Wow - We have come so far! (Patreon)

This one is a more recent shot, from the day after we arrived to the Maddalena archipelago. A long 6 day sail dodging thunderstorms and water spouts lay behind us. 

In the Mediterranean the weather can change within moments and we had to be alert throughout the whole sail of unexpected gusts and squalls. Many times at night we spent hours evaluating how to change our course, so not to sail directly into a lightening storm. 

That meant very little sleep for us and by the time we finally reached Sardinia, we were ready to drop the hook and relax. But when we sailing, it is not up to us when to push the pause button. It is nature that makes the decision. And just a couple of hours after we reached Cala Bandinchi, the weather broke once again. Within what felt like seconds the wind had picked up from a low 8 knots to almost 40 and SV CUBA started to violently yank on her chain. 

And overwhelming noise of rain and wind and an almost constant flashing of lightening made orientation impossible as we dashed into the cockpit to turn the engine on. At the same time our anchor alarm started to sound. 

In the turmoil I saw another sailboat pass by dangerously close, crew with flashlights in hand trying to get a hold of the situation just like us. 

Within just 10 minutes the scare was over and everything went quiet again. But just then we noticed that we had dragged almost 150 meters from our initial spot. How lucky, that we had picked the largest bay in the area to make landfall.

Otherwise our adventure could have very well been over. 

With another sleepless night behind us, we pressed on, one more challenge behind us and with surely many more ahead. 

But if we had stopped right there and let the fear take over - we'd never come this far in the first place.