3rd June 2008

1st June 2008
Now back in Pollensa, Mallorca, arrived here yesterday from a small anchorage (Cala Morells, Menorca) where we spent the night after we had left Fornells.

We had 9 nights in Mahon before we left for Fornells and Kiara headed for Ibiza to meet up with one of their daughters. The staff of Sunseaker are excellent, very friendly, time to chat (of-course it’s still not busy so that makes a difference), they keep the area of the quay clean and check the boat ropes & electrical / water connections regularly, facilities are also very good and clean. (can’t give them enough praise). The only real down side is the amount of wash from the tour boats going past ( and the pilot boat), there is meant to be a 3 knot limit in the harbour which is duly ignored by the majority (it seems). The large cruise ship and the regular (large) ferries are no problem – and what a site to see them coming and going to the port. Mahon is also one of our favourite places and there is a lot to see in and around the city.

Kevin, Lesley & Catherine were out on holiday (near Cuitadella) from Oxfordshire but sadly the weather was not great for them. I worked with Kevin in Oxfordshire a couple of years back and it was good to see him again and most importantly he brought out the new modem to replace our old one ( and return Diana’s spare). Thanks Kevin.

One other thing, while in Mahon I had the opportunity to do a bit more Amateur Radio (mostly afternoon or evening) and had some good contacts with gb50rmm on 20 metre band at 13:30 utc (Portsmouth Royal Marine Museum), 4x4fr on 17metre at 16:30 utc (Rafi, near Tel Aviv), a92hb 17metre 16:35 utc (John, in Bahrain; but from Annan, Scotland), 2e0bus 17 metre band at 17:45 utc (Mal in Tintagel, Cornwall), and mm0lgr 20 metre band 20:10 utc (David from Maybole, Scotland). Still a lot to be heard both east and west (UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Italy and Portugal, Spain, America, Trinidad) and a little bit north and south (eg Norway / Sweden, France, Germany, Croatia, Kazakstan and Canaries, Niger to mention a few. One of the best I heard but couldn’t get through to because everybody was trying to contact the station was the Bulgarian base in South Shetland Islands (lz08km). The marine bands are all still a bit quiet except for the Dutch net on 8.101 Mhz at 18:00utc.

In Fornells we met Klaus and Christiane from Germany who are on a Vancouver 34 (Joanna), which they keep near St Tropez. They are having about 6 weeks holiday before heading back up home and back to work. We had an evening on Joanna which was great – Christiane interpreting between Klaus & Trevor and Carolyn trying to remember her school German lessons. Next morning (before we sailed to Cala Morells) they came for coffee while we showed them Balchis and how we can sail her from the wheelhouse.

The anchorage in Cala Morells is well sheltered and good holding in the sand but a little small. The moorings for the local boats were still on the bottom and luckily we were the only boat in the bay so we didn’t need to put out a line to the shore (to stop the boat swinging around) which we would have to do if there were more boats in. The weather forecasts are not very accurate these days and 3 out of 3 were wrong; both for the passage to C Morells and for the passage here to Pollensa. However we did hear on the radio a warning that there were to be tidal surges in Cuitadella when the water goes from its normal 3 or 4 metres to less than 1 metre (several times); a local phenomena which is called ‘Resaca’ or ‘Seiche’.