4/14/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
The refer is getting pretty empty, as are the shelves so it
was a grocery shopping day. The first stop was the Santa Catalina Market, a
huge building filled with vendors selling fruits and vegetables, meats,
flowers, wine and spirts, coffee, seafood, cheese, dried fruits and nuts and
spices. It was not to crowded so we could talk with the vendor and sample some
things; espresso, jamone. Cheese and dried fruits. Next stop was a sidewalk
café for some slow WIFI, locs and bagels and good coffee.
With a full wagon it was back to the boat to unload, clean and stow vegetables and fruit and check the shopping list. Now we needed a regular groceries store for the canned goods etc. Wagon in tow it was off to the city. Also required was some good bread, but it was late in the day, 2:30, so it was tricky finding a bakery that was still open. As you can see grocery shopping is an all-day affair.
With lots of fresh vegys we made our favorite for dinner,
grilled peppers and zucchini over pasta. The red peppers are huge here and so
full of flavor. All of the vegetables have been very fresh and flavorful.
4/15/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
The admiral declared that we need to spend at least 20
minutes per day on cleaning something on the boat. 3 hours later I had pulled
all of the floor boards that are removeable, vacuumed and wiped the bilges and
reassembled the floor. It is amazing how much dust and dirt finds its way
through the seams between floor boards. I will say that I opened some
compartments that had not been opened before and found construction dust and
even a small tarp that a worker left behind. The bilge has a liner so it is
very clean, smooth and white to start with, we like to keep it that way.
The decision had been made to stay here in Palma through
tonight due to high winds. Today was proving to be the high wind day with the
marineros hustling to keep boats from ramming the dock and each other. Fortunately,
we were on the leeward side of the dock with plenty of room between us and our
neighbors. We are the small boat here in Palma.
After lunch I fitted the side curtain for the bimini,
installed the snaps and did a little stitching. The side curtain is the 70%
mesh fabric so it cuts down the sun and wind, but the visibility through it is
amazing. Started working on the side curtain for the bimini infill, but the
wind was too much, a project for another day. They say cruising is fixing boats
in exotic places, but I enjoy tinkering with these projects and at this point
none are critical. We do have one more warranty item that is pretty critical,
we have had issues with the Raymarine MFD losing its fix. Raymarine replaced
the EV-1, the brains of the navigation, in Gibraltar, but this did not fix the
problem. They have agreed to add an external antenna, RS-150. The local
Raymarine dealer, Enaval, has received the parts from Raymarine and scheduled
the install for Wednesday, so we have decided to stay and get that accomplished.
We let the office know and, fortunately, they agreed to let us stay, but we
have to leave on Thursday as they will close off the marina access for the boat
show.
After dinner we walked the beach walk and back through the cathedral grounds. There was a live concert just starting up in an area below the cathedral. We stopped to listen for a bit and had to chuckle that it sounded like 60’s California Surf music. Two guitars, bass, drums, trumpet and trombone made for a great sound. They were playing fast and furious as the night went on and it morphed into more of a punk sound. The stone walls surrounding the venue made for surprisingly good acoustics.
4/16/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
The weather continues to be amazing, a little cooler
starting today, sunny, 65 and lighter breezes from the north. A day to tinker
about the boat. I put the snaps on the companionway cover that I made at home.
I installed a 12v outlet in my cubby, that has become the repository for all my
chargers for various devices, to clear my nav table. Relaxed with a bit of
reading in the cockpit and finished mapping out my Raymarine system.
4/17/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
First stop was the chandlery for some miscellaneous
electrical connectors, then Villeroy and Boch to see if we could get Jaimes to
recount the places we needed to visit, but he was closed today. Suzette found a
couple pairs of shoes she could not live without and I bought a belt to keep my
shorts up, I seem to loose weight on the boat. Not to be out done by Suzette I
managed to find a couple shirts and a pair of shorts to buy.
4/18/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
We rented a car today and headed inland. The weather
continued to be sunny and warm with light winds. Headed north to Banalbufar,
the rabbit warren. The city is built on the side of the mountain with many
terraces to plant grapes. It was expected that each generation would build one
new terrace as the properties were handed down through generations. They grew
the Malvasia grapes for wine, I think this is similar to our Mourvèdre grapes.
We walked the town and enjoyed a cappuccino and latte overlooking the sea
below. The drive up and back had us on switch back roads for the steep climb,
encountering bicyclists at every turn. They were preparing for the big race at
the end of the month.
From here we headed east across the interior to find the wine country. The first stop was Bodega Ribas, a small winery on the out skirts of the town of Consell. They were very accommodating and the wine was fantastic, all from Mallorca. We lingered on the patio enjoying the wine, Tapas and sun. We bought a few bottles and headed to the next winery, but the next couple wineries were either closed or booked. We ended up at Tianna Negra where all the wines were from the Negras grape, but it was not a great wine experience. It was getting on in the day so we stopped for a picnic in a park in Inca, a fairly industrial looking town, where, we are guessing, it was more affordable to live.
Bodega Tianna Negra
Heading to the east coast we stopped in the port town of Pollenca where we walked the beach walk and enjoyed a delicious ice cream, which ended up being dinner! From here we headed out to Cap Formentor Light House to see the sunset. The mountain road may have been the scariest road I have ever driven, rock wall on one side, nothing on the other side, two-way traffic and extremely narrow and twisting road. The only thing scarier was the return trip in the dark.
Fishing boat in Port of Pollenca
Mountain goats jousting as we climbed the mountain road
We arrived in time to see the sunset over Ibiza in the
distance. There were at least 100 people gathered for the big event around the
lighthouse some 300m above the sea. No green flash, but I suppose we really did
not see it hit the water. There was a caravan down the mountain as we all left
at once…scary!
We found our way back to Palma and left our rental car a side street near the rental car company office. As directed, we took pictures of the car and location and sent them to the rental car people. A short walk had us back to the boat after a long day of adventures.
4/19/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Up early in anticipation of the Raymarine tech arriving.
Paul was right on time and he was a wealth of information about the Raymarine
system. He ran through diagnostics then installed a new RS150 external GPS
antenna. I picked his brain for a while and learned allot. The antenna install
was only temporary to see if it resolves my issues. I cannot wait to test it
out.
The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and a few other
chores in preparation for departing the marina tomorrow. I started to get my
hand written Raymarine map on the computer in a more organized fashion.
A cool power boat had pulled in next to us. It was probably
35 long, very lean and modern design, but sporting bronze fitting with a
beautiful patina giving it a classic look. Evidently, he was only in for some
detailing and an anchor install. The boat was not for the show.
Going for a walk we found a note pinned to the hand rail of
our passerelle from our dock neighbors on Private Island, A 55’ catamaran. We
walked over and met Emma and Barney who are crew on the boat. Emma had spent
time in California and saw that we were from California. We exchanged contact
information and talked about our cruising plans. We are unique in that we are
the owners and the crew on Raffaellesco.
Millorva, the Oyster next to us, headed out in the
afternoon. We exchanged contact info with them and expect we will se them in
our travels as well.
4/20/23 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Another sunny day with some wind predicted. We headed back
to Santa Catalina Market to top up on groceries and grog. Departure from the
dock was easy as there were fewer and fewer boats as they emptied the marina
for the boat show. On the way out we saw Bezos’ sailing yacht tied up at the
dock along with his power boat that he used as a support vessel so he had a
place to land his helicopter. Can you imagine the “oh shit” moment that Bezos
realizes he cannot land a helicopter on his new $500 million dollar yacht!?
The breeze was light, but we put up the sails anyway as we turned north out of the bay. Just as we were shaking out the sails, we saw Ben and Anika on Petite Cour coming down the coast. They waved franticly as it is always exciting to see a familiar face on the water. We sailed a gentle broad reach up the west coast of the island. There were many more pleasure boats out on the water, the season has begun.
We passed between Isle Draganonera and Mallorca and
continued north east to a cala with no name, just west of Cala Gato. With the
wind and swell from the south we should be well protected. There was a large
power boat anchored, but plenty of room for us to tuck in. We anchored in about
8 m of clear water and watched the anchor chain layout. The dinghy was on deck
out of the way of the passerelle when we were at the dock. It was time to get
it off the deck and go for a joy ride. The weather was warm and the breeze off
of the shore. With our site glass we explored the rocky shoreline. There were
sort of tubular jelly fish similar to what we have seen at home, but much larger,
some small fish and sea urchins. On shore there were what looked like petrified
piles of small logs.
Satisfied with our exploration we returned to the boat just
before the wind picked up. The wind howled in gusts all night, 15-25 knots, but
the sea was calm. It made for a noisy night as the shrouds hummed and the lines
occasionally slapped, but I felt confident we were well anchored and slept
well.
4/21/23 Cala with no name, Mallorca, Spain
By morning the gusts were over 30 knots, it was time to go.
The Windy App showed less wind further east so we headed to a new cove. The
wind was over 35 and coming off of the shore. I kept hearing the Giligans
Island theme song in my head. They say the winds are very unpredictable here
and today proves them right, the prediction was 10 knots with 25 knot gusts.
As we rounded Sa Foradada we could see the white caps
subsiding and headed in to the cove on the east side of the peninsula. We had
only traveled about 5 miles, but what a difference. It was a deep anchorage,
but the calm was so worth it. We anchored in about 13 m, but I was not feeling
comfortable with our proximity to the rocks. We decided to pull the anchor and
move out a bit, in the process we hooked a rock, but we worked our way off
fairly easily. This time we dropped in about 20 m of water and our position
felt good.
We had visited the Arch Dukes home, that sits above this cala, on our tour a week ago. The place is very recognizable by the hole in the rock of peninsula that juts out into the sea. There is a restaurant on the peninsula that is only reachable by a mile plus hike or by boat, so boat it is. They say you have to make a reservation and we tried several times, but never got through, so we went anyway. We pulled the dinghy up by a fishing hut on the west side (you remember what fishing hut is code for…). From here you walk up a couple hundred steps and a steep winding path to get to the restaurant. With its bamboo roof and make shift rails it is appropriately primitive. The first thing we see is a sign that says reservations only, but we were determined. We over heard the couple in front of us say that they had a reservation for 4, but they would only be 2. We jumped right in and said we would take that reservation. The hostess agreed and sat us at a table near the outdoor grill where they cook all the food. She probably thought she was giving us a lesser table; little did she know that Suzette is always excited by watching the cook.
We ordered a seafood paella and enjoyed fresh bread, aioli, olives and a spectacular view. The paella was little different in that it looked like they used turmeric instead of saffron and cooked everything on an open fire. We agreed that this was the best we have had, so far, in Spain. We had no problem devouring the whole pan of paella. At the table across from us they seem to be all excited about a yellowish after dinner drink, so we inquired as to what it was. Evidently a Mallorcan after dinner digestive called Tunel Heirbus Mixtas. We each had one, it tasted like licorice, not like ouzo, smoother. It went on the shopping list for the boat bar.
After dinner we walked the path to the east side to take an
aerial shot of Raffaellesco at anchor. Then down the steps to the dinghy. The
water was calmer now and the breeze was light. It was getting warm so my first
swim, voluntary and for pleasure, was had. I contemplated the plunge for a few
moments, checked for jelly fish and jumped in. Let’s just say that I was not in
for very long and the cold cockpit shower felt warm. There was plenty of warm
sun left to bring me back to equilibrium.
Contemplating the dive in
A light snack and cocktails as the sun disappeared early behind
the high cliffs. It was a fairly quiet night with only a little slapping of
wavelets on the hull. We did some trip planning and confirmed our reservation
for a birth in the ancient town of Alcudia on the east side of the island.
4/22/23 Sa Foradada, Mallorca, Spain
Up early for the 45-mile run to Alcudia. As we passed the
port of Soller I got a note from Emma on Private Island, they were anchored in
the bay at Soller. Coincidence, or did they see us on their AIS?
The wind was running about 10 to 15 on our nose as we headed
NE for Alcudia. As we gradually turned east the wind clocked south so we sailed
for a bit, but the admiral declared that this boat does not sail to weather!
The sails were furled and we motored around the North Eastern point of the
Island Cap Formentor. Arriving in Alcudiamar Marina the contact was easy and we
were guided into a great birth on the far side of the marina and the marineros
helped with our lines. Check in went quick, we washed down the boat and dug out
the bikes to go check out the beach front of town. Unlike Palma we were a long
way from the bathhouse and the entrance to the marina, thus the bikes.
It was a typical beach front with lots of cheesy beach wear
and beach gear shops. Lots of little groceries stores to choose from, as well
as restaurants. There were play areas for the kids and a beautiful white sand
beach tucked deep in behind the marina. Lots of SUPS, sailboats and toys to
rent and play with. There was a festival on the quay east of the marina with
live music and rides; we will check that out tomorrow. Summer is getting underway!
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