24th April, Porto Colom

We have heard from Darren & Vicki on Nocturne (by SMS) that they are now in Menorca and heading further East, they are hoping to get to Greece in reasonable time so I think that may be the last we see of them for a while. We are not planning on going any further east than Menorca but hope to maybe see them later in the year if the resurrect their plan to go to the Caribbean.

We had a good few days in Palma, although it wasn’t as much of a bargain as we had first hoped – we had been quoted 22 euro on the phone, but when you add on the harbour tax, the light tax, the electric, water and the man to wire a plug and the VAT – it all was a little more than expected. However – that said it was for a larger mooring slot than we needed (got it as a sub-let) and it worked out at 31 euro per night ( inc taxes) if we wire our own plug; which is not bad for being in the middle of Palma. Kiara arrived from Ibiza while we were there and managed to get into Marina Port de Mallorca, which was expensive; and Peter & Joyce on Spicy Maiden were also there. While in Palma we toured the city a few times on foot and also went to the Cathedral and while we were in Arenal went to a church called La Porciuncula, which is absolutely amazing with stained glass panels all round and very little stone work; a fairly modern (round) church and very impressive.
After Palma we (Kiara & us) went to an anchorage just North West of Santa Jordi which was well sheltered from the swell, and then round the South East corner of the island and into Porto Petro. The wind got up during the day and as we were not too sure of the mooring that we were on – went to anchor on the other side of the bay hoping to get more shelter from the wind. The wind was a little better but the swell turned round the headland of the cove and was very uncomfortable. The anchor didn’t hold properly when we tested it so we went back to where we were on the other side and picked up a different mooring after trying unsuccessfully 5 times to get the anchor to grip. The visitor’s moorings provided by the Local Government have not been laid yet so there was a shortage of good moorings. The wind dropped over night but the swell was still working its way into the cala. The next day there were bigger winds expected so we went a little further up the coast to Porto Colom (where we are now) and managed to get onto a very strong mooring (although they have not laid all the moorings here either). A very good place to be when the wind gets up to 46 knots…… and also hailstones & lightning. The last few days the weather has been better and we caught the local bus to Felanitx – a small town about 12 kilometres inland, which is very different from all the tourism on the coast.
We also have to try and replace the external USB WiFi modem which has stopped working, but in the meantime we can borrow Diana’s spare one.

Next stop will be Porto Cristo which is very near the caves of Drac and of Del Hams which are supposed to be a couple of the main attractions to see. We will let you know our opinion later…