How we got to this chapter is a bit of a story. After more than a decade of Caribbean cruising \u2014 the Bahamas, Cuba, the eastern Caribbean down to Trinidad, and just about everything in between \u2014 Brenda made it clear that it was time for something different. She didn\u2019t specify where we should go next, only that \u201cnext\u201d needed to happen. One of her suggestions was that we sell Pandora, buy a Beetle Cat, and she would sit on the deck of the Essex Yacht Club with a glass of wine and watch me sail back and forth in the river. Oh boy. Brenda, how about the Med?<\/em> Fortunately, she agreed, so off we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My late father had once said to me, \u201cBob, wouldn\u2019t it be great to take Pandora through the Straits of Gibraltar?\u201d That comment had been rattling around in my head for years, and suddenly it seemed like a far better answer than a Beetle Cat on the CT River. Fortunately Gibraltar happened, not a tiny Beetle Catboat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last summer I sailed Pandora across the Atlantic as part of the first Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores \u2014 a rally I\u2019d helped put together. After a month cruising the Azores with Brenda followed by what I\u2019ll diplomatically call an \u201ceventful\u201d passage through the orca zone off Portugal, I made Gibraltar and hauled in Almer\u00eda for the season. Brenda had joined me in the Azores for a month of exploring the islands, then flew to Scotland to pursue her own interests while I moved Pandora to Spain. She came home with a bag full of yarn. I came home with a lot of ideas about what lay ahead in the Med.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our spring cruise runs April and May. We\u2019ll start at Almerimar, where we have rented an apartment for a week while I we get Pandora ready to go back in the water. As soon as we can get a decent weather window we will make our first stop at Cartagena, which has one of the best natural harbors in the Mediterranean and more layers of history than you can take in on a short visit \u2014 Carthaginian, Roman, Moorish, you name it. From there we head out to the Balearics: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera. I\u2019ve heard enough about those islands from other cruisers that I\u2019m genuinely curious to see them for ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One issue for us is that we really want to be home in CT for the summer so that forces us to head back to Spain a bit early when the weather is still a bit unsettled as is witnessed by this view of the gribs today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not a lot of wind near us. Pandora’s current location, Almerimar is noted with the western most arrow. After that, to the east is Cartagena and then Ibiza in the Balearics <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward two days and there is a lot more wind and from the wrong direction, the north, which more often than not is the case, especially this time of year. I understand that strong northerlies are common all the time but more-so early in the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From the Balearics we\u2019ll cross to Corsica and then Sardinia. Both islands have reputations among Mediterranean sailors of being amazing,\u00a0and we are excited to check them out ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandora will be hauled for the summer in Sardinia. When we return in the fall we\u2019ll continue exploring the island before heading south to Tunisia. That stop serves a practical purpose \u2014 boats in the EU are required to leave every 18 months or face a substantial VAT bill, and a run to Tunisia takes care of that \u2014 but it\u2019s also simply a place we want to see. After Tunis we\u2019ll run Pandora to a marina in southern Sicily, pack up, and head home for the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the current plan for our first season, spring and fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9300.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTwo Blogs, One Boat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n