After a restful day one in the marina, my previous evening’s walk had taken me into the beautiful countryside of southern Mallorca. There aren’t quite as many different flowers as in Sardinia but the ones I did see were stunning. The weather doesn’t seem quite as stormy as forecast although we are enjoying not having to look at it like hawks since we know we’re spending the weekend here.
The next day was car hire collection day which meant I had the adventure of heading to Palma on the bus. A change in the city to the airport shuttle gave me chance to have a quick wander about Palma and of course a coffee break 😉
I collected the car after quite a hoo haa in the big and busy Palma airport. I struggled to find the car in the over 200 parking spaces just for Goldcar and then when I got there I realized I had to go back to the car park hut and get the key !! (it sounds obvious but they had given me the parking space number and no instruction to go for the key first !) Then when I got to it, our lovely little Dacia Spring looked decidedly unloved in a distant corner of the car park. I was excited about the electric car but I couldn’t get it to start – what a nightmare. Only a quick Google told me I had started it all along its just that it is silent so I needed to have a green OK light on the dashboard to know it was started (I felt like a bit of an idiot but luckily there was no one around). After that I was off and how absolutely brilliant that car is – it drives so smoothly and its speedy too when needed. 40 minutes later and I pulled up at the port with a big grin on my face. I collected Skipper Nigel and we drove out for lunch at a placed called Sant Elm – absolutely gorgeous.
When we arrived back from lunch there was a full press pack in front of Gemini J …. “The queen’s coming to release a turtle” was the word on the street. Next door but one to us was a large wooden boat which is part of a campaign to clean the seas – and there was a small rib with a large grey box apparently containing the turtle that had been rescued and re-habilitated. Two black cars pulled up and sure enough right in front of us was Reina Sofia – actually the King’s mother who was Queen until the crown passed to her son a few years ago. She’s 84 years old and is the lady wearing jeans and a Mary Berry style flowery jacket in the photos for those of you not familiar with the Spanish royal family. She seemed very interested in the work of the conservationists and climbed aboard the big boat to head out to sea and release the turtle (or maybe watch it being released since it was on the smaller boat). We read later in the press that the turtle was successfully released and Reina Sofia had headed back to her holiday residence on the island.
That evening a storm front came over and we had another heavy thunderstorm right overhead. We had started watching the lightening from the deck but it soon started raining so we headed down below to sleep through it as much as possible.
The next day the storm had passed and it was time for some chores, we went out for breakfast and put the car on charge which was really easy, free and charged while we ate 😉 Afterwards I headed off into the town of Andtratx to do the laundry at the launderette – and also to have a wander around (might as well get some exercise while the washings on).
The Monday was going to be our last day in the marina and also with the car, we had another delicious breakfast and a little drive along the coast again. When we got back we sat down to have a proper look at the weather forecast for our crossing – we also spoke to our boat neighbours who thought the next day would be a bit windy. Indeed when we looked and looked again we could only see worsening weather all week. We decided to set off that afternoon rather than the next day, seeing a break in the weather so I immediately took the car back to the airport and headed back on the bus. I was frustrated to miss my connection by a minute but I went for a brisk walk to calm myself down ! We still made our 5pm target departure ready for our overnight sail back to the mainland. Our boat neighbours waved us off which was nice and we were excited to be back on the move. So, just like that our fabulous time in Mallorca and the Balearics was over hopefully we’ll be back before toonlong….
The Adventures of Gemini J 