GANYMEDE'S TRAVELS
19th May
I have wanted to start a cruising blog for some years now but always lacked the courage, or lost the blog site I had decided to use. Strange how they disappear like that. I am sure I know where I found the site last time, but when I go back... it isn't there. Perhaps I should listen to my husband and bookmark sites that interest me.
I always think of cruising as having two seasons: summer, when we move around, make some long passages and spend most of our time at anchor, and winter, when we are based in a marina with no thought of putting out to sea until fair weather is once again the order of the day. Admittedly, I am usually more than ready to leave our marina life behind by the end of March and Tony, my husband, usually agrees around the middle of April. This year we were late, I was looking forward to it, but I was by no means prepared. We left anyway. I had promised myself a flat, glassy sea and time at anchor to make everything aboard shipshape. But the sea wasn't glassy, there were waves out there and I worried that, below decks, things that should have been well battened down but weren't would start flying around. Thank goodness we were going a distance of less than five miles.
Then the nice peaceful anchorage I had been looking forward to for weeks was not quite so peaceful. In fact, there was an unpleasant swell. Well, to be honest, the first night wasn't so bad, nor the second but I didn't have my sea legs yet and the swell was enough to make me feel... less than 100%. However, night number three the swell was much stronger. All night long Ganymede rolled from side to side and we spent the night bracing our bodies, trying not to roll to and fro with the motion of the boat. By morning we were exhausted. Huge rollers were now coming into the anchorage. We decided to move across the bay and hope to find shelter there.
Did I say it had also rained overnight? Sand! Ganymede was brown. It was incredible, we'd never seen it that bad.
No swell in our new anchorage. We made a trip ashore, walked around, stopped for lunch and then headed back to Ganymede, by which time it had started to rain. There was no swell that night. Only rain, and lots of it. And lightning and thunder... what had happened to my dream of peaceful nights at anchor? Morning came and no respite from the rain, it was pouring down. We were to go to Cabrera that day, a nature and marine reserve some four hours distant. I wanted to cancel. Strangely, Tony didn't... it is usually the other way round. We sat around all morning, waiting for a break in the clouds. We had to go ashore first, buy some provisions. This was going to be wet! But it wasn't. The rain stopped, just long enough for us to get ashore, to the supermarket and then back on board Ganymede again. And then the next rain storm moved in. Tony was still determined. We were going to Cabrera. Out with the wet weather gear. At least it wasn't cold. I hate being cold... and if sea conditions are bad being cold is likely to bring on a bout of seasickness.
At one o'clock, just as I was becoming resigned to a wet crossing, the rain stopped.
