Leaving Italy...

Mahon Harbour

 We were very sad to have to leave Sardinia so soon.  There is never enough time it seems.  I will refrain from complaining about the Schengen restrictions yet again... I have complained enough.  Much as we would love to linger longer in Italy, we are now headed to Spain.  From Sardinia to Menorca, the closest island in the Balearic Islands of Spain, is another overnight sail.  The trip started out fine... but as the night wore on the weather took a turn.

Mahon, Menorca - Spain

Being very sensitive to lightning following our near direct lightning strike, we became very alert when we started to see lightning off in the distance.  We turned on the radar to locate the storm cell and then we promptly diverted our course.  No way were we going to sail through a storm with lightning after just getting Talaria repaired a couple months earlier.  

 

Mahon, Menora

Diverting would mean we would get in later in the day, but still on the day we intended.  In the end, we went about five miles around the storm and when we saw a path to get back on course we took it.  For sure, we got rained on but we avoided the lightning, so although wet we were happy.  By the next afternoon we spotted Menorca and started in the harbour entrance at Mahon.  The small island of Menorca is not the most popular but definitely the closest from Sardinia and the first opportunity to check in to Spain. Although now short on time we lingered a day to have a look around the town of Mahon before heading to Barcelona.

Mahon Harbour

A high school friend that I have not seen in 10 years is on a cruise and will be in Barcelona.  Since we are in the area we decided to try and make it to Barcelona while her cruise ship is in the port.  So we can't linger in Menorca too long, but plan to stay in Barcelona for a few days.  

 

Island of Menorca

On the day we set out to leave there was a fellow in a kayak beside Talaria.  We were motoring out of the harbour and he was just out kayaking.  He started talking to us about coming from the US and then asked if we were heading to the next island, Mallorca.  After we told him we were heading to Barcelona he said "be careful, there will be heavy storms".  Now mind you we are very diligent about checking the weather, but I had not checked the local weather forecast.  Instead I used a weather app we use often called "Windy".  Windy was not forecasting the storms at the same intensity as the local forecast. 

Mahon, Menorca

 We were thinking "how did we not see that?"  So... we decided to at least get to the other side of the island.  Initially, we were going to go to a marina but there were visible storms in that direction. Instead, we made the decision to just stop at an anchorage that looked okay.  It was raining but the storms were all ahead of where we were stopping and not moving our direction.  Several other folks had the same idea.

Anchorage - Menorca

 The rain finally stopped and it was a quiet night.  Early the next morning we pulled the anchor and set sail for Barcelona with blue skys.