We arrived in La Linea (right above Gibraltar) on the 16th of June after a dolphin-filled trip from Motril. The last update we did was on May 7, which was for our Patreon followers. So it’s been quiet for a long, long time – and we’re going to tell you why. Rest assured – both boat and crew are doing well, but we have decided to take a break here in La Linea. Nalu is in Alcaidesa Marina and she’ll stay here with me (Martine) while Martijn is back home in the Netherlands to work – he left last Saturday. So — what happened, why did we go quiet and how was our trip from Samos to La Linea?
The story so far
Let me start by posting the video we released to our Patreon followers on May 7th, and we’ll take it from there:
Why we went quiet
Like we said in the video, we had to make our way to Kefalonia in time to pick up our crew, and that kept us pretty busy as we were hand-steering all the time. We arrived in Kefalonia on May 14, after some beautiful days on the water and enjoying sunny evenings in lovely Greek anchorages. We had a lot of fun getting to know our new-to-us Amel and sailing her out of Greece!
Our crew member arrived on time (May 17th) as did our package with spare parts, so things were looking pretty good … right until they weren’t. We could only get one processor to work, which meant that -YAY!- we had our autopilot back but sadly, no (wind) instruments or depth sounder. We used the fish finder instead so we could anchor safely, but it was a big, frustrating disappointment.
Nalu in Argostoli, Kefalonia
Leaving Greece
We left Kefalonia on May 23rd to make our way to Sicily, where we arrived on May 25th. It was a lot of motoring – but we were getting used to that, especially after we learned that ‘Med’ is short for ‘Motor Every Day’ 😉 And hey – at least the autopilot was working again, so we were happy enough.
All was reasonably well – the boat did amazing and we were falling more and more in love with her. Sadly, though, things didn’t go as expected with our crew, which caused a lot of stress and frustration for us all. To make matters worse, I managed to miss-step getting off the passerelle in Sicily, and managed to badly twist my right ankle while falling on my left knee, landing on it with my full weight. This left me with a blue and green looking, swollen ankle and knee – not good when you’re traveling on a sailboat …
We did manage to do some more repairs in Sicily (engine hoses and hydraulics) before I managed to hurt myself, but it was mainly waiting for a good weather window. We first left on May 27th, but the sea-state was so bad that we ended up turning around and going back to the marina (we stayed in Porto Turistico Marina di Ragusa) … We left again on June 1st to go to Tunesia.
Nalu in Ragusa, Sicily
Since my ankle and knee could barely take any weight and the boat was rolling pretty enthusiastically, I spent most of my time in the aft cabin. That probably sounds more relaxed than it was – did I mention we were rolling badly? – and it added to the growing frustrations on board.
Tunesia & Spain
We arrived in Tunesia on June 3rd, and while we were pretty darn happy to have sailed Nalu all the way there without much trouble, we only saw small parts of the city (Bizerte). We had hoped to take a day or two to see more of the country, but I was still barely able to walk and our crew didn’t want to go anywhere at all, so we ended up staying on the boat.
Nalu in Bizerte, Tunesia
From Tunesia (where we left on the 5th) we had planned to sail to the Balearic Islands, but when we got close enough to check out the marina’s and the prices, we decided to keep going. Yes, there are some beautiful anchorages as well, but we needed a serious grocery store and they were only near the marina’s. The price per night varied from €250 to €550 … Yes, €550. Per. Night. So – we kept on going and ended up spending the night in Villajoyosa – a little under Benidorm. From there we went to Mar Menor, Motril and finally La Linea.
La Linea / Gibraltar – decision time!
By the time we reached Gibraltar – which was a beautiful last day and night, as we had big pods of dolphins near and around the boat several times! – we had reached a decision. We had four main issues that we needed to deal with:
- The lightning damage had cost us a good chunk of our budget; not just for the parts but also staying in the marina, renting a car etc. etc.
- I could barely walk since my ankle and knee were still very swollen and painful and needed time to heal properly.
- While our crew is the loveliest fellow and we consider him a good friend, we were just too different in – well, anything from food to boat choice to how to navigate etc. which was stressful for all three of us.
- Since summer holiday time is about to start, and good help is hard to find on the best of days, Martijn had no shortage of work offerings and could make some good money back home.
Nalu in La Linea, Marina Alcaidesa
A two month break to work and heal
It made sense for Martijn to go home and work for the next two months, but what about Nalu? “I’m not leaving her behind again,” was my first reaction. “I’ll stay on the boat, I have Starlink to work and I can heal my ankle and knee properly.” Which is what we did. We booked Nalu into the marina for 11 weeks and Martijn flew back home last Saturday the 28th. He’ll be back by the end of August (and a quick weekend visit in between). When we’re both back on the boat, we’ll set sail for the Azores » Brest » Netherlands. Obviously, our crew member had to fly home when we arrived in La Linea, as we’re taking two month break.
In the mean time, I will try to take advantage of this time in the marina by updating the website. As you may have noticed, it’s had a bit of a refit and looks much better now (in my opinion anyway ;)). I’ll try to post information about our route, where we stayed etc. etc. in the coming weeks.
For now, thanks for reading this very long post and stay cool in this heatwave we all seem to be stuck in!
