Set Sail · Sailing Astrum

Two years of evenings spent at the chart table, and this morning it finally mattered. The tide was on our side, the squall line was parked north of the Cabo de Creus, and the skipper had stopped re-reading the departure checklist because he could no longer read it in one piece.

We cast off at 07:40 with a fresh 12-knot southerly, and by 08:10 Barcelona was a grey smear on the horizon and the Balearics were a smudge that eventually resolved into there, that’s Palma.

The provisioning barge alongside Svastrum in Port Vell, crates of oranges and spare anchors stacked on deck — Last look at the provisioning barge in Port Vell — the oranges are going to last a lot longer than the patience.

The first 24 hours

A single-day leg, but the kind that sets the tone: fenders in the right places, both bowsprings through, harnesses on, coffee before the halyards. The autopilot did 19 hours of the 22-hour passage without a single question, which is a personal record for this boat.

The route ran 12 miles off the coast, which meant looking at cliffs all day and occasionally seeing the crane boats that ferry supplies to the islets. Svastrum was tracking the 6.2 knots the polar promised, motoring when the wind dropped under 8, and — new ritual — logging the engine hours at every watch change.

Leg one, in numbers

Leg 1 — Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca

From	Port Vell, Barcelona
To	Palma de Mallorca, Port (Moll Lluís Salvador)
Distance	148 nm
Duration	1 day
Avg speed	6.2 kn
Notes	Focalised between Cabrera and the mainland on the last 30 nm. One fog bank, two dolphin pods.

Palma’s harbour was a wall of light and guitar music. We tied up, collapsed, and ate the oranges. The circumnavigation officially begins tomorrow with the crossing to the east coast of Sardinia — but tonight, for once, the logbook ends with a period.

To be continued.