Mallorca
Posted at 11:06 AM, Jun. 15, 2006
We are now in Barcelona having arrived here at about 1730hrs on Tuesday 13th June following a 13 hour, 98 mile crossing from Soller a port on the north western coast of Mallorca. The 14th saw Kim, Tina, Chrism & Trish depart and Chris and Jo arrive. John and Liz are due to arrive on the boat on Friday 16th and we will depart. Where we depart to remains to be seen but it will either be St Tropez or somewhere in the south of France or back to Soller, then across to Menorca as a stepping off point for a passage to Corsica. Will all depend on the forecast for the next few days and particularly the wind direction.
Palma de Mallorca was a stop over for 2 nights, dwarfed by more super yachts than one could count, at the Pantalan del Mediterraneo marina. This comprised one finger of 76 berths, and is one of 100’s of berths in the harbour. Relatively inexpensive but subject to rolling with ships departing the nearby port. After the watermaker and other electrical additions we had completed in Denia we found the VHF’s radio’s were subject to significant interference and effectively inoperable. I had an electrician contact here so called him up and he and an electronics engineer were at the boat within the hour and eventually diagnosed that both sets had been cooked - i.e.stuffed. It seems that the only fault could be that the electrician had connected a 24 volt circuit to the 12 volt circuit at some stage during his work in Denia and blown out the cicuit board. We were fortunate to locate one exact replacement at a marine dealer (needed as it had to fit a cut out section) and Chris Morton brought a second replacement set up from Auckland. So both are now installed and working well. Fortunately I had held back paying the electrician until this problem was resolved.
Palma is a delightful city and we enjoyed wandering through the old town with its many narrow alleyways, numerous bars and restaurants mostly all outdoors, and variety of shops. Pam managed to find some shoes and I did ok also.
A typical Palma cafe
On our second day we rented a car and drove around a large part of the island on our own tour. Found some great inland towns – stopped at a hillside 14th century town town called Arta for lunch and then explored the fortress and cathedral afterwards. We drove across to the east which is relatively rolling countryside and then headed west down through the mountains and found some beautiful towns such as Deia which is regarded as one of the most famous villages on Mallorca and set among extensive terraced steep hillside olive groves and vines as the town cascades down the mountainside. It was the home of Robert Graves the English poet. We then drove down the coast heading south and still through the mountains and then cut back across to Palms for a quick supermercado shop right on closing time of 2000 hrs.
Malloran countryside cafe break
The following morning, Sunday 11th June we departed Palma for a quiet sail around the south western corner of Mallorca stopping off at Puerto de Andratx for lunch and a swim. Water temps now sitting close to 25 degrees so pretty nice. By this time the wind had more or less died completely so we motored up the north western coast below the mountainous coastline indented with small cala’s and towns perched on impossible rocky slopes – none were sufficiently sheltered for an overnight stop until we came to Cala Deia about a mile downhill from the town of the same name we had visited by car the previous day. It was a delightful spot with only one other boat anchored (not room for many more anyway) with a couple of beachbars and a few houses perched on the many rocky outcrops. Another beautiful morning, a swim, breakfast and then a slow motor further north up the coast to the delightful Puerto de Soller. The port settlement is nestled around virtually a circular bay below spectacular mountains with a small marina but also room for anchoring off outside of the laid moorings. It is the only port of refuge on the 50 mile north western stretch of coast. The town of Soller is a couple of miles up the valley and we caught the open train that runs every half hour and we spent the afternoon of Monday 12th June exploring the nooks and crannies. Nadal, who comes from Mallorca, had won the French Open the day before and the bar we stopped at for a jug of Sangria had been renamed Nadal Bar. Back at the port we found a good tapas bar on the hill overlooking the harbour so tapas and more sangria before heading back to the boat for a late dinner.
Looking across the bay on Soller
Tuesday 13th June we had a 0600 hrs start for the passage across to Barcelona. Started off well with a two sail reach in 15 – 20 knot easterlies that saw us averaging 9-10 knots, so the first 30 miles were covered in 3 hrs 20. But then got slowly quieter, the wind veered enough for us to get the genaker up for a while and then finished off motoring for the last 10 miles or so. Kim was pretty happy with his first passage (and first time out of sight of land) as I think he had visions of using the black bucket beforehand. He certainly caught up with sleep by which time Tina was calling him Rip Van Winkle.
Currently sitting on the marina at Port Vell, Barcelona looking to reprovision today, do a city tour and also stock up the cellar!!
Cheers
Keith