11th May 2008

Porto Cristo was a good stop – on the town quay, showers could have been better but it is in the middle of town and handy for shops etc. The town is a tourist place mainly, with quite a few tour buses coming through which stop for a couple of hours to let their cargo wander the streets and take in the sights. But it was no problem to be in so many photographs or the focus of peoples’ interest.
We even had a visit from John & Isabel McNab from Clydebank who had been having a coffee up in the town and had spotted the Saltire flying in the rigging. John said to Isabel – it must be a mistake – and they came down to investigate. So we all had a good blether about back home and the people that both Carolyn & Isabel knew from Aberfoyle – which was a lovely surprise – hope you both got back to Clydebank OK.

The Cuevas del Drac were very impressive and well organised for visitors – shop at the end of the tour to buy photographs ( no photography allowed inside the caves) . However – isn’t technology wonderful – ASA 1600 on the digital camera, hold it very still, take as many as you can and delete the ones that are not clear….. It must have been awesome to have been exploring the caves when they were first discovered in the early 1900s and with poor lighting and equipment. The musicians floating in the rowing-boat and playing classical-music was a little over-dramatic for my taste but it helps to justify the 10.50 euro entrance fee.

Club Nautico is on the other side of the river from the town quay and reputed to charge over 60 euro per night for a 10 metre boat which in contrast we were paying just less than 12 euro where we were. Terry & Vicki (on Chantana, an Oyster 56) arrived from Palma and managed to get into the last slot on the town-quay ( next to Peter on his Fisher 25). We first met Terry & Vicki last September in Sada, North Spain and had kept in touch. So we (Kiara, Chantana & Balchis, and Alan who is helping Terry with Astro-nav) all went out to dinner at one of the local restaurants in the town. We had had 6 nights in Porto Cristo and Terry, 2 nights; when we left to move a few miles up the coast to Cala Bona. Terry was heading back to Alicante.
Kiara & Balchis had a nice gentle sail up to Cala Bona and took up position inside the harbour. Jaap & Diana had been there by bus from Porto Cristo and had checked out the conflicting information that ‘ no boats over 9 metre, boats up to 12, boats up to 15 metres, maximum draft 1.5’ . So – it turns out that yes it is a little shallow in places, can take up to 12 metre length, is very quiet (except when the swell is coming from the North East). It was great – we were the only 2 visiting boats – the charter boats are not recommended to stop in Cala Bona in their schedule; the place was very clean and the staff brilliant – cheery and helpful. Cala Bona is at the edge of the larger tourist resort of Cala Millor - but neither place has any signs gross hedonistic tourism that can be evident in some of the places that we have seen. The harbour is quite tight and the tour boats ( glass- bottom catamarans) run very frequently from the harbour, but it's not a problem – there is no wash from the boats and they don’t run after 5pm.

Next stop after Cala Bona was only another few miles up the coast again – Cala Ratjada (sometimes spelt without the ‘T’). Another easy sail but then the wind dropped to nothing and we had to get the motor on for the last 2 or 3 miles. One of the most interesting things was that we heard Alvoran (Tom, a retired Swissair pilot that we met in Gibraltar) reporting his passage plan to the coastguard. He had left Mahon, Menorca a couple of hours ago and was heading to Sardinia – so after he had finished with the coastguard I called him up on the VHF and we had a chat – the amazing part is that we were 50 miles apart and normally the range of vhf from yacht to yacht is only 10 – 15 miles maximum. There is a phenomenon of ‘ducting’ that can happen in the ‘E’ layer of the atmosphere and give longer ranges to vhf frequencies so I suppose it must have been that…

Since we have been in Cala Rajada – the weather has gone a bit bad and the harbourmaster had everyone move into the inner harbour and raft alongside the fishing boats (even they were not going out…) . One boat (about 50 ft) did stay alongside the wall in the outer harbour and had set out anchors to the side to hold them off the wall – but they also broke a couple of mooring lines. Another (Bavaria 50) was on the fuel berth and broke 3 cleats and about 4 lines. We were more fortunate and did not break any lines although nobody slept much in the 3 days of strong winds and big swell. The winds got up to about 40 knots (or more) during the gusts and the waves have been coming over the harbour wall (and sometimes through) in the most dramatic style; at least 50 – 60 feet in the air and landing (at least 4 times) on the 50 footer in the outer harbour. And that has been solid water – not just the spray….
The town itself is more of a tourist place (mainly German) which is very busy and someone (not that we know) summed it up as being ‘Overkrauted’…..
We will be moving on when the weather settles down a bit and move up to the North East corner of the island, to or near Pollensa.