Adventures in Addaya

Moving on day arrived and with it cloudy skies and a need to re-check the weather. It was also the day we learnt a new word and a new phenomena. It’s called “ressaga” and it doesn’t seem to have a decent translation, it is a very specific type of swell that affects the island of Menorca when the sea rises and falls much more than usual. It can cause quite a problem in our last port of Ciutadella but not here in Fornells so although it’s a warning on the weather forecast the port boss assured me it shouldn’t affect our journey. We chatted to our boat neighbours who were planning to leave at 11 and we decided to wait and depart after them as our exit from the tight spot would be easier. 11 o’clock arrived and their skipper started the engine – only it didn’t start. There was much scratching of heads and Skipper Nigel offered some suggestions of things to try but it couldn’t be fixed and we had to leave them waiting for an engineer. In the end they helped us slowly inch out of the space and before we knew it we were out in the bay having made a textbook departure. I took a few photos as we departed under those cloudy skies.

As we rounded the headland we found a mixed up, choppy sea. Nothing to make us turn back (we had a very short journey planned) – but also no decent wind for the sails to go up. We motored on past the wonderful coastline and about an hour later we were already approaching our next harbour, Addaya. That’s when the gusty wind started – at one point up to 28 knots which is really quite blustery. It was a challenging half an hour from there onwards…… The entrance to Addaya is a wide bay with a channel which is marked by multiple port and starboard buoys – go outside these buoys and it’s shallow and potentially rocky. We both had to really concentrate and check/double check each other that we had Gemini J in the middle of the buoys and therefore the channel. There were about 5 or 6 of these port/starboard “gates” to negotiate. It has a dog- leg then a turn into the marina which is behind a small island we really had to keep our eyes out for where to go. There wasn’t a marinero in sight and with the wind still gusting over 20 knots we started to moor ourselves alongside a visitor quay with the help of a sailor from another boat. Just as we started to get the lines on the marinero shouted from a neighbouring pontoon and we had to move ourselves pretty quickly. Skipper Nigel did an amazing job manoeuvring whilst I was changing the lines (ropes) around getting set for the new berth. The wind was blowing us off the boat next door into a space and it was a bit tricky but we got into the berth and breathed a sigh of relief. We said hello to Xabi the marinero and his dog Trufa who had sat patiently whilst we got ourselves sorted. The wind was still gusty but it calmed down enough for us to enjoy a relaxing afternoon aboard.

I went off for a quick walk to explore a little, I found another mini-castle / defence tower the same as in Fornells but not apparently open to the public. I looked out into the challenging channel, it looked much less daunting from the shore.

Saturday arrived and with it another cloud covered day with a few rain drops. I wandered up the hill between showers to go shopping and also to check out the views.

Sunday started cloudy but cleared up nicely and we headed out on the zodiac dinghy in the afternoon for a little bit of exploring. We had a blast, almost running aground at one point when Skipper Nigel insisted there was a route round the island that didn’t quite exist – as we keep saying, never a dull moment 😉 We also saw cows on the hillside just minding their own business with all this boating activity going on below them. We were pretty exhausted when we got back to Gemini J so we relaxed ahead of our next move.