On Wednesday, July 6 at 2100 hrs with threw off the lines from mooring 4542, our temporary home in Port Ginesta for the past 6 months. The very last day we could have left to arrive at Palma de Mallorca in time to pick up our first sailing guests on July 8. As you can imagine we had some very busy days getting the boat ready, trying to finish as many of the started and not finished jobs as possible, tying up all the loose ends with suppliers and saying good-bye to our ‘cat friends’ we made in and around the marina. On board with us was August, who tirelessly worked with us during this last week to make sure all important electronic bits were functioning. The weather predictions for the night sail to Mallorca were what one could call close to perfect for a cat. North-westerly winds aft of beam of 20 to 25 kts plus and …… we flew away. We all [and the boat, I guess] enjoyed the wind blowing around our faces and we celebrated the beginning of this journey. Arriving on Mallorca after about 20 hrs we called into the first cove we found called Cala Basset, nestled behind the south western tip of Isla Dragonera - and ‘chilled out’.
Connections via Astrid from Multihull Charter supplied us with a spot on the charter dock ‘La Lonja’ in the harbour of Palma. We were watching the chaos of charter parties leaving and new ones arriving with all their luggage piled up while cleaning teams frantically emptied out the boat and scrubbed it before they could take over. Then our team arrived and we participated ourselves in the incredible hustle and bustle of ‘provisioning’ the boat for the coming weeks.
Let me introduce the first crew on board for the trip around the island of Mallorca.
Last Crew member being Croq - pick up by Susanne floating in the middle of Alcudia bay
We set off on Sunday, July 9 to sail up the east coast. We left the bay of Palma with good winds and our first stop was Cala del Pi, a narrow cove of crystal clear turquoise coloured water surrounded by rock faces. Our resident photographer Annemarie took the opportunity for a photo shoot. As a result we finally have been able to replace the stock shots from our original post of ‘Belize Specifications’ with our own – worthwhile checking out by clicking on the November post.
Cala del Pi was followed by Cala Mondrago and Es Trenc, two more wonderful anchorages. On the beautiful turquoise waters of Es Trenc we mustered up the available crew power and replaced our existing quite uncomfortably knotted trampoline net with a tailor made version made by Christoph Wendland from Yacht-Netze. What a wonderful product and no comparison to before – thank you Christoph. It extended our outdoor living area by about 20 sunny square meters and was most welcomed by all crew members. Besides being by far the best place for just ‘hanging’ it has proven itself as a most magnificent dolphin watching platform. It is a perfect match to our other most visible alteration to the boat, our new fiber-glass bimini. Without going into the details of how this piece of work came into existence I want to thank Ramon and team from our stainless steel workshop in Port Ginesta for welding the frame and Jaume from EscoPrem fiber glass moulding for the last minute huge effort. I will dedicate at some later stage a smaller post to explain more about this combined effort.
Next stop was Porto Cristo with its very cute and narrow harbour, where we parked on the public mooring. We had a very mediocre meal out and decided we are better off with our own quality catering on the boat. After replenishing supplies we headed north around Mallorca’s most eastern point, Cabo de Pera into the bay of Alcudia. That night we anchored off a secluded beach with more crystal clear water near Betlem and enjoyed another wonderful sunset. This was followed by crossing the bay to Cala Engossalba, a narrow cove with steep cliff faces and more crystal clear, but this time blue-ish coloured water.
The week ended in Alcudia where we said good-bye to the first crew. Many thanks to them for putting in such a great team effort to stretch our new out door relaxation area into place. Your work will be eternally appreciated by all guests that follow ….. guaranteed.
The second week was our first ‘private’ week. Susanne, Maria and Christian and I rounded Cabo Formentor, the most northerly tip on a rather choppy and confused sea with fresh winds of force 4-5 to make our way south along the spectacular rocky west coast of Mallorca. The icy blue, almost arctic coloured water in Cala Calobra was our first anchorage. After 7 pm quite often these spots overcrowded with day tourism miraculously empty out and on that night we were the only once left. The serenity of the night was followed in morning by bleating of the wild goats which inhabit the rocky capes and a secluded swim through the cove. No need to say more ……. but divine. By 9 am it was all ‘on again and within half an hour we weaved our way out through all the other boats meanwhile anchored around us. The final stop was in Porto Soller, the major port of the west coast and followed by a great sail along the impressive rock faces of that rugged coast line south towards the Isla Dragonera and Palma back to our busy charter mooring, getting ready for our next crew and new adventures.
Finally some sailing stats for those who are interested; total distance covered was 324 nm, thereof were 175 nm under sail and 149 nm with motor or motor assisted.
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