The weather got wilder still, and we spent the night listening to the wind tear at the bimini. Fortunately it more or less stayed in place with a little fixing by Colin, and the anchor held firm. The next morning, as the wind instrument reading hit 49 knots and promptly stopped working, we moved into the marina.
With Jenny/Granny, (Uncle) Robin and Luke finally on board, we spent another night at anchor in Formentor before setting off in flat calm waters to Menorca which has been an absolute pleasure and the ideal place to relax for a week.
Formentor jellyfish
Ciutadella was our first port of call, located on the West Coast. This is the island's second main town which was the capital until 1722, when the British moved it to Mahon on the east coast. The harbour has a narrow entrance and uses a traffic light system to allow boats to come and go around the ferry timetable. This was policed by a port official who clearly enjoyed his job, razzing around in a rib. We opted to anchor in the first bay at the entrance to the harbour.
View from Ciutadella anchorage
A 15 minute walk, making the most of Maggie's new wheels, found us in Ciutadella's historic centre, where we met Colin, Jenny and Isla who had arrived more stylishly by tender. The central square, the Placa des Born, is impressive and elegant, with the town hall and 19th Century palaces, theatre and other buildings, making it a great spot for ice creams and lunch. The network of surrounding streets were pleasant to wander around.
Placa des Born, Ciutadella
Later the same day, while some of us slept off our 3-course lunch, we moved round to the south of the island and the delightful Calas Macarella and Macarelleta. With our shallow draft we opted to anchor in the smaller cove. The natural beauty of this spot is absolutely idyllic: shallow, turquoise waters, golden sands and pine trees, the rocky coastline providing privacy and shelter from the rest of the world. How pleased we were with our good fortune at finding no one else anchored here and with bow and stern anchors secured, set about the important task of relaxing. The guide book states that 'many people consider this one of the most perfect spots on the Menorcan coast', and I think we'd all agree. In fact, Colin and I would go further to add the whole of the Balearics. And judging by what happened the next day, film crews would agree too...
A walk around to Macarella allowed us to take in the beauty of our surroundings. On our return to Macarelleta we discovered that we had in fact anchored on a nudist beach, and our presence was probably a bit disappointing to the sole nudie who had taken up a discreet position towards the back of the beach. Planning to spend the day here (clothed!), Robin dug a deep paddling pool in the sand and Colin swam back to Skyran for supplies. However it wasn't to last: a rib arrived with a polite crew onboard who explained that they were intending to use the beach to film a commercial for Estrella beer (keep an eye for it Eck), and would we mind moving ourselves and our boat? It seemed churlish not to move, and the free chilled beers went down well. We were then replaced in the bay by a beautiful classic sailing yacht with an equally beautiful crew going ashore to stage a beach party and could pretty much understand why they wanted us out of their shot!
Macarelleta before the film crew arrived
Isla makes a natural bow sprit
We made a couple of excurions in the dinghy to the next bay, Cala Galdana, for ice creams, supplies and for the children to play in the parks. This is tourist central, with a huge hotel at its centre visible from 10km away. It's a shame that it has become so overdeveloped, it overwhelms what was obviously once a spectacular bay. But then that's tourism - to quote our guidebook there were 6,000 visitors in the 1950s and 1.1 million in 1990, and they all need somewhere to stay.
Onwards from Macarella we anchored in another bay, Calascoves. This is famous for having prehistoric burial chambers cut into the rocks. This was a tight spot for anchoring, and required a line to hold us on the rocks as well as our anchor.
Calascoves
Mini crew
After another peaceful night (this was a spell of calm settled weather) we took a wander about the cove then headed to Mahon, stopping en route on the Isla de L'Aire, famous for its black lizards, which are unique to this small island. Luke couldn't believe his luck for spotting so many 'dinosaurs' and spent a lot of time feeding them foliage. A LOT of time, as there are so many and they don't seem to mind people. Still we managed to coax him up to the lighthouse for a good photo opportunity.
I. del Aire lizard
Our arrival in Mahon exceeded any expectations we previously had. The natural harbour is impressive. It has a heavily fortified entrance, reflecting the turbulent history it has seen, having been ruled by Spain, France and Britain since the 18th Century. Further on there are small bays, with holiday homes, and finally on reaching the city, the buildings cling to the cliffs.
We dropped anchor in the shade of the old British hospital on a small island in the harbour, only to be joined by Alain from Ocibar, informing us that we would most likely be moved on by the port authorities and that he could offer us a reasonably priced berth on the floating pontoons at S'Altra Banda. At first sceptical, we couldn't help but be charmed by his courteous approach and on further inspection accepted the invitation. Besides, none of us was thrilled at anchoring in 15 metres depth in a busy shipping harbour, regardless of what the chart said about it being a safe anchorage. This turned out to be a very good move. We are staying in the company of the most helpful people. Not only have they been delivering us regular weather forecasts but they even offered to take our laundry home with them to do as the launderettes were closed over the May Day holiday weekend. We've enjoyed clear views over the old town and the journey across the harbour to town in the dinghy is short and painless.
Mahon has something for everyone in our crew, whether it's the lovely shops to wander amongst for some light retail relief, to the squares with pigeons for the children to chase, and the delicious bakeries with enormous pastries (does that make us easy to please?!).
Nemo the mermaid
The final day with Jenny, Robin and Luke was spent in a hire car exploring the island. It's good to have a change of scene and explore inland. And what a lot there is to see too, for such a small island (only 53km from east to west). We managed to squeeze in the Fornells watch tower, an impressive Bronze age burial chamber known as the Naveta des Tudons, and the highest viewpoint on the island, Monte Toro (though in the mist of cloud we could see very little), before we dropped Jenny, Rob and Luke at the airport for their connecting flight to Palma. After saying our sad goodbyes, we still had a bit of time left with the car to visit the Talayotic settlement of Trepuco and Fort Marlborough, part of the network of British defenses from the 18th Century.
Naveta des Tudons Bronze Age burial chamber
Trepuco
Fornells watch tower
The children were given free books about the various produce on the island issued by the tourist council. These proved popular and in one case unintentionally entertaining for Colin and I - the Menorcan meat book contains a phrase probably not often found in children's books "It looks like a party... look it's a slaughtering"!
And so now it's time for us to leave the Balearics and head east south east to Sardinia, to meet with Grandma and Grandpa Sing who are already there. Our first intended departure has been delayed due to forecasts for gales. Hopefully we'll be there by the end of the week.
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