Leg 0 – Barcelona to Barcelona, Spain
June 6, 2025 – It is a balmy sunny Friday morning in Barcelona and Anna is steaming cautiously out of the busy Marina Vela (📍41°22′31″ N, 2°11′12″ E) and onto the open sea heading south west with course to Gibraltar. Hang on – June 6? Yes, June 6, substantially later than planned. Let’s rewind and find out what caused the start of our second cruising season.
David worked on Anna early in the season and supervised the installation of the new Victron LiFePO4 batteries, Lynx BMS and Distributors, and a Quattro charger/inverter and all the associated electronics, worked on the navigation systems and got a new heavy duty windlass installed. These were the last of the major items that were part of the 2024/2025 Refit for Anna. Other upgrades made in the fall of 2024 were Stidd flybridge chairs, Vitrifrigo Refrigerator, Kabola heating system, new cushions and upholstery for interior and exterior seating, and a host of other improvements. Crewmates Martin and Brian arrived on board 18th and 20th of April respectively and we all had the pleasure of having Mikel with us for a few days.
The days passed quickly as we scratched items off our pre-voyage task list, changed filters and fluids added sensors and checked all systems.
We sent off the work crew who had been tirelessly working on Anna for the last few months with an appreciation lunch. She was in ship shape and we started to make plans for our departure.
The start date into season 2 was set – Tuesday 29 April! The weather window to make the hop to Malaga or Gibraltar looked favorable. A shakedown cruise on the 27th gave us confidence that we were ready and so we did our big provisioning run on the 28th and checked out of the marina.
And then the big day arrived. At 17:45 Anna left the marina and Barcelona started to disappear in the distance. Within a couple of hours we noticed rumbling noises from the stabilizers. We quickly isolated it to the port side fin and as a precaution David turned off the Naiad system to prevent possible damage. Although the weather was pleasant, the strong winds over the last few days had whipped up substantial wave action and we decided to head into Vinaroz and see if we could fix the problem. Our hope was that something had been caught on the fin but as nothing was obvious from the surface we decided to haul out. Fortunately Vinaroz has a big haul out facility and after a couple of hours Anna was on the dry. We inspected the fins but no damage was visible and nothing was caught on it.
We spent a night on the hard weighing up our options and David got in touch with the manufacturer and agent.
Our first night without stabilizers was not very comfortable and we were concerned that it may be difficult to get professional help further afield so with a heavy heart we took the decision to return to Barcelona. On the return leg we had the seas against us and Anna was rolling considerably which confirmed that our decision to return to Barcelona was the right one.
On Friday, the 2nd of May Anna limped back into Marina Vela and slipped into its familiar berth with a tired crew that had been thoroughly shaken through.
Naiad flew in a technician on the 8th of May, meanwhile we had changed the hydraulic oil on the stabilizers. The technician spent a day working on the problem but a quick test run revealed that the problem was not fixed. Eventually it was determined that the fault must be with the motherboard and of course a replacement was not available in Europe, let alone in the country. It had to be ordered and flown in from the US with the usual lengthy shipping and customs procedures.
As there was nothing more to work on Anna for the time being the crew decided to take a break from boat life, Brian went to Berlin and Amsterdam, Martin visited Mum in Stuttgart and David spent a few days in Luxembourg.
By the 15th of June all were back on board but unfortunately we were still missing the replacement motherboard. Meanwhile, Anna had become a popular spot for Brides-To-Be photoshoots…
It was clear that shipping would take at least another week and the weather and forecast was clear so it was an easy decision to take Anna north to Tossa De Mar on the Costa Brava for some cruising and sightseeing. Tossa is a very pretty medieval fishing town with a majestic fort and it certainly attracts its fair share of tourists. We had anchored a bit further north and enjoyed the walks along the steep cliffs to get to town.
After two relaxing days we made our way back to Barcelona in anticipation of the arrival of the motherboard. It eventually did arrive on the 30th of May but unfortunately without an engineer who could install it. Naiad wouldn’t schedule an engineer without the motherboard being in hand so we had to wait another 4 days for the installation.
Meanwhile Brian was running out of time, he was due to leave on the 6th from Copenhagen and it was obvious that there would not be much of a chance for him to get sea time. It was a sad goodbye on the 29th of June and tough to lose a crew mate that we had a lot of fun with for the last 6 weeks.
Naiad’s engineer eventually arrived on the 3rd of June and quickly found out that the motherboard that had delayed us for 4 weeks was not the cause of the problem. That was a big downer for us but fortunately he was able to properly diagnose it on this occasion and the correct replacement part was flown in the next morning from the UK. Within 3 hours the part was installed and we were off to a sea trial. Anna was as stable as she had always been and balanced us through the waves and wakes of other ships perfectly. Problem solved.
On the 3rd of June both Mikel and Brian’s replacement – Ivy – arrived on board. Mikel took it upon herself to see us off personally this time and Ivy seemed to arrive just in time to join the season’s journey right from its starting point.
So here we are, back to June 6 and our second send off and departure from lovely Barcelona.
