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!