One Last Voyage
2024
The sun was setting on our cruising season for the year and reluctantly the time had come to leave our last beautiful anchorage. Our final cruise would be a 14-hour crossing west from the Balearic Islands to mainland Spain - Barcelona to be exact. If we were to arrive in daylight, which is always our plan, we could either leave after dinner, cruise through the night and arrive mid-morning, or we could hoist the anchor at 4am and cruise into the day arriving in Barcelona just before sunset. The weather and sea state was predicted to be pretty much the same regardless of our departure time so we opted for the latter. Why not enjoy our last cruise during daylight hours and arrive less weary than we would if we sailed through the night. Of course, I was also hoping for one last dolphin sighting!
It was a dark starless departure but easy enough with no concerning obstacles, just a few fishing boats off in the distance. We made coffee underway and watched the day emerge.
We had flat water and a slight current with us and saw very few other boats on the water. I sat on the bow in the warm sun enjoying a light breeze, though sadly no dolphins came to play.
The hours passed comfortably and we took turns at the helm, eating, reading and napping. That evening, just as the mainland came into view so too did a storm approaching from the south. It looked like we were destined for a super windy and wet mooring. Thankfully, the dockhands were at the ready when we radioed the marina and we managed to secure Meraki just as the first drops began to fall.
Will we make landfall in time?
The marina welcoming committee.
The lightening began about an hour later with loud cracking and snapping of thunder directly overhead. Much as I love an electrical storm, I was super grateful not to be at sea. I could not have been happier tied to the dock during this one - it lasted hours!
The next day we moved the boat to long term berthing along the outer wall of the marina where she will be moored while we are away. It is much further from the office, laundry/shower facilities, shops and restaurants but that was of little concern. It is much quieter on the far side of the marina with just a couple of live-aboard folks further down the pier. It seemed to be the perfect spot.
We had four days to put things in order on Meraki before flying out; sorting through all our belongings - purging the things we don’t use, emptying all the cupboards and storage lockers, defrosting the fridge and freezer, stowing all our summer gear, shutting down all the systems, closing all the seacocks and packing for our trip home. We had a couple of brief reprieves from the ceaseless deluge but it mostly continued nonstop for the next two days making the tasks at hand quite arduous.
But actually that wasn’t the worst of it. After two days of uninterrupted wind and rain, and two days before we were to leave, our toilet quit working! Why do the worst things happen in the eleventh hour? This wouldn’t have been too terribly awful except we discovered (at THE most inopportune time) that there are NO bathrooms WHATSOEVER on the outer wall of the marina! We typically don’t use the showers in marinas so it never occurred to us to check the location of the bathrooms. It is literally a half a mile (850m) to the nearest toilet! An eleven minute walk simply wasn’t going to work for middle of the night tinkles or post-coffee deposits!
Tom downloaded the manual for our vacuum flush toilet and watched a zillion youtube videos on what typically breaks and how to fix it. Armed with some limited knowledge, we walked to the chandlery in the pouring rain getting thoroughly soaked to the skin before even getting off the pontoon. Naturally, they didn’t have what we needed on the shelf, but we did manage to order the parts (from Mallorca no less where we were 3 days ago!) and paid extra for next day delivery.
Our mop pail became our temporary toilet in the meantime - it wasn’t pretty. The day before we were to leave Tom spent 7 hours removing, cleaning, reassembling and reinstalling the vacuum pump system and reconnecting the hoses and wires to and from the toilet and black tank. I worked on the rest of our list (while running for things to help Tom stem the flow); deflating the paddle board, stowing gear, emptying lockers, cleaning and doing laundry so we could pack. Unfortunately the rain meant hanging everything inside so I strung lines throughout and opened all the doors and windows hoping the incessant wind would evaporate and dry things quickly. The cabin looked like a kite shop, total chaos from stem to stern and there was, quite literally, crap everywhere.
By 8pm that night we had a working toilet again. Tom showered, I fashioned some sort of dinner with the food remaining and we discussed all of what now needed doing on our final day aboard. On the positive side, the ongoing storm gave us an opportunity to see how the boat behaves in this particular marina in rough weather. And it also made clear that our decision to leave the Med at the end of October was probably very good timing.
People often question why we return to Alaska, of all places, in winter. The truth is, I love spending the holidays with my family and friends (regardless of where they are)…I still love winter (just not 7 months of it)…and quite simply - I’ll always love Alaska with all it’s peculiarities. I can’t imagine going anywhere else!
So for now, I’m wishing everyone a joyous holiday season, sending love and light. I’ll be back after the first of the year. Cheers!
Good morning, Alaska!
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