22nd Aug 2008

Well after saying ‘goodbye’ to the friends we had made while in Puerto Pollensa we eventually pulled up the anchor after 6 weeks buried in the sand and left on Wednesday 13th. It was an ‘OK’ day for the wind but we should have taken note that it had blown most of the night and that the swell would be up. We went anyway, knowing that we had the option to put in at a few places before we went too far. The sea was big and confused crossing the bays of Pollensa and Alcudia and we went to look at the first option for the overnight anchorage just NW of Ratjada; we didn’t stay because the swell was coming in and the bottom was a bit too steep and rocky for our liking. So we carried on a few miles to a place north of Cala Bona (Costa del Pinos) that looked OK on the chart & pilot book – and it was. The swell did come in a little and I didn’t put the drogue out to stop the rolling ( we will next time ). There were a few jet-skis, speedboats and water-skiers but they go home before dark so it is not a long-term problem. After the ‘bay of pines’ we had a short sail to Porto Cristo and arrived at the town quay at about midday – but the could only let us have the one night because the places had been reserved via the internet. No worries – next day we had a great sail on an off-shore wind, with no swell, to Cala Esmeralda where we anchored and had to put a line to the shore to keep Balchis out of the way of the glass-bottomed tour boat that comes in to the cala. However the wind changed direction and started to come into the cala and bring the swell with it – so we got the line from the shore, pulled up the anchor and headed down to Porto Petro where we had a mooring buoy booked for the next 2 days. We were able to get one of the empty moorings for the night and moved onto the one we had reserved the next day (Saturday 16th). The mooring we had was very near the entrance to the cala and suffered from swell and the added effect of the wash from all the large boats that came and went at speed – the ‘flopper stopper’ definitely worked and cut out the worst of the rolling and pitching. The ‘flopper stopper’ is our name for the ‘Sea-Brake’ ™ (which is the drogue) when we use it to stop us flopping about in the swell….

On the Sunday we sailed down to Colonia de Sant Jordi and anchored in the bay then went for a walk ashore to get a shower at the town quay and find some internet. The shower was the easy part and we eventually found some WiFi in the Bambu bar which is run by a couple of Czechs; the language was the difficult part (and trying to get the wifi to work) but the service and hospitality was excellent (and good value). While we were walking in the town, we found by accident a brilliant exhibition centre that displays the underwater wild life of the conservation area of the Cabrera islands, which was very well presented and included a small ‘3-D’ film show. The outside of the exhibition centre (which as a tower) is a representation of the life and development from across the whole Mediterranean (of all known history) and depicted by mural and sculpture. The whole place was fantastic and also surprisingly – free. Monday we left Sant Jordi and sailed round to Cala Blava, near El Arenal in the east side of Palma Bay – we had booked a Posidonia mooring and arrived there in good time. We had checked the weather the day before and it looked like Tuesday was the best day to cross to Ibiza – but it would be a long day all the way to Sant Antoni at 5 knots with 80 miles to cover – even if we left early in the morning it would be close to darkness when we arrived. So we opted to do a night sail to arrive a couple of hours either side of mid-day ; the weather would be settled and even at 4 knots we would be there by 2pm. It was just past a full moon, which was in the sky all night and we had upto about 18 knots of wind from just aft of the beam until 4:30 when we had to put the engine on after the wind dropped and we were doing less than 3 knots and rolling badly with the swell from the side. We arrived at 1pm (Tuesday 19th) and not long after we had arrived we had a text from Bob & Di on Sheer Fantasy to ask where we were and say that they were at anchor at Sant Antoni…. We hadn’t seen them on the way in (nor them us) so we sorted out a meeting place to catch up with each others news before they headed of to Formentera and the mainland the following day. Terry (Chantana) had also been on the phone they were also down in Formentera. And Charlie & Alison on Breagh arrived in the bay next day – Wednesday 20th. They are on holiday and will fly back to Scotland soon but it was great to spend the evening with them and we had a great laugh – we should see them again before the go back. Thursday (yesterday) was spent shopping, internet, weather, passage planning and today a couple of small jobs and laundry - it looks like we will be crossing to the mainland tomorrow (or Tuesday) and head for somewhere near Moriara.