Our initial ten day trip started off with 4 days at the factory as the commissioning team finished off the build and made some minor alterations that we had requested. With the handovers complete we took a short cruise to the Costa Brava.

Maiden Voyage – April 2023

The Costa Brava is a beautiful, rugged coast and is largely off the beaten track. No long beaches and a rocky coastline means none of the high-rise hotels or nightclubs of the more southerly Costas!

With just the two of us and Lucy onboard we had almost calm conditions but we did get to hoist sails, get used to anchoring, picking up a mooring and docking stern-to (Med mooring) so it was good practice conditions to get used to handling the Catana 53 if not demanding sailing. We also saw dolphins and tuna. We then returned to the factory to address the initial fairly long-list of snagging items.

Costa Brava to Barcelona – May 2023

Three weeks later we returned with Anne-Laure’s sister Fabienne and her husband Frederic. After waiting for 2 days for the Tramontana wind to subside we realised it wasn’t going to so we set off for the 20 mile trip round the headlands into Spain in 36 knots of wind. Not perhaps the ideal conditions for the first real cruise but a good indication that downwind in a blow is nothing to be worried about in the C53!

We cruised the coves of Costa Brava, saw Salvador Dali’s house and eventually made our way to Barcelona, Picking up our nephews Charles and Baptiste and enjoying the fantastic Spanish food on the way. David had to fly home for a board meeting and Anne-Laure explored Barcelona with her family for a few more days before leaving Offbeat for another few weeks.

Barcelon and Menorca to Majorca – June 2023

At the beginning of June we returned Barcelona with David’s sister Frances and Lucy for our first offshore sail. A crossing from Barcelona to Menorca.

We were met at the boat by Christopher and Jennifer from Med66, the company which had installed our solar panels and hydrogenerator. They had driven down from France to install our Starlink system. This will give us internet offshore. The performance is better than BT at home, nearly 200 Mbps downloads. This picture shows the rectangular Starlink antenna on the davits on the right of the image, the Thales Vesselink 700 Iridium Certus antenna on the left and our new inflatable passerelle (the boarding plank) on the right which was also delivered to us in Barcelona.

With the install complete we set off the following day for 110nm sail to Cala Amarado on the NW tip of Menorca. We had a glorious sail with the wind holding up for the whole day, a complete rarity it turns out for the Med! We anchored in the desert Cala, no other boats, no buildings ashore and just thousands of seabirds.

Over the next week we did a near circumnavigation of the island stopping overnight in Puerto de Fornells, Mahon and Ciutadella before our next offshore leg to Pollenca on the North East tip of Majorca.

The crossing was uneventful with mostly light airs but it did allow us to play with our Code 65 (a furling reaching sail) and our Parasailor for the first time. The following few days we spent slowly heading down the north and west coast of Majorca with stops at Port Soller and Port Andratz where Anne-Laure left us to fly back to the UK for her Fracture clinic appointment for her broken thumb (not a sailing accident – a closed patio door incident at home before we left for the boat!). Frances, Lucy and David then sailed round to Palma.

In Palma we met up with an old friend Alex Lester (Nipper of old!) who lives and works in Palma for North Sails. We needed some adjustments done on the mainsail battens and some chafe protection added to the Code 65 and Mainsail. We were also having some additional spare rigging made up by a local rigger.

We had time to discuss the work to be done and then returned home again.