Sardinia Racing

Here is a video I made of our time in Sardinia at the start of June. Featuring footage from the Dubois Cup and Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta. We finished both regattas in Second place each time. Fun times with a full report to come maybe in the next instalment.

Hope you enjoy!

Ears: The Shades

Parents and Train Rides

I was lucky enough to have my old man, Steve come and do the Atlantic crossing with us. It was pretty cool to do something like that with him, and also good for him to see some parts of the world that I have been and he probably would never have gone (Caribbean, Azores etc.). Whilst in the Azores, we managed to convince mum to come over as well. So no more than two days after arriving in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, we were at the airport waiting to greet mum.

Together they spent four nights here in Palma, got to have a decent look around town as well as the island. A train trip to Soller (pronounced soy-ere for those non familiar with spanish) on one of those old electric trains was a highlight. It takes you from Palma, across the lowlands in the middle of the island and through the mountains and onto the seaside port of Soller.

From Palma, the olds went to Barcelona for a week, before heading to London for a weekend and then back Downunder.

See below for more details...

Ears: Palma Violets

Once the train trip finished in Soller, it was on to a tram for the final 2km to Puerto Soller

The Port

Mum and Dad

last time I was here 18 months ago it was raining, 10c and blowing about 40 knots. This time round was a bit better.

The tram dude

Back to Europe

It has been over 18 months since we were in Europe, and as we arrived though the front gate that is the Gibraltar Strait, we were welcomed with one hell of a sunset. This was followed by a night of pea soup fog, which really is not ideal when you are in the worlds busiest shipping lane.

The next morning however the skies cleared to just scattered clouds with the stress of the Strait behind us we soon found ourselves back in the familiar role of fishing. 20 minutes after setting the lines we found ourselves hooked. A broken rod and 15 minutes later TJ landed what is probably the biggest fish many of us have ever seen.

Once the excitement had settled, jokingly/semi-seriously we threw the lines back out and in less than 5 minutes we were hooked again. This time another tuna, which we would have been stoked with usually, but was somehow dwarfed by the whale that we pulled in earlier.

Anyway if you don't believe my story, here are some photos to make your own one up with.

Ears: Happy Hands Club - Lost At Sea

The traffic jam that is the Gibraltar Strait, each red triangle is a ship that HAS AIS tracking, there are still all the normal boats and fishing vessels that don't have it to deal with.

Steve and Fede keeping a good watch

More detailed traffic

Spain on the left and Morocco on the right.

Jim, in typical British fashion, saluting the Rock of Gibraltar with a nice cup of English Breakfast

Me, Doug, Gerben, TJ, Jim and Wall-E

The Crane Stalk delivering Crane Babies to Europe

TJ on the Hook Up

Landed

Hook-up #2 for the morning

Typical "How to Land A Fish on Zefira" technique

#2 - almost a throw-away

The morning's catch