Ibiza

Hard to know what else to call this day, what started out as a short 5nm motor to Ibiza Town turned into a crazy mornings weather.
We knew the wind was forecast to be circa 15kts SW, gusting 20 or so...hugging the coastline we are just over a mile from the harbour entrance as the wind keeps picking up.
20 kts... 25 kts... 30 kts.. 35.....
White horses coming at us, our speed is dropping and the wind increasing, 1 mile now to the harbor mouth.
Increase the revs, again, but speed still dropping, lee shore is only 500m away.
50 kts gust comes through, her bow won't stay straight, feels like she's being smacked to port and starboard, it's half a mile to the entrance and then we can turn away from the weather.
An alarm starts sounding, we can't figure out what it is, might be a DSC alarm from a nearby yacht, lots of traffic on the VHF.
Turn off the VHF but still the alarm continues.
Could be an engine overheating alarm, throttle back but alarm continues.. Can't slow down or could end up thrown onto the breakwater.
Around us high speed ferries passing all the time. Meanwhile the alarm continues, Margaret goes on the helm while I try and hunt it down.
No smoke from the engine room so that seems alright, but every time I look at the engine alarm panel the sound is louder..
We clear the breakwater and turn into the harbour, now we can throttle back, still the alarm continues... Its loudest back where Margaret is at the helm, adjacent to the engine control panel. Suddenly we discover its AIS proximity alarms on Margarets and Ruby's phones ....no time to think about that, have to concentrate on finding our way into the marina, wind is 25kts plus and gusting, ferries passing each side of us.
Directed to a berth but after two abortive passes decide we should try another option.
Turn away to get into an upwind berth, start our approach and discover bow thruster has stopped working, maybe circuit breaker has tripped after the previous berthing efforts.
Too late to turn back, committed now, have to go for it.
Marinerios on the dock and in a rib are a welcome hand, plus the concerned neighbours we are trying to come in next to - Patpicha a boat who also wintered in Cartagena.
Just as we get the dock lines on we see another Cartagena boat 'Kaoz' approaching the marina. They too encountered the 50 kt gusts and have a blown out headsail, plus the skippers wife has sustained a hand injury while trying to control the run away sail. On the radio they are requesting assistance, so the marinerios leave us and head over to them in their RIB.
Makes us glad to be in and safe.
We do a little tidy up and sit down for a snack and a drink, relief is certainly the sweetest emotion!
The ibiza night clubs will have to wait... 24 hours anyway.. 😁
The next morning we take a walk down to nearby Talamanca beach, just next to the port entrance. There we see the sad sight of two yachts which have been blown up onto the beach. Judging by their otherwise fresh appearance, it's probably fair to say the same storm accounted for them too..Leggi altro