Mooching around Menorca

Once again we are resting and relaxing on a stunning mooring buoy before we head back round the island and on towards Mallorca.

This involves lots of swimming, kayaking and snorkeling.  Skipper Nigel was very happy with his new Obi Wan Kenobi gown for after snorkeling but I feel there might be a good nickname in it somewhere 😉

It’s quieter here than it was when we were here at the end of July which make it even lovelier.  There are mainly sailboats here now with the odd motor boat and quite a few smaller day boats.  We have a view out over the beach and twice a day groups of kayakers cone here from Es Grau to take a break and enjoy the lovely warm water – we have got out our kayak rather than the paddle board this time and I’ve had a great time rowing around the bay. 

I even managed to meet up with snorkeling Nigel on one occasion…..

After a couple of days it was hard to pull ourselves away but we saw a bit of wind was coming our way and decided to make our way round the island back to Ciutadella.  As forecast there was a nice bit of breeze as we headed out past Favoritx lighthouse – happy to be underway once again

We went to pull out the Genoa sail and found it jammed – it would not budge, despite various attempts by each of us.  We were at the point of just using our mainsail when we spotted the line was around the front cleat – problem solved !! And nothing serious thank goodness…..we had a lovely couple of hours sailing.  Almost inevitably (although not forecast) the wind dropped and we were left with choppy seas for our afternoon navigating the gorgeous coastline.  There were some interesting clouds too – and even a storm front as we arrived but no rain and no wind for us 😉

It didn’t seem like long before we were pulling in to berth 1 on pontoon 1 back in Ciutadella – a tight little spot right next to the quayside.

We had booked two nights here, it’s one of my favourite places on the island and where we had celebrated my birthday too.  It was just as we arrived that we heard the news about the queen and we lowered our ensign flag to half mast (quite literally the mast of our boat).

The next morning I went off for a walk round the wonderful coastline and saw that the sea state was much calmer – a good sign for our crossing.

The following day was spent cleaning Gemini J and re-stocking – final Menorca purchases since the following day would be our crossing back to Mallorca.  I went into the old town and had a wander about too.

We were also moored next door but one to our friends on Ione which was lovely.  We  were invited aboard for an early evening drink which was a pleasure and we even met another Nigel  (this time with the lovely Iris)   We followed that by a pizza delivery and before we knew it we were almost set for the next step of our journey home, just one more Menorcan sunset……