Finally, our engine was fixed, however, the weather was not – we had to stay in port two extra days thanks to a very high swell out at sea. Under normal circumstances we probably would have stayed in port an extra day after that too, to really let the swell due down after the stormy weather ….. however….. we were pretty desperate to get moving and we knew that it might be a little uncomfortable but we should be able to move on. We waved goodbye to our Soller mooring space after 8 days and immediately had to stop the boat to wait for a super yacht to finish manoeuvring right in our path !! Once that excitement was over we were free – out on the rolling sea once again š The conditions proved to be as expected – quite rolly but totally OK to be out in and we even tried a bit of sail, however the swell did prove a bit much so we ended up motoring.
The scenery was once again stunning and we enjoyed our up and down trip back along the coast. We have decided to head back to Ibiza and enjoy some downtime there, but first stop is back to Andratx. We thought we might be able to get back onto the mooring buoy at St. Elm that we had enjoyed on the way here – unfortunately it was way too choppy so we headed for the shelter of Andtrax. As we rounded the headland we expected conditions to become more favourable – how wrong we were, what actually happened was that the sea state became really mixed up. It was like being in a washing machine, we were thrown about by rogue waves and our interior looked very much the worse for wear – luckily it was only half an hour to the port. We arrived into the harbour with the contents of the boat all over the floor !! We were exhausted and relieved and it was a little reminder that we have got a bit lax in our stowing away procedure before setting sail !!
We planned to pick up a mooring buoy in the shelter of the harbour and headed for one – picked it up first time (excellent skippering) but I couldn’t get the rope through the loop …. we tried again, same problem, third time I lost the boat hook and we went to try a different buoy. We decided that we needed to call the marinero for help and over the radio they told us to wait. This gave us time to go back and get our boat hook which was still attached to the first buoy, just as we approached it floated away but Skipper Nigel got me close enough to recover it first time !! (and that’s why we always have 2 boat hooks on board ;-))
Eventually the marinero arrived in his boat and helped us attach to the buoy (we decided they are designed to be hard to pick up so that you need help to make sure you pay for them!) he said it might be a bit rocky overnight and sure enough we hadn’t even made a drink before we decided to head to the shelter of the marina – the swell was just too much and coming right into the harbour. We radioed and got a space in the marina and a few minutes later in very gusty conditions we tied up at the “Club de Vela” for the first time – phew. Neither of us even got off the boat that night – we were exhausted but happy to report the engine fix had no issues, we were also elated to be out of Soller and back on the move. We had a very nice view from our mooring spot, where it calmed down completely as the sun set.
The next day conditions had calmed enough for us to move onto a mooring buoy so we called on the radio and were shown to buoy 81 by the marinero who helped us tie up – no boathooks needed this time – yay š we enjoyed an afternoon swim and I inflated the paddle board ready for a morning paddle.
Sunday was rest day aboard Gemini J – I went off for a morning paddle board and later we went out on the dinghy to explore the stunning shoreline.
We were treated to a truly amazing sunset to hopefully finish our time in Mallorca as Monday should be Ibiza day (as always – weather depending) onwards, onwards, how exciting:-)
The Adventures of Gemini J 