A Big Push West to Gibraltar

Finally Homeward Bound.
Gibraltar marks the halfway point of our circumnavigation.
We left NZ eight years ago in May 2018, our first stop being New Caledonia. Continuing west from there, we spent 2 fabulous years exploring Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo, then got “stuck” in Sumatra during Covid for another year. That turned out to be an incredible experience as well, by the way.
After crossing the Indian Ocean, in May 2021, visiting the Seychelles, Zanzibar, Kenya and Oman, it wasn’t until March 2022 that we finally sailed up the Red Sea, visiting Sudan, Egypt and through the Suez Canal, finally dropping anchor in Cyprus, where we began exploring the Mediterranean.
After 4 seasons cruising the Med, it is time to continue our journey westwards.
Our 2025 cruising season has taken us from Tunisia through many exotic places including Malta, Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, Sardinia, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera Islands, down the east coast of Spain to Gibraltar, the gateway to the Atlantic Ocean.
Here are some of the highlights of our 2025 cruising covering almost 2,000 miles.

Malta
Sailing in the Med during peak holiday season in Europe can be a real shambles with thousands of boats, many of them charter boats, all crowding into every available anchorage space. This can lead to some pretty unpleasant scenarios, crossed anchors, boats dragging into you in the night, rip-off marina prices, jet-skis ruining the peace and quiet and cruise ships dumping thousands of tourists into lovely small coastal towns. So, we chose to wait and begin our cruising season after the summer crush. We waited in Malta where we could comfortably stay with many of our cruising buddies until the end of August and then begin our season from there in early September.

Malta is famous for its fireworks which they fire both day and night. It all looks very impressive but when one lands in the bush next to the anchorage a fire can spread rapidly. Luckily the fire service was on hand to control this one.

The efficient public transport and regular ferry service make it easy to explore the thousands of fascinating historical monuments that have been lovingly restored following the many bombing raids over the centuries.

I was interested in visiting the old hospital built by the Knights of Malta in 1574. It was once the largest and a leading hospital in Europe until the end of the 18th century and used by the British as a military hospital, right up until the end of WW1.

There are many beautiful anchorages and places to explore around the island of Malta. The beautiful fishing village of Marsaxlokk at the southeastern end of the island is a favorite anchorage away from Valletta.

While here in Malta, we finally decided to install the Starlink satellite internet system, which will give us internet while we are at sea. This is a game-changer for us as we can get weather updates and stay in touch with family and friends while we are far out at sea on passages.

We love Malta, and you could spend a lifetime exploring the island, but it was nearly September and time to move on. Our next destination was Syracusa, in Sicily.

Sicily
The Italian Island of Sicily is just a 60nm sail from Malta. After a long day crossing to Sicily, we dropped anchor for the night in Porto Palo, a small bay in the southeast corner, and continued the next day to Syracusa, one of our favorite places, which has a very large, well-protected bay in front of a stunning city.

The city is not only a treasure of beautiful architecture, but the fresh food markets, cafes, bars and choices of various foods is a real treasure.

We anchored alongside several of our friends already here. They invited us to join them to visit a huge sculpture exhibition held in the nearby Archaelogical park, Neapolis, which has a Greek theatre and many huge natural caves. These made a perfect setting to show off the dozens of larger-than-life solid bronze sculptures, all done by a Polish/ French artist Igor Mitoraj.

Taormina. Our next stop was to anchor at the foot of the charming clifftop town of Taormina with its ancient Greek Theatre and from where we could admire the very active volcano, Mt Etna, close by.

The 7 Aeolian Islands, make up a volcanic archipelago, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily
We sailed up through the Straits of Messina battling winds against tides, as far as Mt Vulcano, the southern most of the Aeolian Islands.
We dropped anchor here so that we could climb to the summit of this very active volcano.

Stromboli is the most famous volcano in this chain, as it is very active and when anchored in front of the open crater, at night, red hot larva can be seen spewing down the mountainside. We did not go there. We felt that we were close enough, so no photos of this. But it is a very beautiful sight even by day.

Since these are all volcanoes, the coastline is very steep, and therefore very deep and usually a rocky bottom. One is often forced to a drop anchor close to shore in front of a sheer rock face.

There are small marinas and mooring buoys to rent, mainly taken up by the seasonal charter boat trade.
We did however manage to get ashore to visit these beautiful villages, which, in mid-summer, are swarming with tourists who rent out the hundreds of apartments lining the shores. On every square inch of “beach”, sometimes just flat rock, there will be dozens of people sunbathing. If there is sand, there will be beach chairs and sun umbrellas. However, at this time of the year, it is much more quiet.

As we headed further west, the islands of Salina and Filicudi, were very rugged with very few tourists or ferry traffic.

Cephalu
A coastal city on the mainland of northern Sicily, famous for its 12th century Norman Cathedral. We found a great protected anchorage behind a big sea wall, so we could go exploring and enjoy some of the local foods at the many cafes.

Sardinia
After leaving Sicily, we set off towards Arbatax, in Sardinia, 240nms away ie 2 days sailing. This can be a very difficult passage as it is exposed to winds from the north, south and the east and these winds change frequently and rapidly. We had been waiting for the right weather window, and the weather was calm when we raised the anchor and set sail. Through the night the wind increased to 15 knots. The next day, we were only 20nms from our destination when very menacing storm clouds formed ahead of us. Before we knew it, the winds came up to 25, gusting to 35 knots, and we were engulfed in torrential rain with thunder and fork lightening all around us. We had to heave-to for an hour with no visibility and 30 knot winds. We had seen the darkening clouds ahead of us a few hours earlier and had put the second reef in the main, dropped the jib and set the staysail, just to be on the safe side. We were so glad we had done that when it hit us. Suddenly, it was gone. Fortunately, there was no damage, and no lightning struck the boat, so we continued on to our anchorage in front of the wee fishing town of Arbatax.

After we arrived, we met another boat who were coming across at the same time as us, but 10 nms further to the south. They escaped any of the storm but could see us in the thick of it on their AIS.

There was space in their small marina with hot showers, a laundry and very reasonably priced. So, we shouted ourselves a treat and a meal out on town.

There are several good anchorages on the east coast of Sardinia, but we pulled into Olbia, a town of 62,000 inhabitants, with a dock right in the centre of town, and it was free for visiting yachts.

We had just tied up when the heavens opened, but thanks to our plastic awning, that we call our passage awning, we sat in the cockpit, completely dry and comfortable. We then visited the delightful town and went shopping and even found a French Decathlon (athletic store chain), where I was able to find a new pair of walking shoes.

Olbia is one of the busiest passenger ports of call in the Mediterranean, and the main international airport in Sardinia. Many ferries come and go from here to the Madelena Islands and the east coast of Sardinia.

We headed around the north end of Sardinia, stopping at several lovely anchorages along the way. Because we had chosen to sail out of the busy tourist season, we found ourselves often alone in some of these delightful spots.

Castelsardo
Our next destination was The Belaeric Islands, a 2 day sail away, so we wanted to find a safe place to wait for the right weather window. We saw a protected bay a little way down the western coast, called Castelsardo.
We dropped anchor at the foot of this picturesque historic town, fortified with a castle.
Perfect. Then, we found a spot in their marina to wait out the approaching bad weather and were able to go visit this gorgeous place.

The predicted bad weather soon arrived, but we felt quite safe tucked in behind this huge sea wall and were very pleased to be behind it when we saw the seas breaking over the top.

Mallorca
Some months ago, my daughter, Francoise, had told us she had booked a holiday in Mallorca for a week in October, and wouldn’t it be cool if we could somehow meet up.
No Pressure!!!! As we waited for good weather in Sardinia to make the passage to Mallorca, it was already the 6th of October, and she was to arrive on the 9th.
But we got our weather window and set off for the 300nms, ie 3 days, to get to where she was to be, Soller, on the northern coast of Mallorca.

Some of the delightful moments of being on a passage.

The sun was already below the horizon as we entered the anchorage in Soller. But we had made it. The beacons and lighthouses allowed us to enter and anchor safely in 5m in front of the lovely old town. Francoise’s plane had landed at the same time. We connected with Francoise to let her know we had also arrived and were anchored in the harbour but we were bone tired and went straight to bed. We awoke to a beautiful day, and Francoise was comfortable in her apartment.

Together with Francoise and Daniel on board Mai Tai

We rented a car for the day to sightsee around the northern part of the island of Mallorca. It was teeming with rain, but that did not put us off from having a load of fun, passing beautiful mountain villages, lunch in Valldemossa, where the composer Frederique Chopin lived for a while.

We visited the huge Limestone Caves of Campanet. There are many such caves over the island.

It just so happened that it was Lanes birthday so we celebrated at Bikini Restaurant, back in Soller

What an amazing time we had together. I am so glad we were able to make that happen.

Next stop for us will be Palma de Mallorca, then to Ibiza, which is one of the busiest islands during the tourist season. Hopefully it will be less crowded now.

We sailed on to Ibiza

Just south of Ibiza are the islands of Formentera and Espalmador, where we found the most beautiful beaches we have seen in the Med. In many anchorages in the Med the anchorages have patches of seagrass growing on the sand. The seagrass is protected, so we need to very careful to drop our anchor on the sand, not the grass. Apparently, in summer, moorings are laid for the hundreds of boaties who visit here, to prevent them damaging the grass with their anchor. The grass is protected to ensure protection of fish habitats.

Once again, waiting for the right weather this late in the season, is crucial. The winds were about to blow from the north which would give us a good sail straight to Alicante, 95nms away. We lifted anchor at 0200hrs and managed to drop anchor at 1900 that evening. We are now on the east coast of mainland Spain.
A little further down the coast is Mar Menor. This is a huge saltwater lagoon, 170km2. There is a marina here and holiday apartments line the shoreline. They appear empty at this time of the year.

Entry to the lagoon is up a canal with a bridge that opens every 2 hours for sail boats to pass.

We did not enter with Mai Tai, but instead, we anchored at an unfinished marina on the outer side of the canal and took our dinghy up to the lagoon. Work on this marina was abandoned 25 years ago and all that is left now are the rusty pylons, but the areas inside made for a perfectly safe and protected anchorage, and it was free.

Carthagena
25 miles down the coast is Carthagena, where many cruisers, including several of our friends choose to stay through the coming winter months. This is a huge, protected bay used by the military as a base. There are also cargo ships, super yachts and cruise liners and a large marina for pleasure yachts.

As we entered the Bay all we could see was a huge cruise ship and super yacht, but no marina. The Port captain gave us directions to go around behind the ships and we would find the marina, where we had booked a berth for 3 nights.

I wanted to see Carthagena, the Spanish city that I had heard so much about, and it was also my birthday so it would be a fun place to celebrate with our friends.

There were too many historic sites to visit, but fortunately many are within a walking distance from the centre of town. One I found particularly interesting was a Roman Forum and old Roman Baths. It was huge, but photos could not do it justice.

Celebrating my birthday with good friends we have known since our time in Monastir, Tunisia. Tapas and Vermouth on tap, on the menu. Thank you Lane, Richard and Jude, Chris and Christine for such a fun night.

We still have over 250 nms to get to Gibraltar, so we have been looking at possible anchorages along the way. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find the perfect conditions to sail down this part of the coast as the prevailing winds blow from the south, exactly where we want to go. We chose a day with absolutely no wind to make a 30-mile jump down to Aguilas. We motored all day in perfectly flat-calm seas to anchor in the delightful bay in front of Aguilas, a fishing village with very little tourism, no ferries or charter boats. Just what we like!

It was the weekend, so we were greeted by local kids out in their sailing dinghies, plus teams of rowers preparing to race. What fun. In the small marina, a huge paella was being prepared for the teams of young sailors when they came in at the end of the day.

Good night, Aguilas. The next day we got the weather we needed to set sail for Gibraltar 220 nms away.

The wind didn’t last the whole way. It took two days and two nights and we sailed all but the last 12 hours. These last twelve hours we motored against strong currents and wind, dodging between the dozens of huge cargo ships anchored in the Channel. We finally rounded the famous Rock of Gibraltar at daybreak and dropped anchor in the bay of La Linea de la Concepcion in time for breakfast.

This is where this part of the journey ends as we prepare Mai Tai and ourselves for the Atlantic crossing in January. We plan to sail to Morocco, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands before making the passage across the Atlantic Ocean.