To Ireland in six weeks

Its time to fullfill one of my dreams: sailing to Scotland and Ireland. Stella is flying to Bodrum on June 5 and we will leave Gulluk on June 7. The total journey is around 3400 miles. At an asumed average speed of 5 knots that is 28 days of continuous sailing. But this is Covid time….

Turkey has reduced the number of cases from 60.000 to 5.000 during their Ramadan lockdown. But still Ireland considers Turkey “Covid-red” which means a 10 days $$$ mandatory hotel quarantine at arrival even though we have been alone at sea for almost a month…..the Craziness……

One of the options is to stop in “Green” Gibraltar but that means a 10 day quarantine on the boat in the marina plus 4 times a Covid test! Commercial PCR test provider Maritime Medical Services Ltd Gibraltar charges 245 pounds per test! Outrageous and totally immoral how governments allow these private companies to take advantage of this situation: a PCR test in Turkey costs 30 euros.

So we will pause for a week in “Covid-orange” Tunisia and Marina Cap Monastir informs us: No quarantine at entry, just a 25 euro PCR test on arrival. As always, Tunisia is wonderfull.

I have already bought cooking gas and provisions for a month in advance. There is no time for Stella to get used to life in Turkey as we will be leaving in 2 days. Its time to buy all fresh food.

We checked out with the help of Gulluks local port agent. Atilla Refik Aktas of Marsol Yachting Company is very knowlegable. He was of great help to us: www.marsolyacht.com

We meet a couple coming from the Azores at the fuel dock. They say they have been harrased by orcas and have rudder damage. I hear their unusual story but think: this will not affect us as they came from the west and we go North. So we fill up and continue to Tarifa.

The next morning after the repair there is no wind so we motor northwest in the direction of cabo Vincente. Suddenly the rudder moves, is there a problem with the autopilot? Then the rudder moves more to Port and the boat turns. I switch off the autopilot and put the engine in neutral but keep it running. Then the rudder slams vilently to starboard, the boat turns again. Suddenly we can see them…orcas!

They are very close, surrounding the boat. An orca approaches from behind and dives just before the stern apparently biting the rudder and moving it at the same time. The orcas continue their game for 2 hours changing roles continuously. The young orca is always looked after.

After being pushed around for 2 hours I decide it is time to take action to try get out of this situation. I put the engine in gear again and steer Southwest. The orcas continue to push the boat off course. Then I try to steer northwest and while I feel there is still an orca holding on to the rudder the animal allows me to steer…..

The boat was not sailing well so we stopped the boat to take a look underwater at the rudder.

Once around the corner sailing up is very hard as the “Portugese trade winds” blow continuously on the nose from the north parallel to the Spanish and Portugese coast. The best chance is to wait for a lull and motor straight up. So far we are lucky.

But half way up the wind increases to 25 knots. The engine is working hard all day but we are making no progress. The latest GRIB files which predict wind, waves, rain for the next 10 days, show even stronger headwinds. There must be another way, this must stop, we sail.

After one and a half day of sailing away from the Spanish coast dark clouds appear…success… once truly in the westerlies sailing becomes a breeze: in 4 days we cover 600 miles and are close to the south coast of Ireland. Then 3 more days on the Irish sea to Ardglass.