Bavaria 31 delivered from Cardiff to Palma de Mallorca
About 1,870 nautical miles in 23 days: Bristol Channel, Scilly, Biscay, the Portuguese coast, Gibraltar and the Spanish Med to Palma. Five days before the owner’s deadline, with a written report on the boat.
~1,870 NM
Distance
23 days
Cardiff to Palma
Summer
Season
4 stops
A Coruña · Lisbon · Gibraltar · Almería
The passage
Bristol Channel to the Balearics, with a deadline
The owner wanted his Bavaria 31 in Palma for the summer and had a firm deadline. Our two man crew arrived in Cardiff, spent one day on preparation and left the next morning. Two days later they were past the Scillies and out into Biscay, four and a half more days to A Coruña. Then down the coast: Lisbon, Gibraltar, Almería and across to Mallorca. Palma on day 23, five days before the deadline.
Biscay was kind that year, with dolphins for company for hours. The one real problem was the autopilot: the old reinforced belt in the Whitlock Lewmar drive kept jamming the steering. A service in A Coruña opened it up, found the cause and had no spare belt, so the crew hand steered the rest and wrote it up for the owner. The plotter also lost the plot from time to time and the electronic charts ended at the edge of English waters, so from Scilly onwards we sailed on our own charts.
What the owner got in the written report
Every delivery ends with a report. This one listed, item by item, what we found on a boat the owner had just bought: the autopilot belt to replace, a plotter with loose wiring to check, charts to buy for the Med, a water pump and water heater wired to one switch (fine at the dock, expensive on batteries at sea), car type batteries that will not last, a small leak in the forecabin from a lifeline pad eye that we sealed temporarily, a stern light we fixed on the way and a flag halyard we replaced. Nothing dramatic. Exactly the list a new owner wants before his first season.
How we ran it
What the owner got, step by step.
Crew and plan
Two experienced sailors, one day of preparation in Cardiff, a passage plan built around the owner’s deadline and the Biscay forecast.
The passage
Port stops chosen for weather, fuel and one repair attempt. Position updates to the owner along the way, hand steering when the autopilot gave up.
Handover
Boat in her berth in Palma five days early, keys and papers at the marina office, and a written report with every defect and a piece of advice for each.
Planning a similar passage?
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