KAXALOT: Part II
After meeting many salty sea dogs and assessing various ketches, schooners and sloops with our sailing sensei, Cap’n Giggles and I finally found, purchased, officially renamed, safety certified, registered and insured the sailing yacht now known as Kaxalot.
(If you’ve forgotten what Kaxalot means, please review Part 1 of this series).
A 12.5-meter (41-foot) masthead sloop with a 4 m beam, 1.8 m draught, fin keel and 36 hp diesel engine, Kaxalot is a Sigma 41, designed by David Thomas. Older than I am and now technically Polish, she has two private berths, two heads and can sleep up to 8. The fastest we’ve ever sailed her is about 8 knots on main + genoa, which is surprising for a boat of this size, even as a racer/cruiser… and we haven’t even learned how to use the spinnaker yet.
She came with full equipment, rigging, a full compliment of tools and a dinghy, which we have since christened The Ding-A-Ling II after our very first watercraft, The Ding-A-Ling.*
(Her name is situated on the only area that would hold the vinyl lettering)
The Original ‘Ding-A-Ling’ + Happenis Flag. Weissensee, Berlin, Germany, c. 2017
*Not really a boat, the original Ding-A-Ling was a grey inflatable 8-person raft with rowing oars that I bought circa 2017 to very casually paddle around the Spree river of Berlin, Germany. It barely held more than a few people comfortably and was very cumbersome to transport, but was a summer hero to myself and many friends. Giggles and I worked together making videogames at that time, and we often took that thing out for little adventures among Berlin’s many waterways and lakes before we even conceived of anything bigger. As we’re both fans of blues, rock, jazz, innuendo and music in general, named it after the classic Chuck Berry song (one of my old favourites from before I fully understood what that euphemism meant). We even made a flag for it, and flew it on a stick in a drink holder. Little did we know, a few years later, we’d upgrade this visage and realize an entirely new nautical world beyond Germany on the Balaeric Sea.
On the Spree with Giggles and Letov, Berlin, Germany, c. 2017.
Kaxalot has been our reliable floating clubhouse / adventurecraft since May… which means much of our 2024 summer in Spain was spent out on the water.
With our colours flown high, we’ve already spun many a tale and filled much of our storybook with doodles, stories, ideas, notes and silliness.
Of course, we hand-painted her lifesaver to match her logbook, hand-sewn flag, gin pennant, and other various [ongoing!] on-suite customizations.
Then, in August, Gleb, Jordi, Cap’n Giggles, Soaps and I prepared and sailed Kaxalot on our first voyage together, from Barcelona to Ibiza and back.
As a larger and more competent crew this time around, the forty-hour trip was an easier crossing than the previous year, despite it being twice the distance and a thunderstorm chasing us on our way out of Barna. August is also the time of year when meteor showers are most visible and constant - after losing track of how many of them we spied across the milky way during the crossing, we almost didn’t notice them on our return trip.
Dolphins, jellies, turtles, flying fish, sea birds and bio-luminescent bacteria greeted us, and we were noticeably more comfortable and seaworthy as a team. Ibiza itself was accommodating, even in busy season - we were able to catch a few mooring bouys, find berths in ports and anchor in coves without much difficulty or frustration - even after our electronic windlass and dinghy motor failed.
The hidden beaches and rocky coves of the Balaeric Islands are always a joy to visit in the summer, particularly by boat and paddleboard.
During one of these particularly wavy and windy outings between berths, I fashioned two very large Kaxalot K-Anchor logos that I designed earlier this year, along with the seven large letters of KAXALOT out of gold foil I brought onboard for that purpose.
I later adhered them while anchored in a swelly bay…
…and with that, Kaxalot finally had a full identity: name, logo, flags, registration, crew, love and music.
This trip felt slightly more metropolitan than Mallorca last year, but Ibiza itself seemed less authentic and more… botox and silicone. We found our people and our preferred spots, but Ibiza tourism is far more similar to that of, say, Miami or L.A. than to Mallorca or the Canary Islands. Our favourite part was Formentera, a loverly land mass south of Ibiza that is mostly a nature preserve, but is prone to some vicious storms capable of overwhelming inexperienced boaters.
Fortunately, we left Formentera for Barcelona the day before some significant weather struck the island, and didn’t notice how lucky we were until we returned. Had we been anchored, we likely would have met the same trouble that wrecked many other yachts that week when Triton sent some angry winds to show them humility. Instead, we made our next forty hours across, and successfully completed our first notable Kaxalot voyage across the sea.
The autumn of 2024 and winter 2025 will see us berth at a new port closer to home as we tend to various maintenance, small fixes, cleaning and upgrades. Nothing serious nor unexpected, but we want 2025 to be sorted, ready, shiny and prepared for our next Spanish summer voyage: Minorca.
