Palma and the Archipelago of Cabrera

We had a wonderful day wandering the sites of Palma, treating ourselves in the chandlers and earrings shops.  The restaurants were surprising good value and whilst there were some seriously upmarket eating places, good value Menu del Dia were easy to find.  That said its a very wealthy town, half the shops seem to be expensive shoe or handbag emporiums.  There was noticeably a lot of German money invested in the place too, far more than any other place we've been to in the Balearics, where in general the balance of foreign investment seems fairly even.

Sailing into Palma harbour

Lovely parks

My new bonnet!

Many individual shops

The calas near to Palma get packed at the weekend

The Cathedral was magnificent, the Arab baths serene, the tapas good value but above all its a really nice place to spend some time; beautiful architecture, some good street life,(especially the musicians), lots of life.  The only time it felt crowded was when 3 huge cruise ships off loaded their captives, sorry clients, into the town at the same time.  For a brief period they were everywhere. 

Arab baths - interesting and serene

Our berth proved to be in a top location, just a few minutes walk from the old part of the town, but far enough out of the way not to be bothered by crowds - a very lucky find.

Great location - View of the Cathedral from our mooring

The big boys were out practicing for a regatta

About mid day on Wednesday we set off again, reluctant to leave but looking forward to a couple of nights in the secluded natural harbour on Isla Cabrera. One of a string of islands about 30  miles from Palma, off the SE corner of Mallorca.  The archipelago is a nature reserve and you can only sail in and stay if you pre book a mooring buoy in the harbour.  After some trials with the internet we’d managed to get a two day stay on a buoy at Cabrera. 

We had a lovely sail over to Cabrerra

The pictures probably speak for themselves - we absolutely loved it.  During the day there are a couple of trip boats bringing people in to walk with Rangers around the island but after 5pm the peace descends and its simply fabulous.  After a couple of days here we’re feeling so laid back we’re horizontal.  Carole’s hammock on the foredeck helped a little as well.

A castle stands at the entrance to Cabrerra Cala

A pretty perfect place

on our buoy

Our boat issue the other side of the bay

The island was a military base for years and some of the military buildings are now used by the rangers and the army canteen is a now a very rustic bar whetting the whistles of the thirsty sailors who’ve managed to get there.  

Looking from our mooring towards the castle

The water clarity was simply stunning - no anchoring at all is allowed and so the water is little disturbed and crystal clear.  The seagrass meadows beneath our boat looked like you could reach down and touch them.

La cantina is the only bar; in fact the only anything on the island

Leaving the pub car (tender) park

evening

There is also a few way marked paths that you can use - almost all of the island is out of bounds - too many rare species of plants, lizards, birds etc.  The black lizards - found only in the world on this island were cheeky enough however to take a run around the bar area.  

Steps inside the castle

pub 'car'park

A shallow mooring

I'm in there somewhere!

Island walk

The black lizard is only found in the world on Cabrerra Island

We don't want to leave! Sadly the bouys are all booked for the coming weekend so we’ve got to move on, back to the “mainland” of Mallorca.

The greatly named Pinus Noblis - very rare

Fishy companion

To Mallorca

We stayed for a couple of days in Port Miguel .We also got a great walk in over to Cala Breninas, it started off as a short walk to the top of a cliff to take some photos but 8 miles later our flip flops finally brought us back to where we'd left the dinghy.

Our boat at anchor in Port Miguel Calla

A walk in the interior

Then we headed back up to Portinatx to wait for some wind to blow us across to Mallorca.  We swam and paddle boarded - there is an infamous video doing the rounds of that experience! 

Dave's infamous video - the only fall, but caught on video

After a couple of days it was obvious that no wind was coming so we picked a day of almost no wind and motored and motor sailed across to Cala Sant Ponsa on Mallorca - a 50 mile/ 8 1/2 hour trip.  

On dolphin watch

Beautiful crystal clear waters to anchor in - I love it when I can see the anchor hit the bottom and you can lay the chain out and then dig the anchor in - it means we have a much more relaxed sleep at night also!

At certain times a fan is just what you need

Walked some of the small hills around the town of Santa Ponsa, terrific views in the distance but the near ground was full of housing.  We treated ourselves to a proper Spanish meal out that night, lots of fish and tapas, just loved it.

A morning walk

Again after a couple of days we decided to head of towards a cala the pilot book describes as idyllic - Portal Vells - bad decision to try to get in on a Saturday, the cala was simply packed with so many boats you could almost walk across it - super yachts rubbing fenders with tiny old day boats.  We gave it a miss and went the the cala next door - two boats and us but that filled it; it was so small but beautiful.  We stopped over night but the wind got up and swung around so at 0100 we re-anchored a little bit further from the rocks despite the fact that we had two anchors out and both seemed well dug in - its never good for your sleep if you can hear waves hitting the rocks when you're in bed.

Islands dotted about the coastline 

This calla too small to merit a mention in the pilot book

The next day we meandered slowly over to a large anchorage behind Illa de Sa Torre, passing the infamous Magaluf resort on the way - it was about 12.30 pm but the party people seemed to still be in bed - the beach looked empty.  We passed some amazing houses set upon cliff tops but with large party areas carved into the rock faces below the main house. When we got to the island the anchorage was filling quickly but we got a good spot and settled in for an afternoon of swimming and watching the anchoring antics of charter boats.

By 1900hrs the majority of the boats left and we had a peaceful night.  Up the next day after a short lie in, then Carole jumped in for a swim while I sorted the dinghy out and hauled it onto the foredeck so that it would be out of the way for when we got to Palma.  We were only 5 miles away but again no wind at all meant a motor into the harbour of the capital of the Balearics.  

Just love the snorkelling

Great backdrop of the cathedral as we entered the harbour. We had sorted out a berth at a charter yacht base in Palma harbour - it had space as the charterers all pick their boats up and leave at the weekend meaning that we could grab a berth on Monday and Tuesday for what is considered over here to be the bargain rate of €70/night. (this was the cheapest we could find!) Seems a lot to us but we wanted to see Palma and so decided to pay up and shut up.  

Sailing into Palma harbour

Not a bad location!

Palma is a lovely town 

This park very alhambra-ish

As it turned out the berth (stern to a concrete pontoon using slime lines - see earlier for what they are!) was a five minute walk from the cathedral and in a great location.  After a short walk and a beer in town we got back to the boat and revelled in the luxury of a plentiful supply of water, and washed the boat, the towels, the rug, ourselves.  When you’re anchoring a lot, water is precious and you get used to not wasting any at all or the tanks empty very quickly; Carole in her role as water monitor soon lets me know if my shower is more than 30 seconds long!

Off to explore Palma properly tomorrow.

May 2017 Cruise

Back to the Boat.

Well, the last few weeks have been a bit hectic, we flew to Alicante on 15th May and arrived at the boat seemingly at the same time as loads of other boats friends in Alicante (Carole even got some tennis in with Charles from Snowgoose). Consequently its been a bit of a social whirl. We even got to a dinner dance at the next town along the coast with ian and Sue.

Flamenco evening with friends form the marina

Sadly a new curry house has opened on the side of the marina and we can smell the spices frying from our berth.  We sampled most of the menu  over the last couple of weeks.  

On one sociable night Carole and our friends from the yacht Midnight, Tina and Steve, decided that a dawn swim in the bay was called for to watch the sunrise over the cape.  

Stupidly I agreed to be the photographer, another glass of wine and it seemed an even better idea - especially to Steve who bravely volunteered to stop in bed! 

Great photos though!

Interesting exhibitions in town

Dawn and Alan from Dorset came to see us for a few days - lovely day sailing and tapas evenings - Alan is a manic swimmer and dragged a willing Carole into the water either from the beach or off the boat at every opportunity. - Great to see them.

Horse fix!

Lunch and swim stop

Ibiza here we come                   (wifi a bit sketchy over here!)

We gradually got the boat sorted ready to sail over to the Balearics and after much studying of the weather forecasts set off on 29th May, we anchored in the bay off Moraira and the following day had a great sail across to Ibiza. Full sail and powered up all the way until the wind dropped and swung onto our nose, we ended trying allsorts of stuff to keep sailing in the right direction, but eventually about 12 miles out we gave up the fight and dropped the sails and motored the last couple of hours. Dropped anchor in Cala d’Horta, fabulous turquoise water. As soon as we got to the perfect spot the switch on the anchor windlass broke and it was back to manual anchoring - just like we did on the last boat!

Anchored in Calla d'Horta

A clifftop walk

Lovely sunsets are the norm here

After a couple of days lazing at anchor and swimming ashore for coffee, we sailed up the coast through a series of beautiful islands to drop anchor in the bay of Sant Antoni. the passage between one pair of island - Conjera and Bosc, shelves up from 30m to 3m within about 50m and then drops off again just as quickly - you have to be confident of your passage plan as the speed at which the seabed comes up to meet your keel is mesmerising, the numbers on the depth sounder flash by. there is 3m of water at the shallowest part, we only need 1.6m to float so in calm water there is little danger - wouldn’t like to be there when its rough though!  Sant Antoni bay is a good anchorage but the life on shore is fascinating - its one of the clubbing meccas on Ibiza.  We went to do some shopping, found a Lidl - we were coming out with veg, bread, etc - most of the other customers seemed to have cases of vodka, fabulous people watching. Also found a chandlers that sold anchor windlass switches - now have a fully operational electric anchor windlass!

Have trolley, must shop!  Provisioning.

Sunset after sunset

Dave with his new Ibiza haircut

Cala Port Torrent

Two years ago, almost to the day we sailed our previous boat - Blue Horizon - into a smallish cala called Portinatx. Today, Saturday, (3/6/17) we sailed in on Half Moon, we even managed to anchor in almost the same spot. Great location - treated ourselves to a meal out and ended up watching Real Madrid beat Juventus in the final - every Spanish bar and restaurant had the match on and the locals are fanatical football fans.

Boat in Portinatx

The weather forecast showed strong winds and a fairly large swell swinging round to the North (the only direction that Portinatx doesn’t provide shelter from) through Monday which meant that Portinatx would be a fairly exposed and uncomfortable place to be. 

Sunday meant a sail back the way we’d come to find a sheltered anchorage for Sunday and Monday nights.  The wind built through the day and we had a fab 30 mile sail, broad reaching for lots of it, until we rounded Cabo Llantresca and ended up dropping the sails again and motoring the last 2 miles into 25knots of wind to Cala Port Roig.  A small anchorage fairly full of boats who obviously had the same idea as us, we found a space, dropped anchor and settled in for the night.  The wind died in the evening and we went swimming - Carole snorkelling around the cala, fabulous, warm (only warmish for me at 20degrees), clear water, its great to be able to check that your anchor is well dug in - especially when you know there is a lot of wind coming!

I just love the snorkelling 

Did I say a lot of wind?  Well during the night the wind spun through 180 degrees and shot up to 35/40knots within a minute together with lots of rain. There was chaos in the anchorage, the boat behind us dragged their anchor and collided with another boat, we started the engine to take some of the pressure off the anchor but each time we eased the power the anchor slowly dragged down towards another boat.  Eventually, 0200hrs, we had to get the anchor up and re-lay it, not easy in the conditions, but with top steering from Carole it held, and we could relax.  An exciting night. No pictures sadly!

Best seat in the house.

The next morning we nipped into the next cala for a bit more shelter and a relax.  The weather forecasts are changing daily at the moment so it looks like we'll be heading north again, dodging front lines and swell.

Sailing by

On the way north towards Cala Port Torrent Carole spotted the fin of a big whale breaching, exciting but sadly no more sightings.  We did see dolphins though as we crossed the bay of Sant Antonio - always a good day!

After a blustery sail it was good to anchor for lunch in a tiny bay in the shelter behind Isla Conejera for lunch and then a lazy broad reaching sail over to Port Torrent - back to turquoise water and flat seas.

Checking the chart

After some R&R here we headed to Sant Antonio to find some food shops and fuel for the boat.

On 8th June we motor-sailed up to Cala Benirras, famous for local drummers meeting each sunset and drumming on the beach until late.  It also has a rock stack in the middle of the entrance to the cala which as the sunset silhouettes it, it looks just like Queen Victoria sat on her throne. We’d anchored next to a Russian charter boat and were serenaded with Russian folk songs until late into the night - never want to hear the Volga boat song again.

Cala Benirras

Watching the sun set whilst listening to the drumming

Queen Vic rock in the distance

In Port Miguel today, 9/6/17, not a port but another cala with good shelter from the forecast easterlies and stunningly clear water. Plan to stop here for a while. Although Carole went snorkelling and found a load of little jellyfish - she came back to boat like she had an outboard motor attached!