sy Timoneer

We picked up guests south of Rome at Nettuno Marina June 16th and left straight away for the Pontine Islands doing a fly-by of Palmarola to check out the impressive arches in the cliffs. We continued on to anchor north of Ponza Harbour. The town is a picture of pastel and white coloured buildings with many small boats moored around its shore. Around the coast are many grottos and spectacular cliffs. Next stop was Isola Venotene with its Roman harbour hewn out of the rock and the small quaint town behind. One mile across the water is Isola San Stefano with its disused prison. The whole island is a reserve now with authorised access only.

It was then a 50 mile hop down to the green island of Ischia and its impressive castle before heading on past the beautiful town on Isola Procida with its white, pink and cream cubic houses rising up to the Castello on the cliff tops. We then motored across the bay of Naples to Marina di Stabia. From here the guests and some crew visited the ancient ruins of Pompeii, which were buried in AD79 when Mt Vesuvius erupted.

That afternoon the wind picked up and we headed for the famous island of Capri. After a few attempts of finding somewhere to anchor out of the swell we gave up when given the news that the marina had made room for us. We spent 2 nights in Capri exploring the incredible blue waters around its coasts and the maze of tiny streets through its town.

The winds died and we had a 10 hour motor down to Stromboli to view its eruptions both by day and night. The natural fireworks display it put on at night was very impressive especially from so close. In the morning we continued on through the Aeolian Islands to Panarea where we took a tender journey around exploring its rocky coast. The next island was Salina with its vineyards and quaint towns and then on to Lipari to stop for lunch and a swim and a visit by dolphins. We continued on past the historic town of Lipari and anchored on the southern shores of the island looking across at the impressive Gran Cratere on Isola Vulcano. Four of us did an early evening dash across to Vulcano and climbed to the summit of Gran Cratere for a spectacular view of all the Aeolian Islands at sunset. To the south we could also see Mt Etna smoking away.

In the morning we headed south through the Messina straits to anchor below the old town of Taormina. The guests spent a day exploring this area and the next day went on a tour up Mt Etna to the summit at 10900 feet. This involved a bus, cable car, a 6WD truck and finally hiking.

We then headed further down the east coast of Sicily to Siracusa and the old town of Ortigia. Being moored stern to the town of Ortigia made it easy to explore its narrow streets and enjoy its many ice cream shops and restaurants. We were also very close to the ancient Greek and Roman ruins of Neapolis.

The guests left from here and Timoneer left 2 days later.

“JC” John Cornish

We are now in Sardinia doing two regattas, the first one was the Dubois Cup which we ended up winning! See the links below for details if you are interested.
We have done one race so far of the Loro Piana regatta so far and came 12th out of 18 boats after breaking a spinnaker halyard and dropping the sail into the water. Not good! Today’s racing has been cancelled due to there being too much wind.

http://synfo.com/news/dubois_cup_2011_16482.html

http://www.superyachts.com/news/dubois-cup-2011-roundup-1274.htm

http://www.loropianasuperyachtregatta.com/video-gallery/

Timoneer made it to Porto Cervo this afternoon after an uneventful trip. We had blue skies and flat seas and this morning we saw 7 Sunfish flopping around as they do.

Now its time to get ready for racing.

JC

Position 39deg 15N 003deg 05E
Course – 062 Degrees Speed – 11 Knots Day’s Run – Miles
Weather – Fine and clear
Wind – 6 knots from ENE

Timoneer went back in the water on Fridayafter a hectic month in the ship yard putting her through her ABS survey and changing the antifoul paint on her hull.
We left Palma with a beautiful sunrise this morning. The conditions across the South of Mallorca have been flat calm allowing us to continue the big clean up to remove all the dust from the shipyard.

We have just rounded Punta Salinas, the most southern point of Mallorca and are now heading for the most northern point of Sardinia on our way to Porto Cervo. Porto Cervo is the heart of the famous Costa Smeralda where Timoneer will be competing in 2 regattas over the next 2 weeks.

First is the Dubois Cup, http://www.duboiscup.com, for 3 days and then next week we start the Lora Piana regatta, http://www.loropianasuperyachtregatta.com.

Please keep track of our progress.

We have just over 300 miles to go to Porto Cervo and expecting good conditions for the trip which should get us in around 4pm local time tomorrow.

JC

Noon Position 39deg 11N 002deg  11E

Course – 39 Degrees   Speed –  9  Knots        Day’s Run -197   Miles

Weather –   Nasty

Wind – 12 knots from NNE

Today’s News

Over the last 24 hours we feel like Timoneer has been thrown in a giant washing machine. The weather has been much worse than predicted with 25 to 35 knots on the nose and a typical steep Med sea. In the 7000 miles we have done from Patagonia to here this has been the most uncomfortable and we are all looking forward to arriving in Palma around 4pm local time and gettingon land.

JC

Noon Position 37deg 18N 1deg  10W

Course – 53 Degrees   Speed – 10.4   Knots        Day’s Run – 287  Miles

Weather –  Overcast with slight seas

Wind – 19 knots from NE

Today’s News

Yesterday afternoon we went through the Strait of Gibraltar on a lovely, sunny day with flat seas and 3 knots of tide speeding us in to the Med. As per usual there were at least 100 ships either anchored either side of the strait or transiting through it., including the largest container ship we have ever seen, Maersk Erving. It was over 1200′ (366m) long and wide enough for Timoneer to go across her and still have width to spare. Very impressive to see steaming by at over 20 knots.

We all enjoyed the flat conditions, getting a good sleep, last night. J.P. and Jordi saw a dolphin playing beside the boat leaving trails of glowing green phosphorescence behind it. An amazing and rare sight.

This morning the wind has been slowly building and we are preparing ourselves for a bumpy night bashing our way in to it from mainland Spain across the North of Ibiza to Palma. All going well we should arrive in Palma before lunch tomorrow.

Hope you are all enjoying Easter weekend.

JC

Noon Position 35deg 25N 006deg  26W

Course – 044 Degrees   Speed – 12.2   Knots        Day’s Run –  289 Miles

Weather –   Sunny and slight seas

Wind – 4 knots from W

Today’s News

We have had a great run in the last 24 hours knocking off quite a few miles. It has been a very rolly  24 hours with the large swells on the beam and we are still rolling with the light winds. We are all very tired from the continual motion, even sleeping is a physical struggle.

We have had some hitch hikers onboard since yesterday afternoon, 2 small swallows. They didn’t seem to be able to see Morocco 12 miles down wind yesterday. Maybe they will make a dash for the coast as we pass within 2 miles of it going through the Strait of Gibraltar this afternoon. Now with less than 20 miles to the straits traffic is getting busier and there are also a lot of fishing boats around. We have been going too fast to put our lines out.

JC

Noon Position 31deg 52N 10deg  19W

Course – 047 Degrees   Speed – 13.1   Knots        Day’s Run – 250  Miles

Weather –   Overcast with rain squalls and 10′ (3m) waves

Wind – 18 knots from WNW

Today’s News

While we were still in the lee of Lanzarote we passed very close to 2 Sperm whales. Unfortunately we had sails up by then and couldn’t slow down. Out of the lee of the island we had 20′ (6m) swells from the NW making for a very rolly night. This morning the seas have flattened a bit but it is still very rolly. Luckily there is favorable winds and we are making good speed towards the Straits of Gibraltar. Way too fast and rough for fishing though.

Position 28deg 55N 13deg  34W

Course – 076 Degrees   Speed –  11.3  Knots        Day’s Run –   Miles

Weather –  Partly cloudy and in the lee of Lanzarote

Wind – 15 knots from WNW

Today’s News

Timoneer is on her way from Lanzarote to Palma which is a distance of 1050 miles. We stayed in a very pleasant marina with modern facilities, shops and restaurants. Lanzarote is very volcanic and picturesque in dramatic, barren way. We are now making a dash to get through the Straits of Gibraltar before the winds turn to strong Northerlies on Sunday.

JC

Noon Position 28deg 55N 13deg  42W

Course –  Degrees   Speed –    Knots        Day’s Run –  260 Miles

Weather –  Sunny and FLAT inside the marina

Wind – 15 knots SW

Today’s News

After a very rolly night with wind and waves behind us we woke to the sight of land for the first time in 12 days. We followed the coast of Fuerteventura before crossing the channel to Lanzarote. Both islands are very dry and volcanic and all the houses are white in contrast.

When we left Brazil we did a sweepstake for the arrival time in Lanzarote. Jordi was the most optimistic with 11:47 local time 18th Apr and Matt was the most pessimistic with 06:30 20th Apr and the rest of us were scattered between. Jordi won the pot being only 25 minutes off our actual arrival time.

The weather Gods must have been with us and allowed us to take the shortest route and with mostly kind winds and strangely very little current against us for a trip that should have been against the currents the whole way.No complaints from any of us.

We will now clean the boat up, fuel up and refill the fridges and enjoy some time ashore while we wait for a weather window to complete the final 1000 miles to Palma de Mallorca.

JC