Today we said goodbye to Santa Pola once again,  although it should be more hasta luego since I am sure we´ll be back here in the future.  It is always beautiful and the people here are super helpful and welcoming.

We made a familiar journey today,  Santa Pola to our old marina in San Pedro del Pinatar (just under 25  nautical miles).  No major issues it was extremely calm and quite hazy as we left.  We had mixed feelings knowing this was to be our last night mooring away before we reach Cartagena.  Once again we found ourselves motoring away with the sail up to try to get as much as possible from the wind.  We passed a few other sailing yachts today and overall it was a nice day,  we did manage a few hours sailing without the motor which we were super happy about,  and Nigel tried more fishing….

The excitement of the day was probably navigating our way through the fish farms, of which there are quite a few in Santa Pola bay.

I tried to take some photos but they don´t look like much since you can´t get very close to them.  What is more of an issue to the passing sailor are all the small pots and nets that the small fishing boats seem to place all around them (presumably to catch any escapees).  They are really difficult to spot and we had to keep a constant eye on the horizon for them.   We passed quite a few today,  a reminder to always be vigiliant,  if the boat runs over or gets tangled in one who knows what damage it might cause.

The weather in the afternoon was pleasant and we took turns on the helm slowly but surely making our way back down the familiar coastline,  past Campoamor where we first moored the boat back to San Pedro where she has been for the past couple of years.  We moored up on the visitor quay and had a relaxing evening watching the fishing boats and seagulls.  It always amazes us how Tines wants to chase birds that are literally bigger than she is!!

 

Sunday saw us depart Villajoiosa with the aim of getting to Torrevieja to see S/Y Chablis,  who we had met in Porto Colom – all if the weather conditions permitted, we knew the wind and sea were against us but the forecast was for everything to be much calmer than the day before so we were fairly confident we´d make it.  The sunrise was stunning.

The views as we departed were beautiful,  the photos (without a decent camera!) can´t really do it justice.

We were very excited around 10am when the wind picked up and we were able to switch off the engine!!  We had a fabulous sail passing other yachts….

…..for 10 minutes before the wind dropped and the sea picked up (forecast to happen around 13:00) so once again we found ourselves motoring into choppy seas.  Thankfully around half an hour later the conditions died down and we had a fairly enjoyable (if slow) motor sail along the Alicante coastline.  We looked again at the weather forecast and made the decision to make 2 more hops back home, returning to the same ports we started with in September.  This meant that we couldn´t make Torrevieja (we will have to visit another day).  We headed for our old favourite Santa Pola and arrived around 3pm in time for a nice rest before the next couple of days sailing.  We always love it in this marina and were happy to be back.  Nigel had caught a couple of fish on the way which we enjoyed for dinner.

(in our dreams,  he´s been trying but with no luck so far! 😉 we had buffalo mozarella, prawn and tomato salad!)

The next day we awoke with optimism at sunrise ready for the next leg of our journey,  which is now our journey home.

The sea was calm,  the sky was blue, there was a slight swell against us and we were head to wind again but the winds were light so we set about trying to make the most of the conditions doing our fair share of tinkering with the sails and tacking.  We made our way towards the Cabo de Benidorm slowly but surely, passing Calpe and seeing some other passing yacht traffic too.

 

As we rounded the cape the conditions picked up, and then picked up again – we went from calm seas and 8 knots of wind to white tops and 21 knots almost instantly.  It was a case of all 4 hands on deg (and all 4 doggy paws down below),  swiftly bringing in the genoa sail and reefing the main sail.

Our trip along the spectacular Benidorm coastline passed by in a blur and the conditions whilst being sailable were really not fun.  We decided to make for the nearest port which was Villajoiosa, a new marina for us and not the ideal conditions for entering.  Once again skipper Nigel did a stunning job of getting us alongside very professionally and swiftly – not helped by a very poor throw of the line by the crew (me !!) to the marinero.  Once we were secured we breathed a sigh of relief and realised it was still blowing 24 knots.

Just a note (in case you were wondering) we had looked at the forecast and we knew the conditions were going to pick up,  but seriously not to the extent that the did and at the time that they did.  It is the story of the mediterranean – very quick weather changes,  and we are learning about them all the time.  If we had been heading in the opposite direction we would have had an absolute blast sailing along back towards Moraira.

Villajoiosa turned out to be a joy – a very nice place,  Tines and I enjoyed a lovely walk along the shoreline, once the wind calmed down and we had a peaceful evening aboard.

We had definitely picked the right day for the crossing.  The next day we woke up tired but thinking of a short hop along the coast to Altea.  The wind told us otherwise,  once again we were having breakfast in 20 knots plus winds.  We were very happy to have another rest day since we were really tired after the crossing and we didn´t feel like battling the winds which would have been against us.

Moraira turns out to be stunning with a lovely beach,  we enjoyed a bike ride along the sea front and then a cooked English breakfast in a café.  We got chatting to a mother and daughter who were also enjoying the British cuisine,  they were there because the coastal day-boat trip from Calpe to Benidorm had been cancelled because of the weather!  Another sign that we had made the right move staying in port again,  we spent a little while chatting and trying to explain that breezy onshore might mean extremely windy offshore and if the boat wasn´t running it was probably for a very good reason 🙂 and they were better off staying on dry land.

They pointed us in the direction of the weekly market and I popped along later for a browse.  It was really strange to see the combination of people there,  some in sun-tops and shorts,  obviously on holiday and others wrapped up in jeans, coats and boots (probably those who live here).  Also,  the mix of nationalities here is much more varied than in our little corner of Spain,  there are many more Germans here in this area and it is funny to hear the Spanish stall holders speaking German not  English.

In the afternoon we rested up ready for our ongoing journey back to Cartagena and then enjoyed sunset drinks at the Club Nautico restaurant,  a lovely end to a really great day.

We finally made our escape from Ibiza first thing on Thursday morning, we found calm seas and light winds at the start of the day as we said goodbye to San Antonio.  We were lucky enough to watch the sunrise as we departed.  Once the sun was up we got stunning views of the smaller islands,  just off San Antonio bay.  

 The wind picked up as we got out to sea with around 12-14 knots all day,  we had to motor sail to keep up good speed to cover the distance – and we were sailing really close to the wind all day.  This made the turns we took on the helm hard work but enjoyable.  

We got through the “inshore traffic zone” off Cabo de la Nau with just one close-ish encounter with a big transporter ship and we saw quite a few in the distance.  We also overheard radio traffic between them discussing the routes they were taking to make sure they were on different courses from each other which was interesting.  We were exhausted when we arrived in Moraira at half past seven, just under 12 hours later. We had to enter the marina in the dark and moor alongside which involved some excellent skippering from Nigel to get the boat set right extremely quickly.  The marina here is beautiful as we found out when we woke up the next morning,  but the entrance is very short,  not much time to work out where the fenders need to be and how to approach the mooring space.   I was happy that I had prepared chicken fajita “stew” the day before so it was quick to prepare our meal and for once we weren´t reliant on the famous curry  that I seem to have prepared after all the other crossings 😉

We were both fairly relieved to find that the weather was too bad for sailing the day after our crossing from Majorca,  we took a “duvet” day and watched films and generally relaxed.  We were hoping to leave the next day (Tuesday 6^th) but this was not to be either,  we were awake all night listening to the howling wind and we got up to find ourselves in the middle of a gale,  as I write this blog it is blowing at over 30 knots in the marina and are not sure when it will stop!!  Hopefully before tonight otherwise there will be some very tired Heards aboard this boat.  Tines was happy to relax.

One rest day turned into two – the wind was really high for both days and we had to wait for the sea swell to calm down to leave Ibiza for the mainland.  Tines and I took a nice long walk along the San Antonio sea front, the coastline is stunning,  the coves are really beautiful and much nicer without the tourists.

It is amazing to see how all the bars and clubs have shut down and boarded up for the winter it is like two places, when we visited at the end of September it was crowded full of holiday makers, Tines and I saw lots of clubbers heading “home” at 7am when we were taking our morning walk.  This time we’re lucky if we saw another person.  The marina is still busy but this time it’s full of charter yachts all moored up for the winter, waiting for the season to start again.

Even the world famous Café del Mar and Café Mambo are boarded up and closed for the season.

I wonder what it must be like to live here,  it seems so much like two different places summer and winter (and not much in between).

 

Today involved quite a start to the day,  we re-filled the fuel canister and in the process of passing it aboard I managed to drop my camera in the water ….. much cafuffle and various attempts to rescue it followed,  including Skipper Nigel jumping in the water, however,  I had to admit it was lost (a proper hissy fit and tears ensued, I must admit).  A silly mistake to make but no-one got hurt and Nigel now has a biggy to make fun of me with,  so far on the trip my phone has broken (hopefully it can be brought back to life on our return) and I have lost all my contacts and now all my photos are laying at the bottom of a very murky marina near Palma!  Still,  we have the blog to look back on and we are having a fabulous time, we still have our tablets which at the moment are both functioning so we can still take some snapshots.  We managed to set sail once I had recovered around 10am and headed to Port Adriano or Andraitx (to be decided depending on conditions).  As we crossed Palma bay we saw various cargo ships and then the Norweigan crusie liner,  which must have been late for it’s day in Palma since our experience tells us cruise ships usually dock between 6 and 8 am, yet we came across this one at midday.

As the conditions were fairly favourable we decided to make a longer hop and arrived in Adraitx at 3pm ready for our sail across to Ibiza the next day.  We spent a log time looking over charts, weather apps and wind predictions  and debating our options and we decided to go for two longer hops rather than going round the “side” of Ibiza we haven’t yet visited.  So our route back will be via Andraitx-San Antonio-Moraira or Calpe on the mainland.  Because we have had lots of weather delays and we feel the weather windows for sailing are getting shorter we think this is the best option for us.  Once we are back on mainland Spain we have options for short or long trips round the coastline to Cartagena depending on the wind and waves.

Andraitx is just as lovely as the first time we visited,  this time only a one night stay hopefully.

We were lucky enough to be treated to a fabulous sunset in Andraitx, a great finish to our time in Majorca.

The weather looked to be good for the crossing and we set our alarms for a 4am start (with the idea that we could arrive in San Antonio in daylight).  The start of the crossing was pretty tough in the dark and the swell was more than we had anticipated, but once the sun came up everything seemed easier and we managed to make good speed motor sailing.  We took turns on the helm all day and arrived at the tip of Ibiza around half past two in the afternoon.  Skipper Nigel took photos using his table of me asleep, very amusing!  The 4am start didn’t really agree with us so we probably won’t do that again,  we’ll prefer to arrive in the dark at the end of the day on our next crossing I think.

We had a lovely sail along the coastline,  although it is becoming really clear that November is no longer a sailing month here.  We saw no boats on anchor in the calas (in fact we saw one washed up on the rocks, confirming our suspicions that the weather here has been awful in recent weeks).  We did pass a couple of sail boats which was nice to see and it’s always nice to give and receive a wave to passing yacht traffic.  As the sun started to go down we realised we were not going to arrive until after dark, but we arrived here in the dark previously so we knew it would be OK.  Once again, we enjoyed a wonderful sunset as we sailed towards San Antonio.

We returned to Es Nautic marina and came onto a tight berth on the same pontoon as last time.  It was half past seven in the evening but it felt more like midnight !  We cooked up a curry and sat down to watch the first ten minutes of a film before we all dropped to sleep, Tines included!!!

Today we had to take another day off,  the weather wasn’t great but it would have been possible to sail.  This time we had to replace batteries and took the opportunity to recharge our own with another rest day.  We had noticed that the boat batteries were not re-charging as well as they used to,  and with minimal sun charging the solar panel thanks to all the clouds recently it really was time for 2 new ones (the boat has 3 altogether, one of which we had replaced just a couple of years ago).  Since we were in S’Arenal which is really close to Palma and with a really good chandler’s we took the opportunity to buy and install some.  They were not in stock but as we anticipated they had them delivered within half a day,  Claudia at the shop was super helpful and we had them by just after lunchtime.  Lunch being menu del dia in the club nautico restaurant,  which was delcious,  I opted for the local specials Tumbet (which is like ratatouille) and Bollit (which is like nothing you’ll ever taste unless you come here),  a kind of stew but without the meaty goodness of gravy.  Boiled meat, carrot, potato, sweet potato and cabbage,  tasty but definitely missing a sauce.  Perhaps I should have paid more attention,  as I was finishing I watched the lady on the next table pour olive oil all over hers – maybe next time.  This was all accompanied by a rather decent red wine, and enjoyed whilst the batteries were being delivered to the shop.  We returned to the boat,  collected the shopping trolley and went back to the chandlery to pick up the extremely heavy batteries.  Once they were wheeled back to the boat and safely on board it was time for siesta!!!  Oh and it started to rain again,  good decision not to go out today….

The day after my outing to Santanyi was not quite so pleasant,  there was no sailing to be done in the estimated 4-5 metre waves breaking just beyond the entrance to the cala.  We were also treated to 30 knot winds in the marina and torrential rain !!  We enjoyed a great breakfast at the local cafe and watched the waves go by !  We met other sailors who had had to divert on their way from Malta to Gibraltar because the conditions were simply not enabling them to move forwards.  They tried to get to Ibiza but had to turn back and found themselves in Porto Petro, as we said before a relatively safe port in a storm.

The forecast was for the weather to be much better the next day, although that seemed unlikely looking at the clouds the evening before, until the rainbow appeared, that cheered us up!

Thursday morning came, Tines and I went out to check the weather and as predicted the sea really had calmed down a lot.  I headed to the local bakery to get croissants and watched another yacht depart,  everything looked good.  We prepared the boat and ….. it started raining!  However,  this was just rain, it was not accompanied by high winds or swell so we decided to depart.  We booked a mooring space at a place called La Rapita and headed out,  we had no real issues,  other than being wet and quite cold (remember, we’re not that used to rain, in fact, I think this was possibly the first time we have actually departed in the rain)  We arrived at the marina,  only to be told that we had to wait half an hour to enter (Spanish half an hour could be up to an hour) so we decided to move on.

This was a good decision because the weather was improving (it had stopped raining by this time) and we got ourselves round to S’Arenal which is in Palma bay,  we can see all of Palma from the marina.  This is a great marina and we just arrived at sunset,  very tired but happy to have gone another 38,9 nautical miles on our journey back to Cartagena.

What else to do with a few days enforced rest ?  We found ourselves quite literally stuck here after our failed attempt to depart on a couple of days ago, the weather forecast is looking like Thursday before we can leave again, it is very unsettled and the wind is “against” us as is the swell of the sea.   The thing is we always find ourselves watching and wondering,  could we have gone today ?  This was not really a debate when we watched yacht after yacht enter the cove and hang out on mooring buoys or come into the marina.  We were safe in the comfort that we made the right decision not to go out and also that we have a nice spot in the marina,  on the side of the dock closest to the supermarket, bars and restaurants.  The first “rest” day was spent trying to dry everything out,  amidst the showers and dark clouds on the horizon.  We put the heater on inside the boat to try to rid ourselves of the dampness and we hung out everything in-between showers to try to get it all dry, I will say again,  this is weather for ducks not people.  Our barometer dropped to what I think is the lowest we have ever seen it, just to confirm this is unexpected weather for us.

Tines relaxed and watched the world go by (as usual)

We went off exploring in the afternoon and found what would be a great little beach if the weather was more appropriate.

Tuesday saw a more productive skipper Nigel,  who changed the oil and did an engine service whilst I enjoyed my first bus trip on Majorca.  For a mere 1 euro 85 cents I took myself to Santanyi (well the bus driver took me),  a really nice old town full of bars, cafes and clothes shops.  I spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around before taking the bus back to Porto Petro – via Cala D’Or and here I saw how the tourists live.  It is not a place I would want to visit again and thankfully I was on the bus just passing through,  it is amazing how closed everything is now it’s the end of October.  The bus went past at least 4 closed supermarkets and who knows how many bars and restaurants which have now closed for the season,  I wonder when they will all open again ?   The place is simply a host of apartments,  and I guess if you  are on the frontline of the beach then it would be wonderful but some of the places further inland just look so crowded and close together.  To be honest this is the first time on Majorca I’ve seen a place that I wouldn’t want to visit,  everywhere else we have been has been fabulous.  Luckily Santanyi was fantastic and a great place to while away the morning.

There are lots of fabulous trees here on the island,  something we also noticed on Menorca too.  So green and very different from the mainland (although there are always palm trees in Spain)

I must add a nod to the Tour de Yorkshire, even in Santanyi it was close to my heart when I saw this, it would not look out of place anywhere along the route in a Yorkshire village ….

In the evening we experienced more thunderstorms and watched more yachts taking shelter alongside us.  The weather for Wednesday is not forecast to be good so watch this space ……