Sunset at Sant Jordi
After a morning of last minute preparations we left St Carles at 1.45pm. We topped up the fuel tank and waved goodbye to Simon, a helpful English harbour hand who had been our saviour putting us in touch with Bob, the engineer.
The sea was calm with a slight breeze as we sailed past the now familiar coastline and out beyond the flat promontory that snakes out to sea from the marina. It was great to feel the sea breezes again. The wind was on our nose so we had no option but to motor which turned out to be a real test for our new engine with 21 hours non-stop. The wind increased gradually during the day and evening and by 12.30 when Anders took over the night watch and I went down below the swell started to increase dramatically to around 30 knots.
I then had a bad bout of sea sickness so left Anders to cope with the mounting seas. The swell was so strong that Anders could not motor into Soller and took the sensible decision to sail with the wind down to St Telmo, a wide picturesque inlet sheltered by Isla Dragonera. Here we recovered from a demanding first day and night at sea.
St Telmo had clear waters and an upmarket feel to its narrow streets, all flowing with red and purple flowers that cascade in abundance over the stone walls.
Here we met Su and Ant who we had previously met at St Carles, our winter marina, and spent a pleasant couple of days eating and sailing together on their Swan 44. Ant a true racing man was always trimming to the maximum while Su and I were happy to spin along with the wind without quite the same degree of urgency. Anders enjoyed handling a well built performance yacht.
The next day we set off to sea separately taking photos of each others yachts in full sail. They sped on towards Palma Bay and we sailed into Andraitx a busy fishing port for fuel and water. Here we met the sea warden Connor, appointed by the Balearic Islands Ministry of the Environment whose duty it was to direct seaman to low ecological impact anchoring points. He zoomed around the bay in his boat handing out leaflets about protecting the marine plant posidonia oceanic, which is exclusive to the Mediterranean (a project obviously funded by the EU). Rumour has it that some business man has pocketed the grant money and only set out a small proportion of the buoys required.
We average about one disaster per day during our cruising and sometimes I wonder when Anders' patience will run out. Our two days socialising with Ant and Su did distract us from the fact that the fore head was not pumping out properly, but we set that aside and used the aft head instead.
Today we set out in a calm sea and motored most of the way to Cala Portals – a popular Palma Bay anchorage for the rich and famous. Just as we managed to squeeze ourselves between the vulgar, oversized motorboats, the anchor winch decided to give up the ghost so Anders had to let out the chain by hand. While everyone else had zonked out into sunning and bathing mode Anders was on the deck surrounded by tools once more inspecting the damage. The main drive shaft had sheared which meant a new part would have to be ordered from Vetus!
After dinner on board we walked around the amazing crumbling sandstone rocks and massive caves which lined the Cala and were reputedly first inhabited by the Phoenicians around 1200BC! During the night an easterly started to blow straight into the bay with moderate swell so we left early to take a look at Puerto Portals, reputedly the poshest marina in the Balaerics.
We anchored outside the marina and took a trip by dingy to saturate our curiosity of the massive motor boats that were crammed along the pontoons. We felt uncomfortable in this world of affluence where everything was too expensive to carry a price tag. We did however find a very congenial pizza bar just out of town.
Next day sailing across Palma Bay in 6.5k was great. We met up with Ant, Su and Sam for a beer, swim and a farewell dinner at Platja del Trench before Su flew back to the UK. Great fun to find friends on a similar wavelength.
Warnings of tramontana nudging northern Minorca had little effect on us next day when we sailed in a light wind to Porto Petro, highly recommended by Ant and Su. For the next few days we hopped in and out of harbours and paid two visits to Palma in the hope of acquiring a Spanish sim card for our computer. No luck nothing worked in spite of a helpful English speaking Romanian – so the wifi saga goes on.
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