Ep 51 Sailing Talisman from Ceuta, Spanish Morocco to Cartagena, Spain

[@jethrowarustittie5653]

I always learn something when I watch your videos which is great because when I go to sleep and dream of sailing I don't sink. Thank You for sharing

[@SailingTalisman]

You bet. Wendy is cracking up over your comment.

[@IandiBoats]

Really good sailing video. A welcome change from the bikini, beach, diving vids that seem to be popular now. Thanks for sharing.

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks IB. Great to hear from you again.

[@mitchcopeland8693]

I wish I knew half of what you guys know about sailing! Thanks for taking me with you ! Great movie

[@SailingTalisman]

It's a work in progress. We appreciate you being with us though.

[@jimmerriman6920]

The sailing and the commentary are what it's all about. No drama from Kevin and Wendy, they know what they are doing!

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Jim. We edit the drama out, unless it's really good. But all kidding aside, doing this life puts you in constant close proximity to your significant other, so you'd better be happy spending a lot of time with them (which we both do). Being out and about as we are, we do see couples that could be better matched.

[@cliffcraig5594]

Great video loved all the information Wendy did great job in describing what she needed to were to keep warm. Cold is the enemy. You are the first of many channels I watch to shear. I love FollowThe Boat for there candor and honesty. I am also tied of the Delos style of drinking themselves around the word. That is not a good sailing lesson. Their best segment was crossing the Atlantic without an auto pilot. The gadgets can keep us safer and informed but the best part sailing being at the helm.

[@bradboe1901]

I like your channel a lot, I like how you keep it classy and explain things, I haven’t sailed now for a few years but I feel the need to look at purchasing another daysailer to teach the fundamentals to my granddaughters Thanks, Brad at 49 degrees north, Lake of the Woods

[@SailingTalisman]

Very cool Brad. Daysailers are great for learning. Wendy and I both learned on them, and all the pro sailors started out with Optimists and Lasers.

[@cliffcraig5594]

How about a C22?

[@bill4nier]

Very nice sailing video. Really liked how Wendy shared what she needs to do to stay warm on a night watch, very helpful. I think I found a 2nd use for my ski-bibs! Thanks for sharing. 😊⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Bill. Ski bibs will be warm, but I have to say that the Gill OS2 pants that we have are much more waterproof (less breathable too but waterproof is more important on the water.

[@Sqeezerful]

Great sailing! Thanks for sharing.

[@sethile]

Loved all the sailing in this one! Talisman certainly appears to handle heavy weather well... And is well equipped to make good decisions, such as reefing ahead of that front!

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Scott. They always say, if you're thinking about reefing it's time to reef, and every time I've ignored that feeling it has come to bite me in the butt. Talisman is great in heavy weather, which is why we bought an offshore/bluewater boat, but she's actually faster in heavy winds if you reef. You don't get anything more by waiting. Thanks so much for watching.

[@redroofretriever]

As a duck hunter I offer you this advice - Use those hand warmers on the back of your hand (inside your gloves), where the blood/veins are. It warms the blood instead of the tissues of your palm, and keeps your finger tips warm. I wish I were there sailing too. You guys do a wonderful job of living my dream.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Red Roo. Yes indeed. For skiing the hand warmers have to be on the beck because otherwise they'd be in the way of the dexterity needed for using ski poles. But I remember back to when I worked in a ski shop and the reps for the warmers would come and explain exactly what you say.

[@alicecoppers8980]

Love the chart plotting and the steering exercises!

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Alice. Thanks for watching. We have a few of these scattered throughout the various episodes. I have it in mind to do a comprehensive episode focusing on passage planning and equipment usage coming up, probably in May when we get back to Greece and start prepping for our moving into the Aegean.

[@wyattfamily8997]

Good on you guys, you're living my dream. From Australia.

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks so much. We have Aussies right next to us on the quay here in Argostoli, Greece. They're a riot!

[@bradlarden]

I always enjoy your video's Kevin & Wendy. Thanks so much for sharing them.

[@SailingTalisman]

You bet, Brad.

[@sanantoniotonight5569]

Another top notch video. From San Antonio, thanks!

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Steve!

[@SteveWashington]

I have enjoyed your videos from the start and echo comments already provided. Your series is down to earth and approachable for those of us who are knowledgeable about sailing, but not expert. Also, your boat is beautiful and I noticed the new sails immediately! I sailed when I was young and would like to get back on the water. My wife will sail locally, but has said "no" to ocean passages. So I'm giving thought to what's a manageable size for singlehanded ocean sailing that also provides safety and stability.. If time permits for your thoughts/considerations/recommendations for resources, I'd be grateful. Thanks, happy sailing and continued safe passage.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Steve. Sails are the single best performance improvement you can make for a boat, usually. We see singlehanders doing boats all the way up to 50', but it gets increasingly risky, especially for docking, as you go up in size. Our buddy Patrick Laine is a singlehander and he has a lot of videos up about it. Also, the wife might warm up to it in some more protected environments, like Caribbean chartering. This is how most people catch the bug. I'd say the Med is more difficult to sail than people imagine. The weather is very up and down and there are dangerous coastlines everywhere. If you send me your email via messaging (assuming it still works) I'll send you some stuff about boats.

[@sunlovesailing]

Cool vid, and nice boat you guys. The "thermal" you're talking about is called a "land sea gradient" I believe. Cool of you to educate peeps on that. And thanks for the Dead tune, Europe 72?!! I saw them about 35 times back in the day. Peace

[@SailingTalisman]

Yeah, we sometimes get hit with copyright notices for that type of thing, but it's hard not to use the footage. Thanks for watching and being with us.

[@romanogreminger2875]

Great to see you guys sailing, great vids😊👍😎

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Romano!

[@lebarosky]

Dude, when you said, "lovely hair" I was thinking, that woman looks good on a boat. lol Scene where she points to the nav display is awesome. That was a lot of bogies on the radar!

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks much. Wendy rocks it 24/7.

[@Jimjettrain333]

Nice

[@normanboyes4983]

Kevin and Wendy thanks for taking the time and effort to put this together and share it with us. Good stuff all round. Was just wondering at around the 11:18 mark where K is explaining the front on the radar display - your depth meter seemed to be going AWOL?

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Norman. The depth transponder measures very accurately (we check against the chart depths periodically) but only up to about 100 meters. At that point it just flashes "Last". This sometimes shows as no data at all which is shown by two dashes. Occasionally, it will show 3 or 4 meters in over 100 meters of water, and we speculate that it's seeing a thermal layer down a few feet. Once you get into shallower water thing return to normal. Thanks for watching.

[@davidinperris6290]

Hey Kevin, have you thought about mounting a few GoPros around the Yacht? Great videos.

[@SailingTalisman]

We have, but our camera is a single GoPro Hero 3+ that's definitely due for being upgraded. Getting these types of products in Europe at a reasonable price is near impossible. We are also always on the move, so shipping becomes an issue. We're headed home for the winter and perhaps Santa will drop off a couple Hero 5s.

[@anthonyunsworth1288]

Well done to both of you, I love the way you're channel is developing and I know how much hard work you are putting in to produce these videos, very selfless of you. I love the way you analyse and describe everything, very American, unlike us 'reserved' Brits. Great to see Wendy getting to grips with the Navigation, can we have more from her talking us through the pilotage and navigation? Also Wendy, one loses 70-80% of bodyheat through the head and neck, if you wear a thermal bandana or similar you will solve a lot of problems with the cold, my mummy always wore a headscarf when we were cruising in the sixties, now I know why. It could be great if you could document entrances to the ports you visit too, sorry to give you more work! By the way, have you checked out Patrick Chidress yet? Anyway great Channel, don't waste time replying to bad mannered people, it's not worth the effort. A big thank you, Kevin and Wendy, I'm looking forward to your journey.

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks so much Anthony. It's comments like these that keep us going. The channel is very hard work and very time consuming. I showed Wendy your suggestions and she's got ideas about how to implement them. Know that we're about 3-4 months behind on our travels. As far as ill-mannered people go, I think it's a sign of the times that people feel so comfortable being rude online. They're watching free "home movies" basically, and expecting professional grade content. Anyway, there's bound to be a certain number of them.

[@anthonyunsworth1288]

Don't even read negative comments, it will give you a bad head, they are obviously not sailors and have issues that are not your concern. just a note to Wendy, it will be good to watch you learn Nav as you go, no-one knows everything, and the learning experience is enhanced if the learning is a process. Oh, did I mention cooking? Anyway you both have good presentation skills so never underestimate what we want to hear. No need for all the usual dolphin bikini stuff, there's enough of that. Just put 'Hot Chick' in the title and film Wendy in the Galley, if you want to triple your views haha. Fair winds

[@budawang77]

A good no nonsense sailing video. I would like to know how you guys cope with the restrictive Schengen 90-day rule. Perhaps you could do an episode on all that exciting paperwork stuff like immigration, budgeting and how you manage your affairs back in the U.S. while you're cruising.

[@SVImpavidus]

Nice video guys. CPA, we like to have a hand bearing compass on deck and do two bearings 1 min apart then check against AIS CPA to see who gets the best estimate. Makes a bit of fun on a trip. Re Boots: dont know if you can still get them but Dubery sailing boots are brilliant cool in summer warm in winter. Gortex lined fully waterproof to the calf and really grippy on deck. Had ours ten years and still going strong if a little worn. If you see them, get a pair or two well worth the money. Ant & Cid xx

[@SailingTalisman]

Cool comment Ant. I erred by not buying the very trick little Plastimo hand bearing compass while we were in Gib and I've regretted it ever since. We have yet to see another one, so that's on the list. The thing with CPA, or "closest point of approach" for those reading, is that when you see a CPA of .5nm or less, knowing if you're heading across the bow of a target or passing behind becomes a big deal. I'm not going to willingly pass 1/2 a mile in front of a tanker going 12 knots under any circumstances. So what I do, and I understand this is modern technology that not everyone has, is put a Variable Range Marker/Estimated Bearing Line (VRM/EBL) with our digital Raymarine Quantum radar on the target as soon as I see a close CPA. This will do the same thing you're doing with your HBC, which is tell you which side of the EBL the target is moving toward. If it's moving in front of the line, you're going to cross behind and vice versa. When sailboats are yawing back and forth under full sail this process becomes a big challenge when doing it visually, but much less so when using an electronic solution since the radar never stops watching. Know that with such a tight CPA, the target will not move materially off the line as it approaches, making this a high stress task. Iain Hunter talks about radar assisted or AIS assisted collisions, and it's something that has happened in the past. You have to know how to do these tasks if you're going to sail in crowded shipping lanes. Ps: A lot of sailors will try to alter course further out and see if the CPA increases or decreases. This is a poor substitute as it confuses the navigator on the target ship and they might start making corrections too. It also does not solve the problem of which side you're passing on.

[@SVImpavidus]

Agreed. In the old days we used to measure against a stanchion and see if the ship went forward or backwards in reference. There were more collisions then lol Ant & Cid

[@friarfox]

Almost no one films any footage of night sailing . Large seas and high winds particularly if one is single handed and needs to catch a nap from exhaustion is my biggest unknown and concern. If you could cover that at some point it would be really instructive. Many thanks and happy sailing.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi there. I think the night filming thing is because it's very difficult to have the footage come out. Delos does a good job but those guys have serious professional equipment and knowledge these days. In answer to your request though, I will make a renewed effort to do more. We do find it interesting how few other cruisers sail at night. Some religiously avoid it, talking about the dangers of falling overboard or not seeing approaching weather, but we both really enjoy it. It's peaceful and something you don't do every day.

[@sbvol7385]

Wendy, love the tips on the clothing. Whether you are a man or woman, few people love having wet feet and cold hands. Thanks for taking a break to explain while in the sailing moment.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi SB. Wendy appreciates your comment (she's sitting with me). She was worried people wouldn't think that was interesting, but I disagreed. I think words of wisdom from people who are actually doing something counts for a lot. So much of what you hear is just people imagining what "should" work, rather than experimenting to find out first hand. Skiing is a lot like that. Small things make the difference.

[@markgotham5372]

Wendy....Why does Kevin have his legs crossed and is almost drawing Blood biting his finger as you talk about setting a course on the Plotter...???....(lol).... Used to Racing and seeing boom and sails snap across....Watching that relaxing Jibe took my breath......you guy's have a Gorgeous Boat, Perfectly Outfitted...S.F., Ca.... ;-)

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Mark. Out tacks are usually a lot more aggressive, especially when the wind is up. But that little (permanent) inner forestay and the huge fabric area of the headsail means that it does take much longer to come through the wind. On our Catalina we could snap a tack so fast that there was no need to put a winch on the the sheets. Not so with this setup, and we could see on our old Genoa where damage and repairs had been done near where the spreader tips caught on the leech. Given how expensive our new sails were we are very careful with them. BTW, as for the plotter, I know I'm going to give a serious answer to a joke question, but the thing about steering to navigation waypoints is that you'd better make sure you know which one you're telling it to use. Specifically, if you "stop" the route and reload it, it will have the FIRST waypoint shown by default. Then you have to manually advance waypoints to get the next one ahead of you shown. In the beginning, Raymarine's Lighthouse 3 software was very buggy and prone to rebooting the chartplotters (a problem that is almost entirely gone now). In short, we had a couple of experiences where "steering to nav" meant the autopilot suddenly wanted to turn the boat 180 degrees to head back to the beginning of a route, which could mean a backwinded jibe/gybe (jibe with preventer in place). That's where the stress came from. Both of us are fully on board with how this works nowadays.

[@markgotham5372]

Kevin...You Know I was kidding....!!!....and By All Means, Easy on the Equipment..... ;-)

[@baseballDUDE32]

Always enjoy your videos. More “DEAD” please.😎

[@SailingTalisman]

Hey Dude! We do our part, but the copyright software is always out there lurking. They seem to be okay with background music though.

[@gullibletravels5250]

good videos very informative - and really nice wife

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks much!

[@patricklaine6958]

Terrific passage. Well done -- and excellent demo on the gybe. If I weren't already subscribed, I'd subscribe!

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Patrick. I suggested your site to a viewer (earlier in the comments) who was asking about sizes of boats for singlehanding, and he replied that he already watches your channel. We're having a great time, having finally made it to Greece. We sailed 200+nm from the Strait of Messina to Argistoli, and the place rocks. It's been raining a bit over the last several days but we woke today to find clear blue skies and the locals tell us there will be little to no rain for the rest of the summer. Hope all is well.

[@patricklaine6958]

Many thanks. After the Faroe Islands this year, perhaps I'll follow you to the Med next year. Fair winds to you both.

[@niccat7051]

Although you open the video with a problem of your iPad not syncing with the chart plotter; you then go on to film a load of chit chat and lots of empty shots, which are okay, but, you had plenty of time in your video to explain the iPad issue and offer a solution on how you solved it. I’m sure there are many that would benefit from seeing how you worked around it and eventually solved it!

[@SailingTalisman]

Noted. We do struggle with not having all the video we would like. Often, we start filming something only to be distracted by other tasks. Then when I get to editing I have to work around it. I've also struggled with the fact that there are much better instructional videos out there that will address a certain task. We don't really do instructional videos as that's not our thing. But we do show the technical challenges we face on a superficial level. Wendy is here and we're discussing your point. She reminds me that this issue was really a Raymarine software problem. Raymarine has taken a lot of crap for the "too early, not ready for prime time" release of the Lighthouse 3 operating system, but I have to say that now that the main bugs have been addressed the system rocks. Understand that Lighthouse 2 had been around for decades and had had features cobbled on top of one another year after year. It was getting to the point that the software was bogging down the more complicated installations (mostly superyachts with multiple chartplotters on the same backbone). The new Axiom and Axiom Pro chartplotters are quad-core plotters with very fast processing speed, and when running the streamlined LH3 OS, work beautifully. LH3 is also an Android product and thus open for developers to produce 3rd party apps,

[@justinsteele5822]

Why is your tender on the foredeck considering what you’ve said previously regarding the genoa sheets snagging on it?

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Justin. I had to ask Wendy about this one, and I think what happened was that we wanted to use our passarelle and didn't feel we needed the dinghy at the time. We were also afraid that our davits weren't strong enough to hold the dinghy with the engine still attached. This turned out to be wrong, and once I looked up the capacity of the davits we found that we had enough strength to do so. We did shear the winch drum pin once, and later even changed the cabling on the davits to Dynema. We never went back to putting it on the foredeck. It's a location of last resort.

[@justinsteele5822]

@@SailingTalisman yes better on the davits without the out board. Davits are on our wish list. Great following you now you’re in the med as you’re going to loads of places I know. I was based in Palma, Mallorca but now we’re in Corfu, Greece 🇬🇷⛵️👍

[@trailbarge12]

What is that awesome opening tune? Soundhound epically failed to ID it.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Paul. It's in the KZbin free music library and it's called Pioneers.

[@johnhamer7157]

5 layers, 3 pants, boots and hand warmers....for the Mediterranean? What do you wear in the high latitudes?

[@SailingTalisman]

Our videos are several months behind, so it was late spring and the weather was a bit crisp. Now that we're in Greece in late August early September we're sweating to death.

[@sgaar]

I noticed that Wendy is wearing Gill and you have Helly-Hansen. How would you rate them and do you have any recommendations on which is better?

[@SailingTalisman]

I think Gill is the better brand. It's certainly the best price/quality against Musto and Henri Lloyd. The zippers are bigger and the waterproofing seems better. I think Helly Hansen has an upper end totally offshore rated product, but I'd still choose Gill and will do so next time. I know it sounds stupid, but I bought Wendy's jacket as a gift and didn't want to have the exact same thing for myself. We do have the exact same Gill OS2 bibs and they work well. Might buy the OS1 next time. but big $.

[@sgaar]

Thank you.

[@Beachlynn]

Minorca or Majorca stop?

[@SailingTalisman]

Both. We sailed to Ibiza, then over to the Oyster outpost in Palma de Mallorca, then around to a scattering of small anchorages, then over to Minorca. Mahon/Mao on Minorca was one of my favorite towns so far. We'll have video eventually.

[@Beachlynn]

Sailing Yacht Talisman Love your adventure. I did a leg of a delivery, Mahon, Minorca to Malaga. We had big problems with jammed furling main so we motored.. Fueled up in Formentera and did not stop. We were late so owner crew changed in Almeria. Took a local bus to Malaga airport. Was in Mahon at start of Christmas holiday and enjoyed the local ambiance. Have fun in Cartagena.

[@SailingTalisman]

Wow. Great story. That's the transfer skipper/crew life. Loved Formentara, Mahon, and Malaga. We're way past Cartagena now. Currently in Argostoli, Greece after doing the 200nm crossing from Reggio/Messina, Italy. Loving the Greek scene. Great prices on things and everyone speaks English, at least here.

[@Beachlynn]

ALMERIA HAS A NICE MARINA.

[@SailingTalisman]

We traveled to Almirimar several years ago when we were still shopping for boats. We saw one of the sister ships to Talisman, but chose this boat (out of Scotland) instead. Almirimar is a great protected harbor and relatively inexpensive, but we found the town to be a bit sterile with lots of new condo complexes and holiday type traffic. It's probably a good place to leave a boat but the airport is very far away and you have to fly to Madrid for the most part to get out of Spain.

[@philbox4566]

Asawoman wears 27 layers. Blokey bloke wears 2. ;) Would have been hilarious if you'd cut to him in his T shirt and shorts and flip flops.

[@SailingTalisman]

It cracks me up. I'll be out in shorts and long sleeve t-shirt and she'll have full foul weather gear on. But as they say, "happy wife, happy life". Whatever it takes. It does get cold at night though.

[@Trim1]

Spanish Morocco???? WTF

[@SailingTalisman]

What do you mean?

[@Trim1]

Ceuta is part of Spain way before Morocco was born as an independent State. Ceuta has nothing to do with Morocco. Ceuta is not Spanish Morocco same as Alaska is not US Canada.

[@SailingTalisman]

Perhaps, but colloquially they call it Spanish Morocco (due to the fact that up until the late 90's it was governed by the Spanish and considered an actual part of the country). It is now self-governing and quasi independent, like Puerto Rico in the US. We did a bit of the historical tour, and the area was conquered first by the Portuguese and later by the Spanish. Just looking at it logically, it's strategic militarily and the fort alone is worth having. There were hundreds of iterations of the fort and town as the location was improved upon over the centuries, with Greek, Roman Byzantine, Ottoman, and Berber influences along the way. After the British took Gibraltar from the Spanish (during which Lord Nelson was killed), I'm sure Ceuta became even more important. At present, it is a Christian outpost sitting atop Muslim north Africa. As such it is an interesting cultural mix, with some women wearing hijabs while others walk around in skimpy wraps. Pretty cool place but I doubt we'll be back.

[@Trim1]

There is no possible comparison with Puerto Rico. Ceuta is called "autonomous city" but is part of Spain just like Toledo or Cadiz. Today the, law there is the same as in Spanish mainland. There is much more self-governing in Florida in relationship with the rest of the US than between Ceuta and the rest of Spain. You see there a lot of cultural influence from the north of Africa, due to the brutal difference between both sides of the border, but Ceuta is as spanish as the rest of the mainland, and has the same self-govering as Andalucia, Aragón or Madrid. Ceuta is Spain and nor Morocco at all. It has no sense to consider Alaska a russian US due to its history, or canadian US due to its geografical situation, or Mollenbeek arabics Holland due to its street culture. The comparisson with Puerto Rico has no sense at all. Puerto Rico was an independent country, wich in Ceuta never happened, and the people from Puerto Rico can´t even vote in the presidential ellections of the US. Someone from Ceuta has exactly the same law, rigths and duties as a guy from Madrid.

[@SailingTalisman]

Cool. Good to know.