August 8 – August 28: Minorca

Beautiful bays in Minorca

The trip to Minorca was pleasant but wearing as the wind was on our nose for most of the time, so we were delighted to glide into a calm and peaceful cala just outside Mahon harbour and dip into the cool water. After close on 13 hours at sea Cala Taulera was a real haven.
It also proved to be a perfect setting off point the next morning to visit the fortress of Isobell 11 on La Mola, near Mahon. This extensive military fortress was built by the Spanish government in 1848 in response to the threat by France and Britain who were both eyeing up Mahon harbour as a strategic harbour for their fleets. It apparently took 25 years to construct but was out-dated before completion!
Mahon harbour
We left the peacefulness of our anchorage for Mahon the next day to seek out a buoy or pontoon nearer to the town. Mahon is nestled in a huge natural harbour and is a hideaway for luxury yachts. Consequently mooring fees were well over 100e – something to keep well away from! We managed to find a buoy in Cala Longa, another small cala in the harbour entrance which still required a 20 minute dingy trip into the town.
Everything about Mahon was expensive and rather showy. To crown it we had an oil spillage in the dingy which took two hours to clean up! Things brightened up considerably when Maria arrived, even though I got her time of arrival incorrect by 12 hours!
We left Mahon the next day early in the morning and headed out in a brisk north easterly of 10-12 knots which proved an exciting welcome for Maria who was immediately at home on the waves. At lunchtime we moored up in the Cala Coves, a narrow inlet with high rocks each side with over 90 caves most of them inhabited in the Bronze Age. It was an amazing place with loads of small cave entrances carved into the rock faces. Most of them had been sectioned off and the bones, tools and remains found inside were now museum pieces, but others we could clamber into and just imagine how life must have been for families living in the coolness and ruggedness of these caves. Below the sapphire waters supplied a welcomed dip after our excursions into the rocks. Maria was of course in her element, itching to climb the craggy cliff faces.
When we returned to Mahon to collect Maria's friend Ali, the harbour was much quieter than during our previous visit and we were able to pick up a buoy closer to town. The next day we made our way up the east coast again looking for a secluded cala. Somehow, once you have tasted the solitude of nothing but cliffs, clear water and a few boats around you, any other anchorage is second best.
Laying up
The forecast was for light easterly and north easterly throughout the following week which was completely the wrong wind for sailing to Sardinia, as planned so we changed our plans and started to look at the remainder of the Spanish coast and beginning of the French coast for laying up over winter. The 'manyana' attitude everywhere meant that we had little response from marinas we had been contacting by email and phone calls were equally fruitless.
After a few more wearing on line sessions we have now put our hopes on Sant Carles de la Rapita along the Spanish coast halfway between Valencia and Barcelona. With the reassuring thought that we may have at last found an over winter home for Moonshadow we were able to get down to enjoying the rest of our holiday with only three weeks left to go.
Minorca is continuing to be peaceful and unspoilt. We spent two days in Port de Fornells, a huge sheltered harbour om the north coast of the island, bordering a small village with little development except for some large executive homes. Great place for watersports of all kinds. One of the prettiest harbours we stayed at was Cala de Addaia hidden in a picturesque corner of a large lagoon and surrounded by gentle hillsides, covered in shrubs and trees with no houses in sight.
Completely unspoilt
It is refreshing to know that you can still find an anchorage where you are completely on your own with just beautiful scenery around you. That was the case when we sailed into Port de Sanitja. On one side a kindly gently sloping headland lined the bay with the Cavalleria lighthouse at its head, on the other side coarse juniper bushes and reedy grass protruded out of the stony ground. The inlet was breathtakingly peaceful and certainly had a historical feel about it especially when we realised we were moored just a few metres away from a Roman military camp from 123BC! The rocks that lined the eastern side of the bay were gnarled and twisted into amazingly grotesque shapes which reminded us that during the winter the east winds constantly battered the island, shops closed down and the bars and restaurants went into hibernation. We were the only yacht in the anchorage!
We moored once again in Fornells with the idea of visiting a fiesta the next day. We nearly didn't make it as our dingy had disappeared the next morning! Fortunately, a Spaniard on a boat closer to the harbour had seen the empty dingy heading for land and had managed to catch it and securely tie it behind his own boat. Life without a dingy would have been very difficult!
Fiesta time
We made a brief visit to a fiesta in the small town of Ferreries where we stood sweating among the crowds that cheered and shouted as the mayor of the town announced the grand opening. Fiestas are held in each town in turn to honour their patron saint and horses play a leading role, rearing on command through the crowds! We had become so used to our peaceful way of life that we found the electric crowd rather daunting so we decided to give the evening celebrations a miss and instead visit the stud farm where these beautiful black Minorcan horses are bred.
We planned to catch the first day of the classic yacht race so we tacked to Mahon in a lovely sailing wind of 10-12 knots staying the night before at a pleasant anchorage on the eastern side of Isla Colon which surprisingly had laid buoys which we did not have to pay for. When we arrived in Mahon we found that the Classic Yacht race had been cancelled undoubtedly due to lack of entries and the impact of the recession.
We visited Son Martorellet, the Minorcan horse stud, and saw about 15 beautiful black stallions, four of which performed some of their high school moves in an airy, immaculate indoor school, the roof of which had been lined with cork for insulation. One of their trainers told us that the horses perform the same routines six days a week and to train them to the level required took three to four years. Amazing dedication on behalf of both horse and rider.
Our last night in Minorca once more characterised the beauty of this unexploited island. Our anchorage was in Cala Son Saura, a wide bay, with two quiet beaches where we dropped the anchor 6m down and could see the sandy bottom clearly through the azure blue water. Our last swim in Minorcan waters was one to remember!