Tines and I went for our usual morning walk around the marina and watched a wonderful sunrise (perhaps a little too red for sailors really)

On our return to the boat, Skipper Nigel and I headed out for coffee where we had a debate about whether to leave port and head towards Colonia de Sant Jordi.  We looked and looked again at the weather forecast, we spoke to the locals and we decided that there was a window to head south before the rain and stormier weather kicked in.  We headed off in calm conditions to our next port of call.

 

This was not to be – the weather picked up earlier than forecast, the waves picked up too and we couldn’t make the progress we needed to get to our next port.  So,  not for the first time, and possibly not the last on this trip, we turned around and headed back.  We were averaging 2-3 knots on our way south and 5-6 on our way back north!  The waves were consistently picking up and we then had the joy of rain to go with the increasing weather.  We arrived back on berth without our tail between our legs,  we had had a great couple of hours,  really feeling the wind on our faces and we had a bit of a laugh with the marinero who had said “if you go this morning you’ll avoid the bad weather!” a mere couple of hours earlier.  Getting on berth was quite a challenge for skipper Nigel and we needed 2 attempts to get safely moored in 24 knot winds !  As you know though,  as soon as we were safely moored the wind dropped,  the rain didn’t though and we were happy to be back in a safe port to watch the storm pass by.

I headed off to the supermarket where the lovely shopkeeper was apologising to all the customers about the weather !!  We cooked a delicious chicken curry for lunch and listened to the rain and howling wind around the boat,  safe in the knowledge that we made the right call to return.  This is weather for ducks not people!

We departed Porto Cristo after engine checks and headed on our way along the stunning coastline.  We were almost head to wind but since we had decided to go a relatively short hop we switched the engine off and sailed away,  tacking to make the most of the wind.

There were lots of boats out sailing today which made our experience even more fun and we had a great time sailing towards Porto Colom (where we had spent a few days waiting for a storm to pass previously).  The coastline is really interesting as it has areas of massive development (some nice, some ugly) and then lots of stretches of unspoilt beauty,  how the whole island must have looked not that many years ago.  We considered stopping in Porto Colom again but found all the berths were full so we continued 5 nautical miles or so more onto Porto Petro.

The entrance to the cala is quite narrow and we had to work hard together to make sure we were in the right place!  Once into the cove,  we arrived at another seemingly small marina,  which actually houses a lot of boats (most of which are the small, local fishing boats called Llaüts).  It is stunningly beautiful here (I know, I know, I seem, to say that about everywhere we go) and we watched the local children at kayaking class in the harbour before we headed out for tapas, a few steps from the boat.

 

We awoke to a morning mist and dampness in the air, Porto Cristo is charming, if a little touristy, and the morning views were stunning. The wind was fairly light and we decided to have a day looking around before we continue our journey.

We watched the sunrise and the mist started to lift.  We unfolded our bikes and headed around the marina for a bike ride.  There are a lot of boats here,  it is described as a cala but is really part of the river system, a river which was converted to a canal many years ago to take goods arriving by boat inland to Manacor (home of Rafa Nadal, an interesting fact that I wondered how I could squeeze into the blog).  As you go along the winding quayside the boats gradually get smaller and the channel gets narrower before you get to the “end” and the canal winds it’s way inland.  Nowadays of course it is lined with bars and restaurants but these seem like a relatively recent addition. We found a great place serving “brunch” so we tucked into bacon, eggs, pancakes, maple syrup and fresh fruit before heading back to the boat. I went off for a wander around the “shops”, although they all sell basically the same offerings of leather belts, handbags, cheap towels and t-shirts, I came back empty handed to the relief of Nigel.

 

We spent the rest of the day watching the comings and goings of the tourist boats, guardia civil and people on the beach.  There is plenty to see in such a small place.

The afternoon of our final rest day in San Pedro saw us cleaning and stowing the dinghy,  we have decided that at the end of October and with the weather as changeable as it has been we are not likely to be anchoring and needing to use it.  As we had time on a windy day we did the job of taking her down and packing her away.

 

It seemed a little sad but we do have better views from the back of the boat now !  After we had done that job we were treated to a stunning sunset.

We were treated to a sail the next day,  no motor running !!!  It was amazing,  although it didn’t start that way.  We watched a French Yacht sail out of the marina and were very optimistic that we would be doing the same,  although half an hour later the wind dropped so we motored our way out of the marina, feeling slightly disappointed but excited to be on our way again.  We had looked at the weather and decided against making the trip to Pollensa and then round to Soller,  that part of the coast has only one port of call and very little shelter in case of storms and with the weather forecast we got we decided to return the way we came.  This meant we retraced our sails back past cala Ratjada and on to a place we hadn’t visited on our way here,  Porto Cristo.

As soon as we were round the headland from the bay of Alcudia the wind picked up,  we were able to get the mainsail and genoa out and sail – virtually all the way to Porto Cristo 27 nautical miles along stunning coastline,  it was fantastic.  We were so excited and happy as this was one of the first really good sailing days of our whole trip.  The sun was shining too which really made it brilliant.

The entrance to Porto Cristo is quite short, and round a dog-leg,  you know it will be fun when they tell you, go past the tourist boats and you’ll see your mooring.  Sure enough we were the last on the line of visiting yachts and the next boat along was the Moonfish glass bottom boat,  it was great to watch how they operate.

This place looks fantastic,  there is a little beach and a lot of marina to see.  I am sure we’ll have a great time here.

As usual Tines and I enjoyed an early morning walk,  and were looking forward to another short hop across the bay of Alcudia to Pollensa.  The sea state looked calm and there were some clouds, but in our experience over the past couple of days these usually clear when the sun comes up.

We could see the evidence of the storm that had hit the island whilst we were in Menorca,  it seems that most of the beach here has been washed away and what used to be the lifeguard station was destroyed.

By 9am it had all changed, as is the way of the Mediterranean.  We were in 20 knots plus of wind inside the marina and it was too dangerous for us to leave.  The marina entrance here in Colonia de San Pedro is close to the shoreline and with an inshore wind nothing was leaving this harbour today!!

No worries for us,  just a change of plan and a fabulous morning bike ride, even if it was a little blowy.

What else to do on an enforced “rest” day after a bike ride but go out for lunch,  in this case a fabulous menu del dia at the restaurante del nautic just a few metres from the boat.  We enjoyed fried fish, salad and an amazing pisto with eggs and ham (pisto is like ratatouille but sweeter and is served under the eggs,  it’s a great dish we have had before but had forgotten about).

After a lunch, the next thing to do is of course take a siesta (skipper Nigel) or perhaps take the dog for a walk (Sarah).  We enjoyed another fabulous outing along the shoreline in the other direction this time.  Once again, as with Menorca, I imagine this would be a great place for a walking holiday.  Tines had a fantastic time.

 

 

 

This place is wonderful,  the weather still looks somewhat changeable so who knows how long we might be here,  or if I will be blogging from further along the coastline tomorrow.  We will find out in the morning,  after breakfast and a thorough review of the weather forecast once again !

We had a bumpy night in Cala Ratjada,  much more swell than our previous visit and we decided that it would not be a great place to be moored if there was a storm!  We had thought about staying an extra day to relax but decided to head off and do a short sail round to San Pedro, around 15 nautical miles away.  The forecast was for 10+ knots of wind so we thought we would get some sailing in and that we might even go further if the conditions were good.

This was not to be,  we managed about 10 minutes without motor (and that’s probably an exaggeration!), once again the wind was light.  However, the coastline was stunning and it was a pleasure to watch it go by and we enjoyed a fantastic 3 hours travelling around the headland.

We decided to make it a short day and headed to Colonia de San Pedro which is absolutely beautiful.  It is a very small holiday town set in beautiful countryside with rocky hills as it’s backdrop.  The coastline looks like it will be worth exploring if we stay here, but that always depends on the weather !!  This is what one place which fits the description “sardine marina”, Skipper Nigel did a fantastic job of squeezing us into a very tight space between two motor boats (once again), however, once we were moored up and we had set the fenders we were quite happy with our slot.  We met lovely neighbours on the boat next door who talked to us how devastating the storm was here in Majorca (while we were in Menorca), it seems to have affected a lot of the infrastructure here.  They said that normally their journey to the marina is 15 minutes but now it’s over an hour because so many roads are closed.

 

OK so today has to be the longest day with the lightest winds in our history of sailing Gemini J and there was 46,3 nautical miles of it!! We spent periods in 0 knot winds and the wind didn’t get above 5 knots all day, not quite the sail we had planned (for those of you not sure of your wind speeds,  we need about 10 knots of wind to sail rather than motor the boat – so we had to “drive” the boat all the way!) This was definitely not as forecast, luckily we had got up with the 6:35 am ferry going into Mahon which had rocked our boat every morning and we were on our way by 7:45.  I have a couple of photos of said ferry on it’s return journey later on each day during our stay – you can see why we were rocking and rolling !

The early start meant that we enjoyed the fabulous sunrise.

There really is not much to say about the day, we saw no other yachts,  not even any fishing boats and once we left the Menorcan coast behind us it was simply a case of watching out for fishing buoys and nets.  They can be as small as a coke can or a plastic water bottle so we are always on the look out – and it is amazing how many we have seen and avoided.

We did have one important job to do during the voyage – the all important lowering of the Menorcan  courtesy flag,  replacing it with the general Balearics flag for our entry into Majorcan waters.

We came back to Cala Ratjada and moored alongside the quay, before finding out that we needed to move to the one berth with live electricity for us to plug into, which took an hour and four changes, not quite what we wanted at the end of the day.  The place is a lot quieter than it was when we were here a couple of weeks ago.  We hopped off the boat to grab a drink at the bar, by that time we were exhausted after a 12 hour day at sea!

 

Rest days in Mahon gave us chance to take down the genoa sail and check the damage that we had suffered during the back end of the big storm that hit Mallorca, which we hit between Ciutadella and Fornells.  Luckily the fantastic sail-maker who had been recommended to us was back from holiday and they agreed to fix up the sail for us.

We duly spent half an hour getting the sail down and packed into a roll so that we could transport it to the sailmaker in our newly acquired hire car.

After we had delivered the sail we headed off for a bit of exploring and found ourselves by the coast again!!! We can´t stay away from the place.  We enjoyed a fantastic menu del dia overlooking another fabulous cala and watched a scuba diving boat load and unload.  We stocked up with supplies and headed back to Mahon enjoying the scenery on the way.

Day 2 of waiting for the sail work saw us head into Mahon itself,  of course to the famous market where I met a new friend.

And after that surprisingly,  Nigel found a shop he was most interested in!

And a giant propeller !!

Day 3 here in Mahon we headed inland and for once we enjoyed time away from the shoreline.  We visited an Artisan centre and saw how the traditional crafts of Menorca are carried out.  We learnt that the island used to make wine and it completely stopped until relatively recently when some makers have started producing once again. We also found out that the gates we have been admiring are made from aged olive wood and they last nearly forever.   We visited the tourist trap of the industrial estate 😉 to buy oil for the engine and saw possibly the world’s smallest Ikea.  We headed over to collect our sail but the sailmakers had been delayed on a job so we drove to the nearest town for lunch instead and found a fabulous tapas bar in Es Castells.

 

Mini burgers and meatballs with tomato sauce and pesto (a fab combination we’ll definitely try to replicate ourslves)

Once we got the sail back we had to re-hang her …. the reverse of taking her down but we started with a much neater bundle…..

The work that was done by Velas Fonduco looks great and we can sail onward with confidence in our genoa sail once again.

 

 

We made our way once again out of the harbour in Addaya in calm conditions,  this time we could clearly see that the sea was calm beyond the entrance, thankfully.  We had less than 5 knots of wind so it was simply a case of motoring ourselves round to Mahon.

We knew we were approaching when we saw guns on the headland!!  Oh and of course a tourist boat,  this time a yellow glass bottomed catamaran…

The long entrance to Mahon harbour was as spectacular as we expected and with the sun shining we thoroughly enjoyed our couple of mile trip up one of Europe´s largest natural harbours,  thankfully there was not much traffic so we simply concentrated on following the port and starboard buoy system.  Once we radioed the marina we were directed onto our berth by the marinero Alex,  who helped us moor between two large motor boats and then we were able to relax.

We are looking forward to spending an enforced few days here since we are hoping to get our Genoa sail repaired after it suffered some damage to the UV strip during our stormy trip to Fornells.  There is also more stormy weather on the way so we think we´ll make the most of being in a fantastic location and explore a bit more of Menorca before we start to make our journey back to Mallorca after the weather front has passed (and hopefully the sail has been repaired).

So today we re-reviewed the weather forecast, having got up early because there was a weather window of relatively light winds ahead of a storm front moving towards the island.  We had plenty of time to get ourselves round to Mahon and into the shelter of the large natural harbour there and away we went, the marina entrance was lovely and calm,  we followed the buoy system out of the cove and towards the sea.

Unfortunately,  and this is one of the drawbacks to such secluded inland harbours, when we hit the sea it had other ideas.  A 2 metre swell was upon us and matched with high winds this meant that the passage to Mahon was virtually impossible,  for the second time on the trip skipper Nigel made the extremely sensible decision to turn back (we covered 3,4 nautical miles this time, and most of those were in the inner harbour).  We radioed the marina and the very friendly Mickey was there to greet us, along with a couple of our neighbours who helped to get us secured back onto what is now called “our” berth.  We don´t know how long we´ll have to sit it out here,  but in the words of a very good friend of ours,  “we can think of worse places to be stuck”  We headed to the restaurant for coffee and ensaimadas (the local pastry) and started to relax and enjoy the day,  after all it was only 10am !!!!!