The last cruise for this year should be the longest, so we started with my old sailing friends Gerhard Rothfuss and Gerhard Westphal sailing 197sm north to the Côte d’Azur on September 30th.
After 39 hours we moored at the Marina in St.Raphael, bought baguette, french delicatessen and wine, and continued to St.Tropez, where we got mixed up in a huge regatta and anchored in Anse des Canebiers at last.
On October 3rd we sailed along Iles D'Hyeres to Toulon, where we moored at Darse Vielle, took a stroll around Toulon, and had a nice dinner at Carre 2 Vigne.
Next day we sailed west to Marseille, where we were hapy to get a mooring place in wunderful Port Vieux at CNTL.
After intensive sightseeing and climbing up to Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde we enjoyed dinner at Le Gout des Choses.
After some more sightseeing we left Marseille in the afternoon for our next leg to Barcelona.
After 28 hours and intensive tacking we moored in Porto Blanes and cooked a lot of Palatschinken with Westphal's apricot jam. Next morning we continued tacking to Barcelona, where we moored in Port Vell for two nights to have time for visiting this beautiful city and pleasurable restaurant visits to Sequet de Almirall and Segons Mercat de la Barceloneta.
After refueling in Port Olimpic we sailed south 105sm in 20 hours to Port Soller in Mallorca. At noon on October 10th we anchored south of the harbor, took the dinghy and went by the ancient tram to the city. After sipping the famous orange juice we savoured delicious tapas at El Sabor.
Next day we sailed along Isola Dragonera, Andratx and spent hte nicht at anchor in Cala Portals. We continued east to nature reserve island Cabreras, where we moored at a bouy and enjoyed swimming and hiking.
In the night we awoke by strong gusts and left our bouy early morning, sailing fast northeast in a following sea to Porto Christo, where we moored in the public harbor.
We started our last leg over 180 sm back to Alghero next morning and sailed with favourable southwesterly winds via Capo Caccia to Cala Taramaglio in 30 hours. There we enjoyed our last swim for this year and moored in Porto Alghero on October 18th. Sea of Joy will safely remain in Aquatica Marina till next spring.
On this cruise my crew accomplished over 500 SSB short wave connections with their highly sophisticated radio equipment in a a world-wide marine radio amateur contest.
We sailed 994sm in 185 hours. You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on Google Maps: Part1 and Part2.
