On the move again today after a few days rest in Andraitx thanks to high winds and seas, but not without a visit to the bakery to buy the ensaimadas for breakfast (the local speciality,  a bit like a round croissant!),  Today we decided to do a short hop round into Palma bay and headed for a place called Portals which is close to Magaluf.  I must say that Magaluf doesn’t look anything like as spectacular as Benidorm when passed from the sea,  to be honest, it doesn’t look like much more than a few hotels on the coast line. Portals is similar,  the marina is what we describe as a sardine marina,  very small spaces!!  We are moored between two motor boats and it is a tight squeeze!  We look slightly odd, a sail boat in amongst a lot of motor boats…. Still we are only here for one night before we head further round the coast. This marina was not one for us,  we didn’t really see any life on the many, many motor boats of varying sizes.  There are lots of exclusive bars and restaurants which look very nice, but really not our cup of tea!  We couldn’t wait to move on, although we did see some nice boats in the realm of “how the other half live”.

 

A few lovely rest days in Andraitx – thanks to the back end of a tropical cyclone putting the coast on an amber weather warning,  not time to set sail!!  There is not a lot to say about our rest days really,  other than Andraitx is a spectacular setting and good place to wind down.  If you like eating and drinking out then it would be a fab place for a short break.  The shoreline is full of varying bars and restaurants and people wandering along for their afternoon or evening stroll.  Around 5pm the fishing boats come back and you can see a working quayside and even buy fish fresh from the dock if you want to negotiate with the fishermen.  There is also a fish market where you can buy the daily catch.  We were berthed on the town quay which is operated by Ports IB the local port authority,  there is a also a private marina on the opposite side of the bay and lots of mooring buoys in the outer harbour too. Definitely worth a visit and hopefully we can return soon.

 

Our first night on anchor was spent at Cala San Miguel just a few nautical miles north of San Antionio.  It is a high sided cala with a couple of hotels at the end,  lots of boats on anchor so plenty of reference points for us.  We set anchor with no problems,  and went swimming,  it was beautiful.  Nigel decided to snorkel and look under the boat and came up with a load of fishing twine that was caught round the prop – who knows where we had picked that up from !  Still, it was not too difficult to release and we were good to go again.

The second night on anchor was at a place called Clot D’es Llamp which is the other side of the headland from San Vicente, where we had tried to anchor, had a swim and decided the anchorage was too exposed.  The new anchorage was absolutely perfect and we had a fantastic afternoon swimming and snorkelling.  The anchorage was extremely calm,  until nightfall when it became much more lively so we didn’t get much sleep – the boat was rocking too much for me !!  We set out at first light for Mallorca,  which we could easily see nestled within a beautiful sunrise.  The conditions were really calm, almost too much so because we couldn’t get the sails up until after lunchtime.  We saw a couple of dolphins along the way which brightened our day.  We arrived in Andraitx at around half five and we had no problems mooring on the town quay which is stunning.

 

So because I am late starting this blog – I am going to do a quick summary of the journey so far.

We departed Cartagena and had a reasonable sail up to San Pedro del Pinatar,  where we chose to berth in our previous marina,  Club Nautico Villa San Pedro.  They put us on the visitor quay for one night – we had an overboard drill on entry when I dropped a fender but perfect skippering and crafty crew work soon retrieved it and we spent our first night alongside without further mishaps!

Day 2 saw us motor sail up to Santa Pola and Marina Miramar, one of our favourites, no mishaps entering the harbour this time and we were berth on pontoon B for the first time, close to all the bars and restaurants which was nice.  Day 3 was an enforced rest day thanks to a huge “gota fria” (the Spanish term for a massive downpour) this one was big enough to cause local flooding and just as I came out of the supermarket too !  I had to walk back to the boat ankle deep in water.  Thankfully it never lasts very long and we were on our way the next day.

We headed for Altea this time,  although to be honest the conditions really were against us and we struggled through on motor round past the ever spectacular Benidorm to our destination.  The sea was choppy to say the least so we had hard work on the helm and we were very glad to reach our destination.  Altea is a lovely marina,  with bizarelly low pontoons it was very much a clambour to get up the gangplank and aboard.  A nice walk along the promenade takes you to some lovely looking restaurants in one direction or the rocky beach in the other.  We had a take-away pizza from across the road for our evening meal which filled a spot and a great coffee and toast at the marina restaurant the next morning.  There is also a great looking swimming pool here for during the summer months (already closed for winter when we arrived, despite 30 degree temperatures !)

After Altea we wanted to head for Moraira to make the crossing to Ibiza, however, a morning call to the marina revealed it was full of regatta boats so no room at the inn for us (as the saying goes) We took an enjoyable morning to sail across to Calpe where we spent an expensive night preparing for the crossing the next day.  Calpe is a very niced marina, although pricey in comparison to the others we had visited.

We had perfect conditions for sailing across to Ibiza and everything went really well, we even managed to get a whole morning without the motor before we hit rougher seas at the mid point so we added a little motor to keep speed.  We were in two minds about going to Formentera or Ibiza and eventually we plumped for Ibiza and decided to head for San Antonio which we entered at night.  Coming in and trying to find a port and startboard light between bars, discos and fairground rides was not much fun but we managed and we finally got on berth around 1.30am.

The next day was of course a rest day in San Antonio, however, since we had visited before we were able to relax and enjoy the marina,  watching everyone coming and going on their various sized motor boats and ribs.  We stocked up the day after before heading north onto anchor for a couple of nights.

 

well not really part 1 since we have been sailing, Nigel, myself and Tines the dog on Gemini J for 3 and a half years. This year 2018 is the year that we have decided to experience a longer sailing trip and we are currently two weeks into the trip!

Here is the skipper, Nigel my lovely husband, just off the north of Ibiza as we are preparing to find an anchorage for the night.

This blog is a way of keeping everyone up to date with our travels, although I am a little late getting organised with it since we are already underway.  Today has been a windy day so we are port bound in the absolutely beautiful Andraitx in Majorca.  We have spent a wonderful few days here and I am taking  a few minues to get this blog off the ground !

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton