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Wednesday 21 April 2010

Soller to Pollensa

15 - 17 April, Soller

We spent 3 nights anchored in this tranquil harbour, enjoying the scenic setting and relaxing after the journey from Ibiza. We took a trip on the wooden tram up to Soller town, passing the lemon and orange groves and enjoying some non-coastal scenery. We hit food gold by going on saturday as it was market day and the first thing to greet us as we stepped off the tram was an enormous stall of cakes, breads and pastries. Bingo.

Soller tram

Cakes, yum


After showing a little self restraint we wandered on to soak up the atmosphere of the main square and winding streets of the town, enjoying coffee and ice creams and watching more trams arrive. After another call past the market stalls we returned to the port laden with our purchases only to find our buggy had been stolen from the dinghy. How naive of us to think no one would want our old beaten up Maclarens.

18 April, Formentor

This beautifully calm day was the perfect time to move onwards as we have a date with a new storm sail in Pollensa. The scenery along the coast is stunning, the Tramuntana Mountains reaching to the coast produce dramatic cliffs broken up with small rocky bays and caves. We tried to sail but after spending an hour travelling at 1 knot we put an engine on. Rounding the Cap de Formentor, the most northerly point on Mallorca, we set our sites on Formentor beach as an anchorage. Having visited here 2 1/2 years ago we knew it would be a beautiful place to stop and we were lucky to have only one neighbour far across the bay overnight.


Cap de Formentor

Formentor



19 April, Puerto Pollensa

After enjoying the morning on the beach, which was gradually filling up with day visitors, we headed off with sails up and after hitting 4 knots the wind gradually dropped and so yet again on went an engine. This was only a short hop, and we were kept entertained by the fire service sea planes practising scooping up water and dropping it in the bay. We have anchored here while we wait for the storm sail to be delivered and stock up on more supplies for our trip to Menorca. We are also still waiting to see if Granny, Uncle Robin and Luke will be able to join us.



Bath time in Pollensa

Friday 16 April 2010

Photos

Leaving Altea and following the coast north



Arrival in Formentera and the chaos on board after our first offshore crossing



Espalmador





Ibiza in the rain but still looking good


Breakfast at sea


Soller port

Arrival in the Balearics

After spending 5 nights in Altea our various deliveries arrived and we set off on our last leg north along the mainland coast. We spent one night in Denia before heading for the Balearics, our first offshore passage.

We crept out of Denia marina at 6am. The sea was a bit rougher than we'd have liked with the wind a Force 5 virtually on the nose (it seems to blow from wherever we want to go). The crossing took about 10 hours but our reward was the most beautiful turquoise water and golden sandy beach on Platja De Ses Illetes north of La Savina on Formentera. Our anchor was down like a shot. Bliss. Colin took the girls ashore to play on the beach while I cleared up the carnage of toys, snacks etc that had spilled out from every nook and cranny to keep the girls going during the journey.

We moved a short distance that evening to a snug bay on the tiny neighbouring island of Espalmador and this became our home for two nights. This really was the most idyllic of bays, the kind of place that (sailing) dreams are made of. Calm turquoise waters, an almost deserted sandy beach, no wind and only a couple of neighbours to share it with. Plus the mooring buoys gave added peace of mind.

(Monday 12th) Following a good explore of the island we set off for the hedonistic glory that is Ibiza. Of course this is off season and we are avec our girls, so we didn't go wild. The sea did that for us. We anchored in Cala Talamanca north of Ibiza Town, and had an uncomfortable night rocking and rolling in strong winds, expecting the anchor alarms to go off to tell us we were on the move. The anchor held well though and next day, in the rain, we had a walk round Ibiza's old town, which was much more charming than we'd expected. Our plan was to then continue north to a better protected bay for a quieter night, but the wind was increasing, and the sea state was so uncomfortable that we set our sights on one of Ibiza Town's marinas. The next day we motored up the coast but yet again didn't make our planned anchorage: we were motoring into a wind which was increasing to a F7 with the bows ploughing into the waves, the bigger of which washed over the foredeck and even made it up onto the coachroof. Marina Santa Eulalia here we come...

Fortunately the wind dropped over night and so, as we motored out of the marina at 5.30am heading towards Mallorca, we found a more comfortable sea. Or so we thought, but our youngest crew mates disagreed and as their sea sickness struck we changed our plans slightly and headed for the west instead of east coast of Mallorca to ease the motion on the passage. And so after 12 hours we've made it to Soller. And it's so lovely, we're anchored in a protected bay set amongst the Mallorcan mountains. We plan to spend a day or so here exploring and waiting for our guests, Granny, Uncle Robin and Luke, whose flights are delayed due to volcanic activity in Iceland.

Thursday 8 April 2010

Life aboard

Now we are settling into our daily cruising schedule. The girls are waking up at 8am, breakfast takes a couple of hours, then it's off to the beach and play parks, shopping for milk, bread and so on, then a late lunch, Maggie's nap, and before you know it, it's 4pm. We are setting realistic targets for each day, everything takes forever here, whether it's the long trek to the Post Office (Isla sets the pace) or a trip to the chandler (costly in terms of time as well as money).

Things have reopened after Easter and with any luck our liferaft, anchor hook and spare engine parts will start arriving and we can head towards the Balearics.

The girls are enjoying the great Spanish hospitality, a free bracelet here, chocolate biscuits there, it's so refreshing to take them into a welcoming culture.

Life aboard with the girls means listening to their choice on the stereo. Mamma Mia mostly. Maggie used her special toddler senses to find the way to get Super Trouper, her favourite song, on repeat on the ipod. 15 minutes and a reset finally put an end to it.