The day after the departure, The Williwaw life is organized. The weather forecast is noted, and does not seem to want to help us. We will have to go look for wind offshore the spanish coast. On our way there, made the unexpected encounter of ‘Mille Visages’, a magnificent open 55 and his skipper Hervé Vachée, who a few years ago competed in the Route du Rhum, and did a trip around Corsica with the muched missed Florence Arthaud. The surprise was even better when knowing that we already had an encounter 2 months earlier during our trip to Corsica.

The wind is temperamental, sometimes non existent, sometimes rough, like the first heavy squall that has shaken the whole boat in the middle of the night, offshore from Barcelona. The swell is strong, changing the Mediterranean sea into a washing machine like just a few sailors from this sea have witnessed. Better have a strong stomach.

Although, let’s come back to this heavy squall, because it was for the three of us a baptism by fire. It is midnight, Nicolas, alone for his bridge watch, is steering, while Thomas and Romain are resting after a long and busy day. The sky, covered with clouds did not seem that threatening before sunset, but now filters most of the light, making the visual orientation of the ship complicated. No stars in the sky. Williwaw is moving forward, a slight wind in its sails, when out of nowhere it starts raining cats and dogs and the wind turns by 180°. Winds going from 35 to 40 knots are striking Williwaw with full force. Immediately, Nicolas calls for backup, and it is in boxers, dressed with only their life jackets that Thomas and Romain rushed to prevent the worst from happening. Their actions must be accurate and expeditious. They need to reef the sails to avoid them from tearing apart. Nicolas goes on the mast to reef the mainsail, Romain is at the “piano” in order to release the halyards and roll the spinnaker while Thomas starts the engine to ensure the maneuver and starts steering. In just a few minutes, both the crew and the boat are safe, though wet to the bones because of the abundant rain. I caused more freight than real harm, the emotion was running high, but the sailors are proud to have won over their first heavy squall with a cool head.

In the end, there was no major incident to declare, even if the spinnaker will tear off throughout a beautiful afternoon when we were navigating downwind (3⁄4 behind winds) at a good breeze. Fortunately, we are not in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and will soon be able to repair it during our next stopover.

Our first stopover will be in Malaga, where we will stay barely 30 hours, to refurbish our stocks with fresh food, gasoline and water. Nonetheless, we will suffer to see in live the terrible defeat of the French team against the mighty New Zealand All Blacks. However, this embarrassment will have no impact on our happy mood.

Next step, Gibraltar, on the Spanish side will welcome us for 24h in order to wait for a weather window decent enough to cross the strait.