The Scariest Night of Our Lives! | Passage Nearly Ended in Disaster
Hey! We’re Ruth and Andrew 👋🏼 Earlier this year, after years of dreaming, we left our family, friends and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, behind as we set off to chase our shared dream of sailing the world. In April, we bought our 11m catamaran, Rúna, which we now call home as we live, work, sail and adventure full-time. Join us as we explore the Mediterranean and get to grips with life at sea 🏝️
In this episode, after weeks of sailing through the stunning Balearic Islands, we leave Menorca behind and begin our 140-nautical-mile passage to mainland France. Our destination? Port-Cannet-en-Roussillon for critical warranty work on our catamaran. What we didn’t expect… was one of the slowest, most challenging passages we’ve had to date and one of the scariest nights we've ever had at sea 😅
With less than 7 knots of wind (despite a 15+ knots forecast), our average boat speed dropped to a painful 3.5 knots. We were falling drastically behind schedule, but just as we began to make up some ground, the weather turned. Fast.
What began as a slow and quiet sail turned into a full-on Mediterranean thunderstorm - our first onboard Rúna. No moon, no stars, just pitch-black skies, towering squalls, strong winds, and lightning all around us. And we were still miles from land.
In this video, we take you hour-by-hour through our journey: from flying the code zero and peaceful night sailing, to battling heavy seas and navigating through the thunderstorm, desperately trying to reach shelter.
Join us aboard Rúna as we learn the hard way that weather can turn on you very quickly, and living on a yacht isn't always sunshine and calm seas.
Episode 12, Chapter One.
00:00 - 0:51 Introduction
0:52 - 6:28 Preparing for passage
6:29 - 8:18 Anchor problems
8:18 - 13:09 1st day of passage
13:10 - 15:25 Night sailing
15:26 - 17:19 Day 2, still no wind!
17:20 - 17:35 Dolphins!
17:36 - 19:52 We're behind schedule!
19:53 - 21:32 Thunder & lightning at sea
21:32 - 25:10 Sailing in a thunderstorm
25:11 - 28:23 What happened?
#Storm #sailingmediterranean #sailingcouple #liveaboardlife #catamaranlife #excess11 #sailingdisaster #yachtlife #offshoresailing #StormAtSea #mediterraneansailing #SailingFrance
#sailingcouple #SailingMallorca #BoatLife #liveaboardcatamaran #sailingcouple
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The Runa Life
Andrew and Ruth Gibbon traded corporate Edinburgh for an Excess 11. Follow their 2026 Mediterranean circuit aboard Rúna in this technical feature.
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