Isla de la Cabrera

While Es Trenc offers the most spectacular beach miles long and sapphire blue water, nothing can compare to the remoteness of Isla de Cabrera, a group of fifteen islands south of Mallorca.

As a designated National Park, procedures for visiting are seemingly tight. The saga starts at any of the ports that line the south eastern coast of Mallorca. Here there are varying responses to the request "We would like to visit Cabrera."

First there is paperwork to fill in with boat and passport details. If the harbourmaster is having a good day he may fax your request to the Cabrera office which according to the leaflet is in the centre of Palma. Being diligent we went to track them down at the head office address on our leaflet to find it had moved to an industrial estate outside town. So we had to bank on receiving a reply to our fax.
This we realised was another problem. One sailor who had been waiting two weeks for a permit was told after an irate phone call to the head office that he would have to wait a further week. After a few days wait with the harbour master shaking his head as soon as we appeared at the office door we decided to chance our luck and sail for the islands anyway to arrive on the date we had booked but which we had received no confirmation for.

A good easterly was forecast and we sailed splendidly at 6-7 knots into the beautiful sheltered bay with its rolling hillsides and castle carved into the highest rock at the harbour entrance. Built in the late 14^th century, the winding stone staircase that leads you to the battlements has a snaking stone handrail, beautifully curved and crafted out of the same stone slab as the staircase. The wide sheltered bay has a spaciousness and peacefulness of its own. Speedboats and water skiers are banned says the official literature. This promise was momentarily disturbed by a fleet of fifteen motorboats, carrying German flags that swooped in alongside us as we sailed into the bay!
Announcing our arrival on the VHF we were told to take a buoy and check at 4pm if our mooring reservation was to be honoured. As we lay off Moonshadow in the centre of the bay and took the sails down, the motor boats thankfully disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

We drank in the beauty of the islands. Clear blue transparent sea, loads of fish, lizards that stop in your path, then glide at speed into the undergrowth. The climb to the castle is spectacular, the yachts receding to toy replicas in the sapphire sea as you ascend. The wind funnelling through the lowest part of the island from the east creating deep ripples and a cooling breeze.

The lack of modern facilities ensures that Cabrera brings you closer to nature. After a tough climb to the castle we took the stony path around the bay that led us to a small deserted beach where the water was so transparent it was almost invisible. To swim in such purity is a privilege.