Goodbye Spain

We have now arrived in Sardinia, we left Porta Pollensa Mallorca on Wednesday 17^th July with the intention of stopping of in Menorca for a few days. On our approach to Menorca we checked on the weather forecast, as the winds although not brilliant for sailing  were in our favour,( as in not on the nose), we decided to  would head straight to Sardinia. Our last sighting of Spain was as the sun went down, and what a sunset.

Our last few weeks in Spain were spent with Kevin’s daughter Rachel and the two granddaughters Summer and Taylor, once on board they were given strict instructions as to where they could go on the boat when on deck. As you can imagine where two small children are concerned this was challenged on several occasions, but on the whole they stayed within the cockpit area.

Their first night was spent in San Antonio, not one of our favourite places to say the least but it’s a good place to stay if picking people up from the airport. The following day we headed for Carla Basa, a place that had been recommended to us, the bay has beautiful clear waters and a lovely sandy beach, to say it was busy was an understatement. However once ashore the girls were straight in the water followed not long after by their mum and Kevin.

At one point Taylor started to play with the water pistol but she couldn’t quite get the hang of how to fill it, so I lent a helping hand, she then went without any direction from me, Kevin however thinks otherwise and squirted the whole lot of Kevin, he was not amused. She on the other hand thought this was great and was straight back in the water to refill, this time however she started to squirt it as she left the waters edge and managed to get a direct hit on a group of young Spanish teenagers, the surrounding sunbathers thought it hilarious.

The majority of people on the beach were young and trendy, and at one point we were treated to various fashion shows put on by slim leggy girls, Kevin was in his element. Whilst on the beach you can spend a great deal of money without moving of your beach towel as the various venders selling drinks, fruit, clothes, watches etc walk past you.

From Carla Basa we headed north with the intention of completely circumnavigating the island, our next stop was Portinatx, another lovely bay, with a play park, which both girls loved. We stayed there for three nights before heading off to Isla Togamago, there was no beach there so our intention was to stay the one night before heading south the next day. We chose Tagamago as a result of the predicted wind direction overnight so that we would escape the swell, we should have known better, the wind changed direction and so the boat rock and rolled all night, poor Rachel had not experienced this before and so hardly got any sleep as she rolled about the cabin.

One of the days was spent In Evissa Ibiza’s capital, which Rachel wanted to see, we weren’t sure how the girls would fair walking around in the heat and not going to the beach, but they had a great time especially walking up the hill to the old castle, especially in the tunnels where they could shout and hear the echo.

Our next stop was Formentera and Cala Sahona, one of my favourite places, the bay is crystal clear so you cant help but drop your anchor in sand, however it does  get busy especially at the weekend but as the bay and the beach are quite big there is plenty of room. Kevin would take us to the beach in the dingy, and Summer would sit in the small blow up dingy left by Isaac, she thought this was great and would wave to all the other boat owners as we went past.

On the way back to San Antonio we stopped off at  Cala Tarida, another cala that had been recommended to us, and whilst the area in which we were anchored was lovely and clear the water by the beach was a murky yellow and so we only stayed the one night before going back to Cala Basa which was Rachel’s favourite place.

Our last day with them was spent on the beach, we arrived early to find a nice spot near the waters edge, spread out the beach towels and settled down. The next minute we were surrounded by a hoard of school kids and their teachers for a day out at the beach, the noise was deafening at times and we were a little concerned that Summer and Taylor may end up merging with the group.

The latest toy being shown off

Soon it was time to head back to San Antonio, Rachel took the helm and off we set, she is a natural sailor, obviously takes after her dad.

Some photo's of the girls:

On the morning they left we were up early, this was the first time we had to wake the girls normally it was them waking us. Whilst Kevin took them to the airport I started to get cleaned up. I was really sad to see them go and the boat felt empty without them.

With all the cleaning and washing done we left san Antonia as soon as we could and headed back to Portinatx, where we would head to Mallorca from the following day.

Unfortunately there was no wind the day we made the crossing and so we ended up motoring all the way, Kevin got really bored and started telling some dire jokes to pass the time.

Once back in Mallorca we quickly made our way back to Poto Pollensa, I had had a text from my friend Jill to say her and her husband Kevin would be arriving on the 15^th July and so we arranged to spend a day with them before heading off to Menorca. We met them the following day and brought them back to the boat via the dingy Jill looked absolutely terrified but she managed to get in the dingy without falling which she is prone to. On board we had lunch and whiled away the afternoon reminiscing and catching up on the gossip, it was great to be able to show them the boat as they had heard so much about it.

Jill and Kevin

That evening we went out for a meal before we said our goodbyes and they waved us off. The journey to Sardinia took just under three days and we clocked up 306 miles which took us over our first thousand for this year and so we celebrated as before with a steak and some pink Fizz

Since leaving mainland Spain we have mainly anchored overnight and have only been in a marina for three days, that was only due to the bad weather and poor holding in Alcudia bay. The new water maker has made this possible and although expensive it has enabled us to have greater freedom in where we choose to go and so a good investment.

We plan to spend at least a month cruising around Sardina, first impressions, it’s a lovely island with lots of good anchorages, nice sandy beaches and not overly commercialised.  However the number of super yachts is far greater than we saw in Spain plus much bigger, and the majority British registered, who said there was a recession on.

We now connect to ships AIS database so for those who are interested you can see our present position on a Marine Tracking web site such as Marine Ttraffic.com, Shipfinder.com or Fleetmon.com

Search for "Miss Lilly" MMSI2350224444 and it should show our position.

 

Distance Travelled 2012: 2471Nm

Distance Travelled 2013: 1248Nm

Total Distance: 3719Nm

Our Present Position: https://maps.google.it/maps?saddr=41.000112,9.621765&hl=en&sll=41.023557,9.540939&sspn=0.113838,0.264187&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=13&t=m&z=13

Back in Ibiza

On Claire and Steve’s first day we arranged to pick them up at the Key near the marina and bring them back to the boat. Isaac was more than happy to put his life jacket on, I thought he may object because it is a bit cumbersome. Once on the boat Isaac was intrigued by the inside of the boat rather than the outside, he seemed to think it was one big Wendy House, and whenever he was on board spent more time down below exploring the cupboards and cabins than on deck. When he was on deck he liked to look out for the fish or play with the ropes rather than have a go at steering the boat, his dad on the other hand quite enjoyed taking the Helm.

We took them sailing a couple of times, the first day we sailed to Cala Formentor, but no sooner had we dropped the anchor and started to prepare lunch we were told we could not anchor in the bay and had to move, it was such a shame as it was a lovely Cala.

The second time we went to Cala Murta, again a lovely Cala but you couldn’t take the dingy ashore and so Kevin took Isaac and his dad for a look round the bay in the dingy whilst Claire and I prepared lunch, which was taken on deck.

After lunch Isaac ventured out on deck for a look round, but didn’t stay for long.

The other days were spent at the beach, where Isaac loved playing in the sand, either building sand castles our getting buried in it by his dad and granddad.

He wasn’t too impressed with the temperature of the water he thought it was a bit too cold, and I must say I had to agree with him and so only ventured waist deep.

In the evenings we would go back to their villa for a barbecue, where Isaac insisted we either play pool or ping pong.

Much too soon their time with us was over and we had to say our goodbyes, Kevin and I met them at the marina key in order for Claire to handover the various toys bought for Isaac over the week so that Kevin’s granddaughters could play with them when they arrived in two weeks’ time. We hugged and kissed each other, that is apart from Isaac he wasn’t hugging or kissing anybody, and waved them off. Have to say I shed a little tear on the way back to the boat.

Before we left Porto Pollensa we met up again with Dave and Julie on Carla Christina who had arrived just as we were anchoring back in the bay on our second to last day with Claire and Steve. They knew we were in the bay and had been looking for us so that they could anchor close by.  Unfortunately on their first night in the bay they lost their dingy, Dave thought it had come loose in the night and had blown away as we had had some strong winds during the night. So at 06:30 he gave us a call to see if Kevin could help him find it. After a couple of hours of looking in the most likely places it could have been blown too they gave up looking. Kevin was convinced it had been stolen and Dave himself came to that conclusion, apparently the night before when they had gone ashore there were some street traders setting up stalls by the marina key, one of the stall holders appeared very interested in his dingy and asked lots of questions even where his yacht was at anchor in the bay. He thought they were just being friendly, as did we when we arrived back from Claire and Steve’s Villa to be asked similar questions, so we reckoned they were actually  targeting us, fortunately for us we didn’t give them too much information and so that is perhaps why we still have our dingy.

In view of this incident we now pull our dingy up and secure it to the side of the boat, unfortunately the incident meant that Dave and Julie had to go into the marina in order for them to get ashore and report the theft.

On the Saturday night we went out for a meal with them, we found a really nice restaurant whose menu was a little different to the norm for Spain, and although we had intended having and early night it was actually gone twelve before we said our goodbyes as we were leaving the following morning to make our way back down the coast and then over to Ibiza.

The following day (Sunday 9^th June) we headed off to Cala  De La Calobra, a large and spectacular cala with several mini bays and a slit in the high rocky cliffs where the Torrente de Pareis runs through into the sea, although when we were there it was more like a stream.

At the start of our journey to the cala the wind was favourable for a change and we were making good time, but once we rounded Cabo De Formentor that all changed, we were either treated to very strong gusts of winds or no wind at all. It was really frustrating as it was impossible to set the sails for both conditions and so in the end we took the sails down and motored.

When we arrived the beach was very crowded as was the anchorage but by the evening the beach was empty and there was only us and a super yacht left for the night, it was lovely and peaceful, that was until the midges made and appearance and spoilt the ambiance of the place.

In the morning both Kevin and I swam to the beach, which is all pebbles and not easy on the feet and so I looked like I was doing some kind of silly walk as I tried to make my way up the beach and back again.

 Later that morning we set off for Soller, which we had been told was a beautiful resort, which it was but the anchorage was a nightmare, it was very busy and people were dropping anchors just anywhere. We have noticed on our travels that the Spanish enter an anchorage at speed and then just drop their anchor regardless of where anybody else’s anchor may be, the Germans like to get up close and personal, jump in the water as soon as they have anchored, and if they are not unclothed when they go in the water they are immediately they get out as they shower off the back of the boat. The French drop anchor and go straight ashore, the British on the other hand enter an anchorage circle their drop area to determine depth and swing space, drop the relevant amount of chain for the depth, pull on the chain to determine whether the anchor has hold or is dragging, then sit on deck for about an hour just to check they have actually got a good hold, this was never so evident than in Soller.

At one point a German skipper was attempting to drop his anchor immediately across ours until Kevin told him in no uncertain terms to get lost, this was all done using sign language, and even though he did move he was still close so that in the morning we could have shook hands with him and his crew across our stern and their bow. Due to the chaotic anchoring within the bay we decided we couldn’t relax and so we would only stay the one night and move on to Santa Ponsa the following day.

The next day we set off down the coast, the day started out really nice but the clouds soon developed and the strong winds picked up, and once again they would die away to nothing, so once again we ended up motoring most of the way to Santa Ponsa.

On arrival in the bay we spied Jim and Debbie who we had last seen in Cartagena, it was really nice to see them again and we met them for drinks that evening on their huge catamaran, along with another couple we had met in Soller.

We liked Santa Ponsa very much but due to the swell overnight which made the boat rock all over the place, and therefore meant very little sleep was obtained we moved round the coast to Palma Nova, where our journey around Mallorca had begun, and where we would commence our journey back to Ibiza.

The original Plan was to leave Mallorca on the Monday 24^th June, the winds were forecast to be in the right direction for a good sail, the only problem was we would be sailing between two strong Mistral fronts which if the forecast or our timing was wrong we could well and truly be caught out.

Each day we would get up and check the forecast and on the Saturday after getting back from our shopping trip Kevin felt there was sufficient wind to make our way to Ibiza, so we hastily made our preparations and finally set off at 12:30. At first the sail was great even though it did require some taking to get out of the bay, however three hours into the journey the wind died and it was back to the good old motor. The wind was due to pick up again at six that evening but as often is the case this never materialised and we ended up motoring all the way to Cala des Llamp where we had left Ibiza for Mallorca a month and a half before.

The plan now was to make our way round the coast back to San Antonio checking out various Calas in preparation for Kevin’s daughter Rachel and the two Granddaughters Summer and Taylor who were due to arrive on the 27^th July.

Present location: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=38.974891,1.308746&hl=en&ll=38.972222,1.431999&spn=0.147071,0.308647&sll=38.967951,1.366425&sspn=0.155621,0.439453&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=12&t=m&z=12

Porto Pollensa

Our first two nights in the bay of Pollensa were spent anchored just outside Marina Bonaire or as called by the locals Cocodrilo, the sea was crystal clear and holding was good, and for a change the forecasters got it wrong, the predicted rain did not arrive. After two nights we moved across the bay to Pollensa which we loved, the town was great not too noisy, there were all the amenities we needed and it provided good shelter even in the strong winds we experienced over our first few days there.

We had been experiencing some problems with our Raymarine chart plotter again, and as it was still under Guarantee Kevin decide to try and get it sorted whilst we were in Pollensa as we would be there for a couple of weeks. It turned out that the chart plotter had to be sent back to the mainland for repair and would hopefully be back with us the following week, therefore any sailing we did we would need to use our Navionics App on the iPad. As it turned out they could not repair the plotter and we ended up with a brand new chart plotter much to Kevin’s delight and which seems to be working ok.

On our second day in Porto Pollensa I noticed something unusual in the water, it turned out it was an overturned sail dingy  with somebody holding on to the back, so Kevin set off in our dingy to the rescue. When he reached the guy who was German, Kevin asked if he required help in up-righting the dingy, his offer was declined as the chap was adamant somebody would come out and take him back to shore. So Kevin assisted him into our dingy and waited for the rescue boat to come and collect him.

Whilst in Porto Pollensa we met up again with Helen and Marcel before they continued their journey over to Menorca, during the days we spent with them we visited the aquarium and although small it was very interesting. We also took a couple of walks, the first to Cala De San Vicente took us over some rocky terrain but the view when we got there was fantastic, whist there we sat and had an ice cream and watched as the huge waves came crashing into the bay.

The second walk was to Cala Vall de Boca, where we had a picnic overlooking the bay, Helen provided the food and I supplied the Vino, however I forgot the corkscrew. The dilemma that caused in trying to decide how best to open the bottle,  Marcel and Kevin were for the breaking the neck of the bottle method, Helen felt this unwise in case we got glass in our drinks and felt we should leave it unopened until we got back to the boat. Marcel not to be outdone came up with the idea of pushing the cork into the bottle with a stick, this method was met with approval by all, and so we did manage to have vino with our sandwiches.

Also whilst at anchor in the bay of Pollensa we were kept entertained by the firefighting sea planes, we were anchored near the Naval base (it was very small) where the sea planes take off and land, and so we got front row seats as the practised there manoeuvres of landing on the water picking up water and taking off again. At times they came very close to the boat and the pilots would wave as they went past.

Once again we said our goodbyes to Helen and Marcel with the hope that we may meet up with them again in Sardinia,, we had a great last night together with a barbecue on our boat and one last game of “Brandy Dog”, which is a combined board and card game and unfortunately as Marcel keeps reminding us that Helen and I are trailing the men but I  am sure next time we meet up Helen and I will get our revenge.

After we waved Helen and Marcel off the following day we commenced our preparations for the arrival of my daughter Claire, husband Steve and Grandson Isaac on the 8^th June.  They were staying in a villa in Pollensa old town and so we were undecided as to whether stay at anchor or go into a marina during their stay, as we would more than likely be going back to the villa each evening for a meal. In the end we stayed at anchor and got a taxi back each evening, this worked out to be a much cheaper option.

With all preparations completed we decided to take a walk into Old Pollensa town the long way round, I remembered most of the route from the last time I had done the walk many years ago, however there is now a ring road crossing the route which wasn’t there before and so we had to take a short detour. Old Pollensa town is charming with lots of ancient buildings, we sat at one of the cafés at the bottom of the 365 steps which take you up to which take you to the church at the top of the hill, I decided not to attempt the ascent this time as I had already visited the church last time I visited. Although we did meet a couple of young women who told us they had just drank 3 bottles of wine and were determined to get to the top, we wished them luck and headed off back to Porto Pollensa taking the shorter route back along the road. It was so hot by now and I just wanted to wait and catch the bus, but Kevin insisted we kept walking to the next bus stop. By the time the bus was due we were nearly back in Porto Pollensa and so we ended up walking the whole way back. I ended up with a blister on the sole of my foot and so Kevin never heard the last of it.

There was just one more day to go before Claire and Steve arrived and I just couldn’t wait to see them.