The
Balearics
The Balearics are a beautiful part of the
world, but not the cheapest place to be.
From Palma, we sailed up the east coast of
Mallorca and picked up a mooring in Petro. We went ashore and had a Frappe and
a smoothie which cost 19euro!
There are plenty of little Calas (little
bays) around the Island and we reversed into one of them being Cate d’Or where,
once anchored there wasn’t enough room to swing so we had to put the Stern
anchor out to hold the boat in place.
There are great holiday homes all on the
water around the Island and the place was full of people on holiday, a big
percentage were English.
Homes complete with there own 'waterveiw' garages
Fancy running into a Maori boy up here!
You can even charter Boots here!
From Mallorca, we headed up to Menorca
which was a bit barren compared to Mallorca. We entered Port Mahon which is a
massive Harbour and went up a side estuary that lead to Cala Taulera and
anchored with around 10 other boats.
Here we spent a few days sheltering from
the Thunder storms and wind and it was a
very safe anchorage with good holding and plenty to explore ashore.
While we were there, there was a display by
the Red Arrows Team of Jets and we had prime position with them going right
over the top of us-‘Fantastico!’
We sailed back to Mallorca under Gennaker
and made for Porto Colom, a very popular anchorage with a lot of Yachts in
there. There was a great little Beach Bar there with a laid back ambience. Nice
food and good music.
We had arranged to pick up a new ‘Whisper
Pole’ in Palma so made our way back there but when we got there none of the
marinas could take us as there was a ‘Oyster’ Yacht regatta on and the whole
place was full. We had to spend the night down the bottom of the Island at Port
Adriano which is where all the super Yachts go, very up market and ‘Falshator’
looked a bit out of place there in amongst the 200 ft plus pleasure craft.
We were happy to leave Adriano and anchored
in at Camp de Mar, which was a great little anchorage with great snorkeling and
a Restaurant that sits on a tiny island just off the beach. It has a narrow
wooden bridge to get out to it and had been there a long time serving up meals
to the Tourists from the nearby Hotels.
While snorkeling here, I found a prop in
the water and recovered it. It was in good condition and looked like it hadn’t
been in the water very long. It was probably worth over a 1000 euro, I sold it to one of the Ferry Boats for the
grand sum of a Pint of Beer-made my day!
'Doing the deal' with the Ferry
At Marina Aintrax, we got the ‘whisper
pole’ put on that enables us to run downwind with the Mainsail out one side and
the Genoa or Gennaker poled out the other, something we are going to need in the Atlantic and
hopefully the Pacific, as long as the EL Nino doesn’t kick in and reverse the
Trade Winds!
While here we also had the damage done to the boat (courtesy of the boat that hit us while we were at anchor in France) fixed up, so the boats
looking as good as new.
Due to the predicted Southeasterly for the
next three days we went down the west side of the island of Ibiza for a bit
more protection and made for Cala de Portinax which was a safe anchorage with
good holding and crystal clear water to swim in.
After there, we had a look at San Antonio
where all the party people go. It was pretty open to the wind and swell there
so after a quick look around headed back out and made for Cala Bassa, another
great little anchorage with plenty of boats. This is a popular day beach for
patrons with Beach Bars, Banana Boat rides and Jet Skis, which seemed to take
delight in roaring around the anchored Yachts at high speed even when we were
in the water swimming. There doesn’t seem to be any control on the speed limit
around the boats and the shore here and there was a bit of yelling out going on
from the other Yachts, not that that slowed them down much.
Mainland
It was hard on the nose for the trip back
with consistent Southwesterlys predicted for some time. We had to tack twice on
the way back to the mainland, once for a Ferry and the second for a weather buoy
out in the middle of nowhere.
We spent a couple of days getting down to
Cartagena and the wind was doing us no favours.
Cartagena doesn’t have an over attractive
looking approach to its Harbour with a Refinery and a Naval Base in its
opening, but once in the Marina and ashore it’s a great town with friendly
locals and plenty to do.
"I'm telling you Forrest, you need a haircut"
We moored side on to the Jetty here, a
first for up here and there are plenty of Australian boats and another from New
Zealand.
We are starting to get the boat prepared
now for the Atlantic with Food getting stored and final touches to the boat.
The biggest headache though is the Sat phone communications that we cannot get
to work properly still, we need this for our weather once out there in the
Atlantic.
We are about to head down to Gibraltar,
which should take two to three days. We intend spending a bit of time there and
finalize things on the boat preparations. A technician will look at a problem
we have on one of the Chartplotters that has developed a habit of turning
itself off when it wants, so maybe he can help with the Sat phone problem as
well. We also should be picking up Dave, our first crewmember for the crossing
there as well, that’s if he’s there, I haven’t been able to get hold of him
lately and he’s probably still at sea somewhere.
After that, its goodbye to the Med, and
down to the Canary Islands!
