Ziffius is a 39ft Bavaria Cruiser, now owned by Pete Williams. A commercial pilot who was interested in getting to know his boat and also taking her down to the Mediterranean. Here he could begin his exploration of the many cruising ground on offer. What he needed was an Owner Assisted Passage Service!
He contacted Thumbs Up prior to the purchase of the yacht to get an idea of the cost of owner assisted passage. We managed to come up with a flexible pricing plan which allowed him to book in confidence.
He decided on S/Y ‘Ziffius’ which was berthed in Titchmarsh, Essex.
After a short wait in order to get a Raymarine Autopilot installed we departed with Matthew Kotzé as skipper, Pete Williams (crew and owner) and Lyle Skipage as crew.
The Thames Estuary can be tricky, especially the fact that the new london array wind farm is not very well documented. Nonethless we made our way through without problem into the channel. Due to severe conditions we stopped over night in Ramsgate. We departed promptly at 6am and had a very calm run all the way to Biscay.
We timed our arrival to Ouessant so that we could be slungshot through Chanel du Four into Biscay.
Biscay was downwind all the way and so went very quickly. On approach to the Spanish coast the breeze started picking up, so we reefed down in preparation for the gale force Northerlies that are prevalent in that area during June/July.
The Northerlies came and we flew around Cape Finisterre averaging 10kts.
We had this all the way down to Cape St Vincent, with only a 2 hour stop in Cascais for fuel.
Except for a fuel stop in Almeria, we had no problems in the Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea. Once we were past Mar Menor we turned East and had a fantastic very calm leg over to Sardinia.
The only minor issues was that the prop anode for the sail drive came off and caused some damage to the prop. I dived under to investigate, fortunately the damage was mostly superficial and so we could continue on without too much concern.
Arriving in the beautiful Sardinia me and Lyle did a big wash-down as usual, as well as removal of protection down below.
A beer, pizza and Thumbs Up to all!
Dolphins Swimming
Many Thanks to Uncle Art Music for composing the fantastic soundtrack. https://uncleartmusic.com/