Hoppeti blogiraamat

Wednesday 10.6.

Now we are on the Mediterranean, suffering from wonderful weather, strong sun and weak southerly wind. Fabulous feeling on board! Vid Malagasvinstänktaredd!

15 tough guys from Estonia, looking like friendly pirates, exposing their tattooed muscles, are laughing , joking, working or relaxing around.

Jacke and I are the finlandssvensk representation on board. I'm the female representation . (But I received a man's name , Anton, of some superstitious reasons)

We left Malaga at about 1h40 , a little delayed by a mysteriously missing passport. We are still going by motor, hoping to sail before we reach Ibiza after two days.

Livet är underbart

Wednesday 10.6.

Few pictures from the lazy, hot and dreamlike yesterday. It seemed to continue forever. Good food, wine in the sun, water buckets used as shower. No sails, the wind still too weak.We had our first watch turn, from 6-8 pm. East 90' . It was not so easy to keep the ship exactly on the line. We had seen dolphins jumping earlier, but now they didn't show up. A fabulous feeling anyway!

Unfortunately my battery was empty when the captain stopped the motor, a ladder was installed and we all jumped in the sea! Like big pink dolphins we swam around in the salty water. When we had climbed on board , it was the captain's turn. He floated happily on his back, while we felt free to cape the ship. But we didn't . He's a very good captain.

Jacke and I decided to sleep on deck under the stars. Following his foreca-prognoses there shouldn't be any changes in the weather before next afternoon.

But at 5 a.m. Udu tickled my feet : a thunderstorm was coming up, raindrops fell already and beautiful lightnings colored the sky.

We took everything inside and prepared us for the watch in company of the thunder. Rain-clothes were found under the feet of a sleeping man, we dressed and climbed up into the wet darkness. The thunder came closer, the lightnings cut the sky in red, orange, yellow, we followed the same colors on the plotter. We saw how the thunder clouds gathered around us, attracted by our masts ? For a while we had it exactly above us. A little bit exciting! And very wet. After the worst shower followed a wind from north, but as we didn't sail we didn't react much on it.

Now at noon the weather is still cloudy, the Estonian humor is flourishing, the wind is over 6 m/s , so we are setting sails! Yahoooo!

WE ARE SAILING, WE ARE SAILING! Towards Ibiza.

Later in the afternoon .

The wonderfully silence after closing the motor, the ship dancing slow valse in harmony with wind and waves, the big smiles on all faces, all that inspired the decision to put up even top sails. Rauno climbed up in the mast like a squirrel, released the poor bounded top sails and now we fly forward for full sails!!!

Friday 12.6.

Back to yesterday, sailing-day. The good wind from behind made us tack to increase the speed. 7-8 nuts and long waves. Happy feeling on board, delicious Indian rice-meal, Pekka is an excellent chef!

In the evening the wind was stronger, but we had to take down the sails before dark. Rauno climbed up again, but the tying of the top sails together was a much more complicated project than setting them. A new thunderstorm approached rapidly, the show was dramatic : lightnings above, big rain drops falling, orange sunset coloring the sails, and the man working hard in the top of the swinging mast.

This evening I had small stomach problems staying under deck.

Friday noon

Land! A long Island appears at the horizon. Is it Ibiza? Checking the plotter, it is Formentera, a smaller island west from Ibiza. But smaller? Huge cliffs rose vertically from the sea, holes and caves gave shelter to birds, amazing! We passed quite close and then had a short break in a lagoon. Filming underwater with Ain's magic camera.

Friday evening

Reaching Ibiza we were guided where to anchor in the bay, surrounded by other beautiful sailing yachts. LillaHoppet was put on water and the Captain and Styrman, well-dressed and serious, went to check up the situation with diesel, fresh water etc. We stayed on board and were almost going to sleep, when they came back, and so started the Utu-metro! The little gummi-boat was crisscrossing in the dark between boats and boys to transport the seamen ashore. We were in the first group and had a nice walk and drink on the famous party-island.

No diesel and no other services were available during the weekend so we stayed on Ibiza until Sunday morning to continue to Mallorca and be there in the evening.

Saturday 13.6. Ibiza

Ibiza has three cities, we admired the old one with its castle on top. An energetic Estonian couple had apartments to rent there. We spent the day in there nice home near Santa Eulalia, a very clean and almost sterile little tourist town.

Sunday 14.6. Morning

To take up the enormous anchor with 50 m of iron chain using the original 100years old mechanic winch was really not easy. All the pirates were engaged. Even the guests, our hosts from the day before, who sailed with us to Mallorca.

Monday 15.6. Evening.

It was dark when we came in to Palma de Mallorca yesterday evening. Incredibly giant cruisers filled the harbor, among them the Turku-built Alluda, biggest in the world.

All day we were walking around this interesting and beautiful city, the marvelous cathedral etc. It was like an extra gift, this unknown and unexpected experience.

Tuesday 16.6. Mallorca

The luxurious jet set harbour around gives us chances to make sarcastic comments about floating plastic palaces, but we also enjoy the showers and the cafe on shore.

Hoppet is placed at the very entrance to the Club del Mar harbor in front of the big sign with the name of the club made of metal. When we started for a last city visit in Palma, I jumped ashore, elegantly as usual, but this time I stuck my head in the corner of the sign. When we realized how much it was bleeding, we turned back on board, where I received the most professional, careful and empathic treatment by doctor Utu & co. Finally I received a 'puffi' to keep the head protected, and that turned me definitely into a pirate among the others.

Black clouds rose over the city, some rain drops fell while I was resting on the ship alone.

We sailed away from the thunderstorm, after good shopping of diesel, water, food and of course vino y cerveza.

The Estonian humor had contaminated even the Finns. Good, and quite good stories were mixed with crazy interviews to Ain's mini camera on its 5m stick.

I noticed that this enormous amount of jumbo-macho-pirates had changed into a group of different fun and sympathetic personalities, and I'm proud of being accepted in the gang! As long as I'm Anton or Aljosja...

Wednesday 17.6. morning 5.30

Came up to my last morning watch. Nostalgie has already started. We have a straight north direction, the wind has changed. Comes from west now, whistling in the ropes and masts. The stars have almost disappeared giving place to the coming sunrise, turquoise, orange and this difficultily defined color inbetween. We just had a guessing on the time for the sun to show up.

I said 6'45, Ain 6'43 and Jos 6'20. I'm afraid he's right. He was.

We saw the lights from Barcelona already at midnight, when Mallorca still was close to us. The stars were dancing in a suggestiva rumba with the masts. I will never forget this amazing feeling of being strong and small at the same time.

Sad to stop just when you really get hooked and relaxed.

But Barcelona is the terminus for Jacke and me. My daughter Matilda and her husband Nicke will take over towards Genova.

I stood at the roar an extra hour. Such a steady, calm and eternal feeling. Now it's Jacke's turn. The sun is still hidden and pink violet clouds will make our guessing more difficult. The wind is increasing, some waves are washing the deck. Good for sailing, as soon as the boat wakes up.

My turn is over now, it was wonderful. The waves were big and I had to ride on them, try to take them as smoothly as possible. Sun starts warming, but I'm not taking my coat off yet.

Beautiful wavy sunny way towards the Spanish cost. Crew is calm and silent. I'm sitting on the pentry's roof, leaning at LillaHoppet (the gummy-boat), keeping steadily a rope not to slide down.

Almost 2h pm.

the motor slowed down, a last attempt to get The Big Tunafish, or at least a small sardine before landing in Barcelona. But no.

Instead the Hoppet crew prepared an other most interesting and demanding sport competition for the evening.

At about 7h pm

In Barcelona's harbor we passed nipin-napin under a skylift(?), we said Ola! toChristoffer Colon on his pilar and landed at the first free place we saw. But the harbor guards guided us further into a private area of security reasons. Now we just had to step on shore to be in the very center of this lively, human, beautiful city.

And that was what we did, Jacke and I. It was our last evening on the trip.

But after a glass of cava and some tapas in the old city, I felt that we had to go back to the ship. And so we had the chance to participate in the on-going kettle-throwing match. An iron 'kettle' was tied by a long rope to the ship. The task was to throw it in the water so that it sank. Not so easy. Points were counted, the teams were shouting, applauding. I had a beginners luck, sank the kettle a couple of times and got to the final! Ended on a shared second place, not bad!

My role as Anton, the pirate-boy, was fulfilled.

On high heals I stepped away with Jacke to have dinner with Matilda and Nicke, and returning to the ship we had a warm and good talk with Alar and the others.

Antonia