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 9th 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 24th
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 27th
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
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