sight it would have been better for us to have owned Mokara for a year or so before we set off so that we could get use to her and know her backwards before we left. I know that would have been a lot less stress on Shawn, instead he is doing crash courses every night pouring over manuals and testing different settings and options. The equipment on board is not over complicated its just that we want to make sure we do everything right and don’t end up breaking things, or overloading batteries. As we have come to find out – everything to do with boats is very expensive, whether its repairs, instillations or new equipment. The more we can maintain and keep in good working order the better.

We are now in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands getting ready for our Atlantic crossing. We had a great 6 weeks in the Balearics and then a few more off the Spanish mainland which has been perfect training for us all. With short, easy crossings to each island to ease us all in and lots of anchoring so we now know the drill as we arrive in a new anchorage. I’ve got to get the hang of provisioning basics, although I think I need more practise with this one as my children are forever hungry, and its hard to think of healthy snacks which are easily obtainable, store well and quick to make! Any suggestions will be very welcome!

I have had much needed dinghy driving training, which I have almost mastered, I just need to build up my power for those ripcord pulls to get her started! The boys have loved steering the dinghy under Shawn’s guidance and I’m adamant that they won’t be driving it solo before me!

We arrived in Fomentera on Ibiza in early August after our first 24 hour passage.

The passage was hard and long as although there was wind it kept changing direction or dropping to nothing which made our sails and us very unhappy, as we had to constantly adjust them so they were not flogging.

Formentera was very busy – it was August, of course it was! Coming into the island we had boats coming at us from all angles at which point I happily handed the helm over to Shawn to deal with! We arrived at our anchorage after motoring past some huge motor yachts with helipads attached to them. Finding a spot to drop anchor was quite difficult as we had to avoid the sea grass which is protected and find enough room for our boat not to swing into anyone else. Eventually we found a spot just off the beautiful white sand spit at the top end of Formentera. We all couldn’t wait to jump off and cool down as the temperatures were well into the late 30’s.

I knew Ibiza was busy in August but I never imagined it to be so busy. We are used to having a handful of boats at anchor with us, and anchoring to be a peaceful time. Not in Ibiza! The anchorage was like the Tesco car park on a busy Saturday morning, with every available slither of space taken. Just when you think the last space has been taken another 6 boats arrive and manage to squeeze in!

Then obviously every boat has its toys! Our toys consist of x2 Quroc paddle boards on which we love to take quiet paddles around the shoreline. The toys in these boats consisted of high powered jetski’s, jetpack flyboards which propel people 15 feet into the air using pressurised water, remote controlled hover surfboards, the boys loved these as it looked like the rider was flying above the water, gigantic slides which hung off the side of motor yachts and hand held water scooters to name a few.

As you can imagine there was a lot going on around us. So much so that the water was so churned up and lumpy in this anchorage because of all the motor craft zooting around. It made it quite scarey to swim off the boat for fear of not being seen by a jetski when it flies past your boat just after you’ve jumped in! After our long passage of not seeing many boats this had us all amazed, and we were more than happy to just sit and watch all the action around us, not daring to get our paddleboards out to try and negotiate the lumpy swells!

As the day wore on – the music started to tail off as the big day boats left, the anchorage became beautiful and quiet for the evening and night. We were left with only a handful of yachts around us and we ended up having a wonderful quiet night. I woke up early to go for my paddle to the beach before all the boats arrived again. When I returned to Mokara we discovered that because of the wind direction that there were loads of purple jellyfish in the bay that day, so we decided to move on to the main island, where we were going to pick up my brother and his family in a few days time. We hoped we would come back to Formentera in September when it was less busy, but sadly we never got the chance.

We picked Ryan, Bella, Alexander, Willoughby & Ella up from a beach we had directed them to near San Antonio. I think they were a bit shell shocked at the boarding facilities. The beach they arrived on was very busy so they had to wade through sun tanned bodies with all their bags to the shoreline where Shawn was waiting on the dinghy to take them to Mokara which was anchored further out in the by. Trying to find a good anchorage for them to embark from was quite tricky as we didn’t know any of the anchorages yet and we needed one that wasn’t too remote so that the taxi could reach it. Anyway they got to the boat albeit slightly damp.

The boys wasted no time and were in the water swimming in minutes.

The rest of the 10 days they spent with us were filled with moving slowly up the west coast of Ibiza. We got to see so many different sides to Ibiza, from a beautiful pine clad bay that we could have mistaken for somewhere in Canada, to the busy club beaches of Cala Bassa. We loved them all for different reasons. Portinax was a lovely little seaside village on the top western side of the island. We loved the beaches and restaurants here.

The 10 days passed in a flash, and soon the Geere’s were making their way back to the airport. We were very sad to say goodbye, hopefully they will join us again somewhere more exotic. We had a day to clean and tidy the boat before our next visitors the Shorts arrived for a 4 day stay.

The wind had picked up considerably, and the weather reports were not looking good for the first day our new visitors were with us. We had become quite complacent about the Ibiza weather, the whole time the Geere’s were with us everyday was lovely, hot and sunny. The only thing we needed to watch out for was the direction of the wind so that it did not make our anchorage rolly from the swell or bring in jelly fish with the wind, which is why we were unprepared for the storm that hit us.

We picked the Shorts up from the same anchorage in Ibiza Town that we dropped the Geere’s off at. There was a handy dock to negotiate bags with, and it was close to town so that we could stock up on groceries and spend a day looking around the old town. The boys were also desperate to stay there as long as possible as it meant shopping (which they love) and frozen Yogurt (which we are all now addicted to!)

After collecting the Shorts from the dock we got them settled on board and then decided to head into town for the afternoon. We loved the beauty of Ibiza old town and every time we went back we discovered new areas. As Jen wasn’t feeling great on board Mokara we decided to have dinner at a small beach shack restaurant, which was stunning! Our dinghy ride back to Mokara that night was exciting, as the wind had by now really picked up and it was now also raining! Our first bit of rain since leaving the UK! When we got back to the boat we were all a little wet and cold so decided to head straight to bed.

As the night went on the storm that had started on our trip back to the boat just got stronger and stronger. Soon we had around 35 knot winds with thunder and lightning. The nice calm anchorage had turned into huge swells and braking waves all around us. This was the first time we had ever been in a storm on board Mokara so Shawn and I decided we would take it in turns to keep watch that we didn’t drag anchor or loose anything overboard. It was quite an exciting watch – seeing waves break against other boats, dinghys get flipped over and then back up right again. We nearly lost our whole shoe bucket overboard at one stage which made for an exciting but noisy rescue on my part. Goodness knows what the Short’s were thinking they had let themselves in for!

When morning came the weather hadn’t changed much. It was still blowing a gale with long periods of lightning and thunder. We all decided it was a boat duvet day! So we popped on a movie and everyone settled in whilst we watched the wild weather whip around us.

By evening all the clouds had cleared and it was back to the beautiful Ibiza weather. The only hint that it had ever rained so hard was the amount of fresh water that was pouring out of our sail bag. Jenny was feeling a lot better so we had dinner and made a plan to depart for the east coast in the morning.

The following day we moved to a stunning anchorage called Cala Llonga and then the following day just outside of Santa Eulalia.

All to quickly it was time for them to go and we said goodbye to the last of our holiday visitors.

We were now on our own for the first time in a long time and it was time to regroup, sort the boat out, work out where we were going to next and start boat school!!!

We spent the next couple days enjoying being the only boat in a stunning anchorage. Spending the days paddle boarding and swimming, and in the evenings we would take the dinghy to Santa Eulalia and walk around the streets enjoying the atmosphere. We decided we would move across to Mallorca so we started watching the weather to see when a good time to go would be.

The sail to Mallorca is 12 hours, so we decided to leave late afternoon in order to arrive the following morning. When we left Ibiza I remember looking back as the island got fainter and further away and thinking what a great time we had there and how much of the island we had seen and experienced. I really feel as though we know the quiet side of Ibiza. We found all the hidden beaches and tried to stay away from crowds as much as possible. It really is a stunning place!

Our overnight sail went well. We left in glorious weather, but by the time we approached Mallorca the weather had changed and was cold and wet. The unseasonal Spanish storms had started, and unbeknown to us they were also starting to make the news!

We anchored up in a little anchorage a bus ride away from the capital city Palma.

We needed to drop our EPIRB (Emergency Positioning Radio Beacon) and VHF Radio off in Palma to be reprogrammed with our details. So the following day we all headed off on the bus to Palma.

After a long walk to find the place to drop the radio’s we were able to enjoy the sights of Palma. We explored the beautiful cathedral and surrounding streets, and walked along the waterfront promenade, before heading back to the boat.

The following few days we moved Mokara around to the bottom western coast of Mallorca. We stayed in some great places and went on stunning walks. By this time we had also already started boat school which I will talk more about in a separate blog, so our days had a bit more structure and routine to them. School in the morning followed by a trip to land and a hike or swim.

As the storms were coming and going we were watching the weather closely, and talking to many of the other boats as to where and what their plans were to avoid them.

As the weather was set to get very stormy we decided to book a mooring buoy for a couple of nights in Port d’Andratix, This was a popular town with loads of restaurants, good supermarkets and a great protected marina. We ended up staying 4 nights here as the weather was pretty fierce and it gave us some security to know that we were safely tied up to a mooring buoy. The storms whipped in with very high winds, which tossed all the boats around both in the marina and the mooring buoys. We started getting smart and watching what the marinero’s (the people working in the marina) wore to work. If they had their wet weather gear on in the morning – even if it was nice and sunny – it meant there was a bad storm coming. We were caught out one day whilst on shore, a storm came in and completely drenched us before we could make it back to the boat for shelter.

After around 4/5 days in Port Andratx, the storms started dying down, we had been back to Palma on the bus to collect our reprogrammed radios, time was ticking on for us to get back to mainland Spain. We needed to be in Almeria to collect Paul & Charlotte, so we were mindful of how much time we had to get back down to where we started off.

After checking a couple weather reports which were all giving mixed reports Shawn and I decided we should make the overnight sail back to Ibiza. We left early evening whilst the sun was still up. It was an easy 12 hour sail so we didn’t want to leave too early as it would mean we would not arrive in daylight which we always like to do. So we left at around 8pm. As we exited the port entrance the wind was a lot stronger than we anticipated it would be. Shawn and I were both slightly nervous having seen how quickly these big storms came up. We considered turning back for a moment but then decided naaa, lets just go.

We found out about 2 hours later what a bad idea that was. As we turned the radar on we could see we had a huge storm heading our way. So we altered course so that we wouldn’t get the full brunt of it. We were now heading into the edge of the storm with a smaller storm following it. We decided to put the boys to bed and start reducing the sails to prepare for the rain. Before we could start the thunder and lightning arrived and we were surrounded by it. Constantly flashing all around us. The sea was very confused so we had waves and swell also hitting us from all directions. Shawn turned on the engines to help give us direction and propel us out of the storm and we both started grinding in the genoa sail. Once we got the sail under control I retreated to the dry cockpit whilst Shawn was at the helm. The boat was being knocked about and the wind was whistling. The worst part of the storm must’ve only lasted about 15 minutes but at the time it felt like an eternity. I remember thinking how we were both holding onto metal rails and standing on wet decks, with the lightning so close I was really worried about the mast and thus the boat being struck. Lightning is a very frightening thing on a sailing boat. Floating on water with a huge aluminium mast, which almost attracts the lightning. We’ve read a couple stories of people being struck, although all the stories talk about the damage to the boat and the electrics rather than the humans, so perhaps it passes down and out the bottom of the boat before it can get to us on the deck. I’ll need to research it as it would be comforting to know.

Looking back now the night passed with very unsettled patches of rain and wind. We were not able to get much sleep as we needed both of us on deck, so there were no individual watches to do. When daylight came we could see Ibiza. We really wanted a nice calm anchorage to spend the next night and to catch up on much needed sleep. So we headed down to the bottom half of Ibiza to an anchorage we knew well, Cala d’Hort. All in all it wasn’t our best decision to leave Mallorca that night, but on the other hand it gave us the experience of stormy weather sailing, and showed us how Mokara handled storms. I would rather have experienced that in the short relatively safe crossing from Mallorca to Ibiza than have had it for the first time whilst crossing the Atlantic. We knew land was not far away and help could be there quickly. We now also know that before we set off if there is even the slightest hint of stormy weather that we don’t go, we sit it out and leave later. Mokara handled very, very well, and we now have real confidence in her to carry us safely. I’m sure that is not the last storm we will experience, but at least we now know how to prepare and what to expect.

Our evening in Cala d’Hort was lovely. The holiday period in Ibiza was over so the anchorages were much quieter. We even had dolphins in the anchorage with us which was a real treat. We stayed there for 2 nights and then set sail for mainland Spain.

Our wonderful Balearic summer was over. It was time to move on to the next stage of our adventure, which is preparing for the big Atlantic crossing…